Chapter 903: Slow and Steady Wins the Race
Having hosted many competitions before, the MC swiftly reacted to the situation and told everyone to get themselves ready as soon as possible.
It was only then that the students snapped back to attention. Their gazes, however, kept returning to Gu Mang. Some of them, who had either heard of or seen the robotic surgery system before, were all shocked to see that Gu Mang was going to use it for the clinical simulation.
Gu Yin, who had been provided with the best resources by the medical organization, had naturally seen the robotic surgery system before and had even been given a tour of the lab. From what I know, the medical organization has some students who are able to operate the system alone. They are considered doctors at the very least. How can Gu Mang possibly do that when she’s only been at Capital University for a few months? Shen Qianzi and the rest of her teammates’ stiff expressions have already revealed her competency, or rather, her incompetence at operating it.
“Is Gu Mang joking? She wants to operate that machine with one hand?” The boy next to Gu Yin stared wide-eyed at the Capital University’s team in disbelief. The joysticks have to be controlled by both hands. There’s no way she can do it with a single hand. The robotic arm is much more agile and sensitive than a human arm, so the person operating it has to be very careful. This isn’t something she can do with one hand.
Gu Yin pulled a wry smile as she said gently, “Look at her teammates’ expressions.”
The guy shifted his gaze and saw the stricken faces of Gu Mang’s teammates. He frowned. “I suppose nobody knows better than them about how good Gu Mang is with it. A freshman like her has no right to come into contact with a surgical robot.
“I remember a senior from the surgical department spending over three years practicing how to operate the robotic arm before he could barely perform experiments on animals. He was the most talented student in his department, mind you. Gu Mang—”
Gu Yin retracted her gaze. “Ignore them. Let’s just focus on ourselves.”
…
Gu Mang slowly adjusted the machine with her left hand.
Shen Qianzi pursed her lips while watching her. Previously, she had gone around inquiring how Gu Mang was doing in the Medical Informatics specialty. From what she heard, Professor Tang ignored Gu Mang in the beginning and only officially took her on as his student after she scored first place in the exam. Gu Mang even refused the professor’s offer to take her to observe the robot surgery and thus had only seen it once. She thinks she can operate it alone after watching the surgery that one time?
Meanwhile, Fei Luo’s eyes had never shifted away from Capital University’s team. His gaze was fixed on Gu Mang.
…
When Yang Tianming saw what was happening on screen, he could not resist sending a message to Professor Tang to ask how Gu Mang fared in the Medical Informatics classes. Alas, his phone stayed silent even after waiting for a while for a response. I guess he’s busy.
Just then, Professor Xue blurted with a trembling voice, “Gu Mang didn’t attend the TCM classes because she already knew it all. The fact that she’s attending the Medical Informatics classes goes to show that she didn’t understand all of it.”
That was putting it lightly. What he actually meant was that Gu Mang had gone to attend classes because she had no knowledge regarding the robotic surgery system.
She’s barely attended three months of classes… Even the most gifted student has to attend three years of classes before they’re allowed to enter the operating theater as the main surgeon’s assistant. The average student, on the other hand, may take five years… No matter how I see it, it’s ridiculous that she’s attempting to do the impossible when she’s only attended classes for three months.
Yang Tianming naturally understood what Professor Xue was saying, so he became even more nervous as he grabbed his fist with his other hand.
At 9.30 AM, the final round of the competition officially commenced and all the teams started working on their tasks.
The remaining teams, being the best of the best and the future stars of the medical world, were naturally very skilled. Their operational skills were simply a sight to behold.
While making their rounds to check everyone’s progress, a few judges nodded in satisfaction and thought that the students in this batch had performed well. However, when they arrived at Capital University’s side, they realized that Gu Mang was not done adjusting her machine, so the entire team had not started working yet.
Her team members were standing awkwardly to the side, which gave the judges a bad impression. After exchanging looks and shaking their heads at one another, the judges walked over to the next team with their hands behind their backs.
The other teams had been paying attention to what was happening on Capital University’s end, so when they saw the judges’ exchange, many of them secretly laughed and retracted their gazes.
“She’d better not spend the entire time adjusting the machine,” said someone from another team.
“From what I know about robotic surgery systems, it’s really hard to operate them.”
“They will end up making themselves the butt of the joke if they can’t complete any of their tasks.”
“Let’s wait and see. Didn’t Gu Mang set a lot of records?”
“Are you kidding me? Operating that system requires experience and proficiency. Knowing the theory isn’t enough.”
The fact that Gu Mang had aced the previous two rounds showed that she was extremely talented. However, clinical simulations were not something that could be done by just reading and memorizing information.
