Chapter 317 - 214: Poor Men Give Their All, Rich Men a Percentage

Chapter 317: Chapter 214: Poor Men Give Their All, Rich Men a Percentage

The next morning.

Jiang He folded a few changes of clothes and casually stuffed them into his bag.

He was going to the Capital City to propose and didn’t plan on bringing too much with him. Traveling light was the most efficient way to go.

After all, he had money. If he needed anything, he could just buy it there.

Chen Hao, meanwhile, was scratching his head, a bulging suitcase packed and waiting by his feet.

Jiang He asked, "Are you moving?"

Chen Hao replied, "It’s a long trip, isn’t it? I have to pack a few sets of clothes to change into."

Jiang He said, "What I’m asking is, where are *you* going?"

Chen Hao froze, then suddenly grew anxious. "Old Jiang, what do you mean? Aren’t we going to the Capital City together?"

Jiang He said, "Huh?"

"You forgot?!"

Chen Hao became even more frantic. "You promised me last time! You said you were going to the Capital City to take care of something big, and you’d bring me along to meet Juanzi! I’ve already requested the time off!"

Jiang He slowly remembered.

’Right... I think that did happen.’

’The project has been moving so fast lately that I completely forgot about his whole situation. My bad, my bad~’

"Alright, you can come. Let’s go. First, a trip to the mall."

Only then did Chen Hao breathe a sigh of relief, quickly following after Jiang He.

The two hailed a taxi at the school gate and headed straight for Tianhe City.

In ’08, Tianhe City was one of the liveliest commercial districts in Yangcheng.

The taxi moved in fits and starts, a local Cantonese program playing on the radio.

Chen Hao watched the streetscape recede outside the window. Usually chatty, he was somewhat silent at the moment.

After a while, he turned his head, looking as if he wanted to say something but was hesitating.

Jiang He said, "Spit it out."

Chen Hao cleared his throat and asked, "Old Jiang, about Xu Chen’s case... what was the hospital’s final decision? How is he now?"

Jiang He’s tone was placid. "What else could it be? A formal reprimand. He can basically say goodbye to the operating table. He’ll be writing medical records and changing dressings in the department, doing odd jobs for a few years before anything else is considered."

Chen Hao tried to put himself in Xu Chen’s shoes. If he had ended up in that situation, his spirit probably would have shattered long ago.

After all, he himself had once nearly misdiagnosed a patient.

And so, he empathized with Xu Chen’s plight.

"Old Jiang... what if... what if the patient hadn’t made it off the table yesterday?" Chen Hao asked tentatively.

Jiang He said, "He’d have his medical license revoked, and he might even face criminal charges for medical malpractice. He’d have to leave this profession for good."

Chen Hao fell silent.

After a long moment, he ran a hand through his hair and said dejectedly, "Old Jiang, don’t you think... the margin for error for us doctors is a little too small? I mean, people aren’t machines. Who doesn’t make mistakes? What if one day, just a momentary lapse in concentration, you make a mistake by accident? Wouldn’t your life be ruined?"

Jiang He said, "Then don’t make a mistake."

Chen Hao pressed, "I’m talking about a ’what if’ scenario! What if? For example, a surgery is going perfectly fine, and suddenly you encounter a vascular anomaly, or a piece of equipment malfunctions, and you accidentally make a mistake?"

Jiang He gave him a helpless look.

"Major surgeries inevitably carry risks. Everyone knows this. That’s the whole point of the informed consent forms the patient’s family signs before the operation."

"Medicine is a science with limitations. When a doctor encounters an unexpected situation on the operating table and makes a mistake due to force majeure or a blind spot in their knowledge, that’s called a risk. It’s already factored into the probability of surgical risks. You don’t even understand that? Have you been wasting your time in the emergency department?"

Chen Hao gave an embarrassed laugh. "I get it, I get it. What I mean is... I just feel like Xu Chen made one mistake, and now he’s in such a miserable state. I feel a bit sorry for him. After all, he usually works pretty hard, and his skills aren’t bad."

Jiang He shook his head. "If he had made a mistake due to inexperience, or if he’d encountered an anatomical variation beyond his knowledge that caused massive bleeding, that would be a normal medical accident. As his supervising team leader, I would have taken the blame for him, and he wouldn’t have faced such severe consequences. But what happened in yesterday’s surgery—was that an accident?"

Chen Hao was silent.

Jiang He continued, "In order to show off on the operating table, he ignored the chief surgeon’s commands and acted on his own. He essentially put showing off his skills above the patient’s safety. He lost the most basic sense of reverence for life. At that point, he wasn’t far from being a murderer."

"This time, I happened to be there to clean up his mess. But if I don’t punish him severely, who’s going to foot the bill for the patient next time?"

"Making him do odd jobs off the table for a few years isn’t about ruining him. It’s about making him relearn the meaning of the word ’reverence’."

After hearing this, Chen Hao finally understood.

He nodded and said, "I see... Old Jiang, you’re the one who sees things so clearly."

The driver in the front had been eavesdropping and was getting a little scared.

’This young man is talking about murder and ruining lives... I’d better drive a little faster...’

...

「Thirty minutes later, at Tianhe City.」

In front of the counter of an internationally renowned jewelry brand.

Chen Hao asked in a low voice, "Old Jiang, what kind of ring are you planning to get for Teacher Shen? Should we look at the more expensive ones, or the cheaper ones?"

Jiang He said, "We can choose a cheaper one, but we definitely can’t choose one that’s too expensive."

Chen Hao said, "Huh?"

He knew Jiang He’s financial situation; the man was definitely not short on cash.

