Chapter 240 - 161: You’re Giving an Overachiever a Hard Time?

Chapter 240: Chapter 161: You’re Giving an Overachiever a Hard Time?

Ma Huaide.

Director of the Medical Affairs Department.

This department was responsible for the entire hospital’s medical quality control and handling of medical disputes. It also held the power of life and death over the bed turnover, doctor scheduling, and even some performance evaluations for every department.

With great power, naturally, came many opportunities for personal gain.

In Jiang He’s memories from his past life, Director Ma had left quite a deep impression.

The man was a classic example of someone who had been dealt a great hand and played it terribly.

In the position of Director of the Medical Affairs Department, as long as one knew their limits, they could operate on the fringes of compliance to pocket a little extra cash. The higher-ups would usually just turn a blind eye.

But Ma Huaide went too far, and his methods were disgustingly shameless.

He overreached, enjoying how he could exploit the junior residents and fellows through scheduling and bed allocation.

He would dump all the grunt work on newcomers who had no connections, using it as a way to curry favor with certain department heads or external contacts who could offer him kickbacks.

In Jiang He’s past life, this behavior had triggered a fierce backlash from the junior doctors not long after he joined the hospital. The situation eventually blew up, and Ma Huaide was forced to step down in disgrace.

But what puzzled Jiang He wasn’t Ma Huaide’s character.

It was... why was he targeting him?

He hadn’t even met Ma Huaide since his rebirth.

On the night of that car crash during the storm, he had indeed overstepped his authority to perform triage. But afterward, he hadn’t asked for a bonus or gone to the Medical Affairs Department to take credit. Director Yang Xu and Dean Chen had handled everything from above.

’Where could I possibly have offended him?’

"Ma Huaide?" Jiang He asked. "Are you sure it was him?"

"Absolutely. It was Director Ma."

"How do you know?" Jiang He asked.

Meng Shiyu scratched his head and smiled, a little embarrassed. "Teacher Jiang, back when I was at Xiangya, I didn’t master many other skills, but I did get pretty good at cozying up to the rotating nurses and administrative staff in various departments."

He paused for a moment before explaining:

"This afternoon, I was passing by the Medical Affairs Department office and happened to see their scheduler smoking in the hallway. I offered him a cigarette, and while we were chatting, he casually mentioned something. He said Director Ma personally gave an order this morning to reallocate the key admission beds for the Hepatobiliary Surgery Department for the coming week. He also specifically mentioned your name, saying ’the more capable one is, the more work one should do.’ Since Dr. Jiang’s performance in the emergency room was outstanding, there would surely be no problem putting him in charge of the ordinary critical care beds."

After hearing this, Jiang He offered a sincere compliment: "Damn impressive."

It was his first official day, and he hadn’t even gotten to know all the patients in the department yet. But this kid had already found his way to the administration building and, in the time it takes to smoke a cigarette, managed to wheedle out inside information about the Medical Affairs Department’s scheduling plans.

’This knack for gathering intelligence is its own kind of talent, isn’t it?’

Zhang Sui disliked people who engaged in social politics.

But Jiang He didn’t see it that way.

He, on the other hand, felt that knowing how to build good relationships was a skill in itself... and one that Meng Shiyu was definitely better at than he was.

’I don’t know how to do any of that stuff,’ he thought. ’All I know is how to overwhelm people with absolute technical skill. This whole social maneuvering thing really is too difficult.’

"Heh heh, you’re too kind, Teacher Jiang. I just can’t help but run my mouth," Meng Shiyu said with a dry laugh, his expression quickly turning worried.

"But this is obviously aimed at you. When someone from the Medical Affairs Department says, ’the capable should do more work,’ it’s never a good thing. Teacher Jiang, did you perhaps unintentionally offend Director Ma in the past?"

Jiang He leaned back in his conference room chair, quickly running the whole situation through his mind.

Combining the memories from his past life with the current circumstances, the picture quickly became clear.

Ma Huaide wasn’t targeting him. He was trying to save himself.

His long-term exploitation of junior doctors and his habit of lining his own pockets must have already drawn the ire of the current dean.

Dean Chen was a principled man who valued stability and the mission of saving lives. For someone like Ma Huaide, who was causing widespread discontent within the hospital, it was only a matter of time before the dean took action against him.

It was impossible for Ma Huaide not to have noticed which way the wind was blowing.

He desperately needed to find a new patron.

And right at this moment, Zhang Sui—with his extensive academic and management background from Johns Hopkins University in the United States and the Mayo Clinic—had been parachuted into Affiliated Hospital No. 1 as the new vice dean.

Zhang Sui was a newcomer with authority, making him the perfect target for Ma Huaide to latch onto.

So, how could he demonstrate his loyalty to this new leader?

Upon taking office, the first target of Zhang Sui’s new initiatives had been Jiang He himself.

Although there was no public punishment, the signal sent to everyone was clear: he disapproved of people like him who broke standard operating procedures.

Ma Huaide had keenly picked up on this signal.

He planned to make an example of Jiang He, indirectly suppressing him as a way to show his loyalty to Zhang Sui.

Thinking of this, Jiang He sighed helplessly.

’What a terrible move.’

Ma Huaide’s calculations were meticulous, but he didn’t understand Zhang Sui at all.

What kind of person was Zhang Sui? He was a die-hard traditionalist with a fanatical devotion to rules and regulations.

He might dislike Jiang He, but that absolutely did not mean he would stoop to Ma Huaide’s level and collude with him.

Even if Ma Huaide did manage to win a bit of Zhang Sui’s favor in the beginning,

once Zhang Sui figured out the full extent of the Medical Affairs Department’s corruption, the two of them would inevitably have a complete falling out.

’How could Zhang Sui possibly tolerate a subordinate who was skimming off the top through scheduling and bed assignments? He’d have to be crazy.’

"Alright, I get it," Jiang He said, collecting his thoughts.

Seeing Jiang He’s calm demeanor, Meng Shiyu grew even more anxious. "Teacher Jiang, that’s it? You just ’get it’? If the Medical Affairs Department really starts messing with the bed assignments and dumps a ton of difficult patients on you, how are we supposed to manage? What are you going to do?"

"What am I going to do?" Jiang He stood up. "We’ll adapt by staying the course. If the sky falls, there are taller people to hold it up. We just need to focus on doing the work in front of us."