Chapter 32: Isolated cultivation

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

The tiny Sumutai Village was the most remote and distant village under Kuake City’s jurisdiction. In winter, snowfall would completely seal off all roads leading there, while floodwaters would completely seal off all roads during the summer. It could be said that Sumutai Village was half cut off from the world.

Sumutai Health Center was just a small building. Everything around the health center was nothing but plains. During different seasons, the nomads would herd their livestock in different locations. There were different plains used during summer and winter.

Sumutai Health Center was located in the plains for winter grazing. Here, there was only a “superintendent”, two nurses, and one doctor. All of them happened to live nearby. Right now, the doctor and nurses weren’t here, because they were busy shearing the wool off their sheep.

All of the local nomads were currently in the plains for summer grazing. Basically, absolutely nobody was going to come here for any health problems. Last winter, Zhang Fan had come here for his first time performing a surgery in the rural area. Sumutai Health Center’s superintendent was delighted to see Zhang Fan and Chen Qifa as his family also needed help with shearing wool. The superintendent hurriedly left after only a short exchange of greetings.

Zhang Fan and Chen Qifa stared at each other. While living here wasn’t a problem, as the health center had plenty of empty rooms, eating would be a major issue. Very few people even lived here, and there wasn’t a single person who lived anywhere within a two-kilometer radius of the health center!

“What are you worried about? We can go to the health center superintendent’s home for dinner. I know where he lives. Let’s hurry and get some sleep first. I feel like my back was about to break on the trip here.”

Life in the plains was incredibly quiet. Not only were there few people, there weren’t even many birds.

“Old Chen, let me ask you something.” Zhang Fan decided to help Chen Qifa out for this year’s medical license exam, so he asked if Chen Qifa had passed the practical skills exam. Chen QIfa was immediately depressed upon hearing about the exam. “It’s useless even if I pass the practical skills exam. I’ve passed it every single year.” Even his tone became unpleasant when it came to the topic of the medical license exam.

“Okay, everything will be fine then. Let’s study together for the upcoming written exam. We can quiz each other. I guarantee that you’ll pass this year’s written exam.”

“Just forget about it!” Chen Qifa no longer held any hope. He still signed up for the medical license exam every year only to make a show that he was still trying.

“You’ll definitely pass the written exam this time as long as you listen to me. Stop acting like a girl. Once you finally pass the exam, who would dare to look down on you anymore? Come, let’s begin studying.” Zhang Fan immediately brought out the medical license exam study material textbooks he had purchased before.

Chen Qifa had no self-confidence, but that was because he was unable to find it anymore. He was still a veteran doctor with many years of experience. Although he had only graduated from a technical college, he had still accumulated much medical knowledge from working at a hospital every day. Zhang Fan was trying to help Chen Qifa regain his confidence first.

“Let’s start studying from orthopedic surgery.”

After one entire month, Sumutai Health Center had yet to receive a single patient. In fact, not a single person had even come to the health center apart from its superintendent. Still, Zhang Fan and Chen Qifa were more than happy to be so free. It was almost time for the written exam portion of the medical license exam, so it was quite convenient that they had so much free time to focus on studying.

Over the past month, Zhang Fan had given Chen Qifa a very solid lesson on all the foundational basics of surgery. The two of them constantly quizzed each other, and also finished reviewing internal medicine. No matter what, Zhang Fan had still graduated from a real medical school. Even if he didn’t learn much there, he knew how he was supposed to deal with major tests. He circled many of the important points on the reference textbooks.

“This will definitely be tested on this year’s exam. Remember it well.”

While Zhang Fan was stuck in Sumutai Village, Li Liang and Li Hui purchased some food to bring Zhang Fan as a gift.

“Just look at how comfortable you are here, eating hand-grabbed mutton and drinking milk tea. The two of us were worried that you would be starving here, so we came all the way out here to visit you. Yet, we found that our lives aren’t even as comfortable as yours,” Li Hui complained when he saw Zhang Fan.

“Oh, this lamb was accidentally trampled to death yesterday at the Munk Family. It’s the middle of summer, so the meat would go bad very quickly if not eaten, and they gave some to us. Besides, milk tea is also easily found in Kuake City.”

“Well, that does make me feel better.” Li Hui worked in a different department from Zhang Fan, so he was far more casual with his words. On the other hand, Li Liang was completely unable to behave casually, as working with Zhang Fan gave him far too much pressure.

“Let’s hurry up and eat. We can have this mutton together with the chicken that you brought.” Chen Qifa was especially delighted to see his coworkers come visit as he hadn’t seen anyone else for more than a month. All of them chatted while they ate together.

“How’s studying going for the two of you? As long as there’s no surprises, both Old Chen and I should be able to pass the medical license exam this year.” Zhang Fan had learned much from an entire month of nonstop studying.

“Allow me to say something shameless. If I truly manage to pass the exam, I will address you as my teacher,” Chen Qifa stated in a serious tone.

“Cough, cough, cough!” Li Liang was astounded by Chen Qifa’s statement. Was this still the same Chen Qifa? The same Chen Qifa who always had such strange behavior!?

