Yuan Qi turned to the sneering Qi Yue and chuckled. "I’m well aware, Director Qi, that you wouldn’t spare a second glance for an ordinary offer letter."
"But that might not be true for others."
"For instance, to a young doctor who graduated from a third-rate medical school and works in a hospital in some backwater county, this is a life-changing opportunity."
"I think it’s best to let him decide for himself. No one else should make that choice for him."
Qi Yue scoffed. "I can make this decision for him."
"Because in less than three days, other major hospitals, on par with Huashan Hospital, will be offering even better terms, practically begging him to join."
The dean’s office fell silent at his words.
It was Li Yao who broke the silence.
He said, his voice tinged with annoyance, "Director Qi, whatever you’re holding back, just get it out in the open. Stop hiding it."
Qi Yue inclined his head toward Li Yao. "Dean, once you hear my explanation, you’ll understand I wasn’t intentionally hiding anything."
He then turned his gaze to Wang Chunyuan. "Doctor Wang, do you recall a patient named Fang Jie whom I asked you to consult on at the beginning of the year?"
Wang Chunyuan nodded. "How could I forget such a distinctive patient?"
"The memory is still fresh."
Wang Chunyuan then explained to the others, "For that patient, Director Qi and I initially gave a diagnosis of a perfectly healthy heart."
"But a little over three months later, he went into cardiac arrest. They almost couldn’t resuscitate him."
"It was only when we reviewed his initial test results afterward that we found some subtle, hidden signs."
After a brief pause, it dawned on Wang Chunyuan. "Director Qi," he asked, "does this patient have something to do with the young Dr. Yu?"
Qi Yue gave a firm nod and announced, "It was Dr. Yu who warned Fang Jie. He said his heart was like a marathon runner in the final sprint—full of power on the surface, but already exhausted internally and liable to stop at any moment."
"Fang Jie was terrified, so he came to me for a cardiac check-up."
"I couldn’t find anything, which is why I asked you, Doctor Wang, our cardiopulmonary expert, for a consultation."
Qi Yue sighed softly. "It was because of Fang Jie’s cardiac arrest that I took notice of that kid."
"That’s when I discovered he has an extraordinary gift for medicine, an ability to make profound diagnoses from the subtlest of details."
Yuan Qi’s face hardened as he challenged, "So this young Yu Zhiming is supposedly better than a renowned diagnostic expert and a cardiopulmonary specialist combined?"
"Director Qi, no matter how much you favor him, isn’t fabricating such a tall tale a bit too preposterous?"
"Only a fool would believe that!"
Qi Yue spread his hands toward Dean Li Yao, his voice laced with feigned helplessness. "You see, Dean?"
"This is why I kept it quiet. No one would believe it. They’d just think I was a fool."
"But luckily..."
Qi Yue grinned smugly. "This wasn’t an isolated incident. I found another case."
Meeting everyone’s inquisitive gazes, he continued, "Shortly after Fang Jie was resuscitated from his cardiac arrest, I took a trip to Yu Zhiming’s county hospital."
"And as luck would have it, he’d just been beaten up. Beaten black and blue, in fact. He was out cold for a full day."
"The reason he got beaten is pretty amusing, too."
At this, a grin spread across Qi Yue’s face.
"At a classmate’s wedding, he was giving people check-ups. He told one guy that there was a problem with the greater curvature of his stomach and that he needed to get it checked out further."
"The guy freaked out and ran straight to a major hospital in the provincial capital, where he spent over ten thousand on a comprehensive examination."
"The results? His stomach was fine."
"The guy was furious about the money and demanded Yu Zhiming reimburse him. They got into an argument, and he ended up beating Yu Zhiming up."
As Qi Yue told this part of the story, Cui Zhitan, Wang Chunyuan, and Li Yao couldn’t help but crack a smile.
"Then yesterday, a thought struck me. What if Yu Zhiming’s diagnosis had been correct after all?"
"What if that hospital in the capital had made the same mistake I initially did?"
"So, I had someone contact the fellow."
"I told him to come to Binhai Huashan Hospital overnight for another examination."
"And if his stomach was still fine, I’d personally compensate him with fifty thousand for his trouble."
As he spoke, Qi Yue walked over to the seating area and picked up a report from the sofa.
"This is the pathology report from his gastric tissue biopsy. It just came in today. Take a look."
Yuan Qi snatched the report and flipped directly to the conclusion.
There, in black and white, it read...
"Cancerous cells detected."
