Super Doctor - Chapter 218

Facing Tao Yiyi’s invitation, Xu Ze gave a light smile and didn’t refuse. He didn’t dislike the girl before him; in fact, he rather liked her. Besides, it was mealtime now, and he had no reason to turn her down…

The atmosphere in the Western restaurant was pleasant, which was one of the reasons Xu Ze was willing to dine here. Tao Yiyi seemed to be in high spirits. After ordering two servings of Australian beef steak, she even requested a bottle of red wine, which made Xu Ze frown slightly.

Seeing his expression, a hint of playful curiosity flashed in Tao Yiyi’s eyes. She looked at Xu Ze and asked with a smile, “Xu Ze, don’t you drink?”

“I do… I drink,” Xu Ze replied, shaking his head with a light chuckle under her charming, teasing gaze. “And I’m quite good at it.”

“I thought so… Not many guys these days don’t drink,” Tao Yiyi said with a soft laugh.

Drinking with girls was something many guys enjoyed, but Xu Ze wasn’t particularly fond of it. When girls drank too much, problems were likely to arise.

Xu Ze had to admit that Tao Yiyi was very beautiful and utterly charming, especially when she drank red wine. She looked stunning, enough to make anyone’s heart flutter.

Tao Yiyi and Sun Lingfei were two completely different types of girls. While both were exceptionally bright and attractive, Sun Lingfei was more sunny and lively, often dressing in T-shirts and jeans.

In contrast, Tao Yiyi had a more delicate, charming style. Her outfits were usually feminine or cute, like today’s lavender pleated skirt with small white flowers. Paired with her slender, delicate legs, she looked sweet and adorable with a hint of sensuality. Now, after a few sips of red wine, a faint blush appeared on her jade-like cheeks, making her even more enchanting.

Although he appreciated her beauty, Xu Ze didn’t let his thoughts wander too far. After all, he already had Sun Lingfei by his side, and there was no room for anything else with Tao Yiyi. For now, he regarded her as a very good friend.

With her slender fingers wrapped around the stem of the wine glass, Tao Yiyi took a small sip. A shy blush spread across her lovely face as she looked at Xu Ze and softly asked, “Xu Ze… are you and Sun Lingfei… dating?”

“Hmm?” Xu Ze looked into Tao Yiyi’s wide, blinking eyes and suddenly smiled. He nodded gently and said, “Yes…”

Although she had already suspected as much, hearing Xu Ze’s confirmation sent a slight tremor through Tao Yiyi’s heart. Still curious, she asked, “But why do I rarely see you two together?”

Seeing the curiosity and hopefulness on Tao Yiyi’s face, Xu Ze let out a soft sigh. He furrowed his brow in thought for a moment before replying with a helpless smile, “Her family… doesn’t approve of me… so we don’t appear together often these days.”

“Oh… I see…” Hearing this, a faint glimmer of delight flickered in Tao Yiyi’s eyes. She knew she was already completely captivated by Xu Ze, but Sun Lingfei’s presence had held her back, making her suppress her feelings and try to let go of the idea.

Still, Tao Yiyi had been keeping an eye on the two of them. Over the past month or so, she had often seen Xu Ze or Sun Lingfei separately but noticed they rarely appeared together, which puzzled her and stirred a vague sense of hope within her.

Now, hearing Xu Ze’s explanation, she finally understood the reason behind it, and a new spark of hope ignited in her heart.

A slightly tipsy girl was indeed quite endearing. Watching Tao Yiyi’s radiant, captivating demeanor, Xu Ze couldn’t help but offer a wry smile. By now, Tao Yiyi was about three drinks in, giggling as she looked at him and asked, “Xu Ze… who do you think is prettier, me or Sun Lingfei?”

“Heh… You’re both very beautiful,” Xu Ze replied with an awkward chuckle, meeting her charming, wide-eyed gaze.

Dissatisfied with his answer, Tao Yiyi pouted her cute little lips and huffed, “Hmph… I knew you’d say that… How boring…”

“Then… do you like me?”

