Chapter 305: Gentle sigh

After the morning meeting ended, Director Gao led Zhang Fan and the others for the daily patient checkups. Normally, Director Gao would only take all the department's doctors for the weekly Monday major patient checkup. But now, not only was he the director of the department, he was also the medical team leader in name of Zhang Fan's medical team. That was why he needed to do patient checkups whenever he had time. This was due to China's three-tiered medical system!

Of course, rotation doctor Little Li continued to slave over the medical reports. Yesterday night, she had to work overtime until almost 2:00 a.m., even if she didn't have to participate in the surgeries. She had to write every single medical report all by herself.

When Little Li first joined Zhang Fan's medical team, she had a really good impression of him. Zhang Fan seemed really nice, and wasn't arrogant at all. However, her opinion of Zhang Fan was now the complete opposite after experiencing so much overtime last night.

"He's just a smiling schemer. He'll give you a little bit of money in exchange for slave labor!" Little Li's eyes were sore, her back was stiff, and she almost collapsed under the heavy weight of all the medical reports she printed yesterday. Her first 24-hour work shift in orthopedic department #1 made her want to quit already! This was how surgery was. It would be difficult to work in any surgical department without having good physical strength. A single overtime shift would make you collapse!

"Director! You're here." A patient's family member politely offered his hand for a handshake.

"Haha, yeah, checkups, we're doing patient checkups right now." Director Gao was a bit confused. Who was this?

"I'm Little Cheng from the Bureau of Finance. Last time, I was also there when our bureau chief treated you to a meal," the patient's family member explained hurriedly upon seeing Director Gao's confusion.

"Oh! Little Cheng, I see. You're related to this patient?"

"Yes, this is my mother. Some idiot crashed into her yesterday."

As the patient checkups continued, it turned out that many of the patients or their family knew who Director Gao was! This was due to his fame and glory from all his hard work in the area! Even if Director Gao didn't know who most of the people greeting him were, they knew who he was! His face was basically like his own name card, something quite common in a smaller city of China.

"After the patient checkups are over, you should go back home and rest. You have a surgery to perform tomorrow. You absolutely must get proper rest," Director Gao told Zhang Fan during a free period in between checking up on patients. He really understood and trusted in Zhang Fan's skills, which was why he didn't ask something like whether Zhang Fan had a guarantee of success. Director Gao was more of the scholarly type, unlike Superintendent Ouyang who was sharp with her words.

"Okay, Director," replied Zhang Fan.

"Zhang Fan, your patient #16 has a fever of 37.7 degrees. Shall we deal with it or not?" The nurses were also checking up on the patients together with the nurses. However, the doctors were checking from the head down, while the nurses were checking from the feet up. It was the opposite of the doctors' checkups. Orthopedic department #1 head nurse Liao Juan came over to make her presence known to Director Gao, Zhang Fan, and the others. Usually, she wouldn't need to come notify the doctors of such things, as the regular nurses would do it.

"Head nurse, physical cooling should be sufficient. I'll come over and give medical advice in a bit." Zhang Fan was about to enter a patient room when Liao Juan arrived, so he stopped. Director Gao also stopped because Zhang Fan had stopped.

"Alright, I'll go deal with it for you right now. Still, I must scold you. You really must care more about your own body. You worked on surgeries for an entire day. The director felt so much pain at seeing you like that. While you were in the operating room yesterday, Director Gao phoned me several times to ask about your situation," Liao Juan said with a smile as she gently pushed Zhang Fan. She then left! She had come over to especially tell him this!

This was just how people were. A good relationship would be built up slowly over time through daily interaction, especially when there was a difference of status between two people. Many nurses who had both connections and experience wanted to replace Liao Juan as the head nurse of orthopedic department #1, but they were all unable to secure the position due to Director Gao. Nobody would have it easy. Without small daily interactions like this, Liao Juan wouldn't have secured her own position so well!

"Do you hear her? Pay more attention in the future and don't work so hard," Director Gao said as a continuation.

"Okay, Director, I won't do it again in the future. There won't be any need!"

"Oh, you brat! What, did I say something wrong, Xue Fei?" Director Gao suddenly turned around! Director Gao and Zhang Fan had been walking together at the front. Originally, Zhang Fan's spot should have been Xue Fei's, but Xue Fei was more than happy to be more free, so he didn't want to stay in the front. Thus, Xue Fei had been walking together with Wang Yanan in the back while silently imitating Director Gao for Wang Yanan and Little Li. Yet, he was caught in the act by Director Gao!

