Chapter 71: ‘scumbag’ ‘overachiever’
September 3rd, Thursday, nearing autumn in the lunar calendar.
Long County’s terrain is relatively high. Although there’s still the heat lingering from the city, the mornings and evenings bring a cool breeze that chills the body.
Lu Cheng, wearing a jacket, rode his electric scooter to work. It wasn’t until he arrived at the hospital that he took off his jacket and hung it on his wrist.
Lu Cheng went straight into the doctor’s lounge, intending to prepare breakfast for Professor Chen Song. However, he didn’t expect Chen Song to arrive even earlier than him.
Chen Song was currently flipping through the book “Xu’s Bone Setting Techniques” that Lu Cheng often looked at.
“Xiao Lu, you’ve been acting so mysterious lately, is this what you’ve been reading?” Chen Song asked Lu Cheng.
Lu Cheng smiled and nodded, folding his jacket into the cabinet. “Yes, Teacher Chen. Since you’re here, are we having toppings for breakfast again? With sweet soup and rice noodles?”
Chen Song’s furrowed brows smoothed out with his muscles. “You’re reading this too? Can you keep up?”
“Honestly, in my opinion, you don’t need to stubbornly compete with the orthopedics department on fracture diseases. You should let go when it’s time to let go.”
“Your Emergency Department doesn’t have surgical permissions for fractures, so why bother?”
Lu Cheng said, “Teacher Chen, it’s just that you haven’t been teaching me new things lately. So, it’s good to read during my shifts. After all, even if I can’t perform surgery, I can still do manual reduction.”
“As for patients requiring surgical indications, it seems the orthopedics department won’t refuse them.”
Chen Song lifted his chin. “Hey, are you mocking me now? You’re quite mischievous, aren’t you?”
“Do you think I don’t want to teach you? You have to give me a chance to teach you.”
“For spleen preservation surgery and gallbladder preservation surgery, your current skill level has reached its limit. To advance further, you must combine it with interventional embolization and laparoscopy.”
“If your Director Lin can’t get the laparoscopic equipment, teaching you is useless.”
“Regarding gallbladder preservation surgery, absolute contraindications are still contraindications. I have to run if I encounter them.”
“As for liver protection surgery, it’s still too complex. With less than a month left, I won’t open this door for you, to avoid you being in an awkward position and feeling uncomfortable.”
After his psychological manipulation of Lu Cheng, Chen Song then said, “So, the orthopedics department at your hospital means that if you want to receive patients with fractures and joint dislocations, they won’t be responsible?”
“You’re on your own, sink or swim?”
Lu Cheng nodded and sighed. “It’s mainly because my manual reduction affects the core foundation of Director Peng’s surgeries.”
“But I’m not who I used to be. As long as I can establish myself, I’ll do what I can, and refer what I can’t, right?”
“When a patient comes, I can’t just turn a blind eye.”
“I won’t hide what I see or what I know,” Lu Cheng expressed his stance.
Orthopedics’ Xiang Kuihua was determined to teach him a lesson, and Lu Cheng couldn’t do anything about it.
The other party had strong connections and influence within the prefecture. Lu Cheng could only adapt to whatever came his way.
In fact, Lu Cheng could anticipate that after Professor Chen Song left, the storm he would encounter might be even more “fierce,” and the pitfalls he would face might be unfillable by anyone. But that was unavoidable.
He couldn’t possibly be forced to resign, could he?
In reality, they weren’t forcing him, but rather letting him fend for himself.
Waiting for Lu Cheng to make a mistake and then completely crush him in this disease type!
“Then how are your basic skills? Tong Yuan’an hasn’t been replying to me much lately. What’s going on between you two?”
“Did you have another falling out?” Chen Song asked Lu Cheng.
Lu Cheng looked at his Suturing basic skills: Specialized Level 20/20.
Current Skill Point Balance: 12.1!
Lu Cheng’s current skill point acquisition rate averaged 4.5 points per day. After all, surgeries couldn’t be done non-stop, and Lu Cheng also needed to ensure rest to maintain surgery quality; he couldn’t be on call 24 hours a day.
In the last ten days, the acquisition rate had decreased slightly.