“……”

Xu Ze escorted a tipsy Tao Yiyi back to her dorm with a resigned smile before finally returning home. Recalling her words from earlier that day, he couldn’t help but shake his head and sigh softly. Under his breath, he murmured, “Tao Yiyi is really a great girl. If I hadn’t met Lingfei back then, perhaps…”

That night, Xu Ze lay quietly in bed, continuing his daily routine of energy circulation training. He had already progressed to the fourth cycle of the third energy loop, meaning he could now circulate energy twenty-two times in one session.

Lately, Xu Ze had been diligently practicing every day, but he hadn’t used the system’s functions much, allowing energy to accumulate considerably. This had put the usually stingy Xiao Dao in an exceptionally good mood…

After completing several circulation cycles, Xu Ze entered the virtual space again. Recently, he had nearly mastered several foreign languages, with only Russian still giving him trouble.

However, he was now burning with curiosity and wanted to ask Xiao Dao about something. Last time, while using the X-ray perspective function, he had been able to directly detect silicotic reflexes in a patient’s lungs. This special ability had left him extremely puzzled.

After all, modern X-ray perspective didn’t have such a feature. Could it be an extension of the X-ray perspective function in the future?

Hearing Xu Ze’s question, Xiao Dao chuckled lightly and explained, “The X-ray perspective function does indeed have this special elemental detection capability, but it’s a hidden third-tier function. Your current permissions barely qualifies you to use it. If it detects abnormal elemental fluctuations during perspective, it will automatically alert you.”

“A hidden third-tier function?” Xu Ze raised an eyebrow, confused.

“Exactly… These functions generally aren’t displayed proactively. But when you use a certain basic function, it can extend into many other minor functions, usually with level restrictions. When your permissions is sufficient, they activate automatically. Once an anomaly is detected, you’ll be prompted. The function you encountered last time was triggered this way!”

“Oh… No wonder… I was wondering where this new function came from…” Xu Ze remarked, somewhat speechless.

But then another question occurred to him. Frowning, he looked at Xiao Dao and asked, “When I level up, will these functions be displayed?”

“No… Due to the large number of minor extended functions, they generally aren’t listed. The list primarily shows basic functions. However, you can learn about and use these functions through various studies!” Xiao Dao delivered this rather ruthlessly.

Hearing this explanation, Xu Ze sighed helplessly. So, this too required self-exploration. No wonder each time he leveled up, only a few main functions were displayed, yet new functions often popped up during use.

After clearing up his doubts, Xu Ze resumed his Russian lessons with Xiao Dao. This foreign language, which was highly popular in China during the 1960s and 70s, was proving to be quite a headache for him. For Xu Ze, it was much harder to learn than English…

Xu Ze had been shadowing Qian Zhixun for several days now. Although there weren’t many patients requiring consultations in the afternoons, they still saw one or two almost every day.

Following Qian Zhixun, Xu Ze often learned new things. Even though his experience, cultivated under Xiao Dao’s guidance, was quite extensive, there were still many diseases he hadn’t encountered.

Perhaps he could diagnose most cases based on his examinations, but familiarizing himself with them was still immensely helpful.

Today, just as Xu Ze arrived at the hospital, he saw Qian Zhixun emerging from his office. Spotting Xu Ze, Qian Zhixun smiled and said, “Come on, Xu Ze, let’s go for a consultation!”

“Sure!” Xu Ze responded, donning his white coat, grabbing his stethoscope, and following Qian Zhixun.

However, Qian Zhixun headed toward the elevator, which took Xu Ze by surprise. He couldn’t help but ask, “Director Qian, where are we going for the consultation?”

Seeing Xu Ze’s puzzled expression, Qian Zhixun couldn’t hold back a chuckle. “You didn’t think I only handle consultations within our own department, did you?”

“Ah… We’re going to another department for a consultation?” Xu Ze finally understood. He was only familiar with the Emergency Department and knew little about the other departments at the affiliated hospital. Thus, he was still quite unfamiliar with certain hospital procedures.

