Chapter 343: At Such a Young Age…

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Zuo Cidian’s brain began to process information at lightning speed.

You Fengyu asked him about Ling Ran’s price for a freelance surgery. It was so obvious that he had the intention of inviting Ling Ran to work as a freelance surgeon.

If he were to speak based on the theories of the twenty-first century, then he was someone who had not seen any pigs running before, but had eaten pork before. Naturally, he knew about the different opinions and understandings on freelance surgeons in the medical field.

Although Ling Ran had mentioned that he did not care about the cost as a specialist, being his subordinate, Zuo Cidian did not feel like he could simply decide the price of Ling Ran’s freelance surgeries.

Zuo Cidian knew that there might be many doctors nowadays who did not really care about whether they really received any money or not from surgeries, but they would certainly care a lot about their value as a freelance surgeon. Of course, he knew even more doctors who cared a lot about money.

No matter what, Zuo Cidian dared not offer You Fengyu a low price.

He had served at the town hospital for about twenty years, and Zuo Cidian learned one lesson; no one would bully the hardworking or the lazy, but they would bully those who were stupid.

It would definitely be stupid if he offered a low price for his superior’s freelance surgeries.

However, would a higher price be suitable for a freelance surgeon?

If he made it so that his superior could not perform freelance surgery and subsequently caused his superior the inability to make money, what would the consequences be then?

Should this have happened to an inexperienced doctor, he or she could have already said something wrong.

However, it was a daily task for Zuo Cidian to decide between two difficult choices. He first asked, “Do you want Doctor Ling to work as a freelance surgeon for knee arthroscopic surgeries?”

You Fengyu was a little uncertain when the question was thrown at him, but he immediately smiled and said, “There will always be a chance to collaborate.”

“Doctor Ling is quite free over the next few days because the hospital beds in Yun Hua Hospital are fully occupied.” Zuo Cidian looked at You Fengyu and whispered, “Brother, please let me say something. You just have to listen. Another unit invited Doctor Ling to perform surgery earlier on, but he rejected. It’s because you had an extra surgery on your side. I believe you can tell that Doctor Ling is still young and it’s time for him to train his skills. The number of surgery cases is the thing he cares about the most.”

“Number of cases, huh?”

“Doctor Ling still has a lot of space to improve. You’ve also seen how he has performed today… He only comes out to perform freelance surgeries when he has stuffed all the hospital beds in Yun Hua Hospital. So, the number of surgeries is the main issue here. You should prepare a few more surgeries since knee arthroscopic surgeries take a shorter time to perform, right?”

“You’re right.” You Fengyu was a little convinced by Zuo Cidian’s sincere tone.

The concept of more surgery cases was meaningless for lousy doctors. If they could only be 70% to 80% successful in their surgeries, and if that success rate was multiplied by the number of surgeries they performed, they would just make things difficult for themselves.

For normal doctors, the concept of surgery numbers was a bit blurry to them as well. This was because they usually only performed an average number of surgery cases, and some may not even be able to do that. So, the number of surgery cases did not have any meaning to them. If the number of cases performed increased very prominently, they would not be normal doctors anymore.

Once they were no longer normal doctors, the number of surgeries they performed could be a good indicator for their publicity. A doctor who performed five hundred cases of a certain surgery may only be considered as a newcomer in an international conference; if he performed one thousand cases, he would rise into prominence; if he performed two thousand or three thousand cases, he would be very great, and doctors could use that as a jumpstart in their career.

“We still have quite a lot of patients now.” You Fengyu looked at Zuo Cidian. He chuckled and said, “If we can afford it, we can collect three to five cases per day.”

“You don’t have to limit yourself to knee arthroscopic surgeries, brother.” Zuo Cidian smiled. “You can also arrange a few more Achilles tendon surgeries as well.”

You Fengyu was stunned before he nodded in agreement.

Such requests were not rare among freelance surgeons. Some doctors could perform surgeries in a short time, so they would request a certain number of surgeries. For example, hysteroscopic surgery only took around ten minutes tops. If they wanted to invite a famous doctor over to perform surgery, it would be very difficult without gathering at least five cases. And if the doctor they hired was not famous… Why would they even hire a doctor who was not famous?

“I’ll ask Doctor Ling later. Or you can contact us after you’ve confirmed the surgery.” Zuo Cidian finally ejected himself from the troublesome situation, and he was so tired that his inhales grew louder.

Although Zuo Cidian was tired, he was in a very good mood.

When he was in the town hospital, he may have spent all his time eating and drinking, but there was a purpose behind it all. Aside from making his superior happy and satisfying his hunger, most matters in the town hospital were related to money, and those eating sessions were necessary to settle these money-related matters.

All the operation costs, subsidies, rewards, construction costs, technology upgrading costs, costs to hire new personnel, bonuses, costs to fill up staff quota, loans, and other similar issues appeared daily, and it was a heavy burden on his shoulders.

However, after he followed Ling Ran to work in a totally different environment—the operating theater—Zuo Cidian felt very relaxed.

When it came to doctors, there were no costs that they themselves had to be bothered with when they performed surgeries.

For a doctor like Ling Ran, not only would he receive pay for his freelance surgeries, he would even be received warmly and be given gifts from other hospitals when he went over. What kind of feeling was that? It was the feeling of being promoted from second place to first place, from a grandson to a father. As long as no cheating was involved, his mood would be as great as a sheep’s.

The last arthroscopic surgery was soon completed, and Zuo Cidian immediately handed over a clean and neat white coat to Ling Ran.

“Doctor Ling, please wear a shirt, don’t catch a cold,” he said.

Zhang Pengyi stood by the side, and he could not help but cough. “The operating theater is maintained at a constant temperature…”

“Human temperature is not the same.” Zuo Cidian passed a bottle over to Ling Ran and said, “Doctor Ling, drink some warm water. You haven’t drunk any water, and you’ve just been performing one surgery after another. It’s not good for your health. The bottle is brand new, and it has already been washed with hot water a few times.”

Ling Ran truly felt thirsty. He took the water bottle, smelled it, and drank slowly.

Ling Ran had been performing surgeries without a hitch, and it made him feel good. As he walked, his speed became faster as well.

The director of the Orthopedics Department, You Fengyu had short legs, making it hard for him to take huge strides. He quickly followed after them for a while before he stopped and gazed at Ling Ran, who was ahead of them. He then asked Zhang Pengyi, who was supposed to be the chief surgeon for the arthroscopic surgeries, and asked, “How was it? How do you feel?”

Zhang Pengyi knew what he meant. He said confidently, “The freelance surgeons we hired previously were not as skillful as Doctor Ling.”

As an attending physician, Zhang Pengyi was considerably at Specialist Level for knee arthroscopies. He was now at the critical stage of climbing the skill tree. Doctors who were at that stage were usually quite open-minded, and they were willing to spend more time to learn their skills.

In the situation where it was inconvenient for him to communicate with other hospitals, inviting senior doctors from other hospitals to work as freelance surgeons was very beneficial for Zhang Pengyi’s skill development.

You Fengyu was old now. He did not perform arthroscopies, and he did not have any motivation to learn them as well. So, when he judged the standard of a doctor, he would include some of his personal experiences too. As of right then, You Fengyu looked at Zuo Cidian’s back and said, “Yes… Looking at his subordinate, Ling Ran should be quite capable.”

Zhang Pengyi was stunned and nodded gently. “He is indeed very serious when it comes to licking his boots.”

“Yes, it’s quite rare for a doctor to have a subordinate like that at his young age.”

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