Chapter 179: The Name Is Up!
“Teacher Tong, I saw on the official website that there are over four hundred participants in this competition.”
“If everyone participates in all the tracks, then two days might not be enough to finish,” Lu Cheng said earnestly to Tong Yuan’an.
Reality had taught Lu Cheng many things, so he ignored the ‘indifference’ of others.
Indifference is the norm; kindness is a favor.
Not many strangers will be exceptionally courteous to you…
“Actually, it’s like this. For this provincial competition, they fix the best result, so it’s a salon format. If you’re willing to participate, you can generally participate four times in the same track.”
“Many people fear they might not perform well once, so they’re given multiple opportunities.”
“Not everyone will participate in all tracks either,” Tong Yuan’an replied.
Medical competitions are different from many other competitions. In skills-based tests, there’s no such thing as hacks or cheating.
Or rather, if you can achieve a better therapeutic effect through cheating, then it’s not cheating; it’s the truth.
In clinical practice, as long as you can help the patient recover better, you’re amazing…
“Among the four tracks, vascular suturing is a major favorite and the main competitive direction for microsurgery. It has the most participants, and you can probably only participate twice at most.”
“Next, for example, tendon suturing, solid organ suturing, and nerve suturing, have relatively fewer participants.”
“Because the gold content isn’t as high. At least within the industry, many people don’t recognize the gold content of these tracks…”
Lu Cheng nodded upon hearing this: “Teacher Tong, is it possible that some people haven’t participated in any competition while others have participated twice?”
“That’s definitely impossible! Contestants will sign in at the competition venue, and first-time participants will naturally be given priority.”
“You don’t have to worry about not being able to participate even once,” Tong Yuan’an said.
“The main purpose of these skills competitions is not to compete for rankings but for exchange and learning, allowing people from grassroots hospitals or prefectural city hospitals to understand the operational limits of each technique.”
“However, we don’t dare to be careless because there are quite a few experts in prefectural city hospitals who might emerge as dark horses.”
“Doctors in teaching hospitals like ours, after all, many have less clinical experience. If we’re talking about individual operations alone, it’s hard to say we can definitely win.”
“As you know, the strongest in Xiangya Hospital are the professors whose comprehensive abilities are higher than the directors in prefectural city hospitals, not associate professors and attending physicians like us…”
Medicine is a career with a long endgame. Although Tong Yuan’an is an associate professor and deputy chief physician, his career is not yet at its peak.
The peak for surgeons is typically between the ages of forty-five and fifty, when a person’s energy, skill, theory, and operation are all at their zenith.
Before this age, there is still room for growth; after this age, physical strength and energy might start to decline slightly.
…
After returning from Professor Tong Yuan’an’s room, Lu Cheng’s expression was a bit dejected.
While waiting for the elevator in the lobby, Lu Cheng looked out the window at the brilliant and dazzling lights across the river, but these lights had nothing to do with him.
Of course, Lu Cheng knew even better that this was just a provincial microsurgery competition. If he were to go to the national competition, even fewer people would recognize him…
Back to his room, he showered and went to bed.
The next day, Lu Cheng woke up at six-thirty. He didn’t text Tong Yuan’an because Tong Yuan’an had mentioned he had other matters to attend to the previous night.
Lu Cheng went to the buffet restaurant by himself for breakfast. After eating, he waited for a familiar face but found none. Lu Cheng then put on his name tag and headed to the third floor.
The full name of this ‘conference’ was the Xiang Province Microsurgery Winter Exchange Meeting and Microsurgery Young Physician Grand Competition.
There were four floors in total. The fourth, fifth, and sixth floors housed academic conference halls where academic conferences were held by microsurgery experts, practitioners, and graduate students.
The third floor was the competition venue, divided into four smaller areas: tendon suturing, nerve suturing, vascular suturing, and solid organ suturing.
There were staff members from the organizing committee responsible for sign-ins, spectators including family members or young doctors, and participants.
When Lu Cheng arrived on the third floor, a hotel staff member in the elevator lobby asked if he needed directions.
