The dinner Qi Yue hosted, with his wife and child present, lasted two hours and ended around nine that night.
During that time, Qi Yue introduced Yu Zhiming to Huashan Hospital and the medical research center he ran.
Naturally, he placed special emphasis on the next day’s evaluation.
However, because Qi Yue had to recuse himself, he knew very little about the specific content and format of the evaluation.
He told Yu Zhiming the evaluation would start at nine the next morning.
The end time was yet to be determined.
A panel of five medical experts would be conducting the review.
They were Yuan Qi, the vice president of research and a researcher;
Wang Chunyuan, a cardiopulmonary expert and Chief Physician;
Cui Zhitan, the Deputy Director of General Surgery and a Chief Physician;
Zheng Ye, a urology expert and Chief Physician;
Liu Dingyou, a reproductive systems expert and Chief Physician.
Hearing the list of names, Yu Zhiming felt the pressure on his shoulders suddenly intensify.
The prestige of the Chief Physician title was incredibly high.
That was especially true for a Chief Physician at a major hospital in a large city. It was incredibly difficult to earn that title without truly outstanding, independent medical skills or remarkable research abilities.
The reality was that even at a major hospital like Huashan Hospital, most doctors could work diligently their entire lives and still retire with the title of Associate Chief Physician.
Tomorrow, five senior medical experts were going to conduct a competency evaluation on him, a mere attending physician...
Just the thought of that scene made Yu Zhiming’s heart pound.
The sheer scale and lineup of this panel was far more imposing than his graduate school entrance interview all those years ago.
As Qi Yue and Yu Zhiming parted ways in front of the hotel, Qi Yue clapped him on the shoulder and said with a smile, "Just stay calm. It’s nothing more than another test."
"Don’t get so excited or anxious you can’t sleep."
Yu Zhiming managed an awkward smile.
’Judging from past experience, my chances of getting a peaceful night’s sleep are slim to none.’
After so many years of adapting, Yu Zhiming, with his hypersensitive hearing, had learned to either ignore most external sounds, treat them as white noise, or selectively tune them out.
But in a new environment, Yu Zhiming had to re-adapt to all the surrounding sounds.
It was a painful process.
And a long one...
After seeing Qi Yue and his family off, Yu Zhiming, his sister, and Xiaoxue returned to the hotel room and washed up.
When Yu Zhiming came out of the bathroom, he saw his sister and Xiaoxue had already prepared the large bed for him.
On the bed, besides the buckwheat pillow from home, they had even spread out a sheet and the light quilt he used, all brought from their house.
"Fourth Sister, this sheet and quilt?"
Yu Xiangwan raised an eyebrow. "Of course I brought them. It was my little secret."
"I’ve heard that familiar surroundings and familiar smells make it easier to fall asleep."
She waved her hand in a mock-dramatic gesture. "Ah, Fifth Brother, no need to get too emotional. It’s my job to take care of you."
"Besides, I’m counting on you to pay me a high salary someday."
"Xiaoxue and I will go now. You should get some sleep..."
Yu Zhiming hummed in agreement, and after seeing his sister and Xiaoxue out, he turned on the small speaker on the coffee table.
This was no ordinary speaker; it was a high-fidelity Bose speaker that Yu Zhiming had spent over ten thousand yuan to buy.
When turned on, it played soft, instrumental music, so faint that most people could barely hear it.
Falling asleep to this soothing music was a long-standing and effective habit of Yu Zhiming’s.
He didn’t just use the music as a sleep aid; its main purpose was to crowd out the cacophony of external sounds, pushing them away from his eardrums.
Yu Zhiming turned off the room’s air conditioner, inserted his noise-canceling earplugs, switched off the lights, and lay down on the large bed.
Slowly, he grew still.
As his mind and body quieted, a strange sensation spread through Yu Zhiming. It was as if his organs had received a command and were clocking out for the night, one after another.
But his auditory system alone began to work overtime. Its efficiency didn’t just double; it was supercharged.
Like a rushing torrent, more and more subtle sounds from his surroundings flooded in without preamble...
