Chapter 60: A New Way to Commute

Chapter 60: Chapter 60: A New Way to Commute

A little after 6:30 in the evening, Yu Zhiming was driving his Cayenne hybrid, taking Professor Qi Yue to a banquet hosted by Gao Lei.

It was the height of the evening rush hour, and traffic was terrible. Yu Zhiming patiently inched forward with the flow of cars.

After much hesitation, Yu Zhiming finally spoke up. "Professor, are we really going ahead with the experimental treatment tomorrow?"

"To be honest, I’m not very confident in my own hypothesis. Shouldn’t we run a few more tests?"

Qi Yue snorted softly. "What you really want to say, kid, is that I’m being too arbitrary and rash, that I’m not taking the patient’s health and life seriously enough, right?"

Yu Zhiming let out a couple of sheepish chuckles.

Qi Yue huffed again. "Zhiming, I’m lauded as one of the nation’s top diagnostic experts. Do you think that every patient with a complex and rare disease who comes to me gets a quick diagnosis and effective, targeted treatment?"

Yu Zhiming nodded slightly. "Not all of them, but that should be the case for the majority of patients, shouldn’t it?"

Qi Yue let out a breath. "Zhiming, you really think too highly of me."

"Compared to the diagnostic experts at other hospitals, my superiority in terms of knowledge and experience is quite limited."

"To be specific, they might be choosing the correct treatment for a patient from seven or eight possibilities."

"I, on the other hand, am choosing from five or six."

Yu Zhiming laid on the flattery. "That means your success rate is 10 to 20 percent higher than theirs. That’s a huge gap in skill."

Qi Yue smiled. "What I consider my greatest strength over them is that I’m bolder. I don’t get bogged down by overthinking things."

"Right now, there’s no diagnostic plan more suitable or reasonable than your hypothesis, so naturally, we should give it a try first."

"What if we get lucky and it’s the right call?"

Noticing the unpleasant look that came over the young man’s face, Qi Yue couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

A moment later, he suppressed his smile and said, "Zhiming, my decision to use your hypothesis for a trial-and-error treatment wasn’t made on a whim."

"It’s a decision I made after careful consideration, drawing on decades of clinical experience, because I believe your treatment plan genuinely has potential."

"And most importantly..."

Qi Yue said with great solemnity, "Zhiming, an incorrect treatment is, unequivocally, still a form of treatment."

"The new symptoms and reactions a patient exhibits under an incorrect treatment can correct our previous judgments and help us rule out other possibilities, thus bringing us closer to the true cause of the illness."

"Zhiming, I can tell you that among the many patients with complex diseases I’ve treated, the proportion of those who got incredibly lucky with a successful, targeted treatment on the very first try is extremely small."

"Most cases are only solved after one or two incorrect treatments, or even more, before the real cause is finally found."

Yu Zhiming asked slowly, "Professor, during this process of finding the cause through trial and error, what’s the proportion of patients who don’t make it to the end?"

Qi Yue was silent for a moment before saying, "I’ve never calculated that proportion, nor have I ever wanted to."

"Zhiming, there’s something you need to know. Many of the patients who come to me are already in terrible physical condition, with severe illnesses."

"Patient deaths are a common occurrence in my practice."

Yu Zhiming was quiet for a moment, then said softly, "Professor, I saw my share of life and death at the county hospital. I’ve had patients I was treating pass away because the treatment was ineffective—more than one, in fact."

"I can handle patient deaths rationally."

Qi Yue reminded him, "Zhiming, at a hospital of Huashan Hospital’s caliber, the majority of patients seeking treatment have major, serious illnesses. This leads to a higher mortality rate."

"And in my department, it’s even higher."

"You need to be mentally prepared."

Yu Zhiming nodded firmly. "Professor, I was expecting as much."

"That’s good."

Qi Yue let out a breath and added a word of caution. "Zhiming, if anyone ever tells you to treat your patients like family, that’s pure bullshit. They don’t have your best interests at heart."

"You just need to maintain a professional attitude toward your patients. That’s enough. Getting too close to them will cloud your judgment and hinder your ability to make decisions in critical moments."

