Chapter 777: Conflict

Chapter 777: Chapter 777: Conflict

Ward rounds conducted by senior department directors were indeed quite casual.

Sometimes they would visit the wards when they remembered or had free time. If an emergency surgery or meeting came up, they might not go at all. This was an unwritten rule in the hospital. It had always been patients waiting for doctors; since when did doctors accommodate the patients’ schedules?

"If this slight adjustment in time is extremely beneficial to the final recovery of the patient’s wound, then for convenience’s sake, Director Ren, even if you just slightly fixed your ward round schedule or had the nurses notify the patient a few minutes in advance, why wouldn’t that be acceptable?"

Li Xu looked straight into Ren Hongbo’s eyes, his tone sharp. "Director Ren, what is our ultimate goal as doctors? It’s to cure the patient and save his leg.

"Different patients have different constitutions and different pathogeneses, which require different methods. The patient’s body right now is like a piece of rotting wood covered in mold. Exposing him to the sun, using ultraviolet rays to sterilize, and utilizing the warmth of the sunlight to boost his own Yang Qi and metabolism—this is absolutely conducive to the growth of granulation tissue.

"Doctors should flexibly adjust our work schedules and methods according to the actual medical needs of the patients, rather than making the patients act like prisoners, rigidly complying with our so-called ’rules and regulations’ and ’authority.’

"Don’t you agree?"

Ren Hongbo was speechless. He was rendered utterly mute by Li Xu’s sharp words, which were not only laced with sarcasm but also delivered from the moral and medical high ground. His old face flushed crimson. His lips trembled, but he couldn’t squeeze out a single word for a long time.

"What’s going on?"

Zeng Yunjun’s figure appeared at the end of the corridor. Seeing a group of people gathered at the door of the Orthopedic Trauma observation room from afar, and sensing that the atmosphere wasn’t quite right, he strode over briskly.

"Director Zeng."

Seeing the "big boss" of the Emergency Department arrive, the crowd bowed their heads in greeting and unconsciously cleared a path.

"What’s going on? Why is everyone gathered here so early in the morning?" Zeng Yunjun frowned. His gaze swept over the crowd before finally landing on the somewhat ashen-faced Ren Hongbo and the calm Li Xu.

"It’s nothing. Nothing serious." As the chief resident, Gao Jingyun naturally had to step up to smooth things over. "Director Ren was just instructing us on some precautions for ward management."

"Is that so?" Zeng Yunjun raised an eyebrow, clearly unconvinced. He knew the behavior of his subordinates all too well; this was obviously a conflict.

"Director Zeng, here’s what happened."

This time, without waiting for Gao Jingyun to continue playing the peacemaker, Li Lin, who was standing behind Li Xu, spoke up. The kid was young and fearless, and with Li Xu backing him up, he was quite emboldened. Spilling the beans in one breath, he explained the entire process to Zeng Yunjun: how the patient had gone out to get some sun, which caused Ren Hongbo to do his ward round in an empty room, leading him to angrily reprimand Gao Jingyun, and finally, how Li Xu had stepped in to explain.

He even added at the end, "Director Ren felt that we didn’t follow the rules and was a bit angry, so..."

Zeng Yunjun’s face immediately darkened upon hearing this. He turned to Ren Hongbo, his tone stern. "Since Dean Li said that getting sun exposure is beneficial for a patient with diabetic foot gangrene and can use the natural Yang Qi to promote wound healing, then he should get more sun.

"When our Emergency Department encounters patients in special situations, we sometimes even need to break the routine and do special rehabilitation training to promote their recovery. Treating each patient according to their individual needs and being flexible is the basic quality of a clinician. Director Ren, you’ve worked in this position for so many years, and you don’t even understand this principle?"

Zeng Yunjun gave Ren Hongbo absolutely no face in front of so many people.

"No, no... Director Zeng, you’ve misunderstood. I just had an emergency surgery to attend to earlier. I was in a rush for ward rounds and didn’t see the patient, so I got a little impatient." Cold sweat instantly broke out on Ren Hongbo’s forehead as he hurriedly explained.

"You need to pay attention to your methods and be flexible in your work. This shouldn’t just apply to a patient’s condition, but also to your colleagues and to the leaders from various departments who come to guide our work. Be more patient in your communication, and don’t always throw your weight around as a senior," Zeng Yunjun said, looking at Ren Hongbo and speaking earnestly but with a pointed implication.

He cursed inwardly, "Damn it. I had to smile, play the victim, and move heaven and earth just to invite Dean Li over as a super reinforcement to ’guide the work’ in the Emergency Department.

"If Li Xu hadn’t been here that night, the department would have been paralyzed.

"I can’t even worship the man enough, yet here you are, Ren Hongbo. Over such a trivial matter, you dare to throw your weight around in front of Dean Li?

"Aren’t you just trying to make me look bad?"

As an emergency veteran with thirty years of experience, even if Zeng Yunjun hadn’t heard the whole story, just looking at the scene was enough for him to understand what was going on without having to guess.

If it were any other doctor, like Gao Jingyun or the junior residents, even if they had truly made a mistake due to inexperience or an error, it would be no big deal for Ren Hongbo, an Associate Chief Physician, to scold them or chew them out. In a hospital, junior doctors getting scolded by their superiors was as common as eating rice—if not more so.

But with Li Xu, the nature of the situation was entirely different.

Who was Li Xu? He was an anomaly whose medical skills were so profound that even Zeng Yunjun didn’t dare say he could definitively surpass him. Much less Ren Hongbo, who could only rank second or third in the Orthopedics Department!

What Zeng Yunjun admired and valued most about Li Xu was that he was an extremely rare "all-rounder." Internal medicine, surgery, orthopedics, acupuncture, anesthesia—he had almost no weak points, and in every single field, he performed at a top-tier level. Having a person like this in the Emergency Department was like having an invincible stabilizing anchor. He could take on whatever patient came through the doors and resolve their issues perfectly, significantly reducing the department’s mortality rate and medical disputes.

If such a formidable talent wasn’t already the rightful Vice Dean of Clinical Affairs, Zeng Yunjun would have swallowed his pride to fight Dean Song for him and firmly tie Li Xu to the Emergency Department.

In Zeng Yunjun’s eyes, Ren Hongbo’s stunt today was purely out of jealousy. He probably felt unbalanced because a young man in his twenties like Li Xu had climbed to the high position of Vice Dean, stepping over old men like them who had struggled for decades just to become associate chiefs. That was why he seized on this pretext to put Li Xu in his place.

In truth, within the medical system, it was indeed easier for exceptionally skilled young doctors to make their mark and get promoted.

But Ren Hongbo clearly hadn’t grasped the current situation. He had messed with the wrong person.