CH 81

The next day, Jiang Xu and Shen Fangyu went to the office together.

Just before entering the door, they let go of each other’s hands.

Fortunately, they didn’t run into anyone on the way. When they walked into the office, Shen Fangyu hummed a song, his good mood almost overflowing with joy.

Zhong Lan glanced at him and teased, “Senior Brother Shen, is there a happy event?”

“It’s not exactly a happy event. I proposed but the other person didn’t say yes,” Shen Fangyu smirked, glancing at Jiang Xu, “But they didn’t say no either.”

“Oh my, things are progressing quickly,” Zhong Lan knew from the last time Shen Fangyu bought a meal for everyone that he must have started dating the person he liked, “You’re moving fast.”

Zhang Cheng turned his face away, unable to bear looking at Shen Fangyu’s triumphant expression. He hadn’t realized Shen Fangyu was so showy… well, he had never been in a relationship before.

Now he looked at Shen Fangyu, who was beaming with confidence, and all he could hear in his mind were the heartbroken voices of the two rich second-generations from last night.

How vicious, stabbing the roommates in the back, then going home and proposing directly.

He couldn’t help but shed a tear for the two unfortunate souls.

Jiang Xu had remained silent all along, until Yu Sang yelled out, “Brother Xu, what happened to your neck?”

Jiang Xu tugged at his collar to cover the bandage, “Got injured.”

“Oh my, did someone cause a ruckus at the hospital?” Yu Sang guessed instinctively, “Who’s so ruthless to directly target your neck?”

Shen Fangyu couldn’t help but cough twice, and Jiang Xu heard his voice. His earlobes turned slightly red, and he said to Yu Sang, “No.”

“Then what happened?”

“…”

Last night, some drunkard played around in bed and insisted on leaving a mark on him. He didn’t know why he foolishly agreed, and now he just wanted to go back in time and slap some sense into himself.

Jiang Xu was really bad at lying, and blaming it on mosquito bites in this season would sound too fake. He fell silent for a moment, and Yu Sang finally realized.

“Could it be that sister-in-law is asserting her dominance? She’s quite domineering… Brother Xu, I think you should talk to her and tell her not to be too aggressive-“

Zhang Cheng walked over and covered Yu Sang’s mouth, and the latter struggled angrily for a while, glaring at him, and mumbled, “Zhang Cheng, what are you doing!”

“Amitabha,” Zhang Cheng’s Buddhist halo shone behind his head, and he smiled at Yu Sang, “Saving your life.”

Yu Sang rolled his eyes at him, “What do you care about my conversation with Brother Xu? Weren’t you always on Dr. Shen’s side and looking down on us? I advise you to go care about Dr. Shen’s life events.”

“Jiang Xu is doing well, Shen Fangyu is also doing well, everyone is doing well and deserves our care and protection,” Zhang Cheng spoke like a peace ambassador, his voice gentle, “May our department be free from division and disputes.”

Yu Sang looked as if he had seen a ghost, and he tugged at Jiang Xu’s sleeve, “What’s wrong with him?” He pointed to his own head, “Is there something wrong here?”

Jiang Xu paused for a moment, patted Yu Sang’s shoulder, and said, “Dr. Zhang is right, you should learn from him.”

Yu Sang: “?”

… Did they all go for a collective brain transplant without bringing him along?

The joy of bantering and teasing didn’t last long, as it was quickly disrupted by a piece of news.

There was a big event in the scientific research community.

In a recent interview in Country M, Professor Kenn openly mocked doctors from Country Z. When the video was circulated domestically, all the doctors from the Jihua Obstetrics and Gynecology Department fell silent.

Previously, after Mr. Baker woke up, the government of Country S proposed that Mr. Baker make a public appearance and explain the situation to the outside world through official media in order to suppress criticism from all walks of life worldwide.

Unexpectedly, a key person in charge of the relevant work in the government of Country S believed that Mr. Baker’s case had a lot of news value, and privately leaked Mr. Baker’s identity as a wealthy person in Country S to unofficial media.

Mr. Baker, who discovered the source of privacy leak, was very angry. He completely lost confidence in the government of Country S and exposed in the interview the actions of the government of Country S against Dr. Albert in the past.

This allowed Dr. Albert, who had been nailed to the pillar of shame and deliberately ignored at the celebration banquet, to regain the attention of the public.

However, Mr. Baker did not expect that Dr. Albert was originally someone who pursued fame and fortune and had was not a simple character.

He quickly saw the huge potential behind this opportunity, exaggerated the difference in the difficulty of the surgery he performed compared to Dr. Kenn’s in his interviews with reporters, and contacted various news outlets for hype, giving Dr. Kenn, who had previously been praised to the skies, the title of “Dr. Lucky”.

