Chapter 46 This Bastard

Playing Shuangkou was making Zhang Fan restless. The three middle-aged women were either talking about beauty treatments or wellness regimens, making him curl his lips in continuous silent annoyance.

Tang Jingjing and Li Xiao's assistant were drinking tea outside the private dining room while Zhang Fan accompanied the three women at the card table. He and Dong Hua were partners, yet hands that were clearly winnable ended up losing. With a single glance, Zhang Fan could tell that Dong Hua was intentionally throwing the game, which only bored him further. Li Xiao and Wang Qian had collaborated frequently in the past. Dong Hua was an expert with an exceptionally strong memory for cards, and Zhang Fan was no slouch either; despite Dong Hua's deliberate leniency, the game remained intensely competitive.

Given that it was their first meeting, Wang Qian's intention was simply to let them get acquainted without diving into deep discussions. After keeping them company for over three hours—and it would have gone on much longer had Li Xiao's back not been recovering—they finally wrapped up. Before leaving, Li Xiao handed Dong Hua her business card. Beaming with smiles, Dong Hua took Wang Qian away for a beauty treatment.

Director Huang's term was coming to an end by the year's end. Having dedicated over thirty years of his life to the medical system, the veteran doctor was about to retire, and the entire hospital was abuzz with speculation over who would become the new director. Vice Director and Head of Internal Medicine Ouyang Hong had the strongest backing; she was considered a true native of the borderlands, with ancestors who had entered Xinjiang alongside General Zuo Zongtang's troops. Another contender was Vice Director and Head of General Surgery Jiang Xingping, who had cultivated roots in Chasu City for many years and maintained strong connections with numerous leadership figures.

Before old Huang officially stepped down, a heavy snowstorm arrived. Learning from the previous year's heavy snows, which had blocked roads and left counties and townships starved of medical supplies and pharmaceuticals, the municipal party committee organized backbone medical personnel from various urban hospitals to descend to the grassroots level, dispatching municipal doctors to work in county hospitals.

The city hospital was shrouded in a gloomy cloud; no one was eager to go to the counties. Traveling home in the depth of winter was inconvenient, and if heavy snow blocked the roads, being stranded for half a month was entirely normal. With families to support, nobody wanted to go. Once the hospital's mobilization meeting concluded, those who volunteered automatically numbered very few. Old Huang, unperturbed, simply assigned the quotas directly to the department heads and left them to deal with the headache.

The surgeons Xue Fei, Zhou Chengfu, and Cui Pingjun were all reluctant to go, whereas old Li and Zhang Fan remained indifferent. Going to the county would undoubtedly take a toll on their income, so naturally, no one volunteered. Old Gao privately spoke with each person individually. In the end, old Li announced he would go, sparing the trouble of arranging anyone else. Old Li, Zhang Fan, and Wang Ya'nan would form a single group and go together, eliminating the need to recruit others.

With their departure, the department's on-call schedule became impossible to balance. Exercising his final authority as hospital director, old Huang finalized the permanent department assignments for all the rotating physicians of the past year. Wang Ya'nan finally became an official member of the First Department of Orthopedics, and three new doctors were assigned to them as well. By that time, however, Zhang Fan and his colleagues had already set off for the county.

The personnel had been decided by old Gao, but the choice of destination was left to Zhang Fan and the others, who could pick from four subordinate counties. Old Li had no preference and left the decision to Zhang Fan and Wang Ya'nan. In the end, Zhang Fan chose Quake County; having been away for half a year without returning even once, he felt a lingering sense of nostalgia.

Before heading to the county, he needed to inform Wang Qian and make a special trip to explain things to Li Xiao, especially since he had accepted her financial compensation. Currently, Li Xiao had completed one course of treatment for her lumbar disc herniation, but because of the condition, it was best to undergo three consecutive courses.

When Zhang Fan called Wang Qian first, it turned out she was with Li Xiao.

"You're going to the county? Don't worry about it, you don't need to go. I'll give your hospital director a call."

Zhang Fan hurriedly intervened, "Sister Li, I've just started working, and the roster is already out. If you make a call—" He left the rest unsaid. Truthfully, Zhang Fan was quite willing to go down to the grassroots; the surgeries performed in the city department were simply too monotonous.

"I see." Li Xiao understood Zhang Fan's position as well. Working within an institution meant one had to at least show basic courtesy to superiors. If matters were already settled and one only then went looking for connections to intervene, leadership would deem one lacking in tact; if you didn't want to go, you should have sought help earlier, rather than waiting until the roster was finalized and approved by leadership before asking them to alter personnel arrangements. Doing so was practically a slap to the face. After a moment of contemplation, she asked, "Which county are you going to? And for how long?"

