Chapter 206: The Impact of Betrayal, Stepping Up to Lead

As the patient was wheeled into the operating room, the anesthesiologist and nurses were already prepped and ready.

Zhou Can assisted the anesthesiologist in administering anesthesia to the patient.

“This patient shows clear signs of malnutrition. Should we insert a central venous catheter for parenteral nutrition support?” Zhou Can asked for the anesthesiologist’s opinion.

“Go ahead!”

Many anesthesiologists had come to know Zhou Can and were quite familiar with him by now.

“In cases like this, you can also consider dilation therapy to allow the patient to take liquid food orally.”

He shared some methods for handling such situations with Zhou Can.

Zhou Can listened attentively, taking in every word before starting to insert various tubes for the patient.

His diligence and quick hands were among the reasons so many anesthesiologists liked working with him.

As anesthesia was nearly complete, He Hansheng hurried in with two resident doctors. Shortly after, Deputy Director Liu arrived with his interns and two trainees, stepping into the operating room.

Deputy Director Liu glanced at the wall clock. It was six minutes past nine.

“We’re about to start surgery, and two people are still missing?”

His team was supposed to have six official physicians.

Missing two made the room feel noticeably emptier.

“Song Ze has joined Director Yang Qing’s team, and Resident Doctor Hong Zhengbo is now with Section Chief Tang’s group, handling patient care. They didn’t feel comfortable telling you directly, so they asked me to pass on the message.”

He Hansheng spoke cautiously, clearly worried about Deputy Director Liu’s age. A sudden spike in blood pressure or a heart issue would be a disaster.

Losing two doctors he’d personally mentored at such a critical moment—choosing to join other teams—was a deep wound to Mr. Liu.

Their actions were nothing short of betrayal.

Yet, everyone has the right to choose their own path. While their behavior might be unethical, it wasn’t against the rules.

Mr. Liu’s face showed no emotion as he heard the news.

After a long silence of twenty or thirty seconds, he finally spoke. “Joining other teams now is a smart move. Every group is fighting for more surgeries, and an extra pair of hands can make a big difference. If any of you want to leave, seize this chance. Normally, getting into a top-ranked team is near impossible.”

The stronger the team, the stricter their standards for new members.

Without serious skills, a top-tier team like Director Yang Qing’s wouldn’t even consider you.

“Alright, let’s begin the surgery!”

Deputy Director Liu seemed visibly affected, his mood dampened.

He looked older, more worn. A man not yet sixty appeared as frail as someone in their eighties or nineties.

Standing at the chief surgeon’s position by the operating table, Deputy Director Liu had a nurse help him with sterile gloves. He checked the marked incision line on the patient.

“For patients like this, always check for lung infections before surgery. If there’s any sign of one, the operation can’t proceed.” He shared valuable surgical wisdom with the team.

These lessons were hard-earned, paid for with blood and mistakes.

Surgical前辈s had faced countless mishaps over the years.

“Beyond checking for lung infections, pay close attention to the esophagus. Food retention can cause varying degrees of inflammation. That’s why I insist that for three days before surgery, the attending doctor must insert a gastric tube each night to clean the esophagus, then inject an antibiotic solution.”

Deputy Director Liu continued to offer practical advice.

“For the past three days, I’ve followed your instructions and cleaned the patient’s esophagus with a gastric tube. I even repeated the process just before anesthesia.”

Zhou Can replied.

Doing it again before anesthesia clears any overnight secretions and keeps the tube in place.

For these patients, pre-surgery medication can’t be in pill or tablet form.

Otherwise, it could be dangerous.

“Zhou Can’s work is always reliable.”

When Deputy Director Liu looked at Zhou Can, a faint smile of relief finally returned to his face.

Zhou Can was the most talented among all the doctors under him.

He was meticulous, hardworking, eager to learn, and progressed at an astonishing pace.

“The incision is usually made in the upper left abdomen, either at the midline or slightly to the side, extending up to the xiphoid process.”

Deputy Director Liu gripped the scalpel and began to open the patient’s abdominal cavity.

As soon as he made the first cut, his body swayed slightly.

It startled everyone in the room.

Cutting into a patient wasn’t a game. A surgeon’s blade could save a life if wielded correctly. But a wrong move—too deep or off course—and it could kill.

“Director Liu, are you alright?”

Zhou Can and He Hansheng rushed to support him.

The two were practically his right and left hands.

“Maybe I ate breakfast too early. I’m feeling a bit hungry now. Hansheng, can you and Zhou Can handle this surgery together? Do you feel confident?”

Deputy Director Liu looked at them with hopeful eyes.

This had never happened before. Mr. Liu’s health faltering couldn’t just be about an early breakfast.

Song Ze and the other resident’s departure had clearly struck a heavy blow to his heart.

As people age, they become less resilient to such shocks.

Zhou Can and He Hansheng both understood this, but neither was foolish enough to say it aloud.

“Don’t worry, I’ve learned the cardia reconstruction procedure from you many times. With Dr. Zhou’s help, I’m confident we can get this done.”