He was here to propose and buy a ring, but he was saying he wanted to buy a cheap one?

Jiang He explained, "Teacher Shen is the kind of person who, while she likes a sense of ceremony, prefers a *cost-effective* sense of ceremony."

"Diamond rings are just too overpriced. It’s not worth it at all. If I spent several hundred thousand, she’d be so heartbroken she wouldn’t be able to sleep at night, thinking I was wasting money."

As he spoke, Jiang He pointed to a simple pair of matching rings in the display case.

"Could you take this one out for me to see, please?"

After speaking to the sales associate, Jiang He turned back to Chen Hao. "So, buying one for around ten thousand yuan is enough to make the gesture. As long as the sense of ceremony for the proposal is there, that’s pretty much it."

Chen Hao found this hard to comprehend. "No way, is there really a girl in this world who doesn’t like big diamond rings? Marriage is a once-in-a-lifetime event. You’re being a little too rational, Old Jiang."

Jiang He nodded, taking the twelve-thousand-yuan ring from the associate and examining it. He said, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, "My money is her money, which means it’s our joint property. If I spend over a hundred thousand on a rock, of course she’ll be heartbroken."

Jiang He handed the ring back to the associate. "This is the one. Please wrap it up for me. I’ll pay by card."

Chen Hao still found it a bit incredible.

After entering his PIN, Jiang He said casually, "Of course, I have to make up for the money saved here somewhere else for Teacher Shen. Let’s go to that gold shop over there."

The two left the diamond counter and turned into a massive, well-established gold shop next door.

"We have to buy lots and lots of gold."

Jiang He said, "This stuff holds its value. Teacher Shen loves this kind of tangible, practical stuff."

"Hello, I’ll take ten of these investment gold bars to start. And that gold bracelet, and that necklace..."

Listening to Jiang He’s rapid-fire orders, Chen Hao was truly impressed.

The smile on the saleswoman’s face visibly twisted into one of fanatical ecstasy.

’This is like a "I reject my humanity, JOJO!" moment!’

"Sir, the total is two hundred twenty-seven thousand, five hundred yuan. Will you be paying by card?"

"Card."

...

Walking out of the gold shop carrying a weight of gold nearly equivalent to three bottles of water, Chen Hao couldn’t help but exclaim:

"Old Jiang, I used to hear that a lot of girls getting married these days are all about how big the diamond ring is or how many tens of thousands the betrothal gift is. I always thought that was just the market rate. But after seeing you in action today, I realize I need to adjust my own thinking."

Jiang He said, "That’s not necessary."

Chen Hao asked, "Why not?"

"Teacher Shen, she’s different. Girls like her are hard to find in this world. But Haozi, once you find one, you have to learn to cherish her."

"Sometimes, people in this world aren’t that kind. ’A poor guy empties his pockets, a rich guy gives a percentage.’ That saying isn’t just for show."

"But don’t you worry too much. Juanzi is a good girl. The fact that she can hang out with Teacher Shen means they’re birds of a feather. When you get to the Capital City, just be on your best behavior."

Chen Hao was once again awestruck by Jiang He’s words of wisdom.

’A poor guy empties his pockets, a rich guy gives a percentage?’

’That line has some serious weight to it... ’

Next, Chen Hao truly witnessed what it meant to spend money like water.

Jiang He was rich, and he was extremely willing to spend that money on Shen Yu.

He didn’t buy expensive bags, but he bought the best skincare sets. He didn’t buy flashy, impractical clothes, but he bought a top-of-the-line cashmere scarf and a warm winter coat.

And stockings.

Hundreds of thousands from his savings were spent as smoothly as flowing water.

Chen Hao obediently followed behind, giving a thumbs-up and carrying the bags.

’It’s great to be rich!’

’See something you like, just swipe the card and buy, buy, buy!’

Pure consumption, pure bliss.

It was just like that saying from the future: Everything is relative; what you gain, you also lose. For example, if you gain money, you lose your sadness.

The two of them finished their shopping and checked the time. It was almost noon.

"Let’s go. We’ll grab a bite to eat, then head to the airport."

They chose a small Cantonese restaurant.

The restaurant had a quiet and serene atmosphere. Each table was separated by a screen, and the servers, all dressed in smart uniforms, spoke in soft, hushed tones.

However, this elegant environment did nothing to slow down the eating speed of the two surgeons.

In less than fifteen minutes, the three dishes and one soup on the table had been completely wiped out.

Jiang He raised his hand. "Waiter, the check."

A uniformed server walked over quickly and bowed slightly.

"Hello, sir. The bill for your table has already been paid by someone."

Jiang He said, "Hm?"

Chen Hao, with a toothpick dangling from his mouth, was also stunned. He looked at the server, then at Jiang He. "Old Jiang, you ran into someone you know here?"

Jiang He asked the server, "Who paid?"

The server maintained his smile, turned to the side, and gestured with an outstretched hand toward a semi-enclosed booth in the inner part of the restaurant.

"It was that gentleman’s instruction. He said it was a small token of his appreciation..."

Jiang He followed the direction the server was pointing.

Through a carved wooden screen, he could vaguely see a man in a black turtleneck sweater and gold-rimmed glasses sitting there.

A cup of coffee sat in front of the man. He was currently turning his head slightly, his gaze passing through the gaps in the screen, smiling at Jiang He.

Jiang He narrowed his eyes, his gaze lingering on the man’s face for a few seconds.

’One look in your eyes, and I knew you were the one... uh, scratch that, I don’t know this person at all.’

’Who are you?’