The hero was pushed out on a gurney from the operating room with a white cloth draped over him. All the police officers waiting outside simultaneously paid their respects. Not a single person cried aloud, but these outstanding men couldn't stop tears pouring down their face.
"Notify his family. Take my personal car to invite them." The party leader's eyes were red as he said this to the head of the police station.
Zhang Fan was now sitting down on the ground of the operating room. His head was held so low that it was almost touching his pants. He had been an intern doctor at Kuake City Hospital for slightly more than half a year by now. Due to his System, every single surgery that Zhang Fan performed had been highly successful.
The superintendent spoiled him. The veteran doctors in his department sucked up to him. Although Zhang Fan hadn't become too arrogant, this had still given him a mistaken impression. He felt that being a doctor was quite easy. He thought that he could obtain anything he wanted as long as he worked hard enough, that every surgery would be doable with effort alone. Zhang Fan felt like he could rule over this profession. However, when a formerly living person passed away right in front of him, Zhang Fan became lost.
"Let's go now. In our job, you'll have to deal with this eventually. Let's go send him off." Chen Qifa was the only one still in the operating room with Zhang Fan. Gao Shijun, the nurses, Ma Lihua from anesthesia, and the others had all gone out already. Zhang Fan completely collapsed into tears when he left the operating room together with Chen Qifa.
The gurney was still stopped in the hallway. Two female police officers were supporting the deceased officer's wife who had fainted. Even though she was now unconscious, tears were still streaming down her face, and her body was trembling. Two full rows of police were saluting the deceased officer. An elderly policeman held on to a girl who appeared to be roughly three years old. The girl gently caressed her father's still bloody face as she asked, "Is Daddy still asleep?"
The elderly policeman also had tears pouring down his cheeks as he said, "Yes, he's asleep, since he's really tired. Take a good look at your father. He's a hero."
"Grandpa, don't cry. Daddy doesn't like it when I cry." She used her tiny hands to wipe away the tears on the elderly policeman's cheek.
"Everyone, we must salute our brother-in-arms and send off our hero!" the head of the police station shouted. A Communist Party flag was lightly draped over the deceased officer's body. The draping was done very gently as if not to interrupt his peaceful rest.
Gao Shijun had to leave immediately after assisting on this emergency surgery. He still had scheduled surgeries tomorrow at his own hospital. Before he left, he patted Zhang Fan on the shoulder. "We both did our very best, so don't have any regrets. Being a doctor isn't only about a job that can give you a salary and receive promotions. It's also a way of life."
Zhang Fan had bad dreams for several nights in a row after that. He kept dreaming about that little girl calling out for her daddy. This was the first patient that he had ever personally seen die in front of him ever since he joined the medical profession. He had been completely helpless in trying to save this person.
"His family must be devastated. Sigh!" Zhang Fan woke up in the middle of the night, and started puffing on a cigarette to distract himself. He had tried his very best to save that police officer, but something still felt empty in his heart as he constantly thought back to what happened on that day.
'I wish that you'll be happy in heaven, and that there will be no more pain or suffering there.' Zhang Fan lit an incense stick on his window for the police officer that he didn't know. He then somehow hazily managed to fall asleep while inhaling the incense.
"In this job field, you must be able to face life and death. You need a strong heart. If you can't even conquer yourself, how are you supposed to save people from the clutches of the god of death? How are you supposed to save the injured and ill? Alright, I'm giving you a couple days of vacation. Go rest for a few days and clear your mind." Superintendent Batu also noticed Zhang Fan's depression. Batu worried that Zhang Fan would have a mental breakdown, so he summoned Zhang Fan over to try and guide him.
The winter sunlight would make people feel slightly dazed. Zhang Fan tried visiting patients' homes, but there were very few patients that needed his services. He then took three consecutive days off from work to rest, but became rather bored with exploring Kuake City. Now that he had gotten used to the scenery here in the border province, he was no longer impressed.
He was unable to grind any more surgical experience over the past few days, meaning that he would be unable to learn any new courses in his System. Zhang Fan felt rather helpless. Every day, he looked through some textbooks and studied his old notes. It was almost New Year's, and he intended to sign up for the medical license examination next year the instant that he reached the one year limit required after graduation.
Li Liang was really bored over the past few days because surgery department #2 was in a lull with very few patients. Li Liang wasn't like Zhang Fan, who already had a high status in the orthopedic department. While the veteran doctors didn't treat Li Liang coldly, they also didn't treat him warmly. Li Liang decided to go find Zhang Fan for a chat one day while he wasn't on duty.
