Chapter 403 - 262: Report
A few days later, on Christmas morning.
Jiang He woke up and turned to hold her, only to find the space beside him empty.
Teacher Shen had left last night.
If he were feeling a little more dramatic, he might have sent a text like: "Woke up and didn’t see you. Day one of missing you..."
Ultimately, he was more rational.
He sent a simple message: "Teacher Shen, good morning."
’I’m an adult now. I should really try to be cooler.’
Ten seconds later, he sent a follow-up: "Miss you."
’Well, so much for being cool.’
His back felt a little sore as he got out of bed.
God knows how wild a young couple can get right before they have to part.
The stockings: "Fam, who gets it? I was bought, worn for only a few minutes, and then ripped to shreds. I could just die!"
In the kitchen, he opened the fridge and couldn’t help but smile when he saw the porridge Teacher Shen had left for him.
It was truly cold, but things were indeed getting back on track, step by step.
—"The seasons and our lives press on; when winter’s sun is born anew, spring is sure to follow."
While heating the porridge, Jiang He double-checked his schedule.
The exchange visit to Hushang Ruijin Hospital was scheduled for after New Year’s Day.
He had about a week until his departure.
In the meantime, he had to stay in Yangcheng to take care of some things.
Some of the rewards the department head had mentioned previously required him to be present in person.
He had to be there to sign the papers and claim his dues.
When he left after breakfast, Su Zhi was already waiting for him downstairs.
Originally, Su Zhi had only been responsible for planning his trip to the United States.
But after Jiang He returned, Su Zhi took the initiative to apply to the provincial department, expressing her willingness to continue working by Jiang He’s side, helping him with scheduling and the like.
His landlady, Aunt Wu, saw Jiang He coming downstairs and greeted him with a warm smile. "Off to work, Dr. Jiang?"
Jiang He replied, "Yep. Good morning to you."
Aunt Wu said in a gentle, singsong voice, "Morning, morning! You work so hard, Dr. Jiang~"
Jiang He nodded.
Su Zhi opened the car door for him, and they headed straight for Affiliated Hospital No. 1.
Aunt Wu stood there, watching the car drive away, her heart filled with emotion.
When she first rented the apartment to Jiang He, she never would have imagined he would turn out to be so outstanding.
「Some time ago.」
Aunt Wu had called her distant nephew-in-law, Fang Mian, to ask about Jiang He.
She hadn’t known what to expect, but the answer had given her the shock of her life.
Over the phone, Fang Mian had praised Jiang He so much he practically made him sound like a deity.
Then Aunt Wu had said apologetically, "Mian, my dear, here’s the thing. A while back, I was bragging to Jiang He about how impressive you are at Affiliated Hospital No. 1, and I told him you should take him under your wing when you get the chance."
Fang Mian: "?"
Upon hearing this, Fang Mian could only feel like,
The sky was falling.
He had almost started swearing his head off right there on the phone.
Fortunately, Aunt Wu quickly added, "But I cleared things up later, I explained everything! Dr. Jiang is a magnanimous man; he probably doesn’t mind..."
Only then did Fang Mian choose to remain silent.
If calling the police for something like this wasn’t useless, he would have had Aunt Wu arrested...
’Offend Jiang He at Affiliated Hospital No. 1?’
’You might as well choose the express route down from the rooftop—no elevators, no stairs...’
’How marvelous! The heavens and earth have inverted and now hang suspended! The sky shrinks while the earth expands! How strange!’
...
「Affiliated Hospital No. 1.」
Jiang He had a meeting today with the hospital leadership and department directors.
The topic of the meeting was the clinical thought process behind the V-A-V ECMO configuration modification.
He had spent the last two days poring over research materials.
To put it bluntly, he was fabricating a justification.
It was like playing a game of Werewolf. The Seer needs a logical reason for checking a player, a plausible narrative for their thought process.
Jiang He’s act of identifying the core of the illness and improvising a new surgical technique on the spot also required a complete thought process to back it up.
On his way to the office,
A few young nurses saw Jiang He and immediately, as if by reflex, flattened themselves against the wall, lowered their heads in unison, and said:
"Director Jiang, good morning!"
Jiang He nodded in response. "Morning."
After he had walked a dozen or so steps past them,
He could still hear the young nurses’ chatter, tinged with palpable relief.
Jiang He didn’t quite understand.
’I’m not usually harsh when I speak, and I rarely chew people out during rounds.’
’What on earth are these young women so afraid of?’
What he didn’t know was that in today’s Affiliated Hospital No. 1, he had long since become an existence that transcended the norm.
He was a Deputy Chief Physician who’d received an exceptional promotion, was in charge of a major special project for the national 863 Program, and held an astronomical amount of research funding.
Coupled with a calm and reserved demeanor that belied his age, in the eyes of the young nurses, his presence was even more formidable than that of King Zhang the Great...
It was the natural panic of a rookie facing someone overwhelmingly powerful.
Entering the doctors’ office area, he was met with an entirely different scene from his colleagues.
"Morning, Director Jiang."
"Director Jiang, I just brewed some fresh Da Hong Pao. Shall I bring a cup over for you in a bit?"
The attending physicians and deputy chief physicians he passed all smiled and took the initiative to greet him.
Their attitude was warm and friendly.
You could also call it a mix of reverence and a desire to curry favor.
The leap in his status needed no deliberate display; it was evident in these subtle details.
Jiang He responded to each of them before pushing open the door to his own medical team’s office.
As the door opened, he saw familiar faces inside.
Meng Shiyu, Xu Chen, Fang Mian, and three other attending and resident physicians all shot to their feet in unison.
"Morning."
"Morning, Boss!"
"...Morning, Bo-Boss."
Jiang He said softly, "Sit. You don’t have to stand up every time you see me."
They sat down as told.
Jiang He glanced at Xu Chen.
He seemed to be in good spirits today.
Xu Chen himself had never expected that when Jiang He was forming his medical team, he would go straight to the Medical Affairs Department and request to have him transferred onto the team.
The day he heard the news, he had spent half the night crying under the covers in his dorm room.
He had once considered Jiang He his rival.
Later, after being completely crushed by Jiang He’s raw talent, he started calling him River God.
After he made a huge mistake, it was Jiang He who told him how to handle it, helped him get the family’s forgiveness, and then extended a hand to pull him back up.
Even now on the team, Xu Chen was only responsible for admitting new patients and writing up detailed case histories.