Generally, a department like Cardiovascular Medicine primarily treated heart conditions. If a patient had both heart disease and another issue, such as kidney disease, and treatment in Cardiovascular Medicine proved ineffective or the kidney disease couldn’t be diagnosed, then the Nephrology Department would be consulted.

As director, Qian Zhixun often had to go to other departments to consult on cases related to respiratory medicine.

Feeling somewhat embarrassed, Xu Ze followed Qian Zhixun into the elevator. Seeing him press the button for the seventh floor, Xu Ze stroked his chin thoughtfully… The seventh floor… That should be the Neurology Department. Were they going there for a consultation?

When Xu Ze followed Qian Zhixun out of the elevator and saw the Neurology Department sign, his guess was confirmed.

Thinking of the Neurology Department reminded Xu Ze of the incident in the Emergency Department where departments had competed over a research topic. The head of Neurology, Li Huaming, had also gotten involved alongside Zhang Lide. Xu Ze wondered if he would run into him today. That would be awkward…

“Even though I’m not too concerned about hiding my identity now, it’s still better if fewer people know… If I run into Li Huaming, explaining things would be troublesome. And back then, I was pretty harsh with him…” Xu Ze sighed softly, thinking to himself, “Please, Mr. Li, don’t let me run into you…”

Muttering this internally, Xu Ze followed Qian Zhixun toward the Neurology Department office, his heart in his throat, fearing he might indeed encounter the man.

Entering the office, Xu Ze quickly scanned the room. Seeing only two doctors inside and no sign of the man, he finally relaxed.

The two doctors stood up upon seeing Qian Zhixun enter and greeted him with smiles. “Director Qian, you’re here…”

“Yes, I am!” Qian Zhixun nodded with a smile, taking a seat on a chair. “So, what’s the case today that even your Director Li Huaming can’t handle?”

“Ha… It’s a patient with unexplained dizziness. It’s been five or six days. The patient developed a lung infection, but after four days of anti-infective treatment, there’s been no improvement. However, a repeat blood test shows everything has returned to normal. So, we’d like you to take a look, Director Qian…” one of the doctors explained with a smile.

“Oh? Four days of anti-infective treatment with no effect? And the blood work is normal now?” Qian Zhixun nodded thoughtfully. “No wonder you called me in…”

“Let me see the medical record…”

The doctor promptly nodded, retrieved a prepared medical record from the desk, and handed it over. “Here you go, Director Qian… We’ve tried everything we can think of…”

“Mmm…” Qian Zhixun took the record and began reading.

Xu Ze remained standing behind Qian Zhixun, also looking over the record…

The patient had been admitted due to dizziness. After five days of treatment, the dizziness had significantly improved. However, the patient had recently started coughing. A lung infection was suspected, and bacterial culture and drug sensitivity tests were performed. Based on the results, antibiotics were administered for several days, but the patient’s condition showed no improvement. Hence, Neurology had requested a consultation with Respiratory Medicine.

Qian Zhixun carefully reviewed the medical history and various test results. The chest X-ray from a few days ago indicated a lung infection, and the white blood cell count was elevated. Drug sensitivity and bacterial culture tests had been done, confirming a lung infection. However, despite treatment with cephalosporins and ofloxacin, the patient’s cough persisted without any relief.

Subsequently, Neurology repeated the chest X-ray and blood tests. The lung condition had significantly improved, and the blood work was normal, but the cough remained and had even worsened.

After reading the record, Qian Zhixun frowned. This was indeed strange… Since the infection had improved, why was this happening…

Xu Ze, looking over his shoulder, also furrowed his brow slightly. It was indeed puzzling…

Qian Zhixun stood up and addressed the two doctors. “Alright… Let’s go see the patient first.”

The two doctors also stood up with smiles. “Of course. Thank you for your time, Director Qian.”

Led by the two doctors, Xu Ze and Qian Zhixun followed them out. But just as they stepped through the doorway, they heard the doctors ahead suddenly greet, “Director… Director Qian is here.”

Hearing them address someone as ‘Director,’ Xu Ze’s heart sank. Oh no… It’s happening after all…