Chapter 190: A Gathering of Surgical Titans
“It’s me.” Zheng Ren’s voice suddenly caught in his throat as soon as the call was accepted.
Su Yun smirked.
“Yes, I’m fine. It’s just a minor injury.
“Alright, I’ll pay more attention.
“Okay, I’ll return at the earliest opportunity. Don’t worry.”
Zheng Ren hung up after the brief conversation.
Su Yun approached Zheng Ren and asked, “First time falling in love?”
“…” Zheng Ren was somewhat stupefied.
Was this falling in love? He had absolutely no idea; all he had felt was the confusion of a bumbling child the moment the call had gone through.
“Be brave and shameless. You have to pester a woman in order to win her heart,” Su Yun advised him.
“Was that your experience?”
“No, I don’t need it at all.” Su Yun brushed the black bangs on his forehead aside, looking handsome as usual.
Zheng Ren ignored the brat and quickened his pace.
“We should head downstairs,” said Su Yun.
Zheng Ren could feel the heat radiating from his ears. Even though the nancy boy was really annoying at times, his advice to steel oneself in a relationship had actually turned out to be right.
They had initially planned to fill their stomachs outside first, but Zheng Ren was shivering in the freezing cold as he merely had a white coat on, which was a strange sight.
Left with no choice, they returned to the guest house. Since Zheng Ren had only brought normal clothes and no extra sweaters to keep himself warm, Su Yun once again mocked him ruthlessly before lending one of his sweaters to the blockhead.
Manager Feng Xuhui was meticulous enough to have ordered food delivered to them. Zheng Ren gladly accepted the offer since he had to attend the conference in the afternoon.
It had been a long time since he had last attended an academic conference. How would they conduct such a meeting in Imperial Capital? Would they finish the entire session quickly in a straightforward manner, or would the professors constantly give lectures and end the seminar only after eight or nine o’clock?
“How is your shoulder?” asked Su Yun after Zheng Ren changed his clothes.
The words of concern somehow felt like a jibe as soon as it escaped the brat’s mouth.
How did Su Yun even have so many friends in Imperial Capital? That was what piqued his interest the most.
“It’s fine,” answered Zheng Ren.
“Are you sure you want to attend the conference? It will be impossible for you to wear a lead apron and perform surgery in your current state. You know what, let me apply for leave with Professor Pei. Who would force you to perform surgery after what you’ve gone through just now?”
“I have no place to go, anyway, since it’s freezing cold outside,” Zheng Ren said seriously, “Besides, we’ve come all the way here. There’s no harm in listening to the conference.”
Su Yun stared at Zheng Ren like he would an idiot. However, the blockhead’s gaze was crystal clear, failing to understand the unspoken implications. Sighing heavily, he clearly explained himself.
“Little Yiren bought you clothes before your departure, shouldn’t you take a walk and buy something she may like before you return home?”
Zheng Ren was startled. This… This was something he had not experienced before in his life.
“I can’t be bothered with you anymore.” Su Yun blew the black bangs framing his forehead.
Zheng Ren thought about it and realized that Su Yun’s words made sense.
In that case, he had to take some time to shop for souvenirs that Xie Yiren and the gang would like, but today was certainly not the day for that. There was a conference waiting for him.
Feng Xuhui, who had overheard their conversation, turned around and jotted down this important point in the memo of his cell phone.
‘Chief Zheng is a talented idiot. He’ll be easy to deal with,’ Feng Xuhui encouraged himself.
Twenty minutes later, the food that he had ordered arrived.
He went downstairs to retrieve it and trotted back to the room.
Feng Xuhui then placed the food on the table. Just as he wondered whether to join them, Zheng Ren said, “Manager Feng, let’s have lunch together.”
“Okay.” Feng Xuhui was already hungry after working all morning.
However, he did not expect the men to devour the food in less than five minutes; an astonishing speed.
It was one of the basic skills of a doctor, especially in a hectic department where one had to gobble up their food and fill their stomach as fast as possible. God only knew when a critically ill patient would arrive at the hospital, requiring a resuscitation of up to seven or eight hours at times.
Slow eaters would starve when that happened.
This was a human survival instinct.
After lunch, Su Yun brought Zheng Ren directly to the research institute.
The brightly lit and spacious centre was situated in a newly-constructed high-rise in the back lot.
This was obviously not only an institute for surgery, but for pharmacology, pathology and other avenues of research.
Su Yun was particularly familiar with this area, possibly due to experience or by asking ahead. Zheng Ren merely followed the man all the way to a medium-sized conference room on the third floor, unbothered by the questions in his mind as it was pointless to waste his brain cells on such a minor issue.
There were already seven to eight people sitting in the third floor conference room, waiting for the meeting to begin.
From the looks of it, someone would be speaking about the research’s progress later so that the new surgical titans could understand the procedures of such a bizarre surgery.
The so-called surgical titans referred to young men specifically mentored by professors in surgery, in the footsteps of a well-reputed hand surgery professor who had raised a group of “surgical titans” after the development of microsurgical reattachment of amputated limbs around eighteen years ago.
It was more difficult for one who was over fifty years old to perform microsurgery than it was for those working in the general surgery department.
After all, one’s vision would begin to blur at an advanced age, and they would have trouble reading newspapers, let alone performing microsurgery.
Previously, there had been many young men, some even unlicensed, involved in the field due to leniency of medical regulation.
However, such cases no longer existed in the modern world.
The professors of the institute could only get their own postgraduate or doctoral students to finalize the clinical work of the research project.
Zheng Ren rejected Su Yun’s idea to sit in the front row and randomly selected an empty seat in a back corner. Then, he stared at the screen in the front while recalling the anatomy of the prostate.
“Are you really that solitary?” Su Yun smiled faintly and sat beside Zheng Ren. “These people are going to be demons in interventional radiology in the future. In fact, one of them will surely become the best interventional radiologist in the country.”
“Okay, got it,” said Zheng Ren plainly.
“You’re putting Old Chief Physician Pan’s kindness to waste. Don’t tell me you’re seriously thinking that you can personally perform this surgery.” Su Yun’s expression grew colder following Zheng Ren’s indifference.
“I don’t mind at all. It’s good enough for me to observe the surgery.”
“Tut-tut.” Su Yun sneered and remained silent.
Around ten minutes later, seven to eight old professors entered the room and sat down. A wide-browed, middle-aged man then went onstage, turned on the computer and brought up a Powerpoint that had been prepared in advance.
“Greetings, everyone. I’m Li Haitao, the secretary of this project,” he introduced himself after launching the slideshow. “The important work is done by professors and the powerful, talented young generation on the scene. I simply run errands around here.”
The humility in his tone won the favor of much of the room.
“Now, let me go over the recent results of research gathered by the professors.” Without further ado, Li Haitao began the presentation with the anatomy of the prostate.
Even though he had simply described himself as an errand secretary, he was likely a clinician as well. His explanation was detailed and accurate to the point that Zheng Ren, who had the memories of three thousand prostate anatomical dissections, could not find fault in his words.
‘There really are many talented people in Imperial Capital,’ Zheng Ren thought.