This morning, the main surgery on the schedule was Liu Yudong’s.

Chen Yu walked into the hospital room, accompanied by William and the newly hired orthopedic surgeon, Tim O’Leary.

He wasn’t tall and had a full head of hair. Among the many applicants, his resume was far from stellar—in fact, it was near the bottom of the pile. But Chen Yu valued his diligence and low-key personality.

The clinic still had its share of happenings that defied conventional explanation, so it was best to hire people who were reliable and discreet.

In fact, Hill’s father had previously discussed with Chen Yu the possibility of expanding the clinic, with the ultimate goal of turning it into a large, comprehensive hospital like the Mayo Clinic.

Chen Yu hadn’t made up his mind about it yet, but as the workload grew, hiring a couple more doctors had become essential.

Upon seeing Chen Yu, Liu Yudong’s wife immediately stood up.

But due to the language barrier, she simply gave a reserved nod.

His wife had also been a basketball player, but she later changed careers to become an OB-GYN. ’That’s quite the career jump,’ Chen Yu thought.

Su Jun was also there and greeted Chen Yu with a wide smile.

Chen Yu had given Su Jun special permission to come to the clinic and report on Liu Yudong’s surgery.

After William finished the examination, Chen Yu noticed Liu Yudong staring intently at him, a nervous look on his face. "Relax," he said. "Today is just a minimally invasive procedure. It’s very low-impact on your body. And I can tell you this—as soon as the surgery is over, your knee will feel much better right away."

Liu Yudong’s surgery was rather complicated, so Chen Yu planned to perform it in two stages.

Today, the main goal was to use a minimally invasive procedure to clear out the loose bodies in his knee and to trim and smooth the torn meniscus. He needed to clean it out as thoroughly as possible, as a meniscus transplant would be performed later.

Once the loose bodies were cleared, they would use medication to control the inflammation and treat the fluid buildup in his knee while waiting for the meniscus graft to become available.

Eliminating the inflammation would also make the subsequent open surgery easier.

Therefore, today’s surgery would be quick, the recovery would be fast, and there wouldn’t be much pain.

Liu Yudong nodded stiffly and managed a quiet, "Thank you."

Su Jun chimed in reassuringly, "Da Liu, don’t overthink it. Just focus on one thing: Dr. Chen is the best orthopedic surgeon in the world. You can trust his plan."

Liu Yudong nodded again. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but the words wouldn’t come out.

He wasn’t a man of many words.

But deep down, Liu Yudong was incredibly grateful to Chen Yu.

To be honest, even now, Liu Yudong still felt like he was in a dream. It all felt so unreal.

Liu Yudong had actually given up on his knee long ago. His plan was just to endure the pain until retirement; as long as he could still walk after he was done playing, that would be enough. He never dared to dream of a complete recovery.

And now, thanks to Chen Yu, his injury had garnered so much attention that the Basketball Association had done the unthinkable: they paid to send him to the United States for the best treatment available. How could he not be grateful?

He subtly reached for his wife’s hand.

His wife had spent the last few years worrying sick over his knee.

"Go ahead and get ready. I’ll see you in the operating room." Chen Yu smiled and left the room.

An hour later, a nurse led Su Jun into the operating room’s observation gallery.

From its high vantage point, one could clearly see the entire surgical procedure.

Accompanying him was a pretty, long-haired young woman. She suddenly stopped the departing nurse and asked in fluent English, "Nurse Tabbot, if you have a moment, could we talk for a bit?"

The nurse paused, surprised, and asked what the young woman wanted to talk about.

"It’s about your Dr. Chen," the young woman said. "I’d like to hear some stories about him, things from his day-to-day work, for example."

The moment she heard the question was about Chen Yu, the nurse immediately shook her head. "I’m sorry," she said with a polite smile, "I’m not at liberty to disclose that information."

The clinic had a very strict policy: no staff member was permitted to disclose any information about VIP patients to outsiders, especially reporters. No exceptions.

Violating this rule would result not only in termination but also legal action.

By extension, this rule also covered the clinic’s doctors, its daily operations, and especially any information about Chen Yu himself.

The nurse gave a small smile and turned to leave.

Su Jun turned his head to look at the young woman.

The young woman’s name was Yi Xiaohua, a reporter who had just joined Sports Weekly that year. Since she had majored in foreign languages, Su Jun planned for her to cover the NBA and had been mentoring her.

"Xiaohua, what made you decide to ask about Doctor Chen?" Su Jun asked.

Yi Xiaohua replied, "Chief, you know we’ve talked about this. I’ve always wanted to write NBA reports from the perspective of a casual fan, not an expert. I feel that Dr. Chen, as the Suns’ team doctor, has a very unique profession. The things that happen around him could give fans more insight into the behind-the-scenes world of the NBA."

"But, as you can see..." She shrugged, her expression one of helplessness.

This time, if she hadn’t been with Su Jun, she wouldn’t have even been allowed inside the clinic.

Su Jun knew Yi Xiaohua was a talented writer, which was why he supported her idea for this kind of story. Seeing her looking dejected, he offered a comforting smile. "Come on, the man is in a unique position. You have to remember, he’s the world’s top sports medicine doctor. All of his patients are the best athletes on the planet."

