Chapter 644: The First Fire

The conference room erupted with applause, and Zhou Can joined in politely.

Whether he liked it or not, he had to keep up appearances.

Gao Zongyou lifted his left hand and pressed down in the air, gradually bringing the applause to a halt.

Normally when a leader wants to quiet a meeting, they’ll press down with their right hand or with both hands. It’s almost a habit.

But Director Gao used only his left. Psychologically, that’s a sign someone craves power.

There’s an old saying: the left hand wields the scepter, the right holds the sword.

What does that mean?

It’s almost instinct—the left hand grips the scepter. From ancient kings to pharaohs to popes, it’s always been this way. The left hand is usually weaker, holding the symbol of authority, while the strong right hand is ready with the sword. It keeps power secure and offers a means of defense if needed.

“I’ve been at Tuyu for over three months now, getting to know the basics. Overall thanks to everyone’s hard work, Tuyu Hospital is thriving. But there are issues. Some are historic leftovers. Others stem from certain leaders neglecting their duties, earning a title but doing nothing, working with poor attitudes, or lacking real skill.”

Just as Zhou Can expected, this new director had kept a low profile for three months, off everyone’s radar.

Now it looked like he was ready to make his first bold move.

That term ‘certain leaders’ was vague enough to mean anyone in the room.

No one knew who the target was yet.

Odds were the first strike wouldn’t hit too hard—it’d just be a warning to keep everyone in line.

“In these three months, our hospital has had 76 medical incidents and 392 complaints from patients or their families. The work of the Medical Quality Control Department is alarming—a huge office that almost seems like window dressing.”

So the first shot was aimed at Quality Control.

That was gutsy, since its members were top dogs—departmental experts and hospital leaders.

People like Hospital Assistant Qin, Deputy Director Bai, Deputy Director Ye, and others.

Quality Control was practically untouchable in Tuyu Hospital.

And yet, Director Gao was taking them on. That took guts.

Just how confident—or bold—did you have to be to risk ticking off so many top execs at once?

Anyone who could parachute in as director clearly wasn’t a fool.

If he dared to make a move, he had something to back it up.

Zhou Can remembered how recently Assistant Qin had treated him like a last hope, entrusting him with urgent favors. He’d thought Qin was being a bit neurotic, too high-strung and sensitive. Now he realized Qin’s instincts had been right.

The whole room went quiet. No one uttered a word.

Deputy Director Ye, Deputy Director Bai, and the others wore blank faces.

Only Hospital Assistant Qin looked truly anxious, a mix of helplessness and tension written on his face.

“I looked into those 76 medical incidents. More than half fell under the responsibility of Quality Control’s First Group. So I want to ask the group leader and vice leaders—besides punishing clinical staff when things go wrong, don’t you ever try to help them improve and prevent these incidents from happening again?”

On the surface, that sounded fair, but Zhou Can saw it for what it was—an accusation in search of a crime.

There was no respect for the actual facts.

The First Group of Quality Control carried the heaviest load, overseeing emergency and critical wards.

Tuyu Hospital saw a massive number of patients every day—even the best staff have an occasional slip.

Every so often, clinical staff made mistakes. That’s normal.

Some incidents weren’t that serious, just minor mishaps that were quickly handled. Sometimes even the patient and their family never knew an error occurred—no harm done in the end.

For example, if an elderly critical patient was given fluids too fast or too cold because of a nurse’s mistake, their vitals might drop suddenly.

But with prompt rescue, the patient pulled through and was eventually discharged safely.

Neither the patient nor the family ever realized there’d been a problem during care.

But when Quality Control did their checks, they’d catch those mistakes and issue a warning or penalty to the involved staff.

The idea was to remind everyone in the department to be more careful next time.

The First Group took on more work, covered more ground, and supervised more patients—so of course they logged more incidents than other teams.

Truth be told, it was already pretty good.

If another group swapped places with the First, their numbers would be way worse.

Especially after Zhou Can joined, his skills made it easier to spot issues others missed. He could pinpoint what caused a problem, which really helped prevent repeat incidents.

Now, in one sentence, Director Gao had dismissed all their efforts.

Bringing up the incident numbers was just another way to pile on—accuse more, blame more.

The message was: the more you do, the more mistakes you make.

“First Group of Quality Control, group leader and both vice leaders, stand up!”

Director Gao swept his gaze across the crowd.

Hospital Assistant Qin, Director Liu Shiqiu from Infection Control, and Zhou Can all got to their feet.

All eyes were on the three of them.

Getting singled out at a big meeting was never a good thing.

“How have you three been leading? Poor leadership, weak oversight, a spike in incidents—are you just enforcing the rules for the sake of it? I’m officially suspending all three of you from your roles in Quality Control leadership. After this meeting, write a deep self-reflection, and turn it in to me within three days.”

That was harsh.

Hospital Assistant Qin was a senior leader, after all.

Getting chewed out in public—what a blow to the ego.

But that’s how the system works. The director is like the class monitor to all the other leaders—holding real authority.

Even if Assistant Qin was only half a rung below Director Gao, he got crushed with no chance to resist.

“Temporary daily leadership of First Group’s Quality Control will be handled by my special assistant, Han Cheng.” That was Director Gao making a power play: taking down Assistant Qin and promoting his own trusted aide right out in the open.

It was a calculated move.

