Chapter 206 - 205: Habit of Dependence

Chapter 206: Chapter 205: Habit of Dependence

Dr. Gede Kant could have dismissed Yu Zhiming’s diagnosis as utter nonsense with no basis whatsoever.

However, he had to take Academician Tan’s endorsement seriously.

After all, Academician Tan’s standing and reputation spoke for themselves.

He was a renowned figure in the international field of hepatology research; he wouldn’t just go along with some prank to make a fool of him.

This made Dr. Gede Kant feel a sense of unease.

’Could I really have cancer?’

’And a particularly nasty case of pancreatic cancer at that?’

Gede Kant mulled it over for a moment. When he looked at Yu Zhiming again, his expression had softened considerably.

"Dr. Yu, once today’s symposium is over, I’ll go get a targeted examination of my pancreas."

"If there really is a problem..."

Gede Kant took a deep breath and said, "I will apologize to you, Dr. Yu, for my earlier skepticism and also express my thanks."

Yu Zhiming smiled at Gede Kant, gave a nod to Academician Tan, and turned to leave the reception room...

Panting from exhaustion, he carried a ten- to twenty-pound liver specimen back to the Qi Yue Medical Research Center, only to be immediately summoned into the director’s office by Qi Yue.

"Why are you back so soon?"

Seeing the wry smile on his professor’s face, Yu Zhiming knew he must have anticipated this.

"I couldn’t understand anything. It was a waste of time, so naturally, I came back."

"Professor, you figured this would happen, didn’t you?"

Qi Yue laughed heartily. "Even I wouldn’t dare to casually jump into a medical discussion in such a specialized subfield, especially one led by an academician."

"It’s not like an academic symposium where the presentation follows a clear structure and progresses step-by-step. In those, as long as your medical foundation is solid, you can at least get the general idea."

"Their discussions involve huge logical leaps."

"Without sufficient knowledge and practical experience in their specific subfield, it’s impossible to keep up."

Yu Zhiming said with a frustrated expression, "Professor, I only understood the first two or three sentences before my brain turned to mush."

"If I had known, I wouldn’t have gone at all."

Qi Yue chuckled again. "How would you ever know how wide the gap is without experiencing it for yourself?"

"Their decades of dedicated work in the field of hepatology aren’t something you can catch up to in a short amount of time."

He paused, then said with a satisfied tone, "I thought you would at least try to tough it out until lunchtime."

"You came back a good half hour earlier than that. Not bad."

Yu Zhiming chuckled. "Professor, I actually could have been back even earlier."

"It was mainly because that guy Qiu Yi had to go and meddle..."

He briefly explained how Qiu Yi had stopped him and made a big show of introducing him to the three Americans.

Yu Zhiming added smugly, "Professor, as it turns out, it was quite a coincidence. That American fellow who looks like a bear really did have something wrong with his pancreas."

"Otherwise, I wouldn’t have had a chance to show off my skills."

Qi Yue’s expression darkened, however, and he said slowly, "Zhiming, that fellow Qiu Yi is trying to get you to go abroad."

"Now that your ability has been proven, the next step is that Johns Hopkins Hospital will extend a strong invitation for you to go there for advanced training."

Yu Zhiming smiled. "Professor, I know my own limitations. My fundamentals are still very weak. I’m not going to get overambitious and run off to study abroad."

His words did not dispel Qi Yue’s worries.

"Zhiming, in the medical field, other countries have two main advantages compared to us. One is medical technology and equipment."

"The second is drug research, development, and experimental treatments, which are more systematic and advanced."

"When it comes to pure clinical and surgical skills, they can’t match us."

"After all, we have a population of 1.4 billion. All sorts of rare and complex cases are constantly emerging."

"And there’s no shortage of opportunities for hands-on practice."

Yu Zhiming grunted in agreement. "I understand, Professor. To become a great doctor, beyond medical theory, you need broad experience."

"And in that regard, our country’s large population gives our doctors a huge natural advantage."

Yu Zhiming added, "Besides, public safety abroad is a mess, and I wouldn’t adapt well to the living environment. I won’t be going abroad casually."

Qi Yue agreed, "Indeed. In terms of public safety, our country is the safest."

"As a person of Asian descent, you’d also face a lot of discrimination abroad. Foreigners are always talking about anti-racism precisely because they are so discriminatory..."

Qi Yue lectured Yu Zhiming for a little while on the downsides of being abroad, but to avoid overdoing it, he shifted the topic to work.

"What about the patient files I gave you yesterday?"

Yu Zhiming quickly replied, "Professor, I’ve read them all carefully. There were no noteworthy findings."

Qi Yue grunted. "That patient should arrive at the hospital around three or four this afternoon."

"When he arrives, you can start by giving him a full-body examination..."

After leaving the director’s office, Yu Zhiming sent a text to his Fourth Sister, asking her to call him back when she had a moment.

The moment he sent the text, his phone rang.

"Sis, where are you now?"

"At home!"

Yu Xiangwan’s tired voice came through the phone. "I just got back, took a shower, and was about to rest."

"The cremation is done. Zhang Bai has also taken the ashes and boarded a train to go back to his hometown to bury his mother."

Yu Zhiming grunted, then asked for confirmation, "Sis, do you really have feelings for that Zhang Bai guy?"