Lu Cheng politely declined, as the signs were clearly marked.
After a moment of thought, Lu Cheng decided to go to the tendon suturing venue first. Regardless, he wanted to participate in the events he was confident about.
The competition venue was not large, resembling a small academic lecture hall. The seats were cleared, but twenty-five microscopes and workstations were set up!
This meant that twenty-five participants could be accommodated simultaneously.
At this moment, a long queue had already formed at the table with the competition sign-in sheet. Lu Cheng joined the back of the crowd.
As he approached, Lu Cheng overheard the conversation of the people in front of him.
“I heard that Professor Tan from Xiangya Hospital and his team have developed a new tendon suturing technique, which is even better than the modified Tang method. Isn’t this tendon suturing competition just a formality for Xiangya Hospital?”
“So what? Does this kind of competition need to be absolutely fair?”
“The Second Hospital and Third Hospital don’t dare to say anything. If you have the ability, why don’t you develop a new technique yourself?”
“Then it’s all about participation. I estimate the tendon suturing track will have the fewest participants. People from the Second and Third Hospitals won’t come. Otherwise, their results won’t look good.”
“Only twelve people in total can advance to the second round in this competition, with only three per track.”
“Is Xiangya Hospital going to take all of them?”
“That’s not necessarily true. Xiangya Second Hospital has a very strong vascular handling capability, officially stronger than Xiangya Hospital. This is the mainstream of microsurgery competition.”
“We’re just here to make up the numbers…”
Lu Cheng listened and queued, and the line moved quickly.
Around seven forty, Lu Cheng signed his name next to his own.
Lu Cheng’s participant number was 49, meaning he was in the second session.
The tendon suturing competition sessions were one hour each, meaning Lu Cheng would need to return by 9:30 AM to wait for his competition.
After queuing, Lu Cheng hurried to the solid organ suturing track to queue up again…
The solid organ suturing track was not exclusive to hand surgery, but there were many people queuing.
Participants from general surgery and microsurgery were mostly there to compete or spectate.
By the time Lu Cheng got his number, it was already 142. The solid organ suturing competition sessions were for thirty people each, meaning Lu Cheng could only compete in the afternoon session…
It was already 8:35 AM, so Lu Cheng went to the vascular suturing and nerve suturing tracks to get his numbers.
Many people had already signed up for these two tracks, so Lu Cheng’s numbers were 215 and 228, respectively.
At the nerve suturing venue, Lu Cheng quickly said, “Teacher, can you place me further back in the queue?”
“I’ve also queued for vascular suturing.”
“The times conflict.”
Many people participated in multiple tracks. The graduate student in charge of registration was polite: “Let me find one for you. How about 267? 267 is the last session in the afternoon.”
“That’s fine, Teacher!” Lu Cheng, regardless of the other person’s younger age, politely addressed them as “Teacher.”
…
After obtaining the four participation numbers, Lu Cheng rushed to the tendon suturing venue.
It was already 9:40 AM, and the organizing staff had begun to confirm the participants queuing up to enter.
Simultaneously, on the competition floor, many people were finishing their matches one after another. Their operated tendons were sent for testing, and the data and scores were fixed.
At the front of the academic lecture hall, rankings and scores were constantly flashing.
【Participant 05 Gu Yanlin: 2mm tear tensile strength: 38 points. Rupture tensile strength: 37 points. Tendon toughness: 19 points. Total score: 94 points.】
【Participant 019 Guo Qibai: 2mm tear tensile strength: 35 points. Rupture tensile strength: 36 points. Tendon toughness: 18 points. Total score: 89 points.】
【Participant 04 Luo Yuan: 2mm tear tensile strength: 36 points. Rupture tensile strength: 36 points. Tendon toughness: 17 points. Total score: 89 points.】
【…】
Soon, the second place changed, replaced by 91 points.
However, by the end of the first round of the tendon track competition, no one had surpassed Gu Yanlin’s score from Xiangya Hospital.
