Chapter 278 - 184: Who Did You Say Wants to Join the Team?

Chapter 278: Chapter 184: Who Did You Say Wants to Join the Team?

The next morning.

The rain had stopped.

Southern Medical University, male dormitory.

Jiang He had a wonderful night’s sleep, feeling utterly refreshed.

After washing up, he took a taxi straight to Affiliated Hospital No. 1.

He first went to the Department of Critical Care Medicine.

There, he saw Yang Xu.

Whenever he saw his teacher, a deep sense of security washed over him.

It wasn’t because he was dependent on him for his skills.

It was simply because his teacher was the top surgeon at Affiliated Hospital No. 1 and supported him unconditionally. With him around, many things would face less resistance.

For example, if Yang Xu had been there last night, the process of persuading Zhang Sui would have been much simpler.

"Teacher." Jiang He nodded slightly.

Yang Xu smiled the moment he saw him and said, "Ah, my student has arrived?"

Jiang He replied, "Mhm."

Yang Xu started praising him, "The angle you placed the drainage tubes at was excellent, a high-low combination. They’ve drained nearly a thousand milliliters of turbid fluid since last night, and the color has already started to lighten this morning."

Jiang He glanced at Zhang Jiaqi on the bed.

Her vital signs had stabilized, and the norepinephrine infusion rate had been halved. She had made it through the most dangerous period of circulatory failure.

"I read your surgical report. An open-abdomen Bogota bag closure, a one-handed blind suture on a superior duodenal artery... damn impressive. You truly are my student. Leave the follow-up anti-infection and nutritional support to me. I’ll take over from here. You go handle your own business."

Jiang He nodded. "Okay."

A warm feeling spread through his chest.

It might seem like Yang Xu was just showing off by constantly calling him ’my student’.

But in reality, he was endorsing all of Jiang He’s actions, protecting him.

’Feels good~’

After leaving the ICU, he was summoned to the vice dean’s office.

"Dean Zhang, good morning."

"Mm, morning. Have a seat."

Jiang He pulled out a chair and sat down.

Zhang Sui took out a document and pushed it toward Jiang He. "I’ve already drafted the report on implementing a pilot program for the early prediction model for SAP within the hospital. I’ll push it through directly at tomorrow morning’s hospital administration meeting. However, there’s a technical issue with the implementation."

"What’s the issue?"

"Our hospital’s HIS is an internal LAN, physically isolated from the external internet. To prevent viruses and data leaks, the IT department has physically sealed all the USB ports on the computers with glue."

Jiang He nodded.

’That’s how things were in ’08. To prevent viruses, hospital computers used the foolproof method of physical isolation.’

"So, Dean, you mean...?"

"I checked the hospital’s discretionary fund for equipment procurement. There’s still room in the budget. I plan to directly purchase ten laptops and register them as shared fixed assets for the departments. The ER, Hepatobiliary Surgery, General Surgery, and the ICU will each get two. These computers won’t connect to the internet. We’ll only install your SAP prediction program on them, dedicated machines for a dedicated purpose. When a patient with acute abdominal pain comes in, the initial attending doctor can directly input the data and run the results."

After hearing this, Jiang He had only two words in mind:

’Not bad.’

’Within the system, for a vice dean to approve ten laptops just to implement a student’s model that hadn’t even been published yet... that showed some real determination.’

In a way, this was also a perk for the frontline departments.

’Back in ’08, a single computer had to cost several thousand yuan, right?’

An extra shared computer in the department would make it much more convenient for the doctors on duty to write medical records and look up literature.

"Dean Zhang, you’re swift and decisive," Jiang He said.

"Rules are rigid, but people are flexible. I was too stubborn before. The computers will arrive this week. Have your tech guy package the program, and we’ll copy it directly onto them then."

"No problem."

...

Leaving the office, Jiang He and Zhang Sui went to the outpatient lobby.

Chen Jiahao and Li Qiuyue were leaning against each other, dozing off.

The two students had actually kept vigil in the hospital corridor all night.

Zhang Sui walked up to the bench, carrying breakfast he had just bought from the cafeteria.

In the past, he had always looked down on this group of non-mainstream punks around his daughter, considering them good-for-nothing dregs of society.

But seeing these two classmates endure a whole night in the cold corridor, Zhang Sui’s expression grew complicated.

"Wake up," he said.

The two startled awake. Seeing Zhang Sui, they were a bit flustered. "Un... Uncle Zhang, Jiaqi, is she..."

"She pulled through. She’s fine now."

