Chapter 457: Storm at Tuyu Hospital

Director Zhu tried to push all the blame onto the Security Department, but clearly, that was never going to work.

As the hospital director, he’s the one who bears primary responsibility.

With the hospital in complete chaos, there’s no way he can dodge his share of the blame.

A lot of people think that a hospital director is just another leader, maybe ranked a bit above the doctors. But if that’s all you see, you’ve got it wrong.

Even for a county hospital, the director is at least a deputy department-level official.

At a top-tier provincial hospital like Tuyu, Director Zhu’s position is on another level entirely.

“Director Chen, as the leader I do hold responsibility here. Now that our doctors and nurses are on strike, shouldn’t we first focus on calming everyone down and getting the hospital running normally again?”

Facing Director Chen’s questions, Director Zhu wasn’t as humble or afraid as you might expect.

He spoke in a collaborative tone, looking to discuss rather than obey.

If nothing had gone wrong this time, he’d be moving up to a new administrative post, likely outranking Director Chen. Even with a lateral transfer, he’d still hold a higher rank.

“Doctors and nurses of Tuyu Hospital, I am… Please trust me. Today, I promise you’ll all get the answers you deserve. Please select a few representatives and go to the Emergency Department conference room, and tell me your main concerns.”

With Director Chen’s status on the line and a promise made in public, the crowd discussed and quickly picked one or two representatives from each group to enter the conference room.

At that moment, more doctors and nurses rushed in.

This time, it was Director Tang Fei from Pediatrics leading her team.

The main clinical departments at the Tuyu Main Hospital pretty much boil down to a few big ones.

Internal Medicine, Surgery, Obstetrics, Pediatrics, Emergency, and Critical Care… plus some support departments like Radiology, Pathology, and Ultrasound.

When it comes to influence, it’s always the clinical medical departments that carry the most weight.

After all, these are the departments at the core of a hospital’s power. It’s always the front-line clinicians who attract and keep patients coming.

Ordering tests, writing prescriptions, performing surgeries—every step relies on these doctors on the front lines.

Now that even the pediatric doctors and nurses have joined the protest, the scale of Zhou Can’s influence left the hospital leadership stunned.

And that wasn’t the end. Soon after, staff from the Critical Care and Anesthesiology departments arrived as well.

Director Zhu’s vision swam, and he nearly passed out.

Among all the deputy directors, Ye understood Zhou Can best. He knew Zhou Can maintained tight connections with staff across departments. By now, Zhou Can was deeply embedded in the fabric of Tuyu Hospital.

Trying to go after Zhou Can now—even if he had no connections or backing—would be futile. His strength and influence matched anyone’s.

Vice Director Ye from General Affairs and Assistant Pang both looked terrified.

They couldn’t understand how a strike in the small Emergency Department could rally so much support from clinical staff in other departments.

With so many departments joining in, management no longer stood a chance of holding anyone accountable.

When the whole crowd is involved, you can’t just single people out for punishment.

If they really wanted to discipline everyone who took part in the strike, Tuyu Hospital would have to turn everything upside down or shut down completely.

No hospital leadership would ever allow that, and the higher-ups certainly wouldn’t.

So in the end, there was only one way forward—not only could they not punish anyone, they had to genuinely resolve everyone’s issues.

Even now, Chief Mi was still acting arrogant, his stare sharp and full of hatred—like he’d kill Zhou Can if he could.

He’d been running wild at Tuyu for years, probably never suffered a setback this big before.

Sometimes making someone a ‘hero’ is a terrifying way to set them up for disaster.

Disaster was about to fall on his head, but all Mi could think of was getting revenge and crippling Zhou Can.

If he hadn’t been so spoiled for so long, maybe he’d have seen it coming.

He might have already been scrambling to save himself instead of just fixating on short-term wins.

……

Inside the conference room, Director Yang and Director Zhu sat side by side, with the rest of the hospital leaders on their flanks.

Sitting across from them were the department representatives.

The Emergency Department had three at the table: Zhou Can, Head Nurse Niu Lan, and Deputy Director Han.

Chief Lou from Emergency—their main boss—was still nowhere to be seen.

He really knew how to keep his cool.

