Great Doctor Ling Ran

Chapter 729: Top-Notch Doctor

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

It was nine in the morning.

After Zhao Leyi filled in forms to authorize two patients for tests, he sat before his computer and started answering patients’ questions on “Doctor’s Here”.

Yunli Medical Company was having a promotion for “Doctor’s Here” right now. Doctors would get points for answering questions, and after the end of the promotional period, they would be awarded financial remuneration based on their points. If the patients decided to go for face-to-face consultation after asking questions on the app, the doctor would get even higher remuneration.

After spending two days using the app, Zhao Leyi was hooked on it.

He was an emergency physician anyway, and he was extremely adept at answering all kinds of weird questions from patients such as what to do when a fishbone was lodged inside the throat, what to do when a toy was stuck inside a child’s throat, and what to do when one of the patient’s body parts was stuck somewhere…

The patients asked all kinds of interesting questions, and Zhao Leyi had no trouble answering them at all.

This was especially true when he was on the night shift and there were no patients. Zhao Leyi did not even bother sleeping, and he had been on the “Doctor’s Here” app instead of TikTok.

Everyone chased after more income.

Emergency physicians did not earn much, to begin with. Moreover, as Yunli Medical Company was a company they were familiar with, Zhao Leyi was not worried that the other party would refuse to pay up at all. Hence, he answered patients’ questions nonstop so that he would receive financial remuneration as well as rank on top of the chart.

Doctors who answered plenty of questions received many “likes” from patients, got many “upvotes” from other doctors, and successfully made a lot of face-to-face appointments with patients would rank in front of other doctors who majored in the same field as them. This way, they would gain more exposure.

Deep down inside, Zhao Leyi had a thought. ‘Since so many doctors in the country are using this app, if I were to be one of the top emergency physicians using the app, plenty of other doctors would know who I am.’

Many doctors chased after this kind of fame. This was especially true when… not many patients asked for them…

The doctors in the emergency room were not busy all the time, either.

When this happened, it meant that the facilities in the emergency room were totally inadequate.

Unlike in other countries where very few hospitals could set up Emergency Departments, especially ones that were allowed to treat external wounds, in China, Emergency Departments could be found in every single hospital. Anyone could enter the Emergency Department of a hospital and receive treatment at any time.

Tertiary Grade A hospitals managed their Emergency Departments a little more strictly and made it mandatory for patients who did not qualify to receive emergency treatment to head to other departments for consultations. However, doctors working in Emergency Departments of small hospitals would not really turn patients away. Many of them would take in the patients before deciding what to do.

In these hospitals, emergency physicians could be seen as general practitioners, and there was not much difference to their income compared to general practitioners either. Hence, doctors in all other departments looked down on them.

Zhao Leyi had long since been sick of being looked down upon.

Doctors enjoyed high social status. This was especially true when a doctor had become an attending physician. Zhao Leyi was pretty popular among his relatives when he returned to his hometown during the Chinese New Year. No matter what their intentions were, most of Zhao Leyi’s relatives were willing to suck up to Zhao Leyi and his wife.

The only thing he was unhappy about was the fact that doctors did not earn much in reality. This problem was exacerbated by the fact that his wife loved buying handbags.

“I’ll answer so many questions that I can afford a handbag with the remuneration.” Zhao Leyi sat up straight before his computer and answered patients’ questions with determination. At the same time, he could not help but think about how happy his wife would be and how coquettishly she would act when she received the handbag. After this happened, he would not need to worry about buying gifts for his wife on various occasions. This would save him a lot of time and energy, which he could use to answer more questions. This way, he would get to earn more money and buy his wife another handbag…

Time flew whenever doctors were answering patients’ questions online.

It was almost afternoon. After Zhao Leyi took in a young patient who had fallen from a bicycle and debrided as well as sutured his wound, it was time for his lunch break.

Zhao Leyi happily notified the nurses at the nurses’ station, “I’ll go for lunch now. Do call me if there’s anything.”

Only one of the nurses at the nurses’ station responded by languidly waving a few times. She did not even bother to exchange pleasantries with Zhao Leyi.

Zhao Leyi sighed internally. Back when he had just started working at the hospital, even though he was a junior doctor, he was pretty popular among the young nurses. They would at least greet him when they saw him. Sometimes, nurses would even tease him.

However, after he became an attending physician, even though he did not really enjoy a higher status in the Emergency Department, he was no longer popular among the nurses because of the fact that he had become older, and that he had started losing hair. Of course, the nurses would never say this out loud. They merely ignored him.

Zhao Leyi entertained his thoughts as he dawdled to the canteen. He saw Doctor Zhou and Su Jiafu the moment he raised his head. Zhao Leyi greeted them and walked over with a smile. “No one’s sitting here, right? I’ll take this seat, then. By the way, are you guys using…”

“I’m here.” Yu Yuan, who was holding her phone, raised her head and glanced at Zhao Leyi.

Only then did Zhao Leyi see the petite Yu Yuan.

“I’ll sit opposite you.” Zhao Leyi smiled as he gazed at Yu Yuan, who was only the same height as the back of the seat after sitting down. He walked around the table and sat down opposite Yu Yuan. He then glanced around and noticed that the familiar interface of “Doctor’s Here” was displayed on Yu Yuan’s phone. Zhao Leyi immediately got interested. “Doctor Yu, you installed “Doctor’s Here” too?”