"Quake County Hospital. Probably about a month."

"It's not very far. How about this: I'll have my driver pick you up every day, and bring you back after your treatment session. See if that works."

"That's just too much trouble. Why don't you just assign a car to Zhang Fan? He can come over at noon, finish his treatment, and head back in the afternoon. Besides, winter is the off-season for your business, and the county hospital Zhang Fan is going to doesn't have that many patients anyway. Furthermore, culture, education, and health are under Dong Hua's jurisdiction," Wang Qian interrupted the moment she heard the suggestion.

Li Xiao glanced at Wang Qian and then said to Zhang Fan, "That works too, though Dr. Zhang will have to endure some fatigue."

Zhang Fan hastily waved his hands and said, "It's no trouble at all. I actually happen to enjoy driving. I'll just treat it as satisfying my craving for driving." Having a driver pick him up every day would be awkward anyway; driving himself would grant him much more freedom.

"Very well then. What kind of car does Dr. Zhang need? I have several cars in the garage that were given to the company to settle debts. Would a Mercedes-Benz do?"

Even if he knew little about cars, Zhang Fan had heard of Mercedes-Benz; its reputation was simply too grand. Zhang Fan shook his head immediately: "There's no need for all that. Any ordinary car will do."

"Just get an SUV. It wouldn't look good for Zhang Fan to drive a Mercedes out there. The roads are slippery in the winter, so driving an SUV is safer. What was the name of that car you drove before?" Wang Qian and Li Xiao were well acquainted, so there was no need for formalities.

"That was a Prado belonging to a pharmaceutical distributor," Zhang Fan explained, lest Li Xiao think he was deliberately hit-up for a vehicle despite already owning one.

Li Xiao stood up, stretched her back, and asked her secretary, "Do we have a Toyota?" Her secretary stepped forward and replied, "We don't have a Toyota."

"What kind of SUVs do we have?"

"We have a Cherokee that's ninety percent new, with less than five hundred kilometers on it, taken from Qinghua to settle a debt."

Li Xiao turned back to ask Zhang Fan, "Dr. Zhang, would a Cherokee do?"

"That's fine, as long as I have a set of wheels."

"Then I must trouble Dr. Zhang with the driving."

On the following day, the city hospital's doctors were divided into four groups to head to four different counties. The surgical team heading to Quake County consisted of three people, alongside two internal medicine specialists—an attending physician from the respiratory department and an attending physician from the cardiology department. County hospitals had sent vehicles to pick them up; Quake County sent Wang Hongmei from the administrative office along with driver Old Zhou.

Seeing Wang Ya'nan lugging two large suitcases, Zhang Fan asked in astonishment, "What is this for? Are you moving house?" He himself had brought only a single bag containing a few changes of clothes and basic toiletries.

"Mind your own business! You didn't even come over to help, and I can't lift these anymore." Wang Ya'nan set the cases down, genuinely exhausted. Zhang Fan had already placed Old Li's bag into the Cherokee; the Cherokee's trunk was spacious enough that fitting Wang Ya'nan's two large suitcases presented zero problem.

Seeing Zhang Fan load the luggage into a Cherokee, Wang Ya'nan trotted over to his side and remarked, "Figures it's your connections showing through—even the grade of the vehicle has been upgraded. All the other counties are rolling out generic 120 ambulances; you certainly command some influence." Over half a year of surgical life had made the naturally aloof young woman much more outgoing.

Wang Hongmei was exceptionally courteous toward Zhang Fan; before she set off, Zou Pingshan had explicitly instructed her to take good care of him. Furthermore, she wasn't surprised in the least that Zhang Fan was driving himself to Quake County, knowing he had already been driving a Prado back when he was stationed in the county. With a total of six doctors traveling from the city to the various counties, Zhang Fan couldn't possibly cram into everyone else's transport, so he simply offered a special explanation to Old Li and prepared to drive back to Quake County town alone.

When Wang Ya'nan learned that Zhang Fan was driving off by himself, her jaw dropped wide enough to fit an egg. "This jerk is too selfish! He just drove away all by himself?"

"He has some personal matters to attend to. We'll head out first, and he'll follow behind shortly." Old Li offered this explanation specifically for the benefit of the two internal medicine doctors, ensuring they wouldn't harbor the misconception that Zhang Fan was arrogant or aloof.

Private cars were still relatively uncommon in Chasu City back in 2009. Later on, seemingly overnight, everyone began buying private automobiles, and the city streets began to choke with traffic!