Surgery Godfather

Chapter 146: Chapter 0140: Affection

This Saturday was extremely pleasant, and Xiao Su went home on Sunday.

Yang Ping stayed at home, not wanting to go out, and he chatted nonstop with Xiao Su on WeChat from the moment he got up.

It’s hard to say exactly what they talked about, but they detailed everything, even getting engrossed in their breakfast choices.

“You continue reading, my mom is asking me to go out with her, I’ll text you later!” Xiao Su sent him a message on WeChat, including a dejected expression sticker.

Yang Ping replied, “Okay! You go ahead, I will read!”

As soon as he put down the phone, he couldn’t help but pick it up again to check if Xiao Su had sent him any messages. He didn’t even keep track of how many times he charged his phone.

“Why did you pick up your phone again!”

The other party would see the typing indicator.

“Aren’t you also sending a WeChat message?”

If she didn’t pick up her phone to check WeChat, how would she know he was typing?

“Good boy! Continue reading!”

“Hmm—”

Within the system space, Yang Ping had twenty-one hundred points left. He checked to see what skills he needed to enhance. He had already trained for surgeries of the knee joint and shoulder joint. What was left was to reinforce his training based on the surgeries he would encounter.

Recalling his Tuesday consultation at the city’s first affiliated hospital, Yang Ping entered the library within the system space. He re-read the classic sports medicine textbooks, especially focusing on research about injuries to the Achilles tendon.

After finishing the book, he chose one thousand cases of routine sports medicine surgery training in the store. All were open surgeries, not arthroscopic. The surgeries covered repairs and reconstructions of muscles, tendons, ligaments, joint capsules, and more.

After completing these surgical trainings, he purchased a few hundred more cases of surgical training related to Achilles tendon injuries. The system simulated various types of Achilles tendon injuries, including damage at the interface of the tendon and muscle, body part injuries, damage at the attachment point on the heel bone, and avulsion fractures of the heel bone. The injuries were caused by a variety of mechanisms, including sharp instrument cuts, blunt instrument contusions, and avulsion injuries caused by violent muscle contractions.

Initially, Yang Ping performed surgeries as per the go-to textbook approach. Once he became very proficient, he selected some suitable cases to perform popular minimally invasive repairs. After doing many, he discovered that minimally invasive repairs were only suitable for simple transverse fractures, and completely unsuitable for complex fractures.

After completing the Achilles tendon surgery, he purchased a hundred more cases of Achilles tendon relaxation surgery training. Yang Ping wasn’t training purely for surgical experience now; his approach was now more research-oriented as he hoped to make innovative breakthroughs.

Currently, his competency in sports medicine was at a perfect level. However, he knew from advancing in trauma orthopedics, that perfection was merely performing textbook surgical procedures flawlessly, and this was far from enough.

His advancement to the master level in orthopedic trauma was not due to flawless operations, but rather, breakthroughs in the classical surgical approaches and improvements in the surgeries.

For instance, with the worker’s crushing distal humerus fracture, Yang Ping had innovatively applied dynamic stable structures to fracture fixation after researching fixation structures. And with Professor Zhang’s intertrochanteric femoral fracture, Yang Ping had even performed deep research on biomechanics and creatively applied stress diversion to the surgery.

These were all breakthroughs beyond the textbook surgery level, demonstrating his own innovation.

Therefore, without innovation in surgery, his talents in sports medicine would remain at a perfect level and he wouldn’t make further progress.

Given this logic, the grandmaster level probably isn’t about such minor improvements but rather major original theories, and establishing entirely new surgical methods based on these theories.

And a higher-level, godfather-level, would probably need to bring about earth-shaking changes in medicine!

Such a revolution in medicine should be on par with mankind’s several technological revolutions, like the machine era symbolized by the steam engine, the electrical era dominated by electricity, the information age led by computers, and the intelligence era led by artificial intelligence.

With his each advancement, the tree in the system space would grow more robust. Yang Ping couldn’t help but get excited about the possibility of scaling the godfather-level; he was exhilarated.

After all these trainings, he was left with just six thousand points. He couldn’t afford to spend these points frivolously anymore. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have any savings and in case he encountered other types of surgeries, he wouldn’t be able to purchase emergency training.

Currently, due to surgery permissions, I barely have a chance to be the Chief Surgeon for artificial joint replacement, spinal surgery, and bone tumor surgery. Nevertheless, I don’t rule out some aberrant surgeries that require targeted training in the System Space.

Upon exiting the System Space, the battery level of my phone that had been charging remained the same, not increasing by even 1%, which again indicates that time spent in this space does not affect the real world.

The phone rang. My mother and father were calling again. Usually, they know I am busy and refrain from calling, but the weekend seems to be their favored time for inquiries.