"Yes, of course you're right, Director." Xue Fei was so scared that he felt like his soul was about to leave his body. That was just how he was. He loved to play around and would never mature!

Director Gao had taught many disciples already. Xue Fei was a strange one among his disciples. While Xue Fei was a nice person with good moral character, he really wasn't motivated at all. He would always slack off whenever possible, and would always choose playing mahjong over working overtime!

"Sigh!" Director Gao really couldn't do anything.

Director Gao left after the patient checkups ended. Even though Director Gao had told Zhang Fan to go home and rest, Zhang Fan was unable to do so due to all the remaining work. Little Li was about to collapse already. Xue Fei seemed like he was about to rip off his doctor's coat and leave.

"Brother Xue, don't be in a rush. Change the medicine! You take five patients, and I'll take five patients!"

"An attending physician like me has to change medicine?" Xue Fei was unhappy about this.

"Stop complaining. Wang Yanan helped me with almost all of the surgeries yesterday. She's still going to help Little Li write the medical reports and get the lab result sheets today. There's a bunch of patients being discharged today as well. How about you go write medical reports instead?" Zhang Fan grabbed Xue Fei by the arm and refused to allow the latter to leave.

"Sigh! I have such a hard life! Fine, act like my ancestor!" Only Zhang Fan amongst all the resident doctors would dare to treat Xue Fei like this as Xue Fei was still an attending physician.

Patient checkups, changing the medicine, talking with the patients' family members, and giving medical advice. That was how the morning passed. Counting yesterday's 24-hour shift, Zhang Fan had now been at the hospital for 28 hours consecutively. This was the standard work schedule for a doctor.

Shao Hua was going crazy at home by the time that Zhang Fan returned at noon. Originally, the two of them had reserved an appointment to go purchase furniture together. Starting from 10:00 a.m., the furniture store had been constantly calling Shao Hua to inquire when she would be coming, yet Zhang Fan still hadn't come back home yet. Shao Hua knew that Zhang Fan's work was special and that she shouldn't call him if there wasn't any emergency. Still, Zhang Fan was running quite late.

Why was Shao Hua so anxious? It was because this furniture was supposed to be the new furniture for their engagement. Shao Hua had especially asked for the entire morning off from her work for this. But in the end, Zhang Fan hadn't come. When she heard Zhang Fan opening the door, Shao Hua hurriedly pretended to be angry. Although she wasn't truly angry, she was still somewhat dissatisfied, so she wanted to scare Zhang Fan a little.

However, she was no longer able to pretend to be angry when she saw him. Zhang Fan seemed as if he had aged 10 years over the past day of nonstop work. His footsteps were heavy and loud. His lips were completely dry. It seemed like he was about to drop his bag.

Shao Hua's heart truly hurt for him. She hurriedly went around the sofa and took his bag while supporting him and gently saying, "You worked overtime on surgeries again? Get some rest while I prepare some chicken soup for you."

"Yeah, I'm a little tired!" This was the payback Zhang Fan received for acting so pretentious with working on so many surgeries. He was exhausted, truly exhausted. He didn't even have the energy to say a few extra words. He then fell over onto the sofa as if his bones had gone soft.

In just a few minutes, Zhang Fan already fell asleep! Shao Hua had finished heating up food for him. Her parents had gone to the farm. "Zhang Fan, hurry and eat something and then wash up before you go to sleep. I'll call my parents and tell them to return a bit later than normal. That way, you can get some quiet rest."

Zhang Fan recovered slightly and asked Shao Hua, "It's fine. How come you didn't go to work today?"

"Well, I guess that you must be really tired today..."

"Oh! I'm so sorry. I truly apologize. How about we go this afternoon?" Zhang Fan finally remembered that they were supposed to go furniture shopping.

"It's fine. You don't need to worry about it. Hurry and eat something. We can go purchase furniture anytime." Shao Hua was almost about to cry. Why was Zhang Fan even busier now that he was no longer a rotation doctor?

Zhang Fan ate a meal. Shao Hua prepared his pajamas and adjusted the shower water temperature for him. Zhang Fan took a short shower and then got into the bed that Shao Hua had made for him. Zhang Fan then fell asleep before Shao Hua could even close the curtains and bedroom door. She then gently closed the door with a sigh!