Yuan Qi’s heart sank. It sank so low that he didn’t even notice when someone took the report from his hand.
Suddenly, he retorted in anger, "Qi Yue, this is just your version of events! For all we know, you fabricated this whole thing as a stunt to hype up that kid!"
Qi Yue tsked. "I’ve lived a long life, and I wouldn’t dare claim my character is flawless."
"But I truly would not stoop to something like this."
"Feel free to investigate. See if you can find a single lie in anything I’ve said about this matter."
Liu Dingyou, who had also seen the pathology report, quietly reminded Yuan Qi.
"Vice Dean Yuan, you can hide something like this for a time, but not forever. Director Qi has no reason to lie."
The realization hit Yuan Qi.
’That’s right. If Yu Zhiming’s skills are just exaggerated and he has no real ability, he’ll be exposed the moment he starts treating patients.’
’At that point, Qi Yue’s own reputation would be ruined along with him.’
Still trying to save face, Yuan Qi retorted, "Perhaps it was just a case of a blind squirrel finding a nut. Yu Zhiming got lucky with these two patients."
"It doesn’t prove he actually possesses that kind of diagnostic skill."
Cui Zhitan commented quietly, "Two cases is a small sample size. We can’t rule out the possibility of coincidence and luck."
"However, on the flip side, we can’t definitively say that Yu Zhiming *doesn’t* have such extraordinary diagnostic abilities either, can we?"
Yuan Qi froze.
’If Yu Zhiming had really just made a lucky guess on those two cases, that would be one thing.’
’But what if he hadn’t?’
’Then the assessment he presided over today would become an indelible stain on his professional career.’
’His rivals would surely exploit it.’
Seeing the unconcealed mockery in Qi Yue’s eyes, Yuan Qi’s head snapped up. "Qi Yue, you’re setting a trap for me."
"Why did this pathology report only come out today?"
"And if you had given us even the slightest hint about Yu Zhiming’s abilities, today’s vote would have gone very differently."
Qi Yue sneered. "Blaming others when you’re the one full of selfish intentions?"
He demanded loudly, "Who designed the content for today’s assessment?"
"Vice Dean Yuan, you couldn’t possibly be unaware of Yu Zhiming’s reputation as a ’Human CT Scanner’ and ’Prodigy Diagnostician’."
"If you had designed the assessment to test his strengths, progressively increasing the difficulty, it wouldn’t have been hard to discover..."
"...that the kid possesses an extraordinary diagnostic ability, more than enough to qualify him for our special talent recruitment program."
"But of the three assessment sections you designed, the second tested his treatment skills, and the third tested his surgical skills."
"You were clearly setting him up to fail."
Yuan Qi tried to defend himself. "Yu Zhiming is just an attending physician with only three or four years of experience. His specialization isn’t set in stone yet. Conducting a comprehensive skills assessment is perfectly reasonable."
"Furthermore..."
Yuan Qi then tried to shift the blame. "The specific content of the assessment was designed by my staff."
"Of course, I bear some responsibility as well."
"I just thought that for an attending physician like Yu Zhiming, the assessment shouldn’t be excessively difficult."
Qi Yue let out two exaggerated laughs.
"How utterly ridiculous."
"Your assessment wasn’t designed to test a person’s greatest strengths. Instead, you deliberately lowered the bar."
"Vice Dean Yuan, even if Yu Zhiming had performed perfectly on all three parts of your assessment, I’m guessing the best he could have demonstrated was the skill of a top-tier attending physician, correct?"
"And that level, I imagine, still wouldn’t be enough to qualify for our special recruitment initiative, would it?"
"Vice Dean Yuan, I have to admire your cunning."
Hearing this, Cui Zhitan suddenly understood.
’So that’s why today felt so strange.’
’Given Yu Zhiming’s background, the assessment seemed quite challenging on the surface.’
’But measured against the hospital’s standards for special talent recruitment, it was actually far too easy.’
’So Yuan Qi really was being selfish. He never intended for Yu Zhiming to succeed from the start.’
’Of course, Qi Yue was no pushover either; he had his own counter-play ready.’
’Neither of them were simple lambs, that’s for sure!’
’With over three thousand people in the hospital, it was naive to expect perfect harmony.’
’Thinking about all this messy business, Cui Zhitan decided it was best to just stay quiet.’
He remained silent, but someone else could not.
Li Yao spoke up. "Director Qi, that’s enough. Now is not the time for bickering."
"The pressing matter is what to do about Yu Zhiming’s special recruitment..."