The scoring for tendon suturing was a points-based system. The 2mm tear tensile strength and rupture tensile strength were each scored out of forty points, and tendon toughness was scored out of twenty points, totaling one hundred points.
Rankings were determined by the final sum of scores.
Perhaps different score ranges had their own standards, and Lu Cheng wasn’t very familiar with the specific details.
“Participant 049, Lu Cheng, are you here?” As Lu Cheng was looking at the scores, a staff member approached to check the list of participants for the second round.
“Yes, I’m here, Teacher,” Lu Cheng said, presenting his name tag.
“May I see your ID card…” The person was a graduate student, who looked very young, probably around twenty-four or twenty-five.
Lu Cheng handed his ID card to the person, who checked the name and ID number and then paid no further attention.
In this type of competition, it wasn’t feasible for someone to impersonate another participant, as it wouldn’t affect their future prospects, and if discovered, both the substitute and the replaced person would be severely embarrassed.
After a few graduate students and doctoral candidates verified the participants’ names, a senior doctor from Xiangya Second Hospital began to announce the rules: “The time limit for each session of the tendon suturing track is one hour.”
“The total amount of tendon suturing to be completed is three or more. If the operational volume cannot be completed, no points will be awarded.”
“However, more is not always better. The final result will be based on the average of the data. Slow work leads to meticulous results. We recommend completing three tendon sutures.”
“If any tendon sutures are discarded and you don’t want them included in the scoring, remember to discard them promptly.”
“The operational score can be reset to zero. In principle, you cannot abandon the competition halfway.”
“There are no other special precautions. After this session ends, our staff will have ten minutes to clear the tables and prepare the venue for the next round.”
“If anyone needs to go to the restroom now, hurry up. We are all men, and at this age, you understand. In principle, you are not allowed to use the restroom during the competition,” the teacher from Xiangya Second Hospital joked.
The people in line all laughed.
Someone raised their hand and followed up on the joke: “No restroom breaks, but can I ‘shoot’?”
The person from Xiangya Second Hospital asked, “Wang Long? Do you want me to start a live stream for you? It’s best to show it to your kid.”
It was clear that the two knew each other.
The circle of hand surgeons isn’t that small, but the provincial circle isn’t that large.
Wang Long was quite outgoing and didn’t blush at all, just shook his head: “Then forget it. If Teacher Lu wants to watch, then…”
“Get lost!” Teacher Lu cursed.
“Be serious, damn it! This is a competition, a competition, do you understand? Not your operating room.”
Wang Long said, “Hey, the Director and the Big Boss aren’t here…”
Beside Teacher Lu, a graduate student reported: “Brother Lu, Professor Su Delin has arrived.”
The person addressed as “Brother Lu” quickly turned his head towards Professor Su Delin’s direction and then jogged over.
Afterward, Professor Su Delin whispered a few words to Teacher Lu, and the person called “Brother Lu” immediately began scanning the participants with his eyes.
“Alright, Professor Su. If any of the scores are significantly beyond the expected range, I will report it to you immediately,” Teacher Lu said quickly.
“Yes, Director Tan from Xiangya Hospital made it clear. Be absolutely sure there are no mistakes. You can treat it as cheating or a malfunctioning instrument and reset the score to zero.”
Su Delin instructed: “If this causes a scene, it will truly be a joke.”
“Who is it?” Lu Bin asked Professor Su Delin.
“Director Tan didn’t explicitly say,” Su Delin shook his head. “Regardless of who it is, just remember this: once this person appears, give them full marks according to the rules.”
“Director Tan specifically recommended them, so it shouldn’t be fake.”
“Strange indeed…” Su Delin left in a hurry.
He was worried about causing a scene. Xiangya Second Hospital was the organizer this time. If, during the data measurement, people found the results unbelievable and reset the scores to zero, it wouldn’t be fun.
Professor Tan from Xiangya Hospital was considered considerate; he had given a heads-up in advance, not wanting a joke to unfold.
Lu Cheng couldn’t hear Su Delin’s and Lu Bin’s conversation, so he could only wait quietly.
