Dean Cao didn't understand why Zhang Chenghui was raising objections either. What did this have to do with him, a surgery department director? It felt like he was always targeting Xiao Mandong for no apparent reason. And Dean Cao was also irritated by Zhang Chenghui contradicting his opinions—he was the dean, after all. If someone was constantly butting heads with him like this every day, how was he supposed to get his work done? "Director Zhang, how about you go apply for the money to repair the machine?"
Zhang Chenghui was momentarily stumped. What authority did he have for that? He wasn't the dean, and the head of the Health Bureau probably wouldn't even let him through the door. Zhang Chenghui was extremely adept at reading the room, and he could tell Dean Cao was getting angry, so he quickly backtracked.
"Dean Cao, what I meant was, let the Health Bureau see if they can help us find repair technicians from other hospitals. If they can, wouldn't that be even better? Such an expensive machine—shouldn't we be more careful with it?"
"Do you think I, as the dean, wouldn't know such a simple thing? Last time we already brought in a repairman from Haishi Hospital—paid for travel, lodging, treated him to good food and drink—and after he came, he banged around for ten minutes and gave us three words: can't fix it. Didn't you know about that?"
Director Qi had also been feeling lately that his son-in-law had a problem. Every time he praised Xiao Mandong, Zhang Chenghui would bring up her family background and sneer at it. This girl had only been working for a few days—how had she managed to offend him? Even if she stayed at the hospital, it wouldn't affect his position at all.
Because his daughter couldn't have children, Director Qi was also wary of Zhang Chenghui.
At first, Director Qi even suspected that his son-in-law was interested in Zhou Qiaolian and was trying to push Xiao Mandong out in order to help Zhou Qiaolian stay at the hospital. But after observing for a while, he realized the two had no connection at all.
"Alright, Chenghui, the dean is here. Everyone has their own job—just focus on your own work."
Director Qi's words made Zhang Chenghui shut his mouth. He could tell his father-in-law was displeased, and if he kept talking, the old man might start questioning his motives. His father-in-law might seem gentle and affable on the surface, but he was definitely a man of deep thinking and formidable means.
Xiao Mandong hadn't said a word the whole time. If they let her try, she'd try; if they didn't, that was fine too. What bothered her was letting those foreigners take their money—the machine had cost just over twenty thousand, and the repair fee was two thousand each time. As someone who had lived through times of change, she knew the brilliant future this country was moving toward, and she also understood the helplessness of the older generation of workers who had to depend on others because of scarce resources and outdated technology. There was a fire burning in her heart—since she'd come here, she wanted to do what she could for this struggling nation.
At Dean Cao's gesture, Xiao Mandong walked straight over to the electrocardiograph machine.
Her fingertips tapped lightly on the control panel. A few minutes later, the red letters on the screen disappeared, replaced by English text filling the entire screen. She pressed some key, and the screen went black instantly.
"Hey! What are you doing?" Zhang Chenghui grew anxious and tried to step forward to stop her. Last time, that foreign expert had said that if the screen went black, it might be because the cathode ray tube inside had burned out.
"Now the screen's gone black—what if it never turns on again?"
Seeing Zhang Chenghui jumping around endlessly, Xiao Mandong was getting tired of holding back. "Can you stop hopping around? Yes, you're a director, you're so impressive, fine! Now get away from me, or I might say something I shouldn't, and you'll regret it."
Zhang Chenghui's face flushed bright red at her words. He was about to say something else when Xiao Mandong powered the machine back on. The screen lit up again, but it was still displaying a row of red English text.
Seeing the machine was still the same as before, Zhang Chenghui let out a derisive snort, his tone full of mockery. "I thought you actually had some skill. You made a big show of it, and it's still the same, isn't it?"
Xiao Mandong didn't even turn around, her fingers still tapping rapidly on the control panel. "That English just now meant calibration error. The one now is system cache clearing. Get it?"
The screen went dark again. This time she didn't turn it back on, instead looking up at the clock on the wall. "Wait thirty seconds to let the internal capacitors discharge, and then the cache will clear completely."
When Xiao Mandong pressed the power button again, the moment the screen lit up, everything had returned to normal.
The entire department was so quiet you could hear a pin drop, and then it erupted in thunderous exclamations!
"She actually fixed it! Oh my god, Comrade Xiao is amazing!"
"This is the machine that American expert charged two thousand to fix—she did it in just over ten minutes!"
Actually, it was really simple. She didn't know how to repair machines at all. This whole act worked because she could read English—it was basically like rebooting a computer system. The foreigners were just taking advantage of the fact that they were short on skilled people and lagging in technology.
Master Wang was so excited his face was flushed, and he started babbling incoherently.
Dean Cao was so thrilled he kept rubbing his hands together, walking up to the machine to check it over and over, the wrinkles on his face blooming into a delighted smile. "Good, good, good! Comrade Xiao Mandong, you've done a great service for the hospital. I'll report this to the higher-ups right away."
Director Qi looked at Xiao Mandong with eyes full of pride and satisfaction. He hadn't been wrong about this girl.
Only Zhang Chenghui stood outside the crowd, staring hard at Xiao Mandong. His face alternated between ashen and red as he watched her walking back surrounded by admirers. His fists clenched so tight his knuckles cracked, and the jealousy in his eyes was practically spilling out. He had no face left to stay, so he turned and left without even saying goodbye.
Xiao Mandong was walking back amid the crowd, chatting as she went, when she looked up and saw a woman standing at the door of the doctor's office. She was wearing a military uniform—beautiful and sharp all at once.
"Who are you looking for?" the head nurse asked first.
"I'm a nurse from 405 Hospital. My name is Pei Jiaojiao. I'm here to take care of Deputy Commander Shen. I've come to coordinate with the doctors here."
Pei Jiaojiao didn't understand it. The military hospital clearly had better medical care. At the time, they'd brought him here because it was closer for emergency treatment—she could understand that. But once he was out of danger, why was he still staying here?
The others had already been transferred back to the military hospital, but Shen Linzhou insisted on staying here to recover.
She'd later heard that the one who saved Shen Linzhou was a pretty young doctor.
Today, she ran into Shen Linzhou's orderly, and that orderly couldn't stop singing the praises of Xiao Mandong—saying she had exceptional medical skills and was beautiful. Pei Jiaojiao couldn't sit still after that. She'd had feelings for Shen Linzhou for years, and her father had promised that as long as Shen Linzhou was promoted to full regiment commander on his own merits, he'd allow them to date.
Now, out of nowhere, a female doctor shows up. How could she feel at ease? She'd wanted to come take care of him, but her father refused, saying that since he wasn't married and she wasn't married, what would it look like for her to show up?
She'd begged her mother for a whole day before her mother finally agreed to let her come.
Before Xiao Mandong could say anything, two police officers walked over. "We're from the Municipal Public Security Bureau. Is there a Xiao Mandong here? There's a case we need you to cooperate with."
