Why had Zou Pingshan fallen into all those pitfalls? It wasn't because Batu was more skilled than he was, nor was it because of Shi Lei's schemes. It was because Zou Pingshan wasn't professional enough. He had been too arrogant.
Batu had slowly risen step-by-step from a lowly rural doctor to the superintendent of Kuake City Hospital. Shi Lei had worked in Kuake City Hospital ever since young. Batu was more skilled at managing the hospital, while Shi Lei was more familiar with the hospital and local environment.
Zou Pingshan was confident because of his connections and because he was an internal medicine specialist. His actions had been rather hasty. That was why he suffered and fell into pitfalls. Managing an entire hospital was quite different from managing a single department.
Zhang Fan didn't try to do anything to Zou Pingshan when he returned, as he felt it would be meaningless. Zhang Fan and the others would all be going to Chasu City in one week for the written portion of the medical license examination. However, Zhang Fan no longer had a car—the previous Toyota Cruiser Prado had been taken away during Batu's arrest.
The exam was held at a high school. Chen Qifa was incredibly nervous. Before, he no longer held any hope for passing, so he didn't really care. However, this year was different. Thanks to an entire month of high-pressure studying under Zhang Fan's tutelage, he felt hope that he could pass this year, which was why he was so nervous. Chen Qifa kept following Zhang Fan everywhere and repeating the same phrases: "Do you think the test questions will be difficult this year? Do you think I'll pass?"
Zhang Fan really empathized with and kept assuaging Chen Qifa's worries. "Old Chen, you'll definitely be fine. Relax and don't rush when answering the test questions. You'll definitely pass this year."
The exam finally began. On the first test day's morning, everyone was tested on the basics. This was quite simple for Zhang Fan. After an entire year of studying through his System, his basics were quite solid. In the afternoon was internal medicine, which was also quite simple for Zhang Fan. The second test day's morning was an exam on surgery, which Zhang Fan got almost full marks on. The afternoon's gynecology exam was slightly more difficult, but Zhang Fan also did well.
"I passed this year, I passed this year!" After the exam, Chen Qifa pulled on Zhang Fan's arm while crying like a baby. He could finally vent his frustrations from failing the medical license exam for several decades already.
"You'll pass, you'll definitely pass. We'll both have medical licenses from now on." Zhang Fan truly sympathized with Chen Qifa. Seeing Chen Qifa reminded him of how difficult it was to look for work right after graduation.
Li Liang and Li Hui were also confident about their exam results. Wang Sha had previously failed the practical skills exam, so she had been unable to join the written examination. After the four of them met up, Chen Qifa stated, "I'm treating everyone to a good meal tonight. Nobody will say so otherwise. I need to properly thank Teacher Zhang." So, the four of them went together to a restaurant.
Since Chen Qifa had higher base salary than any of them, nobody else felt any pressure from having him pay for a meal. During the meal, Li Hui asked, "Director Zhang, the exam is now over. It's certain that you will pass. Where will you go in the future? Don't say that you'll remain at a tiny hospital like Kuake City Hospital, otherwise I'll hit you with my bowl."
"Although the exam is now over, the exam results won't come out until December, and I won't obtain my medical license until next year. I can't immediately resign, so I'm going to see if any of the bigger cities are going to hold hospital recruitment exams. If there are any recruitment exams, I'll go sign up. If not, I'll see when next year begins. How about you guys?"
"Same, I have the exact same idea. Wang Sha and I will go take any recruitment exams available. Working at a tiny hospital like Kuake City Hospital won't improve our future one bit," Li Hui stated.
"Mr. Zhang, I'll sign up for the same place that you take your recruitment exams at. You have to take me with you!" Li Liang was very direct.
"Bro, you overestimate my skills."
"It's nice to be so young. All of you should go to bigger cities. If you stay in a tiny city like Kuake City, all of you will become just like me twenty years in the future." Chen Qifa no longer had the energy to move to another city.
Zhang Fan needed to level up his System, which meant he needed to go to a bigger hospital. Kuake City Hospital was far too tiny. However, it would be unrealistic for him to change cities until he obtained his medical license. His younger sister would be in her third year of high school soon. Zhang Fan had to have a steady income every month for the sake of his sister's expenses, otherwise she would be in financial trouble.
Ever since the previous medical incident at Kuake City Hospital, Zou Pingshan was no longer so arrogant like before. Since he was about fifty years old, he was afraid of losing his job. The doctors in Kuake City Hospital's surgical department #2 seemed too crazy for him to deal with. Thus, he left Shi Lei in charge of the surgical department and Director Li of internal medicine in charge of the internal medicine department. Zou Pingshan now only dealt with matters related to the entire hospital.
Shi Lei was quite devious. He was quite happy to be put in charge of the surgical department. It meant that he was fully in charge of purchasing medicine as well as equipment for the surgical department. At any rate, he had fully started taking advantage of his new position to make more illicit money for himself.