“No need, it’s fine as long as you pass. It’s too much for you to be addressing me as teacher.” Zhang Fan slapped the fatty Li Liang on the back as the latter’s face was even beginning to turn red.

Chen Qifa didn’t say anything else. Li Hui responded, “I don’t know if I can pass the exam, I’m really unsure.” He then sighed.

Only now did Li Liang speak up. “I’m alright now. I accidentally choked just now. I often saw Mr. Zhang reading textbooks in our department, so I also read some textbooks. However, I’m also unsure about the exam. Recently, with both of you gone from our department, we can’t get any patients to stay. It’s really boring.”

“There’s not much time left before the exam. We should all practice as many questions as possible. Let’s all try our best to pass this year.”

It was time for the harvest season. This time of year would always bring more patients to Kuake City Hospital as people would accidentally injure themselves with sickles or perhaps some type of farming machinery. This was when surgical department #2 was usually busiest.

Vice Superintendent Shi Lei was quite smart, and knew all of this. Seeing how Superintendent Zou Pingshan had kicked away two capable surgeons to the rural village, Shi Lei began to scheme. Director Nuar of surgical department #2 was completely useless. Previously, Tu Xun had always opposed Shi Lei. Now that Shi Lei was the vice superintendent, Tu Xun felt that it would be humiliating for himself to become the new vice director of the department. The only others in surgical department #2 were Yang Chengming and Li Liang, two recent college graduates that couldn’t do anything at all.

“Superintendent Zou, our hospital’s doing much better than before. This is all thanks to your outstanding leadership. I’ve been thinking about how I can improve and be more like you. I’d like to go study at your previous city hospital for a few days. Could I trouble you to contact them? Your words there would hold a lot of weight.” Shi Lei was ridiculously shameless. Although he was being polite and servile with his words, he was actually digging a tremendous pitfall for Zou Pingshan to fall into.

Zou Pingshan was previously a director of internal medicine at his city hospital. He had never been to the much smaller Kuake City before, and didn’t understand how things worked here. He was quite happy to hear Shi Lei’s sycophantic praise for him. “As long as you’re willing to make progress, the Communist Party will be quite willing to help you. I’ll immediately contact my old hospital. You’ll be able to go there right away tomorrow.”

“You represent the Communist Party? Then I’ll be waiting to see how the Communist Party cries later!” Right after Shi Lei left, he started laughing loudly, proud that his scheme had succeeded.

It was now the busiest time of the harvest system as all the wheat had ripened. The farmers needed to harvest while it was nighttime because it was far too hot during the day in midsummer. The farmers thus all reversed their sleep schedules, which meant it was particularly common for accidents and injuries to occur due to fatigue.

Zou Pingshan was almost 50 years old. He had worked many 24-hour shifts at his old position, which caused him to develop insomnia. Nowadays, he could only sleep by using sleeping pills. His cell phone rang for quite a while before it finally woke him up. The call was from Kuake City Hospital’s administrative department. Zou Pingshan was quite angered to have been woken up late at night. “What’s going on?”

“Superintendent, our hospital has received a patient who was injured by a stone roller. He’s currently at the emergency department. What should we do?” For tonight, the director of the pharmaceutical department was currently in charge at the hospital.

“Are all of our surgeons dead or something?” Zou Pingshan was even more angered. The hell, calling him late at night for something as minor as a regular traumatic injury?

“Director Nuar and Tu Xun aren’t picking up their cell phones. Zhang Fan and Chen Qifa are currently both in the rural village. There’s only the two new recent college graduates, but neither of them can handle such a surgery.” Tonight happened to be Yang Chengming’s turn on night shift. The patient’s metatarsal bones (five long bones in the foot) were fractured, and Yang Chengming didn’t have the knowledge to perform such a surgery.

“What about Shi Lei? Isn’t he also in surgical department #2?”

“Didn’t you send Vice Superintendent Shi out on a study program?”

The superintendent’s job was to deal with any situations that his subordinates couldn’t handle. There was no helping it. Zou Pingshan was forced to try and contact a doctor from a bigger city hospital to come over and perform the surgery at Kuake City Hospital.

Previously, Chen Qifa would typically deal with these surgeries when Zhang Fan wasn’t here. If Chen Qifa was unable to handle the surgery, he would contact a specific doctor who would come over for the surgery. This would bring benefits to both Chen Qifa and that doctor. However, Zou Pingshan was from internal medicine, so he didn’t know very much about the unspoken rules of the surgical department. He was forced to spend a great deal of effort before he finally found a doctor willing to come over and perform the surgery. This was because everyone would be quite unhappy to be contacted so late at night.

The surgery was then completed. However, three days after the surgery, the patient got a high fever. The patient had become infected due to the hospital’s negligence.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Yang Chengming and Li Liang were the only ones still on duty at surgical department #2, with Nuar and Tu Xun remaining absent. The two of them kept alternating 24-hour shifts. Still, there wasn’t much for them to do. They could even sleep while on the job. However, Yang Chengming was still quite unhappy these days. Since he was so peeved, he didn’t take his work seriously. As a result, he didn’t change the patient’s medicine in a timely manner after the surgery. That was why the patient became infected. Yang Chengming also had a poor attitude, so the patient’s family became enraged.