For a time, public opinion reversed, and discussions about this topic were heated. In the end, Dr. Albert even faintly surpassed Kenn’s reputation, and the title of “Dr. Lucky” spread more and more widely.

A skilled surgeon suddenly went from being a “genius doctor” to a “lucky doctor”, which was undoubtedly a huge insult to the proud Dr. Kenn.

He repeatedly explained in front of the media that although Dr. Albert’s surgery was difficult, his intraoperative judgment was indeed flawed, but now Dr. Albert’s momentum was strong, and not many people cared about his argument.

In the end, I don’t know if Dr. Kenn was angered and spoke without thinking, or if he simply didn’t care about Country Z. When a sharp-tongued journalist from Country Z asked him in public how to evaluate Dr. Albert’s surgery, he blurted out that a patient from Country Z had been contacting him all along and sarcastically mocked the journalist, suggesting that he should first care about the medical level of his own country, and even threatened that no one in Country Z would be able to perform this surgery even after twenty years.

When Jiang Xu saw this interview, he smashed a cup in the department out of anger.

Because of concerns about privacy leaks, neither Jiang Xu nor Shen Fangyu mentioned their identities as doctors or their full names when asking Dr. Kenn whether he could perform the surgery.

Previously, every email that Shen Fangyu sent to Dr. Kenn to inquire about the details of the surgery using his identity as a doctor from the Jihua Hospital Obstetrics and Gynecology Department went unanswered. If their guess was correct, the other party probably didn’t even bother to open them.

After deciding to undergo surgery on their own, they politely informed Dr. Kenn that they no longer needed his services. Dr. Kenn, thinking that they had turned to Dr. Albert instead, responded to their email with a very rude attitude, even venting his anger in an interview by saying such words.

No doctor in China would accept such sarcasm from Dr. Kenn, especially at the prestigious Jihua Hospital, where the top doctors in the country gather.

After this news spread to the public, the usually harmonious and lively Obstetrics and Gynecology Department of Jihua Hospital fell silent for three whole days. Even Director Cui, who always smiled, had no trace of a smile on his face during those three days.

On the internet, many netizens discussed this matter with concern. Some people said that the patient was not at fault and that it was not a problem to seek better medical resources. Others believed that the patient should have sought medical treatment in China first, as it was too much to blindly admire foreign countries.

Inside the conference room of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department at Jihua Hospital, Director Cui had a serious and solemn expression.

“A few months ago, I asked all of you whether you thought you could perform this surgery. Now Dr. Kenn has thrown this question to the whole world, to all obstetricians and gynecologists in China.”

Director Cui’s gaze swept across the faces of her colleagues in the department, and it was clear that the pressure of public opinion and the suppression of dignity had made everyone’s expression unpleasant.

“Although Dr. Kenn is arrogant, we should actively face the questioning,” Director Cui finally said, “Let’s not blame the patient for now. I hope everyone will think carefully about whether we are truly capable and willing to perform this surgery if this patient really comes to our hospital.”

On the same night, Jiang Xu lay on his bed after finishing his nightly routine, scrolling through countless comments on the internet about this surgery.

Shen Fangyu glanced at him, helped him switch off the tablet and sighed, “Stop looking and get some rest.”

“Shen Fangyu.” Jiang Xu suddenly turned his head and called his name.

“Hmm?”

Jiang Xu looked at him, frowned slightly, and spoke with a tone of negotiation, but with a firm expression, “Let’s publish a paper after our surgery is over.”

Shen Fangyu fell silent for a moment and said to him, “Take a look at Mr. Baker’s situation. You have to consider that if you publish a paper, it will be difficult to guarantee your privacy completely, and the risk of leakage will also increase.”

“Aren’t you angry?” Jiang Xu’s knuckles holding the tablet turned slightly pale from exertion.

“I am angry,” Shen Fangyu said, “But right now, nothing is more important to me than you, so I can endure it.”

Jiang Xu said, “But I can’t swallow this anger.”

Over a decade ago, when he entered A Medical University, most of the top students and academic elites from all over the country came with infinite ambitions.

They believed in “Even if thousands of people, I will still go,” believing that they could make outstanding contributions to humanity, believing that they were the pillars and future of the country.

Ten years of studying and working slowly tempered people’s minds, and those students gradually realized that most people were just cogs in the machine, without much personal heroism.

Most of the time, for Jiang Xu, for the doctors of Jihua Medical Center, saving lives is more like a simple job than a belief.

The sense of accomplishment his profession brings him is minimal, and he has never felt as great as described in the media and various articles.

He does not subsidize money for patients, nor does he tolerate patients who create chaos in the hospital. Apart from regularly donating a small amount to the Women’s Mutual Aid and Rights Association, he is just an ordinary worker who takes money to do his job, and has pressures in his own life. He is not some great philanthropist.