Then, after he reached the specialized level for the techniques Chen Song taught him by adding points, he used the remaining skill points for Suturing.
Lu Cheng was actually quite honest, adding a point every day or two. But even at this rate, he made ‘Tong Yuan’an’ feel dejected again.
Lu Cheng didn’t understand why Professor Tong Yuan’an liked to feel dejected so much; it was as if he had a ‘dejected’ personality.
“Teacher Tong said he wants to be alone. Sister-in-law isn’t called Jingjing, is she?” Lu Cheng made a rather common joke.
Chen Song clicked his tongue, saying, “You must have truly struck the most prideful part of his backbone this time, and even bent it.”
“Otherwise, Tong Yuan’an wouldn’t be like this.”
“Alright, since he’s not teaching you Suturing, I’ll start teaching you Hemostasis. Hemostasis is a core basic skill for our Emergency Department and many surgical departments. If you learn it well, you can even compete…”
“Yes, let’s start tomorrow. Otherwise, you’ll always say I don’t teach you anything.”
“One takes what one eats, and one’s hands are tied by what one receives. Alas!” Chen Song proudly puffed out his chest.
He knew why Lu Cheng couldn’t finish learning spleen and gallbladder preservation surgery; it was because Lu Cheng’s basic skills weren’t sufficient, and he couldn’t advance further, reaching a bottleneck.
If Lu Cheng could master these two tracks without improving his Hemostasis basic skills, Chen Song would eat his hat…
Lu Cheng was indeed not that incredible, but Chen Song genuinely hadn’t enjoyed the ‘afterglow’ of being a teacher enough. So, after pondering for a while, he decided to start a new class.
“Teacher Chen, I have a question for you. What level is generally required to win an award in the provincial competition?” Lu Cheng asked Chen Song.
Chen Song said, “Hmm, to achieve good results, you’ll need to be slightly weaker than Tong Yuan’an in Suturing, and about the same level as me in Hemostasis. Actually, my Hemostasis hasn’t improved much in a long time either.”
“Too difficult…”
Lu Cheng’s expression stiffened upon hearing this. That was indeed too difficult.
However, it made sense. The age limit for the provincial young physician skills competition was 35.
Chen Song and Tong Yuan’an weren’t that old either; they were both around thirty-eight or thirty-nine.
The improvement of basic skills becomes increasingly difficult at higher levels. From Specialized to the next level requires at least 40 skill points!
Lu Cheng had calculated that many masters at Xiangya Second Hospital could gain about 1 proficiency point in approximately twenty hours of practice…
So, from Specialized to above Specialized would take ‘800 hours.’ Even if one practiced diligently for eight hours every day and did nothing else, it would still take at least 100 days.
It’s impossible to practice with such singular focus. At most, two hours could be allocated daily.
That would be 400 days of uninterrupted diligent effort. If surgeries occasionally caused delays, it would be 600 or 700 days.
Geniuses would be a bit faster, but due to distractions, it would still require a considerable amount of time.
According to Chen Song’s explanation, if Lu Cheng wanted to compete and win.
He would have to break through the blockade of ‘geniuses’ who were slightly younger than him. These were also masters at the Associate Professor and Deputy Chief Physician level at Xiangya Hospital…
And as one learned further, it was said that progress was no longer about time spent but relied on talent and opportunity.
“Hmm, so, how do you think you’re doing learning from this book?” Chen Song shifted the topic as Lu Cheng remained silent.
Lu Cheng smiled and replied, “Barely. If I encounter it, I can use it!”
Lu Cheng’s smile was harmless, but Chen Song’s mind was in turmoil.
What? How can you learn everything, and learn it all well?
“You truly are a scumbag!”
“Academic scumbags are more shameful than real-life scumbags. I hate people like you the most!”
“You don’t need to talk to me anymore.” Chen Song lowered his proud head and stopped talking to Lu Cheng.
Lu Cheng: “…”
Why? Because he had always wanted to be that kind of person but couldn’t achieve it, so he hated such people the most.
Outsiders have a few elegant terms for such people: “king of competition,” “pervert,” “ruthless,” “genius”…