Shi Lei had learned quite a lot from Batu's management style. In order to fully control the surgical department, Shi Lei first made sure he had a good relationship with those who could actually do the work. Chen Qifa was a miser, so all Shi Lei had to do was give him a little extra overtime pay, and Chen Qifa started running faster than a dog would for Shi Lei's errands.
Shi Lei would invest more into Zhang Fan as the latter was both talented and had connections with higher-ups in bigger cities. Shi Lei would also invest more into those in surgical department #1. However, he directly ignored Nuar and Tu Xun as neither of those ever did any work. Why would he care about spending money on them?
Meanwhile, Batu's arrest case hadn't been resolved yet. Batu had long been prepared beforehand for things to go wrong. His son was a citizen of H Country, and right when Batu learned that he couldn't become the new Director of the Bureau of Public Health, he had immediately sent his son to H Country.
Batu didn't have very many assets in his name. Although he confessed to taking illicit kickbacks for the recent CT scanner purchase, he refused to admit to doing anything else. Kuake City Hospital had been expanding through construction for many years already, and all the connected individuals had already retired or vanished. The Communist Party Committee wanted to find higher-ranked individuals who could be implicated in corruption, but Batu refused to say anything. The Committee was unable to find any concrete evidence of corruption apart from the CT scanner incident.
The previous hospital protests by the angry patient's family didn't affect the hospital employees too much, as they were all used to such protests. However, the protests greatly affected Zou Pingshan. Not only did he become less arrogant, he even became somewhat cowardly.
He would need to stay here in his new position of hospital superintendent until retirement. If something happened to his job before retirement, he would no longer be able to support himself. Zou Pingshan's insomnia became even more severe as a result. He often woke up with nightmares in the middle of the night, thinking that his cell phone was ringing with another report of some hospital emergency.
Vice Superintendent Shi Lei was incredibly delighted. He passed a proposal that increased the salary of all the doctors and nurses at Kuake City Hospital, and even added some food money for those working the night shift. Everyone in the hospital had a great opinion of him because of this. Also, just like Batu, Shi Lei knew that he didn't have enough professional knowledge in other medical fields, so he left the other medical fields to doctors of those specialties to run.
Director Nuar's retirement resignation was approved, and Shi Lei became the director of surgical department #2 in addition to being the vice superintendent. Tu Xun was unwilling to take the job, and Shi Lei was also unwilling to allow Tu Xun to take the job. Chen Qifa should have been the best candidate for the position, but he was unqualified due to not having a medical license.
Shi Lei secretly promised Chen Qifa that as long as the latter obtained a medical license, he would give the director position to him. Shi Lei knew quite well that he would be unable to keep Zhang Fan here at a tiny hospital, so it was fine to simply keep a good personal relationship with Zhang Fan.
In October, the border province organized a large round of hospital recruitment exams. Although Zhang Fan and his group of recent college graduates had come here due to the government's program to support the rural west, they didn't actually have official positions at the hospital. Meanwhile, Li Liang and Yang Chengming indeed had official positions at the hospital.
The hospital recruitment exams were intentionally held after the medical license exams so that more people could obtain official positions. Gao Shijun immediately phoned Zhang Fan right when signups began. "You shouldn't stay any longer at such a tiny hospital. I've already arranged a job position just for you in my department at Chasu City Hospital. You'll immediately start working at the orthopedic surgery department in traumatic injuries. This job position is customized for your sake." Gao Shijun had spent quite a bit of effort in getting Zhang Fan to join his team.
Gao Shijun's orthopedic department was hiring, and he was in charge of setting the recruitment requirements for the hospital. The hospital would then report the requirements to the Bureau of Public Health, and anyone who met the requirements could apply for the job. However, the conditions that Gao Shijun set as job requirements would be highly difficult for anyone other than Zhang Fan to meet.
The job requirements were as followed: first, graduation from a top-level medical school. Second, male and unmarried. Third, five months or more of studying at a Grade 3 provincial hospital in the surgical department. Fourth, participation in the government's support program for improving medical quality in the west. These requirements would be highly difficult to meet simultaneously. Not only that, Gao Shijun's surgical department was hiring only one person.
Gao Shijun was worried that somebody else with connections would obtain the position over Zhang Fan, which was why he set such strict requirements. No matter how powerful someone's connections were, they wouldn't be able to apply if they didn't meet the job requirements!
The director of the orthopedic surgery department at Chasu City Hospital had recently retired. After several rounds of competition, Gao Shijun had now become the acting director in charge of everything in the department. He had his own ideas. Although he had several disciples, none of his disciples were skilled enough yet to do things on their own. Gao Shijun wanted to raise a skilled disciple to become his equal and help him in the department.