After being separated from my family, I became a darling of the military region thanks to my medical

Mayo Clinic, Hospital Board Meeting Room.

Six old men were sitting around the round table.

Stephen tapped his fingers on the solid wood tabletop.

"It can't be approved. Mayo has never opened its closed-circuit broadcast to a foreign doctor, especially since the technology this doctor brings hasn't even been approved by the FDA. If she makes any illogical remarks on stage, the Washington Post will laugh at Mayo for turning into a circus the next day."

The supervisor stood to the side, his forehead covered in sweat. The phone line in the office was still ringing incessantly, and the registration area outside was nearly bursting at the seams.

Harrison shoved the oversubscription list in his hand toward Stephen.

"This isn't the circus audience list. Stephen, you'd better take a closer look at who's on the first page."

Stephen glanced at it but didn't take it.

A committee member next to him took the list, scanned a few lines, and then stopped.

"Mark, the chief of cardiac surgery at Harvard Medical School, four surgeons from the Cleveland Clinic, and the Johns Hopkins team..." The committee member read out the names, looked up, and said, "They're all here to hear this report?"

Harrison pulled out a chair and sat down.

"It's not just them; the directors of seven major children's hospitals in North America are all on this list. Of the 160 people exceeding the quota, 60 are top 50 cardiac surgeons in the United States. These people can't get into the main lecture hall."

He looked at Stephen.

"If Mayo forcibly cancels the broadcast, or finds an excuse to restrict attendance, what will his colleagues think? They won't think Mayo is cautious; they'll only think Mayo is afraid. Mayo is afraid of a Chinese doctor who has never even been to the United States."

Stephen's facial muscles twitched twice.

"You pushed Mayo onto the fire."

"I didn't push it," Harrison said, his attitude unchanged. "Now open the second lecture hall; at least Mayo is still in charge."

The two committee members looked at each other.

One of them stated, "It cannot be canceled. If the people in Cleveland find out that we don't even dare to broadcast it, they'll have something to say about next year's medical summit."

The others nodded in agreement. Reputation is important, but pressure from peers is even more deadly. Since they've already come all this way, closing the door would only make Mayo look guilty.

Stephen grabbed the venue application form and pulled out his pen.

He signed his name quickly, the pen almost tearing the paper. After tossing the form to his supervisor, Stephen stared at Harrison.

"I've approved the venue."

"Since the scene has been made so grand, with the whole of North America watching, this report cannot become a one-woman show."

Stephen turned to his supervisor.

"Add ten minutes at the end of the process."

"Tell the Chinese doctor that Mayo Clinic has prepared a special evaluation for her."

The supervisor paused for a moment, then asked, "What part?"

"A blind review case." Stephen's voice calmed down. "There are no ready-made diagnostic conclusions, no expert comments. Only raw data from various examinations are provided. Since she claims that her 'Chinese standard' can regulate all cardiac surgeries, then let her develop a surgical plan for this case on the spot in front of her North American colleagues."

Harrison's expression changed.

"Blind review? This completely violates the rules of standard academic exchange!"

"She's here to overturn the rules, isn't she?" Stephen retorted. "If she can't even accept such a basic assessment, why should others accept her standards?"

Harrison stood up abruptly.

"Show me some of the anonymized data. If it's within the normal range, I can agree."

Stephen gestured. His assistant immediately brought several sheets of printed paper and handed them to Harrison.

There were only basic indicators such as angiography data and echocardiography, but the child's age was not even specified.

Harrison stared at it for a minute, then his fingers clenched tightly around the edge of the page.

Left ventricular hypoplasia, mitral atresia, ventricular septal defect, accompanied by severe aortic arch coarctation.

This is neither a common illness nor simply a high-risk condition.

"This is tetralogy of Fallot combined with hypoplastic left heart syndrome!" Harrison glared at Stephen. "There's absolutely no indication for surgery for this disease! You're using a terminal illness that's destined to kill you to test a clinical standard based on survival rates?"

When top cardiovascular centers across the United States encounter such cases, the only course of action is to transfer the patient to a hospice ward and issue a death certificate to the family.

Stephen leaned back in his chair.

"Since it's a report of the highest standard, the test questions naturally have to match that standard. If she can't see that this is a terminal illness and comes up with some absurd surgical plan on the spot, it only proves that the standards are nothing but nonsense. The North American experts will just laugh it off, everyone will go their separate ways, and Mayo's reputation will be saved."

Harrison slammed the paper on the table.

"What if she figures it out?"

"Then she'll have to admit to everyone that there are people her skills can't save." Stephen stood up. "Acknowledging limitations is the first lesson in medicine. She should learn to bow to the American medical community."

The council passed Stephen's resolution.

This was a flawless, decisive victory.

Harrison was powerless to stop it.

At 2 p.m., a kraft paper sealed bag was delivered to Stephen's office.

Thick red sealing wax dripped from the bag's seal.

Stephen opened the safe under his desk, put the bag inside, and turned the combination lock.

Click.

The locking tongue is stuck.

Harrison stood in front of his desk, holding the final process sheet to be sent to China the next day.

Stephen put the key in his pocket.

"The process has been sent over. She can bring all her best case studies to present. But she can't know in advance the challenges Mayo has prepared for her. All the data for this case won't be released until the last ten minutes of the presentation."

Harrison turned and walked out.

He could only notify the Chinese side of this maliciously altered procedure via telegram. Whether the Chinese doctor could handle this bombshell was up to her.

Mayo Clinic, USA, Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit.

drop--

drop--

The vital signs monitor emitted a monotonous sound.

Inside the glass door, a four-month-old baby lies in an incubator.

His body was covered in colorful tubes, and his chest heaved violently with each breath. Due to prolonged ischemia and hypoxia, his skin was a sickly bluish-purple, and he didn't even have the strength to clench his fist.

The card by the bedside didn't have a name written on it, only an internal number: 9087.

The day shift nurse went in with her logbook.

She glanced at the blood oxygen saturation on the monitor; the number had dropped to eighty.

The nurse shook her head and wrote a line in the handover log.

"The family refused to sign the do-not-treat consent form. Cardiopulmonary failure continues to progress."

The nurse sighed and put a new oxygen tube on the baby.

This disease is incurable, even by a miracle worker.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the ocean in Beicheng, China.

The foreign-related ward of the General Hospital of the Military Region was brightly lit.

Ye Zhen stood in front of her desk, looking at the latest telegram coming out of the fax machine.

The bolded line above indicates: [Additional component: Ten-minute blind case review assessment].

Gu Zheng stood to the side and glanced at the contents of the telegram.

"They're on someone else's turf, and they're adding new rules on the spot. These foreigners are clearly trying to embarrass you in front of everyone."

"It would be abnormal not to add exam questions." Ye Zhen folded the telegram and tossed it casually onto the table. "The more they want to see me admit defeat, the more I should go."

Gu Zheng chuckled, turned around, and placed the two newly issued dark blue official passports on the table.

"OK."

"You're in charge of disrupting their performance on stage."

Gu Zheng tapped his knuckles on the passport, his voice steady, "I'll take responsibility for bringing you back safely."

Outside the door, Lin Yi strode in carrying a stack of neatly organized medical records.

"Dr. Ye, the patient's preoperative test results are in, and they can go to the catheterization lab at any time."

Ye Zhen opened the office door.

"Notify catheterization labs one and two to open simultaneously in ten minutes."

Gu Zheng followed her out.

Three days later, the transoceanic flight to the United States was about to take off. In these last three days, she had to save every life she held in her hands.

The countdown has officially begun for Mayo's academic clash that shocked North America.