The message was crystal clear: if I can take down top brass in public, the rest of you better toe the line. Challenge me, and think twice.

“Director Gao, suspending all three at the same time could disrupt operations. I can’t speak for the others, but Vice Leader Zhou Can is diligent and dependable. In technical reviews, he’s the backbone of First Group.”

Deputy Director Bai was one of the higher-ups in Quality Control.

He was the first to speak up for Zhou Can, which took guts.

After all, anyone could see Director Gao was making his first move to establish authority.

Everyone knew this was Gao’s way of staking his claim.

“I agree that Vice Director Zhou Can has done an outstanding job. Staff, patients, and their families all give positive feedback.”

Deputy Director Ye had watched Zhou Can’s career grow from the ground up.

He, too, stepped in now when he saw Director Gao coming down hard on Zhou Can.

No one really knew if Zhou Can was just collateral damage or if Director Gao was targeting all three leaders from the start.

It was just like the old imperial court—a minister under fire always had friends ready to speak up at the critical moment, begging mercy on his behalf.

Never underestimate those kinds of allies.

Someone pleading your case at the right time might save you from the worst.

But when no one stands up for you, you’re basically dragged out, wailing for justice before a harsh sentence falls.

Once the verdict’s in, there’s little chance to reverse your fate.

Director Gao shot a surprised look at the two deputy directors. In the end, he didn’t dare push things too far. Besides, Zhou Can wasn’t his real target—so he took the chance to ease off.

“Oh, so Vice Director Zhou Can has a solid reputation! I’m new, and I may not know all the details. If two deputy directors vouch for him, then he must be doing good work. Let’s do this: Zhou Can keeps his post, no suspension, no self-critique required.”

Director Gao’s main goal was clearly to remove Assistant Qin.

“Thank you to all the hospital leaders for their support. I’ll work even harder from now on.”

Zhou Can thanked them, then sat down.

Assistant Qin and Director Liu Shiqiu had no one to speak up for them. After standing with grim faces for a while, they finally sat down too.

Anyone could guess those two would have a hard road ahead.

“Next up, the second issue—something the previous director didn’t finish and left in my hands. After years of growth, Tuyu Hospital has become the top Level Three hospital in the province, and it’s ranked well across the country. To meet future competition and challenges, the leadership team needs a structural update.”

The proposed plan was to add a deputy director to every major department, on top of the current senior staff.

At last, this move was actually happening.

Director Zhu had tried a few times too, but getting close to retirement had made him play it safe, so the matter was shelved.

Promoting department heads to deputy directors was never as simple as it looked.

Restructuring meant every vacancy would have to be filled.

If the top department head moves up, then the heads of smaller sections and their deputies must move up as well.

Otherwise, resentment would spread.

Benefits had to be shared, never hoarded.

Director Gao probably wanted some clear accomplishments too. Medical results were already strong. Trying to boost them more in the short run? Nearly impossible.

So, he could only turn to administrative changes.

The easiest place to start was reorganizing the leadership team.

Completing a project the former director never finished would earn approval from higher-ups. Elevating department heads was a major reform for the hospital.

Director Gao definitely wasn’t going to pass up a chance at such ‘great achievements’.

One more thing: earlier, Deputy Directors Ye and Bai had interfered with his decisions. For anyone driven by power, that was hard to swallow.

So what to do?

Simple—promote all the big department heads to deputy directors, diluting the influence of Ye, Bai, and the like.

That way, Director Gao’s own position would be rock solid.

And his authority would only grow.

After some discussion and a vote, nearly everyone was on board.

Looks like everyone was enthusiastic about promotions.

“Since over 97 percent of you agree with this restructure, here’s how the election will work. Each department will vote by secret ballot, one person one vote, to select its deputy director. The current department head has priority, but the final result will go to whoever gets the most votes—fair and square.”

…

Director Gao then announced a detailed set of election rules.

“Director Gao, your plan for restructuring the leadership is modern and makes a lot of sense. I’d like to take this chance to make a request.”

Director Lou stood up and heaped praise on Director Gao.

“Go ahead, Director Lou!”

A faint smile crossed Director Gao’s face.

Flattery always works.

From Gao’s point of view, Director Lou’s open praise signaled his loyalty.

Of course that put Gao in a good mood.

“Emergency Department has grown in recent years. Clinic work is booming. To keep up with your vision, I ask that you let us follow General Surgery’s example and set up multiple sub-departments. That way, patients can quickly find specialists, improving care and raising survival rates.

It’ll also let our staff focus and grow their expertise.”

“If Emergency prospers under your leadership, everyone will see just how outstanding you are.”

Obviously Director Lou wasn’t flattering for nothing.

He’d been pushing for this for ages, but never got it through.

Now he’d seized the opportunity for a final push.

Director Gao considered for a few seconds.

His eyes brightened a bit.

“The Emergency Department is a hospital cornerstone. Every director has a duty to build it up. If you’re committed, I fully support it. Draft a concrete plan and bring it to my office—once resolved, we’ll move ahead.”

Even with all his authority, Director Gao couldn’t make every decision alone.

Some things still had to be put to a formal vote.

That was just how it worked.

Zhou Can’s face didn’t reveal much, but he let out a silent sigh. Director Lou had always wanted to make Emergency bigger and better.

Now teaming up with Director Gao—who knew if that was good or bad?

Sometimes it’s like bargaining with a tiger. The end results are never certain.