Chapter 24 : Meeting the seniors

Tang Zhen blinked. “Director Chi, I don’t know how to fish.”

A gentle wind followed the swaying green branches, caressing the girl’s delicate face. Her eyes, pure and clear, were filled with a worldly-unaware confusion.

A strange feeling stirred in Chi Yuqin’s heart. She had to admit that the girl’s beauty had stunned her, even though she wore the most ordinary hair, the simplest clothes, and spoke the most common words.

An illicit thought arose in broad daylight, a peculiar emotion stirring within her.

Chi Yuqin didn’t resist. She hadn’t felt this way in a long time.

She had always been a person who paid close attention to her emotions. Even the most inappropriate feelings, she would always find a suitable reason to justify them, and then accept them calmly.

An adult’s desires need no explanation.

“Go back and write the case histories. Remember to change the dressings for beds eleven, twenty-seven, and thirty-six. Monitor the heart rate of bed twenty-four every hour. Stop the sedatives for bed seventeen for a while and see how her consciousness and memory are recovering. If it’s good, adjust the ventilator parameters again, draw some blood, and if everything is fine, the tube can be removed.”

Tang Zhen’s eyes were wide, her face a picture of bewilderment.

Seeing her like this, Chi Yuqin frowned. “Did I say something wrong?”

“No,” Tang Zhen quickly replied. Not only had she not misremembered, but she remembered it even more clearly than Tang Zhen, who had handled it herself.

“If you don’t understand something, come and ask. If I’m not in the office, send me a WeChat message.” Chi Yuqin added, “Don’t send it to the group. Send it to me privately.”

“Oh, is any time okay?”

“Then ask me again next Chinese New Year.”

On Friday, just after rounds, Tang Zhen was called to perform a thoracentesis.

This wasn’t her first time. A few days after she was admitted, Zhao Qin had led her through one.

Zhao Qin’s words were very direct. Everyone has a first time. Once you’re familiar with it, don’t be nervous.

Although that was what she said, Tang Zhen’s palms were still sweating with nervousness at the time. Before this, she had only practiced on the simulators at school. No matter how skilled she was in practice, a mannequin and a real person could not be compared. The temperature of the hand, the texture of the skin, the beating heart in the chest cavity, were all completely different.

But when she really started, Tang Zhen’s focus was absolute, as if a certain emotional switch had been flipped, pushing all the nervousness and apprehension from the first time out the door.

After the thoracentesis was done, Tang Zhen hadn’t even broken a sweat. The short ten minutes had given her a good start in clinical practice.

At this moment, she was inside, and Director Wang was outside, watching, her face growing more and more pleased.

Wang Qiugin never suppressed young people. In her eyes, Renhua was a balance. The excellence of those who could enter was self-evident. As for clinical experience… it was just a matter of time and accumulation. So she had always advocated for encouragement over criticism. As long as they did well, she was never stingy with her praise.

“I think Little Tang is very good. Her hands are so steady, not like a newcomer’s. In our line of work, the thing we fear most is shaky hands. Look at her… she doesn’t even blink.”

While Wang Qiugin was saying this, Chi Yuqin was standing next to her, not looking at Tang Zhen performing the thoracentesis in the ward, nor at Wang Qiugin who was constantly praising Tang Zhen. She was looking down, flipping through the case history in her hand.

“I’m talking to you.” Wang Qiugin frowned, thinking this person was dissatisfied again. “Do you have any objections?”

“No.”

“Then why aren’t you speaking?”

Chi Yuqin closed the case history in her hand and finally looked up, her face expressionless, still with that faint demeanor.

“What do you want me to say?”

“She’s your own trainee. Don’t you have any comments?”

Chi Yuqin’s chin lifted slightly, and the moment her upper eyelids lifted, she glanced at the ward—Tang Zhen was squatting next to the patient, her left index and middle fingers fixing the skin at the puncture point, her right hand holding the puncture needle, and without hesitation, she inserted the needle. The fluid was slowly drawn out.

“Her hands are indeed steady, but it’s not something to be proud of. A medical student who has studied for eight years, and in cardiac surgery at that, steady hands are the most basic requirement. If she can’t even do that, then she can consider buying a train ticket home.”

“I know you have high standards, but giving young people appropriate affirmation can boost their confidence. If you always have a stern face, they’ll run away as soon as they see you. How can you train new people then? Do you want to go out in the future and hear nothing but people cursing you?”

Chi Yuqin wanted to say that her reputation hadn’t been good for a long time, and she wasn’t the only one who had been cursed behind her back.

She didn’t care about these things. She only cared if the people who left her could stand on their own.

“What are you thinking about again?” Wang Qiugin asked her.

“About what you said.”

“What did I say?”

“You said that a doctor without a humanistic spirit is cold, but a humanistic spirit without skill is sentimentalism.”

Wang Qiugin’s brow furrowed—

“You—”

Chi Yuqin nodded. “Teacher, I’ll be leaving now.”

It was just eight o’clock. Tang Zhen had just finished writing the practical record when Liu Sisi slid over in her chair and poked her with her elbow.

“They’ve already gone over. Let’s go too.”

“Alright, I’ll just pack my bag.”

The two of them left the hospital and went straight to a Sichuan restaurant across the street.

