At ten in the morning, Fang Ziye, along with his junior colleague Jie Han and his follower Lan Tianquo, gathered around an operating table, their eyes fixed on the surface.
A pair of delicate hands skillfully held a scalpel in the "bow-holding" grip, carving a three-dimensional simplified Chinese character "工" (gōng).
She was currently working on the other side of the character.
Although "工" isn't a complex character, sculpting it out of soft tofu was extremely challenging.
The fragile ends were prone to breaking, making it one of the more difficult simplified characters to carve. Precise control of the thickness of the horizontal and vertical strokes was crucial to prevent collapse.
Generally, carving the simplified character "田" (tián), despite having more strokes, had a more stable three-dimensional structure. It was one of the more frequently practiced characters in the first training room for trauma surgery when practicing debridement techniques.
"Hiss!"
At some point, someone in the crowd drew in a sharp breath.
"If you're going to make noise, go outside where it's spacious," PhD senior brother Gu Yi immediately admonished coldly.
Evidently, neither Gu Yi's harsh rebuke nor the earlier sharp intake of breath affected the girl's concentration. Her hands continued to control the knife, cutting and slicing without pause. The "工" character was on the verge of completion.
However, just as the character was about to take its final shape, the upper horizontal stroke of the previously carved half collapsed.
It seemed as if all the previous effort had been in vain.
"Ah!" Only then did Luo Tingzhu let out a soft sigh.
She then noticed the crowd gathered around her. Though her mask concealed her expression, her eyes narrowed, partially hiding her pupils.
"Senior Brother Gu, I still couldn't complete it," Luo Tingzhu said with a hint of disappointment. Having just started her PhD under Professor Deng Yong, Gu Yi was the only person she knew.
Gu Yi responded, "Junior Sister Luo, you're already incredibly—" He paused midway, considering that Luo Tingzhu was his junior colleague, and some words might be too harsh: "impressive."
"Even Senior Brother Sun can't achieve your level of knife control yet. I'd say in our group, only Wei Ge could definitely outperform you in debridement. Even Luo Ge might not be able to complete the '工' character if he's not at his best."
Fang Ziye and the others nodded, their gazes towards Luo Tingzhu tinged with admiration.
Surgery is a discipline that heavily relies on operational skills. One's abilities are usually evident in the training room, with little room for pretense.
At this point, everyone dispersed, returning to their respective operating tables.
Luo Tingzhu continued her training.
Fang Ziye, after allocating all his acquired skill points to Debridement, suddenly realized something.
It seemed he could now carve some simpler simplified characters on the surface of tofu.
With a Debridement Skill level of 2 (27/50), although he couldn't complete some more challenging characters like "我" (wǒ), he could manage relatively complex simplified character carvings.
For instance, characters like "回" (huí) and "田" (tián).
After completing the carvings of "回" and "田", Fang Ziye increased the difficulty by choosing the character "心" (xīn).
Don't assume that "心" is easier because it has fewer strokes. When carving simplified characters on tofu with a surgical knife, straight lines are simpler than diagonal strokes. The curved lines of "心" are extremely difficult to control. If one only needed to write the character "心", there would be no need to practice debridement techniques.
Anyone who's been through junior high school could carve out this character, but naturally, there are certain shape requirements that allow the surgeon to achieve the debridement incision.
Ordinary dots were quite easy to carve, but the curved hook seemed to have reached a barrier in Fang Ziye's current skill level. He attempted it more than a dozen times, each time ending with a large chunk of tofu being flipped over when controlling the knife for the return hook.
Fortunately, tofu is cheap, and when practicing simplified characters, it can be cut into "thick" thin slices.
Otherwise, Fang Ziye might have struggled to afford these dozen or so practice sessions.
"Don't treat the surgical knife like a pen. Abandon the mindset of writing and drawing. When carving characters with a surgical knife, it's not about strokes, it's about engraving."
"Strokes are written, engravings are carved. It's like the debris or necrotic tissue you need to remove during debridement, not carving for the sake of writing..." As Fang Ziye was practicing for the eighteenth time, he suddenly heard someone explaining this to him.
Fang Ziye glanced sideways and saw it was Luo Tingzhu. Having completed her practice and packed up her things, she was preparing to leave. With her bag on her back, she had paused like other junior colleagues to observe, and after watching, offered some guidance.
Fang Ziye pondered her words and smiled, "Thank you, Junior Sister."
"These are things my previous surgical skills teacher taught me," Luo Tingzhu said with a smile, her eyes narrowing. Then she quietly left the observing crowd and walked away.
As she paused, Senior Brother Gu Yi, who was only two years ahead of Fang Ziye, stood on tiptoes to carefully examine Fang Ziye's control of the cutting depth when carving simplified characters on the tofu surface. He drew in another sharp breath.
"Ziye? Where exactly did you buy your skill-boosting supplements?"
"Could you get some for your senior brother too?" Gu Yi's gaze remained fixed on Fang Ziye's knife work as he spoke, only turning his head after finishing.
Fang Ziye was tempted to playfully say "from the ward," but such a joke would be inappropriate and disrespectful to patients.
"Senior Brother, it's just from constant practice. There are no supplements," Fang Ziye replied.
"If there were such supplements, I would have already surpassed Junior Sister Luo and Senior Brother Sun." Fang Ziye added without modesty.
Gu Yi immediately joked back, "You want to surpass Junior Sister Luo and Senior Brother Sun? Aren't you being a bit too ambitious?"
Gu Yi thought to himself, does Fang Ziye not fully grasp the gap between himself and Senior Brother Sun and Junior Sister Luo?
Of course, Gu Yi couldn't say this out loud. Fang Ziye's statement had a premise - the existence of skill-boosting supplements.
Forcefully over-interpreting someone's joke and using it for gossip would be detrimental to one's own character.
"It's all from observing and learning from Senior Brother Gu, your teachings..." Fang Ziye had just begun his diplomatic response when Gu Yi shouted, "Shut up. You're slandering me."
Gu Yi quickly retreated.
As a senior, once you take on certain responsibilities, you become like the Kitchen God[1]. You can never shed them.
Fang Ziye quickly said to the others, "It's just a joke, don't take it seriously."
The junior colleagues all smiled and returned to their positions.
Fang Ziye also paused his practice and called Lan Tianquo and Jie Han to go out for food.
On the way, Jie Han asked, "Senior Brother Fang, do you think Senior Brother Sun has a chance of being stronger than Senior Sister Luo? Should such a big group of men in our orthopedics department be overshadowed by a girl?"
"Feeling uncomfortable?" Fang Ziye, as the most senior brother, naturally became the helmsman.
Jie Han's eyes widened, and after careful consideration, he nodded mischievously.
Lan Tianquo also nodded in agreement.
Fang Ziye slapped them both, "Don't harbor gender superiority. Professor Deng Yong's team is full of talents. Just focus on learning."
"In the future, being a doctor isn't about outperforming others, but about understanding what you can do for patients and which aspect of the academic circle you can advance."
"It doesn't mean that because you're a man, you have to be better than all the girls."
"Professor Tu is also a female professor. Why don't you try to outperform her?"
"If you can do that, I'll be impressed."
Jie Han immediately deflated.
Translation Notes:
[1] A domestic deity who reports on family behavior to higher gods in Chinese mythology.