Jiang Xu sometimes thinks that the youthful vigor he had when he was seventeen or eighteen years old has gradually disappeared with the passage of time, and it is not until today that he realized that the pride in his bones has never changed.

“Do you remember Professor Hao?” Jiang Xu asked Shen Fangyu.

One drowsy afternoon in the clean and bright classroom of A Medical University back then, the bright sun shone through the window, illuminating the eyes of the middle-aged professor standing at the three-foot podium.

“I stayed in Country M for twenty years, and did research for twenty years. I still remember the day I returned to China, my only student came to pick me up, and I said to him, ‘The country has no money, and I have no money, but I will bring back the centrifuge that I personally carried back from overseas, as well as the cells and mice that I accumulated in the Country M laboratory for years, and start anew here.’”

“I just hope that one day, our students will be able to learn the best knowledge and do cutting-edge research without having to go abroad.”

“The hot topics in scientific research change every few years. As you all know, chasing the hot topics in the field is the best way to easily publish papers.”

“But do you know, my students?” Professor Hao said.

“In Country M, every once in a while, the top editors of prestigious journals and top scientists from various countries in the field would gather together for a private conference. The top scientists would share the progress they have made in their research, and the editors would agree in advance to accept their papers, thereby setting the hot research topics for the next few years.”

“The cycle of biomedical experiments is very long,” Professor Hao sighed, “because we don’t get any advance notice, countless students and professors in our country have to chase after the hot topics and publish papers in a shorter time with higher efficiency before the hot topics fade away.”

“I am a ‘selfish’ scientist,” Professor Hao took off his glasses and leaned his hands on the podium, looking at the young faces of his students. “I hope that there will be Chinese scientists at this conference some day, and I hope that our students can receive advance notice and start chasing the hot topics earlier.”

“I also hope that there will be many of our own researchers at this conference, so that our students do not have to exhaust themselves chasing after hot topics, but can lead the international research trends and make our own research topics become hot topics, and our own country’s journals become top-tier publications.”

“Now our country is gradually attracting back the biomedical professors from Country Z abroad.”

His voice trembled slightly.

“I hope that one day, our students will not have to go abroad in search of a better research environment, but can stay in our own country to contribute to the development of biomedical research.”

He said, “I know that scientific progress cannot be achieved overnight. It takes many, many years of accumulation to reach this goal. In my lifetime… I probably won’t be able to see it.”

“But I hope that in the future, when you become independent professors and principal investigators, you will also be able to tell your students the same thing.”

“And your students will continue to tell their students.”

Professor Hao, who was spirited and vigorous, said firmly, “You must remember that the most important quality of the people in Z country is perseverance, just like the story of ‘Foolish Old Man Removes the Mountains’.”

“Z country has come from a state of desolation to where it is today,” he pointed to his heart, “by relying on that unyielding spirit in the chest and the determination to never give up no matter what!”

The middle-aged man with a serious expression on the podium had red eyes that seemed out of place for his age and status.

The students who were dozing off in the classroom suddenly woke up, and after a brief silence, erupted into thunderous applause that seemed to overturn the classroom.

Many years later, Jiang Xu couldn’t remember what class it was that day, or which chapter they were studying, and how Professor Hao had digressed from the topic and started talking about something else.

But Jiang Xu always remembered that moment when Professor Hao, who wasn’t particularly tall, had a particularly majestic shadow cast by the sunlight.

Jiang Xu took out a tall wine glass from the cupboard, poured a glass of red wine for Shen Fangyu, and poured himself a glass of clear and pure cold water.

The red wine represented a passionate and fervent heart, while the clear water represented an untainted original intention and faith.

“If the surgery is successful,” he looked at Shen Fangyu and said, “we must publish a paper.”

“I’m willing to believe in my country,” he said.

“But if our privacy is really leaked…” Jiang Xu clinked glasses with Shen Fangyu, tilted his head back and drank the cold water in one gulp, then closed his eyes and said, “I have no regrets, I’ve accepted it.”

Shen Fangyu looked at him, feeling a sourness in his heart like it was soaking in lemon water.

He wanted Dr. Kenn to apologize for his arrogance and conceit just like Jiang Xu wanted, but he didn’t want Jiang Xu to take any risks.

It was this moment that he realized who Jiang Xu was once again.

He was someone who made him feel heartache, but also someone he loved beyond words.

They shared the same aspirations and ideals.

Two people who had always competed against each other, placed their desire to win or lose on the same “enemy” for the first time.

So he raised his tall wine glass and clinked it with Jiang Xu’s glass, producing a crisp sound, “To medicine.”

Outside the window, the lights of countless homes were dazzling. Jiang Xu put down his empty glass and softly said to him, “To our motherland.”