He Hansheng reassured Mr. Liu with firm confidence.

“Director Liu, why don’t you sit nearby and rest? Keep an eye on us and offer guidance at critical moments.”

Zhou Can added from the side.

“Good, good! I guess I’m really getting old, time to retire! My only regret is not achieving the full professor title. This department reform was supposed to be my chance, but now my body’s giving out. Fate, I suppose!”

Deputy Director Liu had never spoken such defeated words in front of his team before.

Seeing the doctors he’d painstakingly trained betray him felt like a warlord losing trusted generals to the enemy. The opposing side grew stronger while his own camp withered.

Coupled with his age and the emotional toll, his body couldn’t handle the strain.

It was no surprise he felt so disheartened.

“Don’t lose heart. The competition between teams has just begun, and the outcome is far from decided. A tree sheds its leaves in autumn, quietly gathering strength through winter. Come spring, it blooms anew. You’re not fighting alone—we’re all here to battle alongside you.”

Zhou Can’s heart ached seeing Mr. Liu so shaken.

He silently resolved to stand by Mr. Liu and fight for this victory.

Back in the Emergency Department, Zhou Can had once achieved a personal record of over a thousand surgeries in a single month.

What kind of feat was that?

Tuyu Hospital’s annual surgery count was just over a hundred thousand.

If he maintained a pace of a thousand surgeries a month, he’d complete thirteen to fourteen thousand in a year.

That was a terrifying number.

Of course, those were all Level 1 surgeries, relatively simple.

Many complex Level 3 or 4 major surgeries often required one or more medical teams working together for seven to eight hours, sometimes even over thirty hours.

The longest complex surgery ever performed at Tuyu Hospital lasted thirty-seven hours.

It was an immense test for both doctors and patients.

“Dr. Zhou is right. You’ve got us fighting with you. We can’t give up so easily. I’m still hoping to use this chance to aim for an associate professor title!”

He Hansheng chimed in.

This department reform was both a crisis and an opportunity.

“I’ve fallen behind in spirit! I’m not even on par with you two young guns!”

Deputy Director Liu sat down on a chair, his expression a mix of emotions.

The surgery resumed, led by his two capable lieutenants.

Sometimes, the chief surgeon or attending physician didn’t need to perform the surgery themselves. Guiding the team and ensuring safety from the sidelines was just as vital.

A chief surgeon was like a head chef in a restaurant. Their role was to guarantee the surgery’s safety and quality—that was enough.

Otherwise, even someone like Deputy Director Liu, still just an associate chief physician, couldn’t handle up to a dozen surgeries a day on his own. He’d collapse long before the patients’ surgeries were done.

“Dr. Zhou, how about you handle the abdominal incision?”

He Hansheng offered Zhou Can a chance to gain surgical experience.

“Thank you, Dr. He, for the opportunity! I’ll be extremely careful.”

Zhou Can stepped into the chief surgeon’s spot, took the scalpel, and focused intently as he began the abdominal incision.

The process was swift yet steady, already showing traces of the poise of a chief physician.

“Excellent work! Are you up for freeing the esophagus?”

“I can give it a try!”

Zhou Can’s tissue separation skill was currently at the lower attending level, just over four hundred experience points shy of reaching mid-level attending.

He carefully began to free the esophagus while the others held their breath, watching with tense focus.

The trachea was brittle, and the esophagus delicate.

Freeing the esophagus was a high-risk, high-reward surgical task.

[Tissue Separation Experience +1.]

[Congratulations on successfully freeing the esophagus for the first time. Bonus Tissue Separation Experience +100.]

Zhou Can successfully completed the procedure and reaped a hefty reward.

Gaining over a hundred experience points at once felt incredibly satisfying.

He was now just over three hundred points away from advancing to mid-level attending.

At this rate, he might not even need to wait until the end of the month to surpass that level.

General Surgery had a substantial volume of operations.

With this department reform trial, every team would be scrambling for surgical cases.

Zhou Can’s speed in surgery was famously unmatched.

Heh, soon enough, he’d show the other teams the true prowess of a rapid surgical technique heir.

Rumor had it that back in the day, Dr. Xu’s legendary reputation in the Surgical Department left countless surgeons in awe, unable to even think of challenging him.

If it weren’t for Dr. Xu’s speed leading to a medical mishap, neither the steadiest scalpel—Dr. Hu Kan—nor the peak scalpel—Wu Baihe—could have competed with him.

“Very well done! After freeing the esophagus, we need to cut the hepatic triangular ligament. Watch closely—this is how it’s done.”

He Hansheng didn’t let Zhou Can handle this part, taking over himself.

As he cut, he explained the specific details and precautions to Zhou Can and the other doctors.

Zhou Can quietly committed the techniques and steps to memory, ready to try it himself next time he needed to cut the hepatic triangular ligament.

“Next, flip the liver to the right, then incise the peritoneal fold at the cardia.”

This step was also handled by He Hansheng personally, not passed to Zhou Can.

