The Surgeon’s Studio

As the surgery ended, numerous calls came in for Department Chief Kong. The patient was still lying on the operating table.

Many of the professors and experts had left the room, but Li Haitao remained. He had not expected a junior doctor like Zheng Ren to put up such an impressive performance.

The live surgery recording had 10000 downloads within the hour.

As the recording was not hosted on a social media platform, the numbers far exceeded their expectations.

A smile blossomed on Li Haitao’s face as he entertained call after call.

One person’s happiness was another’s despair.

Inside Biosensors International’s spanking new China headquarters, the East Asia regional director, Huang Zhishan, watched the surgery recording in horror. He did not have the technical knowledge to understand the procedure, but from the expressions of the experts in the room, he knew it meant bad news.

They were silent and somber, without a hint of joy.

Some attempted to speak but decided against it.

What could they say? The video before them was irrefutable.

Biosensors International had spent a king’s sum to bring in a world-class surgeon, Professor Rudolph Wagner, and build a new production line to manufacture specialized micro guide wire and guide catheters.

All that effort for nothing!

Huang Zhishan cared not for the demonstrative surgery’s outcome. His sole aim was to put on a good show with his products prior to entering China’s market.

However, his joy had been short-lived. A young surgeon in Imperial Capital, not even thirty years old, had challenged Professor Rudolph Wagner’s prostate interventional embolization surgery.

What was truly incredible was that this man had actually succeeded!

Unbelievable!

The country’s top-notch professors had given up on trying this procedure; how could this young upstart have accomplished what they could not?

Huang Zhishan watched the whole recording in disbelief.

He looked at the faces of the well-paid experts around him and felt his heart sink.

He took a deep breath to calm himself before asking the room, “Now that you have all seen the recording, what is your opinion?”

Without verbal confirmation, Huang Zhishan clung on to his last shred of hope.

Silence enveloped the large meeting room.

“Professor Sophie, why don’t you start?” Huang Zhishan crossed his fingers and rested them on his belly in order to assume a comfortable position, hoping to appear relaxed in front of his audience.

However, the action had the opposite effect. The experts could see the stiffness and tension in Huang Zhishan’s muscles that reminded them of a patient suffering from opisthotonos.

“My dear Huang, are we certain of the authenticity of this recording?” Now that she had been called by name, Professor Sophie had no choice but to verbalize the questions in her mind.

Another expert in his fifties had a tablet [1]in his hand. The shifting colors on the screen flickered on the man’s aged face, making it appear monstrous in the dark.

“I’m verifying it, Sophie,” he interjected, staring at the screen in his hand.

“Olivier, if you don’t put away that damned machine…”

“I was asking around. The consensus will sadden Huang,” Olivier said with a shrug. “The surgery in Imperial Capital was a live recording. Although there are few experts left in Imperial Capital, the local doctors were witness to the surgery and they all confirmed that the content online is exactly the same as that which they had witnessed.”

Huang Zhishan felt his heart grow cold.

“My god, is this real?” Sophie asked rhetorically. “From my understanding, Professor Rudolph Wagner’s surgery was the peak of human’s limits.”

“Limits and records were made to be broken,” Olivier said jokingly.

“But this leap is too inconceivable,” Sophie continued, “The limit was not crossed but completely outstripped. After watching this, Professor Rudolph Wagner must feel like he’d been steamrolled by a tank.”

“I think…”

“Enough!” In a fit of anger, Huang Zhishan cursed and growled, “Are you sure about this?”

“My dear Huang, even if I didn’t believe the recording, it doesn’t change the fact that it is real. There are many geniuses in the world and we may have simply bumped into one. Oh, how I would love to see Rudolph Wagner’s expression when he sees this,” Olivier said with levity.

Despair overcame Huang Zhishan and he slumped in his large office chair.

The experts who had been invited to view the recording exchanged a few glances. There seemed to be no point staying and they began to shuffle out.

Olivier walked elegantly to Huang Zhishan and said in French, “My dear Huang, the bill has been issued. Remember to sign off on it.”

The rest of them filed out of the room, leaving Huang Zhishan alone to stare at the intricate patterns on his ceiling.

Several moments passed and his phone rang, breaking his trance.

Huang Zhishan forced out a single syllable. “Yeah?”

He listened to his secretary for a moment. The topic broached had him shouting into the phone: “Get her out! Tell her to go far, far away!”

…

Hua Yingying plastered the smile of a white-collar professional on her face as she stood before Huang Zhishan’s secretary with a resume in her hand.

She knew the resume was just a formality.

A few days after the surprise contact, she had put in her resignation at Changfeng Microinvasive Surgery and gone to the regional headquarters of Biosensors International.

She was going to meet her future boss, Biosensors International’s regional director.

What position would she be given?

Hua Yingying was sure she would be a manager of a large district, at least. Maybe she would become the sales manager of Sorcery Capital. She had contacts in the city and it was the company’s first branch office in the country. Sorcery Capital was an important location, after all.

But…

Hua Yingying could hear the loud and angry voice over the secretary’s phone.

Annoyance flashed past her face but she quickly regained her composure. She was a corporate employee, born and bred.

“Since the director is busy, I’ll come by again after a few days.” Hua Yingying did her best to exude an air of confidence as she left her resume on the table and walked out of the building.

‘F*ck!’ she cursed in her heart.

As she walked through the central business district, her mind rummaged through her remaining options.

After some thought, she took her phone out and dialed a number as waves of white-collared employees moved past her on the busy street.

[1] The raw text states ‘PID’ which I believe is a typo by the author.