"Yes. From the moment I met him, I found him easy on the eyes. As I got to know him, I discovered that besides being a filial son, he’s also cheerful, considerate, and dependable."

"He’s a trustworthy guy."

"Fifth Brother, you don’t dislike him, do you?"

Yu Zhiming grumbled, "It’s not that I dislike him. It just feels wrong that he’s stealing you away."

Yu Xiangwan laughed heartily over the phone.

"Fifth Brother, you sound like a little kid who hasn’t grown up. Weren’t you the one who was always bugging me to find a boyfriend?"

After a moment’s pause, the laughter in Yu Xiangwan’s voice disappeared, replaced by a serious and solemn tone.

"Fifth Brother, First Sister, Second Sister, and Third Sister got married, and they’re still your sisters. It’s the same for me."

"Me finding a boyfriend doesn’t mean I’m leaving you. It just means there’s one more person to love and take care of you."

Yu Zhiming grunted twice, clearly disagreeing.

"Fifth Brother, wait until you have a girlfriend you love. You’ll be wishing this sister of yours would stay far, far away."

"Alright, I’m dead tired. No more talking, I’m going to sleep..."

With a glum look on his face, Yu Zhiming returned to the main office, still holding his phone. Zhou Mo immediately sidled up to him.

"Dr. Yu, did Sister Xiang Wan find a boyfriend?"

Yu Zhiming nodded, then sighed. "I still have to tell Sister Yan, so she doesn’t have to worry."

Zhou Mo asked again, "Dr. Yu, that medical symposium you went to, it must have been all in English, right?"

"Is your English really good?"

Yu Zhiming said modestly, "It’s decent, I guess. Daily conversation and professional discussions aren’t a big problem."

"Dr. Yu, you’re amazing."

Zhou Mo praised him, then lamented, "I have absolutely no talent for learning foreign languages. I barely managed to pass my college English proficiency exam at the very last second."

Yu Zhiming chuckled lightly. "You just need to practice more. After you move abroad and you’re in that language environment, you’ll be fluent in a few months."

Zhou Mo shook her head. "I might travel abroad for a few days at most, but I would never settle there."

Just then, a delivery driver arrived with Zhou Mo’s lunch.

Yu Zhiming suddenly remembered the waitress from Hundred Fresh Pavilion.

"Zhou Mo, how is that waitress, Wang Ru, doing at your mom’s place?"

Zhou Mo smiled lightly. "My mom says she’s very skillful with her hands. She picked up tailoring right away, a hundred times better than me..."

A little after four in the afternoon, Yu Zhiming finally met Cai Junyu, the patient with abdominal pain from the Capital City.

After a few simple questions about his condition and its progression, Yu Zhiming gave him a full-body examination.

The result: no unusual findings.

’Looks like I’ll have to wait for the patient’s abdominal pain to flare up before I can do any further examinations.’

However, there was a problem.

The patient’s abdominal pain attacks were irregular, and each episode was relatively brief, lasting only from a few minutes to a little over ten.

This meant they would have to play the waiting game.

Dr. Xie Jianmin suggested, "Director, the patient’s attacks mostly happen at night. How about having Dr. Yu work a few night shifts?"

"Speaking of which, Dr. Yu hasn’t worked a single night shift since he joined our center."

Qi Yue refused. "Zhiming is not suited for night shifts."

"He still needs to do the early-stage cancer patient screening for the project every evening. How could he have the energy for a night shift?"

Xie Jianmin spoke again. "It wouldn’t really be a night shift. We’d just have Dr. Yu rest in the on-call room."

"When the patient has an attack, a nurse can just wake Dr. Yu up immediately."

Qi Yue looked at the silent Yu Zhiming and shook his head again. "How could he possibly rest well in the on-call room?"

"You should know that Zhiming is a bit sensitive to sound. He needs a relatively quiet environment to rest at night."

The last time Qi Yue went to Yu Zhiming’s place, he took a look around his bedroom and understood everything.

That bedroom had been specially modified to be extremely soundproof.

Qi Yue also finally understood why the guy had dark circles under his eyes every day during his assessment at Huashan Hospital.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t sleep in an unfamiliar bed; it was simply too noisy for him to sleep.

He couldn’t sleep well even in a four-star hotel, so one could only imagine how it would be in the hospital’s on-call room.

When Qi Yue saw Xie Jianmin, Wang Zhijin, Wang Zejia, and the others all looking at Yu Zhiming, his face darkened.

"What is it?"

"Just because Zhiming can’t find the patient’s problem right away, you all don’t know how to diagnose patients anymore?"

"How long has it been, and you’re already this dependent on him?"

"What’s next? If you leave this center, are you going to pack Zhiming up and take him with you?"

Seeing the ashamed looks on the faces of Xie Jianmin and the others, Qi Yue couldn’t help but feel a sense of alarm himself.

’Lately, Xie Jianmin and his colleagues have been calling on Yu Zhiming from time to time to help examine their patients.’

’And wasn’t I the same?’

’I’ve had more than one patient with a complex case who was only diagnosed thanks to the crucial information Yu Zhiming provided.’

’People are inherently lazy.’

’This habit of dependency... it has to change...’