This meal was hosted by the senior students from the anesthesiology department. By the time they arrived, almost everyone was there. Two large square tables were pushed together, and the front part of the restaurant was mostly occupied by this group of medical students, all chatting animatedly. There was even a case of ice-cold beer on the floor.

This scene reminded Tang Zhen of the hometown association meetings in school, where people she knew and didn’t know would gather and chat about everything under the sun.

Although she didn’t particularly like this kind of socializing, when she thought about how she would have to start rotating in two months, if she didn’t build some relationships in advance, she wouldn’t even have anyone to talk to when she entered a new department. Tang Zhen thought it was very necessary. After all, she had entered society and could no longer be a loner like in school. Sometimes, she also needed friends.

Liu Sisi was a natural extrovert and started chatting with everyone as soon as she sat down.

As she chatted, she would turn her head and whisper in Tang Zhen’s ear—

“The one with glasses at the end is Zhao Lei. His parents both work at the city hall. The one with the buzz cut to his left is Xu Yan, a second-generation demolition heir with properties in the first, second, and third rings… the one playing on his phone is Jiang Feng. He’s the best off among all of them, and also the oldest, thirty-five or thirty-six…”

Tang Zhen just listened quietly to Liu Sisi, not expressing any opinion. Occasionally, she would take a sip or two of the tea in her hand. She didn’t know what kind of tea it was, but the brewed tea was as clear as plain water and had no taste, just like the expression on her face right now, which was also faint.

They whispered to each other so many times that it inevitably attracted attention. Besides, with Tang Zhen’s beautiful face right there, it was hard for people not to notice.

“What are you two whispering about?”

“You dare to whisper when you’re late?”

“No way! You have to be punished with two glasses!”

At a dinner party with guys, alcohol was always indispensable. It was as if the meal was a waste if they didn’t get the girls to drink a few glasses.

Once someone started the heckling, others would immediately follow suit.

“That’s right, the latecomers have to punish themselves.”

Liu Sisi was resourceful and used to such scenes. Besides, everyone had to work tomorrow, so even with the heckling, three glasses at most would be enough. But Tang Zhen was different. She wasn’t as smooth as Liu Sisi. She neither knew how to say nice things to smooth things over, nor would she accept a drink just to save trouble because of the heckling.

But the only thing that had changed was that she was no longer as rigid as before. She raised the teacup in her hand—

“Seniors, we have to work tomorrow, so we’ll toast you with tea instead of wine.” She had just raised her teacup to drink when the other person pressed down on her raised arm.

The wide knuckles of a man carried a certain pressure.

The person shook the wine in his hand with some force, and a few drops splashed out of the cup, landing on Tang Zhen’s shoe. The yellow liquid then spread out.

“Junior, it’s not fun if you say that. Don’t you want to rotate to our department?”

“If you drink this wine today, won’t I take care of you when you rotate to our department?”

“At least we’re older than you. We’ve toasted all the juniors. There’s no reason not to drink.”

The underlying meaning was very clear, with a hint of a threat.

‘You’ll rotate to our department one day, and we’ll have to ‘deal with’ each other.’

‘If you drink this wine, I’ll ‘take care of you.’ Otherwise, it’s not impossible that you’ll be targeted.’

‘I’m older than you and have taken the initiative to drink with you. Don’t embarrass me, don’t refuse a toast and be forced to drink a forfeit.’

These words were harsh and disgusting.

Tang Zhen pulled her arm back from the other person’s grip and looked down at her shoe, frowning.

She was about to find an excuse to leave when her gaze suddenly shifted. She turned to look out the window. The parking spot across the street that had been empty before was now occupied by a black SUV with a familiar license plate.

Tang Zhen was stunned for a few seconds. Then she saw the owner of the SUV get out and enter a restaurant across the street.

Suddenly, she didn’t want to leave anymore. And she could drink the wine.

Meanwhile, Liu Sisi was still trying to humor the senior, thinking of how to get out of the situation.

Before she could say anything, Tang Zhen’s hand suddenly reached out. She poured herself a glass of wine, and bypassing the senior, she clinked glasses with the senior sisters sitting across from her—

“Then we’ll thank you seniors in advance.”

With that, she and Liu Sisi drained their glasses in one gulp.

The transition was smooth, and no one was left out. The matter was thus settled.

After sitting down again, Liu Sisi looked at the empty glass in Tang Zhen’s hand, her eyes wide with surprise. “You can drink?”

Tang Zhen: “A little.”

A pretty girl who could drink was even more likely to arouse everyone’s interest. After one glass, someone immediately came up to talk to her. Tang Zhen’s attitude was faint. No matter how they tried to start a conversation, she had a way to cut it short.

Liu Sisi poked her with her elbow and whispered—

“You’re amazing~ It’s a good thing you didn’t clink glasses with him. Otherwise, he would have dared to ask for your phone number, your WeChat, and your address right now.”

Tang Zhen was just a little slow to warm up, but she wasn’t stupid. In such a situation, once you drank the wine offered by such guys, he would automatically assume you accepted his ‘ill intentions’ and that you allowed him to establish some kind of relationship with you, which would lead to endless trouble.

She was here to build relationships for future rotations in the department, to seek convenience, not to find trouble for herself.

As long as the goal was achieved, any extra… was unnecessary.