A little after 5:30 in the evening, a nervous Yeu Quan arrived at Chen Yu’s office.
"Professor, I was wrong."
"First thing tomorrow morning, I will personally apologize to Mr. Yan."
Chen Yu, who was working at his desk, didn’t even raise his head. In a flat tone, he said, "One month. You have one month to find another hospital."
Yeu Quan shuddered, asking in disbelief, "Professor, are you... kicking me out?"
"Just because I talked back to Mr. Yan a few times?"
"A few times?"
Chen Yu looked up, his gaze cold as he stared at Yeu Quan. "Have you failed to realize your own mistake? Or are you just playing dumb on purpose?"
"I watched the surgical video."
"Your performance during those few minutes... did you think I was a fool who wouldn’t notice?"
Yeu Quan hurriedly explained, "Professor, Professor, I just lost my temper for a moment. I let my anger get the better of my hands."
"Please give me another chance, Professor. Just one more chance."
Chen Yu sighed softly. "Me not letting this matter get out *is* me giving you a chance."
"Defying the lead surgeon’s authority, performing a ’spite surgery’... Do you have any idea how serious of a mistake that is?"
Chen Yu slammed his hand on the desk, saying angrily, "You didn’t spare a single thought for the patient! You have no reverence for this profession."
"With an attitude like yours—doing whatever you want, letting your emotions rule you—no hospital will ever trust you to lead a surgery again."
After a pause, Chen Yu’s tone softened. "Yeu Quan, I hope that after this, you’ll finally mature a little."
"I don’t want to see your name on an internal medical incident report someday in the future."
Seeing that his professor had made his position so clear, Yeu Quan knew that no amount of pleading would do any good.
At that moment, his heart felt as if it had been plunged into an ice cellar. An indescribable chill permeated him, inside and out.
Yeu Quan gave Chen Yu a deep, ninety-degree bow. After straightening up, he walked out in a daze.
When he reached the door and was about to pull it open, he turned back, unwilling to let it go.
"Professor, can you tell me why you chose Yan Feifan back then, and not me?"
"You should know I have the ability."
Chen Yu met Yeu Quan’s gaze and said slowly, "You have the ability, but you lack the guts."
"In that situation, you didn’t even have the courage to speak up, agree, and ease my worries."
Chen Yu said, his voice tinged with the frustration of unmet expectations, "As a surgeon, being steady and cautious is necessary. But in a critical moment, you also need that domineering spirit of ’if not me, then who?’"
"During surgery, we often encounter unexpected situations and emergencies."
"There are times when the condition is unclear, and you have to make a high-stakes gamble—choose between two options, or even three."
"Faced with such a situation, if it were Yan Feifan, he would make a choice decisively."
"He might make the wrong choice, but there’s no denying he also has a significant chance of success!"
"As for you..."
Chen Yu shook his head. "There’s a high probability that you would hesitate and miss the window of opportunity to make a choice at all."
"So, at that moment, I gave up on you and chose Yan Feifan, who is more responsible, more confident, and has more potential worth cultivating."
"And the results proved that my choice was not wrong."
Yeu Quan nodded as if he had come to a realization. "Professor, I understand. I suppose this is what they mean by ’character is destiny’..."
At this very moment, Yan Feifan was gorging himself in the employee cafeteria.
He’d eaten little for lunch, not even enough to feel half-full.
The surgery that afternoon, which had lasted over four hours, had taken an unusually heavy toll on Yan Feifan’s energy and stamina.
Yan Feifan ordered a few of his favorite dishes. He had just taken a few large bites when his phone began to ring.
For a doctor, a phone ringing unexpectedly was a common occurrence.
Yan Feifan was more or less used to it.
He took out his phone and saw it was a video call from Tian Yu.
Yan Feifan answered the call. Before the video even appeared, a voice came through. "WAAAH... Mr. Yan... Mr. Yan... WAAAH..."
Hearing Tian Yu suddenly burst into tears on the phone, Yan Feifan grew tense and asked with concern, "Xiaoyu, what’s wrong?"
"Did your parents scold you? Or did your teacher criticize you?"
"Whatever it is, just tell me!"
Just then, the video feed cleared, and Yan Feifan saw a tear-streaked face, mouth wide open in a sob.
"Mr. Yan... WAH... look at my finger..."
On the phone screen, Yan Feifan saw a right middle finger, its second knuckle bent backward at a sixty-degree angle.