(Special thanks to SorrowCold671112 who generously tipped 10,000 coins!)
Jiang Tao, the director of the Proctology Department, arrived right on time for work. When he reached his office, he noticed that the dressing change room nearby was unusually quiet, and this made him furrow his brows.
He was not entirely pleased with Liu Banxia. He had personally invited a resident, recruited from outside and holding only a bachelor's degree, to stay on in the department, which was a great honor, yet Liu had rejected the offer.
Different strokes for different folks, he thought. If Liu doesn't want to stay, that's fine. There's always a long line of people waiting to join the Proctology Department. What's wrong with proctology? Sure, it's not as turbulent as other departments, but at least it's stable.
In this day and age, the number of people suffering from proctological diseases is increasing. They are eager to find relief from their pain. The department has a steady income, and the workload isn't too heavy.
He'd said he would come and help out yesterday, so was he just stringing me along? Someone so unreliable, I wouldn't take him even if he begged.
"Has Liu come to change the patients' dressings yet?" Jiang Tao asked casually as he put down his bag.
"Director, what Liu did today is really impressive! He changed the dressings for all 47 patients in less than two hours. If the female patients hadn't been so reluctant at the beginning, he could have finished more than ten minutes earlier," Guan Wei, an attending doctor in the Proctology Department, said with admiration.
"What? He finished changing all the patients' dressings in an hour and a half? Did you folks help him?" Jiang Tao asked, not quite believing what he had just heard.
"Director, it's not that we didn't want to help, but Liu arrived early and started calling for patients with the on-duty nurses. To be honest, I only arrived a short while ago myself. I heard about it from the nurses," Guan Wei explained with a wry smile.
If he were asked to evaluate this, he would definitely consider it nonsense, Guan Wei thought.
Normally, changing dressings for one patient would take at least seven to eight minutes. Especially for patients with complex anal fistulas or perianal abscesses, this process could easily take half an hour per patient.
Jiang Tao was really unsettled. His first reaction was that Liu Banxia must have cut corners during the dressing changes, or even done them haphazardly, which was why it was completed so quickly.
The combination of Liu Banxia's rejection and his current suspicion that Liu had cut corners had Jiang Tao fuming.
However, he needed to check it out himself. He randomly picked a few patients, led them into the dressing room, and carefully examined their wound dressings.
Having done this for over twenty years, Jiang Tao knew the standard of a dressing change just by wiping away the applied ointment and examining the wound surface. And shockingly enough, Liu Banxia's work was impeccable and completely up to standard.
"Director Jiang, is the doctor who changed our dressings today new? He was so quick, and it didn't even hurt. He said my rubber band will fall off in a day or two," the last patient Jiang inspected remarked cheerfully.
"Exactly, Doctor Liu is really good. Old Xu, a new patient in our ward, also had his surgery done by Doctor Liu yesterday. Old Xu even accused me of lying because he said changing the dressings wasn't nearly as painful as we'd made it out to be," another patient chimed in.
"Haha, today was quite something! At first, the female patients were shy and asked why there were no female doctors changing dressings today. But when they heard the procedure wasn't very painful, wow! After Doctor Liu finished their dressings, they were practically swooning over him, hahaha…" a hearty man from the Northeast said.
"Director Jiang, please let Doctor Liu change our dressings this afternoon as well. I used to take painkillers beforehand. Today, Liu changed mine before I had time to take any, and I was so worried. But now, I feel brave enough to get my dressings changed even without painkillers," the fourth patient added.
Listening to the patients' comments, Jiang Tao was over the moon. He's a good seedling, an absolutely good seedling! It seems my judgment wasn't off; I saw his potential right away yesterday.
"So, everyone here thinks Doctor Liu did a very good job changing the dressings?" Jiang Tao asked after a moment's thought.
The hearty man from the Northeast nodded. "Director Jiang, I'll be frank, and it's not to say other doctors are bad at changing dressings. But truth be told, no one is as fast as Doctor Liu."