Soon, Lu Cheng and the others entered the venue in order, each finding their own workstation.
Lu Cheng was participant number 049, and his workstation was number 24.
On the table, there were a total of five large pig trotters, all hind trotters, with thick tendons and fat, looking very appetizing.
Xiangya Second Hospital had put in effort to procure these materials specifically for the competition, clearly showing their dedication.
There were no signs of freezing; they had likely been thawed in advance, and the water stains were wiped clean.
…
The competition process was uneventful. No one had time to watch others’ operations, and the spectators didn’t chatter much.
Which formal exam would be equipped with a commentator?
If you disturb someone’s competition, what if the participant on stage tells you to shut up? How would you handle that?
Fifty minutes later, Lu Cheng finished the suturing of three pig trotters and concluded his operation.
A few participants finished before him, while more were slower.
After Lu Cheng left his workstation, a staff member immediately took his sutured pig trotters on a plate for precise testing.
Lu Cheng left the competition area and went directly to the restroom to wash his hands.
This process was supposed to be quick, but as Lu Cheng came out, he found his name displayed.
“049 Lu Cheng: 2mm tear tensile strength: 40 points. Rupture tensile strength: 40 points. Tendon toughness: 20 points. Total score: 100 points.”
“Who is this guy Lu Cheng? How did he get a perfect score?”
“This score is too fake, isn’t it? Is Xiangya Second Hospital not even pretending anymore?”
“Do you know Doctor Lu Cheng from Xiangya Second Hospital? Dare to post a score of 100 points?”
“Haven’t heard of him…”
Lu Cheng’s name was not only displayed on the screen but also on people’s lips.
Lu Cheng sniffed and looked at his score, not finding it particularly surprising.
If the competition was truly scored based on the highest existing data, then his surgical technique exceeding the modified Tang method should logically result in a perfect score.
“No, this Lu Cheng is not from Xiangya Second Hospital,” suddenly, a voice from the crowd pierced Lu Cheng’s ears.
The speaker’s tone was not loud.
Of course, what attracted Lu Cheng’s attention was not this sentence, but the one that followed: “Xiang Daihong, do you know this Lu Cheng?”
“No, but I’ve heard of him. But it’s hard to say if it’s him. He’s from our Xiangzhou Long County People’s Hospital,” Xiang Daihong replied.
“Then it must be someone with the same name.”
“Then the Li Hui on the scoreboard isn’t me either,” another person said with a chuckle.
“Perhaps it’s a coincidence of names,” Xiang Daihong’s voice faded into the crowd.
Lu Cheng followed the sound and saw that Xiang Daihong looked incredibly burly and strong, far more so than anyone Lu Cheng had ever seen.
He looked more like a boxer than a hand surgeon.
Lu Cheng was slightly taken aback for a moment, then quietly retreated from the crowd.
The results were out, and there was no need to wait for the subsequent outcomes.
Even if ten more people achieved a score of 100, the organizers would have to find a way to let them participate in the national playoffs.
With this score posted, he had basically secured his spot.
As Lu Cheng was leaving the tendon suturing venue, his phone rang.
Lu Cheng picked it up and saw the contact name, which was none other than Deputy Professor Huang Jun from Xiangya Second Hospital, with whom he had exchanged contact information the previous day.
Lu Cheng hesitated for five seconds before answering, his calm expression softening: “Teacher Huang.”
“Was that you at the tendon suturing venue? Xiao Lu? You’ve been hiding quite well!” Huang Jun’s tone was somewhat stunned.
A perfect score!
It was a score that one dared not easily award in any exam, even in elementary school, a teacher would hesitate.
Let alone a medical operation competition!
“Ah? Teacher Huang, are you also at the venue? I was about to go back to my room to rest. My subsequent competitions are all in the afternoon,” Lu Cheng replied with a smile.
“So that’s what Tong Yuan’an meant yesterday. I really didn’t see it coming! Doctor Lu, congratulations!”