“Yeah.” Yu Yuan was busy with her phone, and she was typing at lightning speed.

“This app by Yunli Medical Company is pretty handy, isn’t it?”

“Yup.” Yu Yuan nodded, and she looked like she was too busy to answer Zhao Leyi’s question. Truth be told, she was indeed a little busy. There were too many questions.

As Zhao Leyi watched her, his heart skipped a bit. Yu Yuan was renowned for being good at theories. Aside from this, she had been the chief resident for quite some time. Even if she was not really skilled, she must have become even more knowledgeable. ‘This woman must be able to answer a lot of questions.’

As Zhao Leyi thought about this, he whipped out his phone. He asked as he clicked on the ranking chart of the Emergency Department. “Doctor Yu, how long have you been using the app? What’s your ranking now?”

As he spoke, Zhao Leyi saw his own ranking. [Emergency Department—Surgery: 158]

To be able to rank so highly among doctors all over the country, Zhao Leyi was a little pleased with himself.

Yu Yuan, though, said without raising her head, “I’m answering questions on behalf of Doctor Ling.”

“Huh? For Ling Ran?”

Yu Yuan hummed in acknowledgment. She ate some quiche and drank a mouthful of coffee. She then continued typing furiously.

Zhao Leyi froze for a moment. “This app allows you to answer on behalf of other people?”

“Of course.” Yu Yuan glanced at Zhao Leyi with a baffled expression and continued, “Most of the questions in the app are beginner-level. Why would Doctor Ling waste his time on them? We would only consult Doctor Ling when there are questions that we’re unable to answer.”

Zhao Leyi immediately froze.

‘What? Is this how the game is played? Wouldn’t it make things easier for top-notch doctors, then? Wait, should Ling Ran even be recognized as a top-notch doctor?’

“Ling Ran sure has it easy…” Zhao Leyi chuckled and entered Ling Ran’s name into the search bar of the app. He then saw that Ling Ran’s name could be found in the Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, Sports Medicine, Emergency Department, Hand Surgery Department, and General Surgery Department. Moreover, he ranked within the top fifty of every single department he was included in.

Zhao Leyi swept his finger across his phone and closed the app. He could not help but become furious.

Doctor Zhou saw Zhao Leyi’s expression and said languidly, “Don’t you know how pharmaceutical sales companies are like? Of course, they want to make money off the doctors at the top. If you were a patient, would you want to ask specialists and chief physicians questions, or would you want to ask the attending physicians some questions? The thing is, specialists and chief physicians are busy. It’s just like how patients often go to chief physicians for consultations but end up receiving surgery from attending physicians…”

“Are you answering patients yourself too?” Zhao Leyi looked at Doctor Zhou.

“Oh, I’m too lazy for this,” Doctor Zhou answered like it was the most natural thing in the world.

“The internet is dominating people’s lives now. If you don’t answer patients’ questions online now, what if patients can’t even find you in the future?”

Doctor Zhou glanced languidly at Zhao Leyi and was too lazy to reply. He merely hummed in acknowledgment.

The moment Zhao Leyi saw Doctor Zhou’s expression, he knew that he was throwing pearls to swine again. He slapped his head and chuckled self-deprecatingly. He turned to look at Yu Yuan and asked, “What question are you answering now?”

“Someone said that a tennis ball is stuck in his anus, and he’s asking if he can take it out by himself.” Yu Yuan raised her head for a moment and continued to type at lightning speed.

Zhao Leyi hummed in acknowledgment. He then furrowed his eyebrows. “If he were to try to take it out by himself, it would be quite difficult. It would be better if he seeks treatment.”

Yu Yuan merely hummed and said, “Tennis balls are rough, so it wouldn’t be too difficult. If it were a billiard ball, he would have no choice but to seek treatment.”

Yu Yuan never stopped typing as she spoke.

Even though Zhao Leyi felt like debating about it, he was worried that he would lose out. After all, even though it was easy to say that it would be impossible for the patient to take the tennis ball out by himself, if the person really ended up succeeding, it would be a slap in the face for him.

“Ah, I’m not hungry anymore.” The image of a tennis ball being stuck inside a man’s anus was too nauseating, and Zhao Leyi decided not to eat anymore. He rose and left.

After he left the small canteen and walked for a little while, a basin of piping hot pork trotters attracted Zhao Leyi’s attention.

“Give me a pork trotter. Where’s your boss?” Zhao Leyi asked as he walked over and paid 24.9 RMB by scanning a QR code.

“Our boss is in the utility room.” The young man placed a pork trotter inside a small plastic bag and handed it to Zhao Leyi.

Zhao Leyi took it and took a few more steps forward. He could see a utility room, which was pretty small, through a transparent glass window.

In the utility room, Lu Wenbin was supervising two of his employees as he typed furiously on his phone.

“Young Lu, what are you up to?” Zhao Leyi greeted him.

“Answering questions on Doctor’s Here,” Lu Wenbin said without raising his head. He then ordered his employees. “Stir the pork trotters with more force. Don’t spill the soup.”