Zhang Sui handed them the breakfast, his voice still hoarse.

"Thank you for bringing her here yesterday. Eat something, then hurry home and get some sleep. Don’t make your parents worry."

Chen Jiahao numbly took the breakfast, stunned that the vice dean had actually bought them steamed buns and even thanked them.

—’Man, I can brag about this at school for a whole year, can’t I?’

’When the time comes, I’ll just pat the department belle on the shoulder and say, "How did you know the vice dean of Affiliated Hospital No. 1 personally bought me breakfast? Mwah~?"’

Chen Jiahao chuckled, then turned and saw Jiang He.

He hurried over, holding out his hand for a high-five.

Jiang He: "?"

Chen Jiahao let out an "uh" and high-fived himself, then said:

"Teacher Jiang, thank you. The nurses in the ER last night told us everything. If it weren’t for you, Jiaqi might have been a goner. You’re seriously amazing."

Jiang He advised, "You should take care of your own health from now on, too. Don’t stay up so late, and eat a healthy diet."

Li Qiuyue cut in, "Hey, and no more playing basketball in the rain. I’m begging you."

Jiahao gave an embarrassed laugh. "I know, I know..."

After saying that, he mimed a jump shot and said, "We’re off, Teacher!"

Jiang He: "Bye."

Jiahao made a very old-fashioned farewell gesture and suddenly added:

"Teacher! I’ll definitely pay attention in your class next time! Goodbye!"

Hearing this, Jiang He was taken aback for a moment.

Then he smiled.

’Keep it up, then.’

...

That morning, Jiang He was busy in the Hepatobiliary Surgery department.

He had two minor surgeries scheduled back-to-back that morning: a laparoscopic cholecystectomy and an appendectomy.

Operating Room 2.

Jiang He’s movements were crisp and efficient as he dissected the triangle of Calot.

Xu Chen stood in the first assistant’s position, responsible for retraction, while Meng Shiyu was the second assistant.

The operating room was initially quiet.

After a while, Xu Chen couldn’t hold it in any longer and said, "Brother, I heard you were the lead surgeon on a Level 4 Surgery last night?"

"Mhm."

"I also heard that your first and second assistants, holding the retractors, were Director Liu Jianbang from Critical Care and Attending Physician Zhao Yumin from the ER?"

"Mhm, it was an emergency."

Xu Chen fell silent for a few seconds, his brain working furiously.

After a moment, he suddenly blurted out, "Brother, Director Liu was your first assistant, and I’m your first assistant now. Does that mean... I’m basically equivalent to Director Liu Jianbang?"

The operating room went quiet for a second.

The circulating nurse let out a snort of laughter.

Meng Shiyu retorted directly, "Dude, don’t say that. It’s too embarrassing."

Xu Chen blinked. "Is it?"

Meng Shiyu couldn’t be bothered with him and turned to Jiang He, his eyes full of loyalty. "Brother Jiang, the whole hospital is buzzing about what happened last night. They’re saying you took a surgery the director didn’t dare to take. You’re amazing..."

Jiang He placed the dissected gallbladder into a retrieval bag and said, ignoring him, "Close the abdomen. Xu Chen, you do it."

"You got it!"

As Xu Chen was closing the abdomen,

Meng Shiyu tried to speak again.

Xu Chen grew anxious. "Don’t talk!"

Meng Shiyu: "?"

Xu Chen: "I’m nervous! Don’t distract me!"

Meng Shiyu: "..."

When Jiang He operated, everyone was at ease and felt free to chat.

They’d almost forgotten that Xu Chen was still a rookie...

’Hey, wait a minute.’

’Going by the order they arrived at the hospital, shouldn’t Jiang He be the real rookie?!’

...

In the afternoon, Jiang He returned to Southern Medical University.

In the lab, the whirring of centrifuges filled the air.

Chen Hao, wearing safety goggles, was carefully adding isopropanol to an Eppendorf tube.

After finishing, he placed the pipette back on its rack and said,

"Old Jiang, you’re here? You have no idea, you’re the talk of our college again. I was in the cafeteria at lunch, and some of the fifth-year senior interns were all talking about how you saved the vice dean’s daughter at Affiliated Hospital No. 1 last night."

"Yeah, yeah," Jiang He couldn’t be bothered with that and asked directly, "Are the purity test results for this batch of serum samples out yet?"

"They’re out. The 260/280 ratios are all between 1.8 and 2.0, so the purity is perfect. Old Jiang, does this mean we can move on to reverse transcription next?"

