Zhang Fan had a much easier time now in the gastrointestinal department. All three vice directors had been demoted and transferred, but Director Wang Yonghong still didn't know about any of this! Quite miraculous, really. She spent every day out at clinics, and had a lot of free time. This basically meant that nobody was in charge at the gastrointestinal department. The hospital administrative department allowed Hu Zengyang to temporarily assume a leadership role in the department. Meanwhile, the hospital was currently doing its best to headhunt personnel for the empty leadership positions in the department.
The general surgery director at Kuake City Hospital was quite passionate about introducing all the other general surgery directors in nearby smaller hospitals to Zhang Fan. The director was still slow with laparoscopic surgeries, so he learned this more difficult surgery technique from Zhang Fan.
Other surgeries that they received from other hospitals went much faster. Zhang Fan gave half of the money he received over to the general surgery director, which made the latter quite happy. Even for the surgeries that the general surgery director already knew how to do, other hospitals wouldn't give him anywhere near the amount of money that Zhang Fan could command. So, of course the director was happy to get more money.
On average, one surgery would pay a fee of 1000 yuan. Zhang Fan would take 500 yuan, and give the rest to the director and anyone else involved to share. Although Zhang Fan also really lacked money as he needed to pay back his home loan each month, this was money that he had to give away. Why would others call him over otherwise? He still didn't have good connections. Helping so many different hospitals with their surgeries was all for the sake of improving his reputation. Luckily, Zhang Fan was still young and cheaper to hire than more veteran doctors, and he was filled with energy.
Zhang Fan visited other hospitals once per week on average to help with their surgeries. This helped him to pay back the money he owed on the home loan.
Li Hui was rather sly, and somehow learned that Zhang Fan was also working for other hospitals.
"You're inhuman! Even though we're both rotation doctors now, I can't even receive any bonuses, while you're already making extra income. This is unfair, incredibly unfair! Treat me to a really good meal, otherwise I'm going to report you to Chasu City Hospital for working at other hospitals." Li Hui acted like a hoodlum in Zhang Fan's apartment.
Li Hui and Li Liang shared the same love of eating barbequed meat. Zhang Fan was different. Although he would be okay with eating barbequed meat on occasion, eating it too often would make him tired of it. However, treating Li Hui meant that barbequed meat absolutely had to be on the menu. As Li Hui put it: "You don't like eating one of Mao Zedong's favorite foods? You're so anti-Communist!"
"Okay, let's go. We haven't chatted for a while, so let's chat as we eat." Zhang Fan and Li Hui went to a Sichuan restaurant. The two of them had a good relationship even back at Kuake City Hospital, and now their relationship was even closer in the new Chasu City Hospital that they joined together. Li Hui had a natural jokester personality, and never acted pretentious or hid what he was thinking. It was easy for Zhang Fan to get along with Li Hui.
The Sichuan restaurant was right behind the hospital. Many young doctors would come here to eat, although the food would be too greasy for the patients. Today, there were many people at the restaurant, including several of the new female doctors. Li Hui's eyes glistened as he whispered to Zhang Fan, "Look, beautiful women! Why don't we try sitting together with them?"
Zhang Fan ignored him as he felt that Li Hui was being too shameless. "If you want to go, go by yourself. Won't you be humiliated if they don't agree to let you sit with them? You'll still have to see them at the hospital."
"You're so boring. It's all about the fun of seeing if they agree or not. Forget it, then; you're destined to be single for all your life." Li Hui rolled his eyes as he viciously ordered some of the most expensive dishes on the menu.
"Can you at least be reasonable? You already ordered barbequed meat, yet you're also ordering braised pork? Will you be able to finish all that food?"
"I can hardly ever get you to treat me even once per year; so what if I order some extra dishes? If I can't finish the food, I'll take it back with me. It'll make for another great meal after microwaving!"
"Alright, you're so shameless that even demons would be afraid." Zhang Fan really didn't enjoy spending so much money on treating Li Hui, who wasn't even the type to be grateful. If it weren't for the fact that Zhang Fan wanted to ask Li Hui something, he definitely wouldn't have treated him to a meal. Zhang Fan was quite a miser.
The food arrived quickly. Although Li Hui's income at Chasu City Hospital was significantly better than at Kuake City Hospital, he spent all of his salary on trying to hook up with women at bars; thus, he hardly ever had a good meal. In fact, Li Hui would often be unable to afford anything but instant noodles near the end of a month.
Li Hui instantly grabbed all the meat he could. He was starving, and appeared quite unseemly as he ate ravenously.
