At 12:21 PM, Lin Qian arrived at Staff Cafeteria No. 2.

She quickly got a tray of food, and as she was looking for an empty seat, she saw a few colleagues she was on good terms with waving at her.

Lin Qian walked over and sat down at the round table where they were seated.

She had just sat down when a woman with short hair exclaimed in surprise.

"Hey, Lin Qian, you're not the chief resident anymore?"

At her words, the others at the table noticed that the lapel pin signifying her status as "Chief Resident" was missing from the collar of her white coat.

Lin Qian reached up to touch the left collar of her white coat and explained, "I signed up for the attending physician exam in mid-June."

"I just handed off my chief resident duties this morning. I was thinking I could free up some time to prepare."

This attending physician exam was an internal test organized by the hospital.

It was held once every three months.

Each time, anywhere from ten or twenty to thirty or forty residents would take the exam.

The short-haired woman who had spoken earlier eagerly asked again, "Lin Qian, did Mr. Huang from ophthalmology finally agree to take you on?"

Lin Qian shook her head, saying with some disappointment, "No, he kept saying he doesn't have the extra energy to mentor a newcomer."

"So you're going to pediatrics?"

"Or OB/GYN?"

After two guesses, the short-haired woman said with concern, "Lin Qian, you still have plenty of time to contact other mentors."

"Don't make a rash decision on impulse."

"With your small frame, if you go to pediatrics or OB/GYN, you'll definitely be worked to exhaustion within three to five months."

Lin Qian smiled and said, "Kang Li, thanks for your concern. It's not pediatrics, and it's not OB/GYN. I'm going to plastic surgery…"

Before she could finish, a series of gasps erupted.

"Ah, plastic surgery! That's one of our hospital's flagship departments, the one we're famous for."

"Aah, the plastic surgery center! The work isn't tiring, and the pay is great. Qianqian, are you trying to make us die of envy?"

"Hey, Lin Qian, who's your attending advisor?"

After her colleagues had finished their envious tirade, Lin Qian gave a small smile. "My advisor is Mr. Wang."

She quickly added, "It's mainly because Mr. Wang has a collaborative research project with Neurosurgery, and he needs someone to keep an eye on it."

"I'll just be doing odd jobs. I probably won't have much time to learn from Mr. Wang."

The short-haired woman named Kang Li said with a hint of jealousy, "Lin Qian, are you just trying to show off?"

"Getting into a research group right away means you not only get a research stipend, but you can also publish papers based on the project."

"What an amazing opportunity!"

Just then, a girl with two small canine teeth spoke up. "From what I know, Mr. Wang only has two people working under him."

"One is Dr. Tang Zheng, the number one handsome man at our Affiliated Hospital. The other is the even more famous Dr. Yan Feifan, the number one genius of the Affiliated Hospital."

"Lin Qian, when you go over, you'll be the third!"

"With only three people in total, no matter how busy Mr. Wang is, he can still find a few hours a week to guide you."

Facing their stares, Lin Qian said softly, "You all probably think I don't appreciate my good fortune, that I'm just being dramatic."

"If Mr. Huang from ophthalmology had been willing to take me…"

She shook her head and sighed, not finishing her sentence.

Her words touched a sore spot for everyone present, and they all fell silent.

After a moment, the girl with the canine teeth spoke again, her voice filled with lament. "Lin Qian, you're still lucky. I've had my heart set on oral surgery."

"But none of the doctors in oral surgery are willing to take me on."

"I guess I'll have to end up in the ER or pediatrics."

Sitting next to her was a woman with a ponytail and glasses.

She also sighed softly. "What can we do? We're just commoner doctors."

"Chen Zhezhi, Xu Yan, and the others from our batch come from medical families. Their families arranged everything for them long ago and planned out their career paths."

"Then there are others with connections and influence who also picked the best departments and the best advisors."

"It's just us, the ones with no connections and no influence. We can't choose based on our strengths or interests. We can only fight for spots in the less desirable departments, with less famous and ill-tempered advisors."

"And even then, they still might not want us."

"It's so hard. It's really so hard."

As the others nodded in agreement, Lin Qian said softly, "To be objective, Chen Zhezhi's and Xu Yan's grades were better than ours, and their practical skills are stronger too."

Kang Li retorted, unconvinced, "If I had been immersed in medicine since I was a child and had someone personally guiding my internships and training in the hospital during college, I would definitely perform even better than them."

The girl with the canine teeth said emotionally, "There's nothing to be done about the gap created by family background."

The woman with the ponytail and glasses chimed in, "For us doctors to grow, theory, practical skills, and experience are all indispensable."

"Family inheritance and apprenticeships—those two teaching models are the easiest ways to cultivate doctors."

"If we want to surpass them, we'd need an incredible, genius brain like Yan Feifan's."

The girl with the canine teeth shook her head. "The gap between us and Dr. Yan Feifan is simply immeasurable."

She then turned to the only man at the table and asked, "Mr. Mo, this is your fourth year, isn't it?"

"Are you still insisting on only going into cardiac surgery?"

Mo Lei, the one called Mr. Mo, slowly began, "I also signed up for the June attending physician exam…"

"Did Cardiac Surgery finally accept you?" the girl with the canine teeth asked in surprise.

Mo Lei shook his head and said with feigned nonchalance, "I accepted an offer from the Binhai Federation of Trade Unions General Hospital."

"The terms they offered were pretty good, and the director of cardiac surgery there said he would mentor me personally."

He then smiled. "We're treated like rejects here, but many other hospitals see us as a hot commodity."

"If you're like me and don't want to change your career path, switching to a different hospital isn't a bad option…"

The girl with the canine teeth pouted. "To just leave the Affiliated Hospital like this… it feels like such a shame…"

At 5:20 PM, Yan Feifan finished Du Yumei's surgery, cleaned up, and left the operating area.

The procedures for Shen Qing, Fang Naiwen, and Du Yumei were all considered minor surgeries.

Du Yumei's took the longest, at one hour and fifty minutes.

The other two surgeries took about two hours combined.

It was mainly the routine preoperative preparations that were a bit tedious, but they couldn't be rushed or overlooked.

Yan Feifan went to the director's office, planning to say goodbye to Mr. Wang before leaving, but was surprised to find Dr. Qiu Ge from Neurosurgery there as well.

"Dr. Qiu, is something wrong with Nurse Jio Xin?"

"Jio Xin is fine, there's no problem."

Wang Chuan took the initiative to explain, adding, "Jio Xin was discharged this afternoon to recuperate at home."

"Dr. Qiu came here specifically to see you."

"Me?" Yan Feifan was a little confused.

Qiu Ge, rising from the sofa, grunted in acknowledgment and said, "Mr. Yan, it's like this."

"I'm very interested in your method of shrinking intraspinal tumors by injecting ethanol."

"I was thinking that since some brain tumors are very similar to intraspinal tumors, this method might also be applicable in brain tumor surgery."

"I have a patient on my hands who has already fallen into a coma."

After a pause, Qiu Ge gave a wry smile. "Let me put it this way: with his current condition, all we can do is our best and leave the rest to fate."

"I'd like to invite you to take a gamble with me…"