The sound of a TV drama from the room diagonally across the hall.
The whirring of the elevator ascending and descending.
Footsteps pacing back and forth on the floor above.
The sound of RUSHING water from the bathroom in the room to his left, accompanied by a familiar hum.
That would be Fourth Sister, the shower-time diva, singing as she bathed.
Yu Zhiming could also hear Xiaoxue’s sweet, wheedling voice; she was probably on the phone with her mother.
From the room to his right, the CLACK-CLACK of a keyboard...
A moment later, Yu Zhiming picked up on even subtler sounds, like the soft WHIR of the air conditioners in the rooms on either side.
Out in the hallway, a wire with what seemed to be a loose connection would occasionally emit an irritating CRACKLE of electricity...
As more and more sounds converged, Yu Zhiming began to construct a mental image based on the auditory feedback.
It was a pastime he’d developed to get through countless nights tormented by the chaotic symphony of sounds.
Or, you could say, it was a method for dispelling his agitation and regaining his composure.
Yu Zhiming focused on gathering the sounds from the room to his right.
The tapping of the keyboard,
The whir of the air conditioner,
The periodic chime of a phone notification,
An occasional mumble,
and the sound of passing gas...
As the myriad sounds intertwined, the wall separating the two rooms seemed to vanish.
Yu Zhiming "saw" a girl with a ponytail in thin pajamas, sitting cross-legged on her bed, pounding furiously on her laptop with an indignant expression...
He observed the girl in silence.
He used the feedback from the subtle sounds he gathered, combined with analysis, deduction, and imagination, to fill in the details of her face, her expressions, and her movements...
An unknown amount of time passed. Then, the almost lifelike image of the girl next door was suddenly shattered by the SLAM of a door.
Yu Zhiming’s attention was immediately captured by a loud commotion from the floor above.
He roughly perceived two figures in the room upstairs, wrapped in a tight embrace.
Then came the successive clicks of high heels hitting the floor...
’Now this is a much more interesting scene.’
Full of enthusiasm, Yu Zhiming quickly began to construct a real-time, dynamic image of the scene upstairs...
"Fifth Brother, you were up all night?"
In response to his sister’s concerned question, Yu Zhiming, looking rather listless and sporting two dark circles under his eyes, gave a wry chuckle.
"’I wasn’t up the *entire* night. I managed to doze for two or three hours, which is much better than I expected.’"
After a moment’s pause, Yu Zhiming tried to sound energetic. "Sis, I’ve got plenty of experience dealing with this."
"A hot shower and a nice breakfast will have me back at one hundred percent. It won’t affect the evaluation."
Seeing her brother like this, Yu Xiangwan’s heart ached for him. She reached out and vigorously rubbed his cheeks.
"There, Fifth Brother. I’m giving you an energy boost to wake you up."
"Uncle, Uncle, let me give you a boost too!"
Fu Xiaoxue eagerly reached her hands out as well.
But at the sight of Yu Zhiming’s stern, warning glare, she snatched her hands back with a WHOOSH...
After his shower, Yu Zhiming changed from head to toe into the set of clothes his sister had laid out for him.
Yu Zhiming looked in the mirror at his well-dressed, mature, and handsome reflection, quite pleased with what he saw.
Afterward, they all went to the hotel restaurant for the breakfast buffet...
At 8:50 A.M., Yu Zhiming, Yu Xiangwan, and Fu Xiaoxue arrived promptly in front of Huashan Hospital’s main administrative building, where they found Qi Yue waiting for them.
Yin Wenzhu was also there, having come to cheer Yu Zhiming on.
As soon as they met, Qi Yue noticed something was wrong.
"Zhiming, you didn’t sleep well last night?"
"Yeah, I have a bad habit of not being able to sleep in strange beds," Yu Zhiming said, fabricating an excuse.
Qi Yue gave him a knowing smile. "Well, as long as it wasn’t worry that kept you awake."
"Follow me inside..."
Yu Zhiming looked up at the eleven-story building, took a deep breath, and started up the steps...