This miracle doctor just wants to be fired!

The glass door opened and closed again.

The man quickly blended into the crowd on the street. A car stopped for a moment outside the door, blocking his view.

By the time the car had driven past, he had already entered the alley ahead.

Zhou Cheng did not pursue.

The legal personnel who remained nearby quickly followed, but only for two blocks.

The other party changed exits in the underground passage of a shopping mall and then got into a ride-hailing car without any obvious signs.

The phone number is a temporary virtual number; payments at the teahouse are made in cash.

The security camera at the entrance only captured a side profile shot taken at an angle, making it impossible for the police to continue their investigation based solely on a single conversation without clear evidence of a violation.

The surname left by the man is most likely fake as well.

That evening, Zhou Cheng recounted the entire conversation to Zou Ligan and the hospital's legal department, without omitting a single word.

Based on the wording, document descriptions, and the other party's reaction, the legal counsel judged that he had likely come into contact with the original document and was aware of the coordination process behind the notification, but could not prove whose instructions he had received.

It is even more impossible to connect this line to a particular academician candidate.

They investigated for another two weeks.

The secretary of the association admitted that several documents referenced the same summary of expert opinions, but claimed that the materials were provided by multiple committee members.

The account that first posted on the forum was reposted and screenshotted several times, and the source could only be traced back to an email address that had been deleted.

The people who filed complaints with journals and funding agencies used different names, but the attachments they submitted were highly similar, and the identities of some of them could not even be verified.

All clues point to an organized group.

All clues stop before the organizer appears.

As Lin Feng placed the last survey feedback on the table, he couldn't help but curse, "If this group of people were half as serious about doing academic work as they are about anonymizing materials, China's cardiovascular medicine would have been number one in the world long ago."

After reviewing the documents, Zhou Cheng placed them together with the previous files. "If you can't find it, stop here."

"Really stop?"

"The hospital does not have the authority to continue the investigation."

"That guy surnamed Sun definitely knows who it is."

He won't tell.

"Shall we meet again?"

He will never appear again.

After we met at the teahouse, that number became unreachable, and I received no reply to any text messages.

The other party seemed to have completed a necessary message relay and then disappeared from all traceable paths.

Zhou Cheng ultimately confirmed only one thing: this turmoil was indeed being orchestrated by someone, and that the person behind it was very familiar with the academic society's structure, the academician review process, and the relationship between hospitals.

As for the name, he couldn't find it.

In the following months, Zhou Chengmin may try to mitigate the impact of the incident on Zou Liqian.

He voluntarily withdrew from two academic conferences that could have caused further controversy.

I will suspend accepting interviews in my personal capacity and will entrust the multi-center review to an independent statistical team.

They also submitted a complete explanation to the relevant review departments, clearly outlining the timeline for technology promotion, complication investigation, and subsequent rectification.

The statement did not defend itself, nor did it mention any possible competitive manipulation; it only included the original data, ethics documents, and third-party review opinions.

The hospital also issued a formal investigation report.

The team has not engaged in data fabrication, concealed serious adverse events, or engaged in any illegal transfer of benefits.

The four cases of complications in Linjiang City were related to the expansion of indications, insufficient intravascular imaging, and the failure to fully clarify the decision-making process during training.

The relevant technology has been suspended from promotion and revised, and all patients have received follow-up and subsequent treatment.

Several senior experts in China publicly stated during an internal review that proactively identifying and correcting training deficiencies should not be considered a matter of research integrity.

Some people have also written explanations for Zou Ligan, emphasizing that Zhou Cheng's team's public review reflects academic responsibility rather than a loss of team control.

The turmoil gradually subsided from its initial intensity.

……

There are fewer new posts on the forum, and several academic societies have stopped publishing documents. Some of the suspended projects have resumed review.

By the time the formal vote for the election of new academicians was held, Zhou Cheng had done everything he could.

However, on the day the results were announced, Zou Liqian's name still did not appear on the list of elected officials.

The news came out at noon, just after Zhou Cheng finished a left main trunk intervention.

Lin Feng walked in from outside the control room with his phone in his hand. His face didn't have the usual expression that seemed ready to crack a joke at any moment. He just shook his head at him.

Zhou Cheng bent down to take off his gloves, paused for half a second, and asked, "How much short?"

"I don't know, the official vote count hasn't been released."

"Where is Director Zou?"

"Outpatient clinic."

After Lin Feng finished speaking, he himself felt that it was somewhat absurd.

When the results of the academician election were announced, the candidate himself was still seeing the last few patients at the specialist clinic.

Many people in the department already knew the result, but no one dared to go directly into the corridor.

Some people felt that he should be left to his own devices for a while, while others worried that he might see the news through other channels first. In the end, the department head's secretary went in and whispered the message to him between the two patients.

Zou Ligan only asked one question: "The list is all out?"

The secretary nodded.

"understood."

He then picked up the next patient's medical record and continued seeing patients in the outpatient clinic.

At 3 p.m., the outpatient clinic ended, and Zou Ligan returned to his ward.

Along the way, people kept observing his complexion, but he acted as usual. He stopped at the nurses' station to ask about the newly admitted patients from the previous night, went into the ward to see an elderly man who was about to undergo valve surgery, and corrected a lapse in the resident physician's anticoagulation protocol when he came out.

It wasn't until he returned to his office that he saw Zhou Cheng and Lin Feng sitting inside. "You two seem to have a lot of free time today?"

Lin Feng stood up. "Director Zou..."

"I know the result." Zou Ligan put the medical record in his hand on the table, took off his white coat and hung it up. "There's no need for everyone to come and comfort me. I'm not at an age where I can't take this."

Zhou Cheng remained silent.

Zou Ligan walked to the water dispenser, filled a glass with warm water, took two sips, and then turned to look at him. "Do you think it's your fault?"

"Possibly."

"There is no evidence."

"That incident occurred before the review."

"A lot happened before the review."

"Without this project..."

"Without this project, I wouldn't have been selected before."

Zou Ligan interrupted him, his tone devoid of blame, even tinged with self-deprecation, "I've participated in more than one election, and every time someone said I had a great chance, but I always fell short. This year was just another one where I missed out. How can you be so sure it's because of you?"

"This year's preparations are more thorough than before."

"The election of academicians has never been based solely on whether the preparation is sufficient."

Zou Ligan walked to the chair and sat down, placing his water glass on the corner of the table. "Discipline layout, quotas, age, evaluation opinions, and many other factors not mentioned in the application materials—any one of them could affect the outcome. Someone might have brought up your issue, and it might have affected a few votes, but to attribute all the losses to you is unfair to me, and it's also unfair to the other elected candidates."

Zhou Cheng said in a low voice, "Someone did take advantage of this."

That's their problem.

"But the problem originated with me."

"The whole thing started when four patients developed complications." Zou Ligan looked at him. "You discovered the problem, made it public, changed the training, and cooperated with the investigation. What others do with it afterward is no longer up to you."

Someone pushed a treatment cart past the office, and the wheels made a soft sound as they hit the uneven ground at the doorway.

The setting sun shone through the window, casting its light on Zou Ligan's already graying temples, making him look older than usual.

It was only then that Zhou Cheng realized that his teacher was indeed nearing retirement.