Chapter 10: Leveling up sutures

After Zhang Fan and the others finished the doctor's report, they returned to the medical ward and saw that the patient Bayin had woken up already. "How are you feeling?" Batu inquired. Batu's older brother's eyes were completely red, and he was unable to speak.

"Pretty good, just a little cold," Bayin spoke in a weak voice.

"You lost too much blood, which will drain your body of its heat. It'll improve soon," Zhang Fan explained as Batu and the others all looked to him for an explanation.

"That's good then, that's good." Superintendent Batu didn't even get to finish speaking when head nurse Guli of surgery department #2 came into the medical ward with an electric heater.

"Although the medical ward also has heating, having this close to him will warm him up even more."

"Please take such good care of our patients in the future as well, Guli. Feel free to tell Doctor Zhang about anything that you need. This is the first major surgery that our Kuake City Hospital has managed to perform by ourselves without needing to invite an expert. Our doctors' medical skills have improved, so now we need to see if our nurses' skills have also improved." With just a few sentences, Superintendent Batu transformed this surgery which was originally about a special favor to save his nephew into a glorious honor about the entire hospital improving its medical level.

"We'll definitely do our very best," Shi Lei and Guli answered simultaneously. Zhang Fan opened his mouth, but didn't say anything in the end, because he felt too awkward.

Everyone present had eaten dinner already. However, Batu's older brother absolutely insisted on inviting the doctors and nurses to dinner. He refused to accept anyone's refusal.

There was no helping it, so everyone ended up going to Kuake City Restaurant. Their group wasn't that large, so a single private room was enough to contain everyone. Batu and his older brother, the three doctors, Ma Lihua from anesthesia, the operating room's head nurse, and head nurse Guli from surgery department #2 were all the people for this dinner.

The food was brought out rather quickly. Zhang Fan was really starving as he had only finished half of his dinner previously. Everyone else only went through the motions of eating a few bites. Zhang Fan didn't hold back at all with eating.

When it was time for alcohol toasts, Zhang Fan said to Batu, "Today's the first night that the patient Bayin just finished with his surgery. I'll be going back to the hospital after dinner. I need to check on his condition; otherwise, I won't be able to rest assured. I apologize for not drinking any wine tonight." Zhang Fan didn't want to drink any alcohol to begin with, so he took this opportunity to act pretentiously about how hard working he was, hoping to receive some praise.

"Doctor Zhang, feel free to go. We'll invite you again for a round of drinks after Bayin feels better. You owe us a round of drinks." And so, Zhang Fan was able to openly escape from having to drink alcohol. However, what happened in the end was that he ate too much. He had to hold his stomach while returning to the hospital. He then checked Bayin's injuries and saw that they were quite clean, with no new bleeding. Zhang Fan relaxed, and returned back to his dorm.

Li Hui was on night duty at the hospital now, so Zhang Fan was alone in his room. He decided to check out his System for the time being. When he logged in to the interface, he found that he had now gained enough experience in sewing surgical sutures to level up to the next course.

Over the past few months, Zhang Fan had been running around every department to sew as many surgical sutures as he possibly could. The fact that Kuake City Hospital was a small hospital in a small city limited the number of surgeries that he could possibly do. A great deal of experience was still needed for him to level up in other subjects.

After he leveled up his surgical suture skill, he found even more subcategories such as vascular suture, nerve suture, cosmetic suture, organ suture, endoscopic suture, and many more. Luckily, he ate so much today that he had plenty of energy for studying in his System.

The new suture courses after leveling up were far more difficult than the simple surgical suture for the skin. Zhang Fan practiced halfway through the night. Although he was quite tired, he was unable to fall asleep no matter how long he lay on his bed. Some of the higher-level suture courses were simply impossible for him to learn here at Kuake City Hospital. Vascular, nerve, and endoscopic suture required surgical operation microscopes and endoscopes, equipment which the small Kuake City Hospital didn't have.

Zhang Fan decided that he would have to try and obtain his medical license before thinking of what else he could do.

"This System of mine won't have an expiration date or something, will it? I really hope it won't suddenly vanish on me." Zhang Fan slowly fell asleep while filled with worries.

The next morning, he had a headache when he woke up. He was having nightmares for all last night. First, aliens came looking for the System. After that, the government wanted to cut Zhang Fan up into tiny pieces for the sake of research. Zhang Fan was still subconsciously feeling insecure.

After a morning meeting, Zhang Fan discovered that Bayin's room was filled with people. A private room had been arranged for Bayin, but there were countless people coming over to visit him. When Zhang Fan entered Bayin's room, he saw that Bayin seemed to be quite spirited.

"Doctor Zhang, Director Nuar, you've arrived." Bayin's mother immediately stood up to greet the doctors.