The door to the orthopedic department's clinic was half open. The wind would be too cold if it was completely opened, but the hospital leaders would give lectures about not appearing to be unwelcoming which they would seem like if the door was left completely closed, hence it was half open. Li Liang entered, only to see that Zhang Fan was currently studying. Li Liang didn't want to interrupt, so he also took a textbook, and sat down across from Zhang Fan. After a little bit of reading, Li Liang asked, "Mr. Zhang, it's almost New Year's. Are you intending on returning to your hometown over the holidays?"
"I might not go back this year. Maybe when the weather's warmer," Zhang Fan responded without even lifting his head. Back during college, he hadn't focused properly on his studies. Although he had his System now, Zhang Fan still lacked a significant amount of knowledge on the fundamentals. Now that he didn't have to worry about income and wasn't busy with work, Zhang Fan had learned quite a lot over the past few days of studying his old notes and textbooks.
Since internal medicine, pediatrics, and gynecology were subjects that the System wouldn't help Zhang Fan with until he obtained his medical license, Zhang Fan had an incredibly hard time with studying these. It was easy for him to forget what he learned. But, there was no helping it. He had to study these as well so that he would have a better fundamental understanding of medicine once he became a clinical doctor. This was all so that he could better choose on his own what to learn in the future.
Ever since Chen Lulu secretly saw Zhang Fan in possession of such a high-class car, she constantly called Zhang Fan's cell phone, no matter how trifling the matter. Zhang Fan was quite annoyed with this, but he didn't have the face to refuse her directly. He could only passive-aggressively ignore some of her phone calls. However, it seemed that she had a determined personality of being unwilling to give up.
Right now, Zhang Fan had no intentions of starting any romance. He knew exactly what type of situation he was in. His younger sister was almost about to take the college entrance examination. His System also had very high requirements for him, and he was planning on taking the medical license examination next year. He was under quite a bit of pressure.
Some time later, it was now December. The weather became even colder. The hospital gave out a year-end bonus of 3000 yuan to everyone. Batu especially summoned Zhang Fan over to his office, and awarded Zhang Fan with an extra 2000 yuan!
Zhang Fan didn't intend on returning home for the holidays this year. It would take him more than ten days to spend the holidays with his family, so he preferred to study for now and wait until after the medical license examination to spend more time with his family.
Zhang Fan went shopping for some clothes to send his family with the bonus he'd received. If he directly sent money back to his family, his parents would definitely be unwilling to spend it, which was why he simply sent clothes back instead. He also wired 3000 yuan to his younger sister. As she was in her last year of high school, she was under intense pressure for her studies, and had many things she needed to spend money on. Zhang Fan was unwilling to have his younger sister treat herself stingily.
Kang Hua's massage treatment had continued for about two weeks by now. The treatment was scheduled to end in one more week. Over the past two weeks, Zhang Fan became quite familiar with her secretary, Tang Jingjing. She seemed pretty nice, and didn't behave arrogantly at all despite being the personal secretary of Kuake City's head politician. Sometimes, she would even crack jokes with Zhang Fan. This weekend, Zhang Fan was about to go to the bookstore to buy some new medical license examination preparation textbooks when Secretary Tang gave him a call.
"Would you be available to go to another city this Saturday? Leader Kang intends to return to her home this weekend. We'll have to trouble you to go there to continue treating her. Should I have her talk to Superintendent Batu about it?"
"No need, I happen to be off from work this weekend. I'm available to go visit her city."
Zhang Fan had only passed by the bigger nearby city once, when he arrived in Kuake City. He had never visited the nearby bigger city again. He didn't know the way there, and he didn't want to spend money on taking a bus. He was also truly in love with driving.
But, that meant he would need someone to
"I won't be going back until Saturday. Leader Kang is returning in the morning, but I have work to attend to, so I won't be returning until later in the afternoon." Just like Kang Hua's, Tang Jingjing's home was actually in the bigger city as well.
"How about we go together, then? You can show me the way. I'm not familiar with the bigger city, so I'm afraid of getting lost."
"Haha, you're afraid of something like that? The bigger city isn't actually that big. Okay then, come find me at the government office on Saturday afternoon. We can take a bus together to the city." Tang Jingjing didn't know yet that Zhang Fan had a car.
After confirming the time, Zhang Fan took the car to a certain gas station to fill up on gas. The card that Batu had given him for gas could only be used at that specific gas station.