"No rush. Let’s finish the remaining extractions first to ensure we have a sufficient sample size."

For the entire afternoon, Jiang He and his team were holed up in the lab.

Tedious and dull pipetting, centrifuging, and letting samples rest.

Step by step, they pushed the early screening project forward.

...

「That evening」

Jiang He returned to Affiliated Hospital No. 1 for his night shift.

He had just changed into his white coat and sat down in the office when Meng Shiyu, the king of gossip, slipped in carrying two takeout boxes of stir-fried rice noodles and an iced Americano.

"Teacher, time for a late-night snack."

Meng Shiyu placed the food on the desk, pulled over a chair, and sat down. "I’ve got big news."

Jiang He: "Speak."

Meng Shiyu: "Just now, Dean Zhang’s ex-wife flew back from Germany. She stormed right into Dean Zhang’s office. Everyone in the hallway heard it. The ex-wife went up and gave him a slap across the face!"

Jiang He blinked.

Listening to gossip while eating—it really hit the spot.

’No one in China can resist some good gossip...’

Meng Shiyu continued, "After the slap, the ex-wife went to see Jiaqi and looked through the surgical records. I heard that when she saw the consent form for the out-of-protocol surgery signed by Dean Zhang himself, and the non-standard use of the Bogota bag, guess what? Her attitude completely softened. The two of them actually ended up sitting down and having a meal together peacefully!"

Jiang He wasn’t surprised.

He knew that Zhang Sui’s ex-wife was also a doctor.

As a fellow doctor, she would be able to understand everything that happened last night.

The fact that Zhang Sui was willing to break SOP for his daughter was proof that his love for her was no less than anyone else’s.

"There’s something else, Brother Jiang. Do you know why Dean Zhang used to be so rigid, why he guarded the SOPs like his life depended on it?"

Jiang He thought back.

’In my past life, I’d heard something about Zhang Sui being backstabbed by someone over a thesis at school.’

’I wonder if there’s new gossip in this life.’

So he said, "I don’t know."

Meng Shiyu said, "I heard that a friend of Dean Zhang’s at the Mayo Clinic took on a difficult heart failure patient. Based on his own clinical experience, his friend implemented a personalized treatment that was very cutting-edge but hadn’t been written into the Mayo Clinic’s treatment guidelines at the time. The result... the patient died in his room due to an extremely rare drug allergy."

Jiang He’s chewing slowed.

"Later, the family sued. Although the autopsy proved the allergy was unforeseeable, because his medication went beyond the scope of the SOP at the time, the Mayo Clinic’s medical ethics committee and the court didn’t protect him. His license to practice there was revoked. A once-promising future instantly hit rock bottom..."

Jiang He was silent for a few seconds, then suddenly asked, "...Where on earth do you dig up all this information?"

Meng Shiyu looked at him as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "Huh? I went to the cafeteria to eat, shared a table with a few head nurses from Critical Care and some veteran clerks from the Medical Affairs Department who handle scheduling. We were all chatting, and it just came out naturally."

Jiang He couldn’t hold back a smile and silently gave Meng Shiyu a thumbs-up.

’That’s definitely an intelligence-gathering ability I can’t compete with.’

In fact, Jiang He had been observing Meng Shiyu during this time.

The kid might be a talkative gossip, but his clinical fundamentals were solid, he was socially savvy, and he knew what to say and what could be done.

The miRNA early screening project was too important to bring him in on for now, but another project was possible.

"Shiyu, I have a national-level P3 lab project that’s currently moving forward. Would you be interested in joining?"

Meng Shiyu was stunned. "National-level? P3? Teacher, are you kidding me?"

"I’m not kidding. If you’re interested, I’ll call you when I need you."

"Yes! I’d love to! Teacher, don’t worry, I’ll give it 100 percent!"

Meng Shiyu was beyond excited.

Just then.

Chen Hao called:

"Old Jiang... something’s happened..."

"What?"

"Someone... wants to sign up for our project team’s assessment next week..."

Jiang He frowned. "Didn’t I say that for now, we’re only recruiting core project members from a small internal circle? I told you not to spread the word among the students."

"I swear I absolutely didn’t say anything to students outside our circle! But this person isn’t a student!"

"Then who is it?"

"Professor Wang! She heard about our project from Director Yang Xu, is extremely interested, and has demanded an application form. She wants to join us for the assessment next week to get on the team!"

Jiang He: "?"

—’Huh? Who did you say wants to join?’