Honestly, if he showed up, Director Zhu could push all the pressure onto him, putting Lou in a no-win situation.

By lying low, Lou was actually protecting Zhou Can and the others.

It’s like that old saying—if you want to catch the thief, you have to catch the kingpin first.

Right now, the Emergency Department had no king for Director Zhu to catch, so Zhou Can could keep doing things his way. Even though they just blew the roof off the problem and even got higher-ups involved, the consequences were still under control.

“Young man, when I arrived earlier, those security guards were beating you up. Why?”

Director Yang’s gaze locked onto Zhou Can.

“Chief Mi tried to make us leave without fixing anything, I refused and talked back, so he came over wanting to hit me…”

Zhou Can chose his words carefully, making sure to put himself in the best light.

He really was the victim here.

If he hadn’t known some self-defense, Mi might’ve left him with a swollen face long ago.

After listening, Director Yang made a careful note in his notebook.

“Young man, what’s your name?”

“Zhou Can!”

Director Yang nodded and looked at Director Zhu.

“Is what he just said true?”

“Basically true!”

Director Zhu had already decided to cut ties with Chief Mi. If he didn’t sacrifice a pawn to save himself, they could all go down together. He wasn’t about to make that mistake.

Sure, he’d always been wary of Chief Mi’s backing, but he was never actually scared.

He just preferred to look the other way for the sake of stability.

Now that he was about to move up, the last thing he wanted was to get dragged into anything messy.

But with Mi digging his own grave, nothing could be done for him.

“A Security Chief who acts like you don’t even exist ignores the rules and assaults people in the hospital. And when medical staff are attacked by family members, his guards just stand by watching… There’s a lot wrong with your Security Department!”

Director Chen’s voice was strict and commanding.

“Chief Mi’s problems go further than that. He’s tried shaking us down for kickbacks more than once. After we rejected him, our Emergency Department kept getting ignored by hospital security. He also teamed up with General Affairs, accusing us of losing or breaking things, making us pay for all sorts of stuff every year.”

Deputy Director Han seized the moment to speak up.

Many have suffered under this for a long time!

The Security Department’s threats weren’t just an Emergency problem.

Emergency was just the poorest department, with a stubborn, upright chief—easy prey for the Security Department’s games.

“Director Han, be careful what you say in front of the higher-ups. When our General Affairs fines departments, we always have proof and documentation.” Vice Director Ye from General Affairs was sweating heavily.

He’d always felt trapped—technically Chief Mi answered to him, but in practice, it was the other way around.

He pretty much did whatever Mi told him.

Now that the truth was out, there was no way to pass the buck.

“About Security extorting fees, even directors from multiple pediatric sub-departments have told me. Every time I reported it to General Affairs, it just disappeared. If there’s some shady profit-sharing going on, an investigation will turn up the truth.”

Last time at Administration, Director Tang Fei had kept her cool.

She’d tried hard to avoid butting heads with Security, Assistant Pang, and the rest.

Now, she jumped in, directly calling out both Vice Director Ye and Chief Mi, much to Zhou Can’s surprise.

A woman’s heart really is like the ocean—deep and unpredictable.

There’s never anything good about crossing a woman.

Tang Fei was a cold, decisive woman, incredibly smart and focused, and ruthless when it counted.

Most days she was charming and sociable, but when the time was right, she never hesitated to act.

“Director Tang, there’s never been any bad blood between us…”

Vice Director Ye’s face had turned pale, and he kept wiping sweat from his brow with a tissue.

“That’s enough out of you! Keep going like this, and you might find yourself called in for disciplinary tea instead.”

One sentence from Director Chen left Vice Director Ye frozen like he’d fallen in a lake of ice.

“Talking about violations by Security and General Affairs—I have evidence, too. If Director Chen’s interested, I can fetch it right now.” A chief from Internal Medicine spoke up.

He was closely connected with Director Tan—they were like-minded friends.

They often worked together in research, clinical care, and even socialized outside of work.

He produced his evidence with a calm expression, making it clear the two had already coordinated.

……

When everyone turns on you, things move fast. This meeting lasted less than half an hour.