"Yeah, Bayin's recovered quite nicely. Our Doctor Zhang is incredible. Bayin is now completely fine. Relax, Bayin will be running around again before you know it." Director Nuar reeked of alcohol as he slapped Zhang Fan on the shoulder and made guarantees about the latter's skill. It was unknown if Nuar had been drinking all last night, or if he had started drinking early in the morning.

"Thank you, thank you." While Bayin's mother thanked both of them, her smiles were only for Zhang Fan. Zhang Fan didn't say much in response. He simply checked Bayin's condition and touched the patient's forehead, along with checking the nurse's temperature records taken for Bayin.

"Everything seems fine. Make sure that he gets plenty of nutrition over the next few days. We're changing his medicine later this afternoon."

Zhang Fan had been unable to focus for this entire morning. He was afraid that the System would really vanish on him suddenly one day. That was why he wanted to level up as quickly as possible to learn more advanced medical skills.

Zhang Fan had only been an ordinary person who suddenly became extraordinary. No matter if this gift was due to the gods up above or his ancestors' blessing, Zhang Fan was no longer satisfied with his previous life. He wanted as much time as possible together with his new System!

Zhang Fan was about to go out for his lunch break. Right when he left his office, Bayin's mother stopped him. "Doctor Zhang, please come over, I have something to say to you." She then pulled Zhang Fan into Bayin's hospital room.

After an entire morning, presents for Bayin were now so abundant that they covered half the wall. The strange part was that the presents even included smokes and alcohol for someone still in rehabilitation. There was even a plastic-wrapped entire roast goat.

"Doctor Zhang, will you be changing Bayin's IV drip later this afternoon?"

"Yeah, I'll be back again this afternoon. Don't worry, there shouldn't be any problems."

"I'm not worried at all. All of us trust in Doctor Zhang's abilities. Earlier this morning, my husband came over with another gift for you. It was inconvenient for me to give it to you back then with so many people around." She then took out a bag from under Bayin's bed.

Zhang Fan was about to reflexively refuse, but Bayin's mother spoke up first. "Doctor Zhang, this is part of our Mongolian culture. If you don't want our gift, that's showing disrespect towards us, and means that you don't want to be friends."

"Isn't this too much, though?" Zhang Fan blurted this out. The purse was rather large, and he could see outlines of something rectangular. In his naivety, Zhang Fan presumed that inside the bag was bundled stacks of Chinese currency.

Zhang Fan wondered, 'This purse must contain at least several hundred thousand yuan. Will this count as an illegal bribe if I accept it?'

"It's not that much, just a few more cigarette cartons. My husband said that you apparently don't drink alcohol, so we didn't prepare any wine for you."

"Ohh, thank you so much, this is really nice!" Zhang Fan dazedly and disappointedly left with the bag of smokes. Bayin's mother found his reaction rather strange. "Everything about Doctor Zhang is great, except that he really likes to daydream despite his young age!"

Zhang Fan returned to his dormitory room, and opened up the bag to find four additional cartons of Zhonghua, the top-level brand of cigarettes. After some consideration, Zhang Fan opened up one carton. He also decided that he couldn't just smoke cigarettes that were given to him, and that he should probably buy some cigarettes himself as well.

Some time later, Li Hui also returned to their shared room. "Amazing, I heard that you've performed surgery for Superintendent Batu's relative?"

"His nephew had a comminuted fracture of the femur."

"I really need to get along well with you. You absolutely have to take care of me in the future when you're in a high position! At the very least, please let me be a director of internal medicine." Li Hui then handed Zhang Fan a cigarette.

"Not a problem. Heck, I'll even make you the vice superintendent. Why don't you smoke one of my cigarettes today? Superintendent Batu's older brother gave me an entire carton yesterday. I feel bad for always smoking your cigarettes."

"Damn, Zhonghua, the top-level brand? You're really doing well for yourself! Is it too late for me to transfer to the surgery department?"

Li Hui then took a deep puff on the Zhonghua cigarette. "Even if someone else gave this to you as a present, you shouldn't have opened the carton. The cheaper cigarettes are more than enough for us. Smoking this seems rather extravagant. It makes me feel like I'm committing a crime." Li Hui also knew that Zhang Fan's family wasn't very well off.

"It'll be a waste if I don't smoke it. It's not like I can turn it into money."

"Are you an idiot? You can just sell it for slightly cheaper than market value. Any supermarket here will be willing to buy it from you."

"Oh..." Zhang Fan really wanted to slap himself. He had been a food seller for many years already, yet he forgot about something so simple. It seemed that he had almost forgotten about his origins. Zhang Fan gave himself a warning.