"With Doctor Liu, we just drop our pants, bend over, he fiddles around for a moment, and it's all done. It seemed like Doctor Liu was in a real hurry, though. Later on, we all just took our pants off first and lined up. We're all men here, so it was no big deal."
What this man said helped clarify some things for Jiang Tao. Taking off pants also takes time. No wonder he was so fast.
Yet, he was still very unsettled. Even accounting for the time saved by patients undressing themselves, wasn't Liu Banxia's speed at changing dressings still a bit too fast? If it were him, he could manage one or two at that pace if he went all out, but he definitely couldn't handle so many.
He decided to let Guan Wei handle the routine ward rounds for the day; he felt he needed to talk to Liu Banxia again. This was a genuinely good seedling, too good to be wasted in another department.
But he was also a bit troubled. Liu Banxia seems like a stubborn kid. What if he's dead set on general surgery, no matter what I say?
Meanwhile, Liu Banxia, unaware of Jiang Tao's thoughts, had changed into his scrubs and was waiting to enter the "battlefield." Seeing Shi Lei next to him with his eyes closed, resting, he glanced at his own attribute panel.
Liu Banxia: Level 14, 13,276/14,400
Mental Strength: 62 points (Understanding, Memory, Focus Enhancement 10.71%)
Agility: 60 points (Stability, Speed, Touch Enhancement 11.11%)
Strength: 43 points
Stamina: 39 points
Attribute Points: 5 points
Glory Points: 23 points
Dressing Change Skill: Level 2, 6,488/19,999
Suture Skill: Level 2, 6,404/19,999
Diagnostic Studies: Level 1, 4,090/4,999
Caesarean Section: Level 1, 534/4,999
Inguinal Hernia Repair: Level 1, 687/4,999
Anorectal Fistula Ligation Surgery: Level 2, 6,887/19,999
Pancreaticoduodenectomy: Level 1, 143/4,999
This targeted grinding has been quite fruitful, he thought. Not only did I complete the daily task, but I also gained so many experience and skill points. The biggest gain was the proficiency in Anorectal Fistula Ligation; it increased as much as if I'd performed a whole surgery.
It's probably because some patients needed their rubber bands tightened. Since that's also a step in the actual surgery, it counted as strengthening a surgical step, hence the large increase.
After pondering for a moment, he decided to add one attribute point to Strength and see what happened.
DING! Gained 1 Strength point. Current Strength: 44. Strength, instrument mastery, and instrument effectiveness increased by 2.32%.
Liu Banxia blinked. This Strength attribute doesn't just increase my physical strength; it's also related to surgical instruments. No more hesitation. He added three more points, keeping one in reserve.
DING! Gained 3 Strength points. Current Strength: 47. Strength, instrument mastery, and instrument effectiveness increased by 9.30%.
While Liu Banxia was still studying the Strength attribute, Shi Lei stood up and said solemnly, "Alright, it's almost time. Let's scrub up and go in."
"Go for it, Chief!" Liu Banxia cheered, giving a small fist pump, then hurried to the sink to scrub his hands.
This is the real deal, he thought. If I do well, I'll get to see this more often, maybe even be the chief surgeon myself. If I mess up? This might be the only chance I get to properly participate in something like this in my entire life.
And as for his current career plans, if anything, his future career path had become even more muddled after he got the system.
Pushing aside his jumbled thoughts, Liu Banxia followed Shi Lei into the operating room. The support staff this time wasn't Wang Lei's team.
Liu Banxia looked up and saw the observation room above was packed with people. Truly incredible! This was the power of Zhou Shuwen; whenever it was a teaching surgery, the crowd was never small.
Huh? Isn't that Director Jiang from Proctology? What's he doing here? It's too late for him to switch specialties now, right? And why is he smiling at me?
Seeing Jiang Tao waving at him, Liu Banxia's mind was a complete muddle.