In the end, General Affairs’ Vice Director Ye and Security Chief Mi were both taken away for investigation. Director Zhu wasn’t immediately affected, but having presided over such a disaster, there was no way he’d escape entirely.

How everything would ultimately end was still up in the air.

But the odds of Mi and the others staging a comeback were next to zero.

When Zhou Can got home, the news was already spreading like wildfire online and in their work group chat.

This round of turmoil at Tuyu Hospital was bound to leave a negative mark.

Still, if that festering sore had been left alone, something even worse would’ve happened eventually. Cutting it out now wasn’t a bad thing.

Zhou Can’s reputation skyrocketed. His integrity and courage had quietly left a lasting impression.

Walking through the hospital, even staff who didn’t know him would greet him. Sometimes, they’d even step aside in the corridor to let him pass first.

Public opinion is as unpredictable as smoke, as fluid as water.

People always have a sense of justice. For those who truly fight for them, they feel genuine respect.

This time, Zhou Can spoke up for the group and stood for justice, letting his roots at Tuyu Hospital sink even deeper.

Even many interns and trainee nurses had heard about him now.

At the same time, a new annoyance cropped up.

Unmarried nurses and doctors kept finding ways to get his number, texting or even calling to confess their feelings, which left him a little stressed.

A week later, there were two new security guards stationed in the Emergency Hall during the day.

Both were retired soldiers, standing tall and moving with confidence.

Those sloppy, careless security guards from before had disappeared completely.

Now, beyond having security posted in the Emergency Department, patrol teams regularly made rounds through every department. Never again did security just stand by during trouble.

Any time a family member started insulting staff or looked ready to get violent, security would show up in record time after getting a call for help.

Everyone saw these positive changes firsthand.

From Director Xueyan, Zhou Can learned that after that meeting, Chief Mi and General Affairs’ Vice Director Ye were first to face investigation, and they never returned. Soon after, more managers were put under review.

Director Zhu actually proved pretty capable—whether because he was honest or just left himself some backup options, he managed to avoid serious trouble when the higher-ups looked into things.

The real shocker was Assistant Pang.

No one expected that he not only had shady dealings with Chief Mi, but also used his position to embezzle a huge amount of money. He even kept eleven mistresses inside the hospital.

Some of them were even married women.

He’s now on trial and hasn’t been sentenced yet.

But it looks like he’s going away for a very long time.

As an assistant, his role was barely above a department chief—who’d have thought he’d get up to so much trouble.

As for the women who fell into his arms, it’s hard to understand what they were thinking.

Despite all this upheaval, Tuyu Hospital didn’t stop running. Patients still came day after day, and every department continued operating as usual.

In the end, things wrapped up pretty well.

In a short time, the overall atmosphere and morale at Tuyu Hospital improved visibly.

One morning, Zhou Can showed up for another shift in the Emergency Department like always.

“Morning, Dr. Zhou!”

“Morning!”

As he replied, he noticed equipment staff working under the nurses’ station table.

He couldn’t help but ask, “Did the computer break down?”

Whenever supplies or office equipment broke and needed replacing, the chief would always sigh deeply over the cost. A mouse that might be ten bucks online could run over a hundred from the hospital supply department.

Everything at the hospital seemed expensive.

With so many administrative staff and idle hands to support, it was no wonder things cost so much.

Sometimes, when family members lost their temper, they’d smash computers or mice. If the department had to pay for it themselves, they wouldn’t accept it. When the police got involved, the family would usually have to reimburse everything at full price.

That’s when angry family members found out an old desktop could cost over ten thousand yuan!

After a stunt like that, most people handled hospital equipment much more gently the next time.

Losing your temper might feel good for a moment—

But the price you pay afterward is brutal.

“The hospital decided to install emergency alarm systems in every clinical frontline department. Red button sends an emergency call for help. Yellow button brings security to the scene as quickly as possible.”

One of the installers looked up and, seeing Zhou Can, quickly explained the setup in detail.

“That’s a great measure. It gives everyone a lot more security,” Zhou Can said, smiling.

Sometimes, stirring things up a little is exactly what a place needs.

This time, hospital management didn’t just play politics—they actually delivered real safety improvements for the staff.