My father is straightforward, always inquiring about my work, and urging me to study hard, put theory into practice, and maintain good relationships with colleagues.

However, my mother’s conversations are full of twists and turns, leading to the focus of her concern every time: “Do you have a girlfriend yet? You must find a girlfriend! This is vital! This is absolutely vital!”

“Mom! Can you stop bringing up this topic? I want to focus on my career and don’t want to consider this issue right now!” Yang Ping’s ears had grown calluses from hearing the same thing every time his mother called and it always left him with a ringing headache.

His mother did not hesitate: “Don’t hang up, you need to listen! What do you mean you don’t want to talk about this? This is so important! There are many women in the hospital, both doctors and nurses. If you find someone suitable, be brave and act on it. If you don’t, others will, and before you know it, they’ll have picked the best ones. We haven’t arranged any matchmaking meetings for you, that’s democratic enough. If we don’t hear any updates, we’ll have to come in person. I heard that the daughter of Aunt Wang’s relative is a primary school teacher in G City. Just remember this, next Chinese New Year, we’ll come to your place. If we don’t see your wife, you’ll have to get ready for arranged meetings–”

She rattled on like a machine gun, then hung up the phone, not giving me the slightest chance to clarify.

Then, my father called, speaking softly: “Son, just bear with your mother. Don’t let her drive you crazy. Focus on your work. It’s fine to get married later. Once your career takes off, finding a spouse will be–” His voice was cut off.

“What are you telling him? That’s why he is like this—” His mother’s scolding echoed through the phone.

Fine, I’ll hang up. These dear old folks, always worrying about me.

However, the mention of them spending the New Year here brought to mind his own plans. He was considering inviting them over at the end of this year. Since he had gone through college and graduate school, and has been working for several years, he hasn’t brought them to G City yet.

He wanted to seize this opportunity while they were still in good health. When the day comes that they can’t move around anymore, it might be too late. The thought of this left him with a sour feeling in his nose.

Not only had he not brought them over, but he also had not sent a penny home since he started working.

A couple of years ago, his parents borrowed a lot of money from relatives to build a house. He didn’t know if the debt had been paid off. The earnings from their small health clinic couldn’t be much. With the current policies, managing to save two or three ten thousand yuan a year would already be considered impressive.

Yang Ping dialed his father’s number again: “Dad, give me your bank card number. I have saved some money. I’ll transfer a few tens of thousands of yuan to you.”

There was a pause on the other side: “Son, don’t worry about things at home. The money we borrowed to build the house has been paid back. We are healthy, have a skill, and can cover our living expenses. Save your money, you’ll need it for a down payment on a house. Big city houses are expensive. I heard that even if you get a loan, you still have to pay over a million in down payment. Some even require several millions! If you really want to get married, where will you live without a nest? Which girl these days would want to be with you? Your mother is busy with your marriage, you don’t have to worry about it. You just have to remember, take it slow. You know the situation at home. We can’t give you much money. If you want to buy a house, let us know. We will scrape together some money, add a few tens of thousands, perhaps even a hundred thousand, to help you out. Don’t rush, life has to be lived step by step, there’s no such thing as an instantaneous leap to the top.”

But Yang knew his parents hadn’t paid off all their debts yet. He also knew that they wouldn’t let him send any money home.

Yang Ping suppressed his emotions, spoke in an adjusted voice: “Mom, Dad, why don’t you come at the end of this year? I work at a very good hospital now, it’s quite beautiful and the leaders and colleagues are very nice to me. I’m also doing well in my department, I will strive harder.”

“Yes, son, that’s the spirit. Set a lower standard for life and a higher one for work, understand? We do want to visit, your mother especially can’t stop worrying. We don’t want to interfere with your work. If we’d disrupt your work, we’d rather not come. It’s just a casual thought, but if it wouldn’t affect your work and you don’t mind, we’d like to stay for a couple of days,” his father uttered.

His mother grabbed the phone and interjected: “Your father has been wanting to go forever. He mentioned that when he was in the army, he was in G City—”

“What are you talking about? Don’t listen to her, she’s talking nonsense.” It was his father’s voice.

This time, the call with his parents lasted for a considerably long time.

The phone showed that Director Kong from the Overseas Chinese Building was calling. Yang could no longer chat with his parents: “Mom, Dad, it’s settled then, you will come at the end of the year to celebrate Chinese New Year here. Let me know when you have sorted out your schedule, and I will book the flight tickets for you online. I have another call from the hospital, I’ll talk to you later.”

He switched to the incoming call, from Director Kong.

“Hello, Doctor Yang, this is Director Kong. I’m sorry to bother you, but Mr. Ning’s condition has worsened. He specifically asked for you. He really trusts you.”

It must be very urgent, he wouldn’t bother me on a Sunday otherwise.

Yang Ping could not afford to delay and headed towards to the hospital immediately.