At a little past eight on Thursday morning, Yan Feifan arrived on the seventh floor of the Affiliated Hospital’s Plastic Surgery Center inpatient ward to perform Tang Qing’s pre-operative examination.
Citing the need to protect Tang Qing’s privacy, he cleared the room, shooing out her benefactor, Tian Dongshan, and her brother, who had been keeping her company.
As he conducted the examination, Yan Feifan asked solemnly, "Tang Qing, this is your last chance to change your mind."
"Once the surgery begins, there’s no stopping it."
"Are you sure you want to go through with this?"
The nervous Tang Qing took a deep breath and forced a smile. "We’ve come this far. There’s no turning back now."
"Mr. Yan, I’m putting myself in your hands..."
Targeted full-face reconstruction was a major, exceptionally rare procedure, even for a nationally renowned cosmetic institution like the Affiliated Hospital’s Plastic Surgery Center.
Moreover, with the patient’s consent, this operation would be performed publicly in a teaching theater.
To protect patient privacy, cosmetic procedures were rarely performed as public teaching surgeries.
Furthermore, the chief surgeon was the legendary Yan Feifan, who was widely considered the top scalpel at the Plastic Surgery Center.
For plastic surgeons, as well as aspiring interns and residents, this was an incredibly rare learning opportunity.
The surgery was still nearly an hour away, but in the observation gallery of the teaching theater in Inpatient Building Five—the closest to the Plastic Surgery Center—every seat was already taken by young doctors, save for a few that had been intentionally reserved.
Qi Xiuping had secured a good vantage point. While eating soup dumplings and drinking soy milk, he kept his eyes on a professional textbook resting on his lap, patiently waiting for the surgery to begin.
Suddenly, a heavy hand clapped him on the shoulder.
Qi Xiuping turned to see a familiar face.
Pan Jichuan.
He was the proud "second-generation doctor" who had competed alongside him in Mr. Wang’s recruitment assessment that night.
But unexpectedly, Pan Jichuan had been eliminated in the very first round.
He never even got a chance to show off the fundamental surgical skills he was so proud of.
"Scoot over, would you?"
Pan Jichuan’s words were polite, but his actions were anything but. He simply wedged himself into the space to Qi Xiuping’s left.
Helpless, Qi Xiuping had no choice but to shift to the right, freeing up half a seat.
"Qi Xiuping, you’re really hitting the books, huh? Still studying even now. Mr. Wang isn’t even here yet."
Qi Xiuping pretended not to notice the teasing tone in his voice and replied nonchalantly, "Can’t be helped. The slow bird has to start early."
"You beat out thirty-two other people, and you still call yourself a slow bird?"
Pan Jichuan scoffed, then shook his head with a sigh. "I’ve come to terms with my elimination that night. I was completely outclassed."
"I wasn’t convinced at the time, so I went to the Academy of Fine Arts for advice. I really did discover I had a lot of shortcomings in that area."
"Now I’ve hired a private aesthetics tutor and am just waiting for another chance..."
He looked down at the operating theater below, which was enclosed by a glass dome. Several nurses were bustling about, preparing and inventorying surgical instruments, consumables, and medications, as well as checking the various pieces of equipment.
"Qi Xiuping, what do you think? At the level Mr. Yan is performing, it won’t be long before he gets an exceptional promotion to Chief Physician, right?"
Qi Xiuping nodded. "Mr. Wang has said more than once that in many respects, Mr. Yan’s surgical skills have already surpassed his own and are unrivaled in the country."
"An exceptional promotion is only a matter of time."
A thought suddenly occurred to Qi Xiuping, though it seemed a bit unlikely.
He asked jokingly, "Pan Jichuan, you’re not trying to get in with Mr. Yan, are you?"
"And why not?"
Pan Jichuan made no effort to hide his intentions; he was quite open about it.
"My father has an extremely high opinion of Mr. Yan. He says he’s destined to become an academician in the Academy of Engineering’s medical division at the very least."
"You learn from whoever is capable, regardless of their age."
"Besides, he managed to whip you into shape in just a few days. That says a lot about his teaching ability."
Qi Xiuping didn’t argue.
He had to admit it was true. That brief period of intensive training had been incredibly beneficial and was the direct reason he’d passed the assessment.
Just then, a buzz of discussion rose from the crowd around them.
Qi Xiuping glanced around and found the source of the chatter.
Dr. Qu had arrived at the observation gallery and was sitting calmly in one of the reserved seats.
Pan Jichuan’s hushed voice sounded in Qi Xiuping’s ear. "Didn’t Dr. Qu have his medical license revoked? I thought the hospital fired him."
Qi Xiuping leaned closer to Pan Jichuan and whispered, "Dr. Qu made a mistake, but his family overseas was being threatened. He had no other choice."
"Mr. Wang thought it would be a real shame to let all his skills go to waste just because he can’t practice medicine anymore, so he planned to bring him back..."
Qi Xiuping paused, then quickly corrected himself. "Actually, it wasn’t the administration that invited him back. It was us, the younger doctors at the center. We pooled our resources to hire Dr. Qu privately to pass on his experience and teach us his techniques."
A look of realization dawned on Pan Jichuan’s face, and he chuckled. "So even though you’re paying Dr. Qu’s ’training fee’ out of your own pockets, I bet the center will reimburse you with some extra ’subsidies,’ right?"