Chapter 132: Willing but Unable

Xiao Cheng’s arrival made life much easier for Lv Qi. Usually a man of few words, Lv Qi had spoken more today than he had in the entire previous week. Beyond the etiquette of expressing concern, visiting a patient is meant to provide companionship and boost their spirits, and Lv Qi was certainly in better spirits now.

As Xiao Cheng stepped out of the ward and prepared to head back, he ran straight into two doctors coming for their rounds. The one on the left looked familiar—it seemed to be the very man he had held hostage, a doctor named Zhang Yu.

Coming face-to-face, both men felt a moment of awkwardness.

In truth, it didn’t really matter; the awkwardness would last at most a few seconds, and once they passed each other, it would be over. Xiao Cheng looked toward the ceiling, pretending not to see him, but as they brushed shoulders, Dr. Zhang stopped.

"Young man, wait a moment!"

"Huh?"

After the hostage incident that day, the hospital had chosen to handle it with discretion. Although some onlookers and family members had filmed the event and posted it online, those clips were deleted within a very short time. Anyone who happened to catch a glimpse of them had their attention diverted by the later footage of the police subduing the knife-wielding robber in the downtown area.

Without a recorded hostage situation, there were no victims. The patient was fine, the surgery fees were paid in full, and there was no further entanglement. Logically, it would have been best for both of them to pretend they didn't know each other.

Xiao Cheng, being called out, felt a bit uneasy. He joked to ease the tension: "Dr. Zhang? You look a bit familiar, I almost didn't recognize you."

Dr. Zhang’s face darkened. "It’s only been a few days and you don't recognize me? Do you make a habit of taking doctors hostage?"

Xiao Cheng rolled his eyes. "Isn't that because you were wearing a mask?"

"Do you call a doctor wearing a surgical mask 'wearing a disguise'?" Dr. Zhang didn't bother to argue. He directed the other doctor to continue the rounds while he invited Xiao Cheng aside. "Do you have a moment? Can we talk?"

"Uh... sure."

Following him down the corridor of the inpatient department, Xiao Cheng was led to the chief physician’s office. It was clear that this was Dr. Zhang’s office.

"Lv Qi is recovering very well. I expect he can be discharged in about a week. Actually, if it weren't for the summer heat and the risk of wound infection, he could probably be discharged now without any issues."

Xiao Cheng nodded. He knew this wasn't what the doctor really wanted to talk about.

"I want to talk to you about what happened that day." Dr. Zhang took a long breath; it was clear these words had been weighing on him for a long time. "You probably think I’m someone who ignores the dying and forgets justice for the sake of profit. Let me tell you, I am not!"

Before he could continue, Xiao Cheng interrupted. "Dr. Zhang, don't get worked up. I never said that. My issue was with your hospital’s policies. Besides, when I paid the surgical fees, I wasn't stuffing the money into your pocket, right? That has nothing to do with being greedy."

"Let me finish!"

Fine, no more interruptions.

"That day, Lv Qi had a six-to-seven-centimeter-deep stab wound on his lower abdomen. Fortunately, he was brought in quickly and had received basic hemostasis, so he wasn't in critical danger. I’ve treated wounds from triangular blades more than once. At that depth, as long as no internal organs are damaged, there is no threat to life. If it had been a standard dagger, simple bandaging might have sufficed; some wouldn't even require surgery."

Xiao Cheng kept his promise and just listened, nodding.

"I performed an internal exploration immediately and found his stomach was damaged, requiring a repair. When I went out to ask you to pay, the repair was actually already finished, and the wound was even sutured. I just kept him there, waiting for the payment to be processed!"

Xiao Cheng was confused. "Then, when I forced you back in the second time, you spent a long time working on him again. What were you doing?"

From the outside, Xiao Cheng had only seen the doctor’s back.

"If I had said it was done and wheeled him out, and you didn't believe me, what if you had snapped? For the safety of myself and my colleagues, I just stitched his clothes back up—and I even sewed a pattern on them."

*Am I really that brutal? Scaring a surgeon into doing embroidery in the operating room...*

"What I want to say is that I, and our hospital, did not disregard the patient's life. As a doctor, I did not abandon my medical ethics! I..."

Dr. Zhang grew emotional, clearly feeling a great deal of grievance, his voice choking up.

"But... this is a small hospital in a county town. People come here from surrounding villages and even remote rural areas. If we don't collect fees first, the moment we turn our backs, the patient is gone. Sometimes the family members refuse to show up at all. If a patient is half-dead, are we supposed to throw them out? I know about saving lives and helping the wounded, but who covers the losses?"

"Everyone says a doctor should have a benevolent heart. I have a benevolent heart, but I am powerless!"

It was time to play the "good guy" card. Xiao Cheng stood up, patted Dr. Zhang on the shoulder, and said, "You are a good man."

A simple sentence provided immense comfort to the aggrieved doctor.

"I know it's not your fault. Look, I didn't stab you that day, did I? You have your constraints. But I didn't know you had already finished the surgery back then, right? The hospital policy says that if a surgery is performed without payment and the patient runs off, the attending physician loses their monthly bonus—you're working to support your family; of course you couldn't take that risk for a total stranger. I understand."

Zhang Yu shook his head. "If it were just one or two, I wouldn't be afraid. But we have such patients every day. At our hospital's worst, we had three people run off in a single month. I’m an attending physician who spent seven years in a combined bachelor’s and master’s program, yet I earn less than a pharmaceutical sales rep..."

"Sigh!" Xiao Cheng let out a breath. Medicine should be a respected profession, yet we haven't provided a stage for doctors to truly heal the sick.

Doctors have their own hardships, hospitals have their own unavoidable constraints, and the most innocent ones are the patients who have no money for treatment. Are they really expected to just wait for death?

Xiao Cheng closed his eyes and said to Wen Xiaodao in his mind, "Tell me, if there is one thing I must do in this life, what if I do this?"

Wen Xiaodao raised his eyebrows, looking at Xiao Cheng as if he were an idiot. "You mean you want to pay for everyone’s medical bills?"

Xiao Cheng nodded, and Wen Xiaodao covered his face...

"Big brother, didn't you say you wanted to be a judge? That wish is at least more realistic. Or maybe being a wandering hero would work too!"

This wasn't something Xiao Cheng could solve with his abilities; even with an IQ of over 300, it was useless.

——————

The last time I wrote about the medical-patient dispute, many people participated in the discussion. Looking back, I realize my writing was indeed a bit misleading, and it could easily make people feel that I was blaming all the problems on the doctors. Therefore, I want to reiterate in this chapter: I do not have a bias against doctors; on the contrary, I deeply respect the profession. Everyone knows where the problem lies; doctors are merely being used as scapegoats. When healthcare is treated as a business, how can you blame the doctors for not being able to save everyone?