Healing Doctor

Chapter 166: A Decade of Hard Work (Bonus Chapter by Alliance Leader Meng De)

"The data is at the hospital? Let's go take a look!" Director Liu's curiosity was no less than Ji Xiang's; he was eager to know what Dr. Zhao had done.

"I haven't eaten yet." Dr. Zhao was a little embarrassed, but the urge to show off was getting the better of him. He wanted to immediately show off his achievements over the years to the director in the provincial capital, so he was a little conflicted.

He was so conflicted that he became less talkative, and the only time he didn't get interrupted was when he spoke to someone else.

"You can't eat anywhere," Director Liu said.

"That's true." Dr. Zhao reached for the bill, but hesitated after scanning the code. "Boss lady, pack it up, hurry up."

"It tastes better when you eat it hot here than when you go home."

"It's urgent." Dr. Zhao was clearly still struggling with the decision.

Carrying the takeout boxes, the three of them went out and got into Dr. Zhao's car.

"I keep all my things at home," Dr. Zhao explained to Director Liu while lighting the lighter. "I left them at my workplace, but the cleaning lady mistook them for expired medical records and threw them away. I found them in the trash can. Luckily, I kept all the CDs in the cabinet, otherwise I would have had nowhere to cry."

However, as the amount of data accumulated, there was no other option but to store it at home. My house isn't very big, and the data took up a lot of space.

"How are all the more than one hundred patients doing after the surgery?" Director Liu asked curiously.

"Twelve patients have already passed away, but the cause of death was old age-related illnesses or other diseases, not tumor metastasis. As you know, kidney cancer is a slow-progressing cancer, and the postoperative results are very good. Moreover, my surgical skills are limited, so we send the more difficult patients to the provincial capital for treatment, which is also a matter of luck."

Dr. Zhao said he was lucky, but Director Liu knew very well that it wasn't entirely due to that.

If the illness is slightly serious, families who can't afford treatment will simply give up and would never spend all their savings on someone who only has 1-2 years left to live.

It's a helpless situation to prioritize the living over the dead.

Even so, the high postoperative survival rate was something Director Liu hadn't expected.

"Of the remaining patients, 11 had tumors in their contralateral kidneys, which I removed. Then there were 28 more..."

When Dr. Zhao talked about his "scientific research," he was so excited that he looked like he had been drinking. Ji Xiang was afraid that he would drive straight into a ditch.

This time, no one disturbed Dr. Zhao, and Ji Xiang and Director Liu listened attentively, their respect for the doctor growing stronger.

Although he looks greasy and is annoyingly talkative, he is surprisingly efficient when it comes to getting things done.

More than a decade of follow-up would have been enough for most people with weaker willpower to give up for various reasons, but Dr. Zhao persevered.

Just like performing interventional surgery in a grassroots hospital, Dr. Zhao never gave up despite the difficulties.

Most importantly, this guy is good at interventional surgery. He can reach level 6 in surgery by relying on interventional consumables from the Department of Cardiology.

The city isn't big; it only takes about ten minutes to drive to Dr. Zhao's house.

Upon entering the house, Director Liu and Ji Xiang found no one home and did not inquire further.

With Dr. Zhao's enthusiastic introduction, the two began to browse through the records he had kept over the years.

As Dr. Zhao said, follow-up visits and re-examinations are conducted every three months, and the re-examination reports are kept in very good condition.

The earliest medical records were already yellowed. Director Liu picked them up carefully, as if afraid they would break if touched.

After reviewing only a few medical records, Director Liu fell silent, letting Dr. Zhao launch into his rambling tirade.

Director Liu also publishes papers and conducts scientific research.

But in all the scientific research he'd seen, wasn't it all just shoddy work? Who could be this serious?

This Dr. Zhao is really capable. Director Liu was a little disappointed. If he were a doctor from his own hospital, he would definitely train him to be his successor.

Director Liu could barely manage to transfer someone to the Second Affiliated Hospital, but it would be too much trouble and would require connections. Besides, it wasn't a relative, so Director Liu never even considered that possibility.

"Dr. Zhao, you're amazing!" Director Liu praised. "How many papers have you published?"

"..." Dr. Zhao stopped speaking, somewhat embarrassed.

"Hmm?" Director Liu was taken aback and turned to look at Dr. Zhao.

"Not a single one," Dr. Zhao said apologetically. "It's probably because we don't have enough data. It's really difficult to publish a paper with a Chinese journal prefix. At first, I thought this data could be published in an SCI journal, even the worst one, but it's not even a Chinese journal."

He was too young, and no one taught him; he was just blindly trying to do it all by himself.

"Can't you just spend a little money?" Director Liu said disdainfully.

"That's just my temper," Zhao Zhe sighed. "My close colleagues all suggest I spend some money to publish articles, and maybe even pull some strings to get a promotion. But I don't think it's necessary. My research data is detailed and reliable; someone will definitely appreciate it. But after publishing in several journals, nothing works; I can't afford the publication fees. So I gritted my teeth and decided to just publish in SCI journals. I refuse to believe everyone in the world charges publication fees. Unfortunately, it seems even foreigners..."

SCI... Director Liu was speechless. This guy really dares to dream big and is really confident.

Ji Xiang smiled, looking at Dr. Zhao's face, which appeared older than his actual age, and recalled what the system NPC had said.

"Director Liu, I've been trying all these years. But nobody's interested. I think it's because I'm not doing it well enough, that I'm not skilled enough, and that I'm just daydreaming all the time," Dr. Zhao explained to Director Liu.

Director Liu remained noncommittal, quickly glanced through Dr. Zhao's accumulated knowledge over the past ten years, and sighed inwardly.

This guy is interesting.

"You'll do the same for tomorrow's patient after surgery, right?" Director Liu asked.

"Of course, I can't publish a paper because I don't have enough patients yet. Anyway, I have to perform surgeries, so I'll just record it while I'm at it."

Director Liu nodded, got up and declined Dr. Zhao's offer to stay for dinner, told him to see him at the hospital the next day, exchanged a few more polite words and left Dr. Zhao's house.

"Director, this Dr. Zhao is very capable." Ji Xiang and Director Zhao got into a taxi to go back to get their car, and after calming down, Ji Xiang expressed his thoughts.

"Of course, but he's too pedantic," Director Liu said. "Or rather, he has absolutely no idea how to do things. We'll see how he does tomorrow, and if he's decent enough, I'll help him publish a paper in a Chinese journal."

"What's the procedure for publishing a paper?" Ji Xiang asked.

Director Liu smiled slightly but didn't explain to Ji Xiang. Ji Xiang didn't ask any further questions either; Director Liu said that asking the system NPC in the system space was better than asking any more questions.

Director Liu originally wanted to find a place to eat anywhere, but in this small city, all the restaurants are closed after 9 p.m., and it's incredibly deserted.

There was no other way but to go back to the hotel and eat instant noodles.

Director Liu and Ji Xiang both had their own worries, so they rested after finishing their instant noodles.

The next morning, Dr. Zhao arrived early to pick up Director Liu and take him to the hospital.

(End of this chapter)