High-ranking attending physicians truly had impressive skills.

“Hold on a moment. Let me explain the next surgical steps. These are incredibly difficult and critical.” Deputy Director Liu stood up and began to meticulously guide the junior doctors.

“Insert your fingers through the esophageal hiatus into the mediastinum, then free the esophagus. At the cardia, loop a gauze strip around it and pull downward, bringing the cardia and lower esophagus into the abdominal cavity…”

Deputy Director Liu didn’t perform the steps himself but directed He Hansheng to follow each instruction as he explained.

Zhou Can, lacking experience with this procedure, could only observe and learn from the sidelines.

When needed, he lent a hand.

The entire surgery—from the extramucosal longitudinal incision of the anterior wall of the esophageal cardia to the shaping and various suturing techniques—broadened Zhou Can’s horizons.

The complexity of this surgery was beyond imagination.

No wonder so few doctors were willing to take it on.

As the surgery neared its end with the abdominal wall closure, Zhou Can didn’t compete with the two resident doctors for the task.

Instead, he stepped back.

He was already far too familiar with closing the abdominal cavity and saw no need to watch the residents do it. There was little left to learn there.

He Hansheng, out of duty, stayed nearby to oversee.

Zhou Can took the chance to quickly jot down the surgical steps and key points for later review.

Forty-some minutes later, the clumsy resident doctors finally managed to close the abdominal cavity.

“The surgery was a complete success. Great work, everyone. You can organize your surgical notes now. It’s past lunchtime, so I’ve already ordered food. After eating, take a break. We’ll start the second surgery around three in the afternoon.”

This surgery had taken quite a while, nearly five hours.

Thankfully, it was a success, which brought everyone a sense of relief.

From the moment a doctor takes on a patient, they invest their heart and soul—communicating with families, managing the perioperative period, and tackling challenging surgeries.

Seeing a patient recover and leave the hospital was the most rewarding moment for any doctor.

Around 2:50 PM, Zhou Can and an intern in charge of patient care escorted the patient to Operating Room 4.

Endoscopic surgeries were typically performed in this room.

Just as they turned the corner of the corridor, they spotted a large group of doctors approaching. All were dressed in deep green surgical scrubs, some with masks still dangling under their chins.

Judging by their appearance, they’d likely just finished a surgery.

Leading the group was a middle-aged man of average height wearing glasses. He looked to be in his forties or fifties, exuding a calm and steady presence.

This was Director Yang Qing, one of the top-ranked chief physicians in General Surgery known for his surgical prowess.

It’s worth noting that not every chief physician in the Surgical Department excelled at surgery.

In reality, very few could perform surgeries exceptionally well.

Theoretically, a surgical team’s strength didn’t rest solely on the chief surgeon.

The chief surgeon played the role of a guiding figurehead.

Director Yang Qing’s surgical team was packed with skilled experts and brimming with talent.

Du Leng was also part of the team, holding a fairly prominent position.

With a doctoral degree from a prestigious overseas university, he was highly valued. Though technically just a surgical newcomer, his status was barely below that of an attending physician.

Now, he’d climbed to the level of an associate chief physician, clearly well-regarded within Director Yang Qing’s group.

“Hm?”

Zhou Can’s gaze lingered on Du Leng’s face for only a second before shifting to a younger male doctor trailing at the back of the surgical team.

It was none other than Song Ze, who had recently betrayed Deputy Director Liu to join this team.

Compared to Du Leng’s favored status, Song Ze’s position was far lower.

He was relegated to walking alongside mere resident doctors.

And even among them, he was at the very back.

What was the point of joining Director Yang Qing’s team if this was the result?

Back under Deputy Director Liu, before Zhou Can arrived, Song Ze had been the third most important figure.

Now, after defecting to Director Yang Qing, he ranked below even the resident doctors.

His status was barely above a trainee’s.

How pitiful.

Song Ze caught sight of Zhou Can and guiltily lowered his head.

People always felt uneasy after doing something wrong.

Director Yang Qing gave a fleeting, indifferent glance at the patient Zhou Can was escorting before looking away.

Forget Zhou Can, a mere trainee—even Deputy Director Liu wasn’t worth his attention.

He had the skill and confidence to back that attitude.

The two groups passed each other.

Zhou Can’s side consisted of just himself, a trainee, and an intern, looking painfully outnumbered.

The opposing camp, on the other hand, boasted several chief and associate chief physicians.

As for attending and resident doctors, they were too many to count.

Their team was a powerhouse, brimming with strength and resources.

The gap in capability between the two sides was staggering.

Zhou Can, along with the patient and the intern, stepped aside to let the other group pass first.

Yielding wasn’t just a sign of courtesy—sometimes it reflected composure and confidence.

As Du Leng passed by Zhou Can, a sneer of disdain curled on his lips. It came straight from the heart.

The disparity between their teams was glaringly obvious.

Song Ze’s betrayal and joining Director Yang Qing’s team only fueled Du Leng’s smugness, as if victory was already in his grasp.