Yu Zhiming grunted in acknowledgment.

Seeing the conversation had grown a bit heavy, Qi Yue changed the subject with a smile. "So, Zhiming, how did you come up with the possibility of shingles?"

Yu Zhiming chuckled. "Last night, I was reading the consultation notes you made, and I stayed up very late."

"When I couldn’t stay awake any longer and crawled into bed, my mind somehow suddenly connected wind-evil, internal toxins, and pain with shingles."

Qi Yue said with a solemn expression, "So you’re saying it was the result of in-depth research and careful consideration, topped off with a sudden whim and a flash of inspiration."

"That gives me even more confidence."

Yu Zhiming didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He corrected him, "Professor, you could also call it the result of my mind just wandering."

Qi Yue laughed heartily. "Zhiming, don’t sell yourself short. Don’t underestimate yourself."

"Your medical perception and the sharpness of your intuition are astounding, even to me."

"This time, it’s a powerful combination of your talent and my seasoned experience. I think the chances of us hitting the jackpot on the first try again—pure dumb luck—are very high."

Yu Zhiming felt a secret pang of worry.

’This renowned diagnostic expert from the medical world... why does he seem so unreliable?’

Just then, Yu Zhiming’s phone rang.

It was a call from Wang Chunyuan.

Since Yu Zhiming was driving, Qi Yue answered it for him.

"Zhiming, your intuition was right again. The final pathology report is out."

"Pancreatic cancer. The only silver lining is that it’s in the early stages..."

The dinner Gao Lei was hosting was at a well-known restaurant near People’s Square in the city center.

The most convenient way to get there was by subway.

But for Qi Yue, a car owner, driving there was second nature.

As a result, it took him and Yu Zhiming over an hour to get there, stuck in the endless stream of traffic.

Gao Lei had also invited another guest to keep them company: a mutual friend of his and Qi Yue’s, Tian Feng.

Tian Feng didn’t come alone; he brought his daughter.

As for this young woman, whom Gao Lei had once bluntly described as "short, chubby, and ugly," Yu Zhiming felt the assessment was far too harsh.

A height of 1.55 meters (about 5’1") was, admittedly, a bit short.

However, her weight could be described as full-figured, even pleasantly plump.

Her face, which had inherited too many of her father’s features, was actually quite attractive under a layer of exquisite makeup...

During this banquet, Yu Zhiming focused most of his energy on the feast before him, pretending to be a boorish, gluttonous man who hadn’t seen much of the world.

Well, to be honest, Yu Zhiming was simply dropping a layer of his disguise...

At ten o’clock that night, Yu Zhiming returned to the Zijin Garden District, carrying a thank-you gift from Gao Lei: a Zisha clay teapot set, said to be a master’s work.

The moment he walked in the door, he was hit by the overwhelmingly familiar smell of iodine.

"What happened? Is someone hurt?"

Fu Xiaoxue came bouncing over, chirping, "Uncle! Uncle! This evening, Auntie and I took some shared bikes to scout out the cycling route from our district to Huashan Hospital."

"Auntie fell when she swerved to avoid a small dog."

Yu Zhiming looked worriedly at his Fourth Sister, who put on a pitiful expression and showed him her injured left leg and left arm.

After examining her, he found that his Fourth Sister only had a few shallow, minor scrapes, along with an inconspicuous bruise from the impact.

Moreover, the iodine on the scrapes had clearly been freshly reapplied just a few minutes ago.

"Sis, you’re fine. If I’d gotten home any later, these scrapes might have already healed on their own."

Yu Xiangwan huffed a couple of times and said, "Yu Zhiming, let me report on the new commuting options!"

"For morning carpooling, I contacted someone. I asked, and it’s two hundred yuan a month, just for weekday morning drop-offs."

"Since you don’t have a fixed time for getting off work in the evening, finding a carpool for the return trip is tricky. You have so many colleagues at the hospital—surely some of them live nearby or pass through the area, right? You could try to carpool with them."

"The other option is cycling."

"Xiaoxue and I found a fairly convenient shortcut. We tried cycling it ourselves, and it takes about twenty minutes..."