"You dare to try and sit together with the female doctors with such table manners? Aren't you afraid of scaring them off?" Zhang Fan was unable to take more than a few bites of the meat. It was too greasy for him.
"What do you know? Those who can eat can work hard, understand? Meat alone is too greasy, so have some beer."
"Forget it, you'll probably get gout if you drink any more alcohol. You should drink some tea instead; it'll also help with the grease."
"I can tell that you're in a special realm of your own with how miserly you are. Just look at you. Although you smoke, you never buy any smokes of your own, and stop smoking whenever you have no more smokes that others gifted you. You also can't drink alcohol, because you get drunk instantly. Neither do you have any interest in women. What meaning is there to your life?" Li Hui started insulting Zhang Fan since the latter refused to pay for beer and would only purchase tea.
Li Hui was truly penniless at the moment. He would be starving if it wasn't for the fact that doctors could eat for great discounts at the hospital cafeteria. Li Hui was the typical person who lived from paycheck to paycheck, and would spend lots of money at the beginning of the month and live like a pauper at the end of the month.
"Haha. Hurry and eat your fill. I have something to ask you about." Zhang Fan ignored Li Hui as arguing would only make Li Hui talk even more.
"Go ahead and ask." Li Hui felt a sense of superiority at being able to answer something for Zhang Fan.
"It's like this, there's a woman that I've fallen in love with, but she mostly ignores me. What should I do?"
Zhang Fan couldn't help it. He had barely made any progress with Shao Hua as he had almost zero experience with romance. He truly had no idea what to do, so he decided to ask Li Hui since he had to treat him to a meal anyways.
"Is she beautiful? What department is she in? Is she a doctor or a nurse?" Li Hui's eyes lit up as this was his favorite type of topic.
"She's not from our hospital."
"Tsk! With how much of a wooden block you are, it would be strange for her not to be from our hospital. If she's not from our hospital, I'll pay for this meal today."
"It's none of your business where she's from. Just let me finish what I'm saying." Zhang Fan ignored Li Hui again. So what if she wasn't from their hospital? It wasn't like Li Hui could actually bring out any money to pay for the meal.
"Say it, then."
"I keep texting her, but she doesn't respond very often. What should I do?"
"It's simple. Use money, throw lots of money at her. Tell her that you love her, and that as long as she becomes your girlfriend, she'll have plenty of money to spend."
"Could you be a little more normal!" Zhang Fan truly regretted treating Li Hui to a meal. He felt that he couldn't have a serious discussion with such a thing.
"Then tell me which department she's from. Maybe I've seen her before, and maybe I even like her as well. I won't have a chance with her if I help give you ideas."
"Just hurry and eat. Get the hell out after you're finished eating."
"Just who could she be? Tell me! Even if I actually do like her, I'll sacrifice myself and give her to you. We're bros, after all, right? Tell me!" Li Hui even stopped eating because he was so curious.
"Gee, thank you. Hurry and finish eating already. I'm already full. Are you going to eat or not? If not, I'm going to leave." After seeing that Li Hui would be completely unreliable for love advice, Zhang Fan stopped talking about Shao Hua, which made Li Hui feel like he had an itch he absolutely had to scratch. Li Hui packed up all the remaining food, and kept following Zhang Fan around.
"Just who is she? We came here together, you know? Doesn't that make me half a parent to you? I need to watch out for you!"
"Get the hell out. I need to go back to work." Zhang Fan refused to say anything more. Li Hui was unable to convince him otherwise.
"Then let's meet up again tomorrow over a meal."
"The hell with that!"
"I don't have any sisters, haha, but you do have a younger sister, hahaha!" Li Hui kept teasing Zhang Fan while running away as Zhang Fan made a motion like he would hit him.
"Sigh!" Zhang Fan shook his head while smiling wryly as he went back to the gastrointestinal department.
Hu Zengyang had the most patients out of anyone. However, he was also the doctor who was the slowest with computers. He typed with only one finger at a time. Writing medical reports took him forever. He still hadn't finished last week's medical reports. If it weren't for the fact that he was a veteran doctor, the three former vice directors would have been angry with him every day for this.
Hu Zengyang had a nice and pleasant personality. He treated everyone well, and seemed like the scholarly type. He got along well with Zhang Fan, and they would have fun chatting together whenever they were on the same shift.
Hu Zengyang was already slow with computers, so he became even slower if he was chatting with Zhang Fan. It would be common for Hu Zengyang not to finish a single medical report during an entire night shift. Meanwhile, Zhang Fan was far faster at typing. Talking wouldn't affect his lightning-fast typing speed at all.