“If your score is genuine, our province’s chance in the national competition is secured this time,” Huang Jun said with a smile.
“Teacher Huang, I just took advantage of a loophole,” Lu Cheng replied.
Huang Jun said, “This is not taking advantage of a loophole. Although Director Tan from Xiangya Hospital has also developed a tendon suturing technique, they wouldn’t dare give themselves a perfect score.”
“Can I ask where you learned this technique?”
“We have a few doctoral students who also want to participate. Is there any chance for a last-minute cram session?”
“I didn’t learn it,” Lu Cheng thought for a moment before replying.
“Uh~~~” Huang Jun’s throat choked.
Lu Cheng remained silent.
Lu Cheng knew that in such a situation, if he wanted to conceal his true abilities, his current identity would allow him to hide them effectively.
Only the Big Bosses have the privilege of hiding their strengths; everyone else can only honestly ‘put on a show’!
Don’t talk about “good wine needs no bush.”
“Doctor Lu, speaking like this, you truly surprise me,” Huang Jun’s tone now carried a respectful address.
Whether Lu Cheng was bragging or not, Huang Jun couldn’t prove it.
If one cannot falsify what another says, one must first believe it.
To have originally created a suturing technique that can surpass all current suturing techniques is an ability that deserves respect.
Without this rule, he, Huang Jun, would have had no chance of advancing in his entire life.
“Teacher Huang, I was also quite lucky,” Lu Cheng felt refreshed at this moment.
Lu Cheng even suspected that Tong Yuan’an might have intentionally set up this situation for him yesterday, just to make his state of mind clearer now.
After all, satisfaction without a build-up isn’t truly satisfying.
“Congratulations, Doctor Lu. I hope you can maintain a stable performance in the national competition and let our Xiang army of hand surgeons shine before our colleagues nationwide,” Huang Jun said, not mentioning learning from Lu Cheng.
This was Lu Cheng’s original technique, unheard of before, which proved that Lu Cheng was making significant moves.
Clinical practice does not allow for showing off skills, but competitions do.
During competitions, you can perform any extreme maneuver because the competition is a venue for showcasing skills.
“…”
After hanging up the phone, Lu Cheng’s expression simply appeared calm.
Although Lu Cheng’s phone didn’t ring repeatedly, the few people who had added him on WeChat the previous night had sent him greetings.
Mainly to confirm Lu Cheng’s true identity.
Except for Doctor Zhou Jian from Xiangya Third Hospital and people from Xiangya Hospital…
Those people in Xiangya Hospital knew about Lu Cheng’s situation, so they weren’t surprised by this result.
Unlike the Second Hospital and others, their indifference towards Lu Cheng was because Lu Cheng was not ‘one of them.’
After this collaboration with Tong Yuan’an, Lu Cheng would go to a sister unit in a sister province, and this sister unit ranked higher than Xiangya Hospital.
Therefore, they couldn’t be too ‘enthusiastic’ with Lu Cheng, to avoid making Lu Cheng feel they were too ‘snobbish’!
Of course, Tong Yuan’an, the fat man, called Lu Cheng immediately.
“Why was your phone busy just now?” Tong Yuan’an’s voice was calm.
“Oh, Teacher Tong, it was Teacher Huang calling,” Lu Cheng replied.
“He’s that fast? Too bad I didn’t see him!~”
“But even if I saw him, it would be useless. With that face of his, nobody would know if he washed it or not. Without picking boogers, you wouldn’t even find his eyes.”
“When is your next competition?” Tong Yuan’an asked.
Lu Cheng replied, “They are all in the afternoon, Teacher Tong. There are still too many participants.”
Tong Yuan’an said, “No matter what, you’ve definitely secured the spot for the tendon suturing track.”
“This was also within expectations, right?”
Lu Cheng was silent for a moment: “Should be? If there are no accidents.”
“Xiao Lu, the accidents you’re thinking of won’t happen. Xiang Province also has dignity. As long as you bring glory to the province, no one can touch you!” Tong Yuan’an’s tone was grand.