Gripping a scalpel in her gloved hands, Shen Qianzi said to Gu Mang, “How much longer do you need? Can you stop wasting everyone’s time? We only have three hours to complete the tasks.”
Gu Mang ignored her as she continued inputting instructions into the machine.
Meanwhile, Yang Tianming had broken out into a cold sweat. Even if they can’t get a good ranking, they have to at least complete all of the tasks, or it’ll be really embarrassing for all of us…
Twenty minutes later.
“How much more time do you need, Gu Mang?” Chen Xu asked nervously as he squeezed his fingers at the sight of the other teams’ progress. I’m about to die from anxiety…
“I’m done.” Gu Mang looked up. “We can start now.”
Chen Xu breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly gathered everyone to start working on the tasks.
Although Capital University’s team was finally getting busy, no other teams were paying attention to them. Even the judges who were checking their progress were few and far between.
Whenever it came to doing experiments with new machines, Gu Mang needed some time to get used to them in the beginning. She moved slowly at first due to her injury. Two days were too short of a time for her to be fully used to the system.
Yang Tianming’s expression became a little grave when he noticed this. Gu Si and Yu Mufeng, on the contrary, were playing games together and did not seem to take the competition seriously.
The screen showed Gu Mang and her teammates completing the first task. Although their completion status was 100%, they were a lot slower than the other teams. That made the other teams’ professors relaxed in their seats. It seemed that they no longer saw Gu Mang as a potential threat.
Gu Mang’s speed slowly picked up during the second task, her hand moving steadily as she calmly operated the system. Once again, their team’s completion status was 100%, but they were still lagging behind.
The teams from the medical organization and H University had completed three tasks and nearly one and a half hours had passed.
The mask on Gu Mang’s face covered her face aside from her exquisite and aloof eyes. Standing in front of the system, she looked at the trembling hands above the lab animal and said, “Don’t shake. You’re doing an experiment now. Do you know what the consequences of your actions are?”
Chen Xu tugged his lips. “The other teams are already on their fourth task.”
“Oh.” That was all Gu Mang said in response.
Each team had a total of seven tasks to complete within three hours. The other teams were starting to slow down as they progressed to the harder tasks.
Much to Chen Xu’s astonishment, he realized that their team’s pace was progressively getting faster and they were getting more adept at things.
At the end of the fifth task, the individual team’s completion status was displayed on the screen. Not everyone’s progress was at the 100% mark. The gap in scores was beginning to widen with the lousiest team at 86% completion.
Gu Mang and her team completed the fifth task at the same time and their completion status remained at the 100% mark. They began to overtake the others during the sixth task.
Yang Tianming could not help but sit straight in his seat and grip the chair’s armrests when he saw the screen, for their team’s completion status for the sixth task was 100% again.
Instantly, all the judges’ eyes were fixed on Capital University’s team. Fei Luo looked as if he had anticipated this outcome and thus looked at Gu Mang with growing appreciation.
As their team started working on the last task, Yang Tianming realized that they were very close to victory and that they were very likely to become the champions.
Professor Xue, who was sitting next to him, was equally excited as well.
Time slowly ticked by as Gu Mang and her team carried out their task in an orderly fashion.
Only twenty minutes were left, but the other teams had just started on their seventh task.
Just then, Yang Tianming’s phone buzzed to indicate a new incoming message. It was a reply from Professor Tang. He took a look at his team’s progress before unlocking his phone to read the message.
[Professor Tang: I’m afraid that Gu Mang knows more about robotic surgery systems than myself.. She only entered the robotic surgery’s operating theater once and I let her take charge of the surgery. Later, I received feedback from the hospital that the results looked better than when I usually operated the machine. They even asked if my skills had improved.]
Yang Tianming looked at the message in shock. She did that in just three months?!
[Professor Tang: She might have briefly come in touch with robotic surgery systems before in the past but didn’t know the specific operations. I heard from my students that she spends her time in the operation room whenever she’s free and only leaves after 10 PM. The lab expenses have been very high recently, so I suppose she’s been practicing nonstop. Thanks for giving me such a talented and hardworking student, by the way.]
Each time Professor Tang recalled how he had treated Gu Mang, he could not help but feel thankful that he had not chased her away or else he would have regretted it badly.
On the other end, Yang Tianming sat motionless in his seat and stared at his phone screen blankly. He then received another message from Professor Tang, asking, [Oh yeah, isn’t today the final round of the competition? Is the result out yet?]
Yang Tianming stiffly raised his head to look at the task’s completion status on the screen.