"Forget about us—not even the top reporters in the business could hope to get any useful information out of him. He’s completely tight-lipped."

At this, Su Jun looked down at the bustling operating room below and couldn’t help but say with feeling, "But your idea is a good one. He’s very special, and I’m sure there are plenty of stories there. Since you’ll be based in the United States covering the NBA, you should definitely keep an eye out for news about him."

Yi Xiaohua nodded, making a mental note.

’As a sports medicine specialist,’ she thought, ’he essentially holds the careers of these professional athletes in his hands. There must be so many untold stories surrounding him.’

Just then, the surgery began.

There was a speaker system, allowing them to hear the audio from the operating room.

Chen Yu periodically glanced up at the arthroscope monitor while making small talk with Liu Yudong, asking him if he’d ever wanted to play in the NBA.

Lying on the table, Liu Yudong couldn’t see the monitor. His mind had been wandering, but Chen Yu’s question brought him back. He thought about it for a moment before answering, "It would be a lie to say I haven’t thought about it. After all, the salaries in the NBA are high."

Even a minimum salary is three or four hundred thousand US dollars, which is three million RMB.

The key is the attention and commercial value that comes with playing in the NBA.

The teams back home had relaxed their rules, allowing players to sign commercial endorsements now. There was definitely a lot of money to be made from that.

He wasn’t young anymore, and his son was already four years old. They needed the money. Of course Liu Yudong wanted to create a better life for his wife and child.

Chen Yu nodded. ’Liu Yudong is refreshingly honest,’ he thought. ’Honor is one thing, but at the end of the day, professional basketball is a job. Money is a big deal.’

Every year, countless athletes fought tooth and nail to get into the NBA. How many of them were really in it for a championship ring? Most of them just wanted to make money.

"You could actually consider playing small forward," Chen Yu suggested.

In his spare time, Chen Yu had looked into Liu Yudong’s background, even digging up and watching some game tapes from his early career.

You could say that his physical peak and his technical peak never coincided.

When he was younger, his physical conditioning was quite good. He was a bit undersized in height, but he was powerful, and his youth gave him decent athleticism. He was like a poor man’s "Grandmama" Larry Johnson.

But in ’97, after his first major injury, his athleticism completely vanished.

Because of that, he started focusing on his shot and developed a deadly-accurate straight-arm jumper that was practically automatic.

In his previous condition, he had no hope of playing in the NBA. He wasn’t tall enough to play power forward, and he was too slow to play small forward.

Against the high-intensity defense of better players, it was hard to say if he could maintain his shooting accuracy.

In the Jia A league, he was all strengths, but in the NBA, his weaknesses would be magnified tenfold.

But now things were different. After his treatment, a healthy Liu Yudong should be able to recover some of his athleticism. Combining that with the skills he’d developed, playing power forward was out of the question, but he might be able to make something happen at small forward.

"If you’re serious about making a run at the NBA, you should really work on your perimeter defense and focus on developing as a small forward. You might be able to play in the NBA for another two or three years."

He was 32 now; he should be able to maintain this level of play until he was about 35.

Liu Yudong looked up, his eyes fixed on Chen Yu. After a long pause, he asked, "Dr. Chen, after the surgery... can I really get my athleticism back?"

When he was young, his vertical was decent, he could soar for dunks, and he was physical. After all, before he even picked up a basketball, he trained in Sanda.

But after the injury, he clearly felt it: he couldn’t jump as high, couldn’t run as fast, and his pivots were slower.

Without looking up, Chen Yu said, "Just think about Baggio."

Liu Yudong fell silent.

This year, Baggio had helped Italy win the World Cup, stunning the entire world.

"Dr. Chen, thank you. I’ll work hard," Liu Yudong said, his voice full of gratitude. This surgery from Chen Yu was giving him another chance.

So Liu Yudong had made up his mind. ’While I can still fight, I have to give it one last shot. Otherwise, this four-million-RMB medical bill would be a real waste.’

In the observation gallery, Su Jun rested his chin in his hand. "It’s true," he said. "If Liu Yudong can really get some of his athleticism back, he could try to make it as a small forward. At his height, he has no advantage at all playing power forward in the NBA."

As the two were talking, Chen Yu withdrew an instrument with his right hand, and Tim quickly held out a tray.

With a soft TINK, a small, yellowish-white particle the size of a soybean fell onto the tray.

Tim picked it up for a look. It appeared to be an ossified fragment of some unknown tissue.

Chen Yu’s hands never stopped, precisely extracting fragment after fragment.

TINK. TINK. The sound of fragments dropping onto the tray echoed in the room. Even Liu Yudong couldn’t help but crane his neck, wondering how so many bone chips could have possibly come out of his knee.

"Director, this is unbelievable," Tim said, amazed. "He has so many fragments in his knee. How was he even able to play?"

From just one knee, he had already removed eight bone fragments.

Chen Yu said nothing, quickly extracting another one.

That made nine!

In the observation gallery, Su Jun’s hands suddenly clenched into fists.

That meant that during the entire World Championship, Liu Yudong had been training and competing with all nine of these bone fragments inside his knee.

He suddenly understood what Chen Yu had meant when he said Liu Yudong was playing as if he had a handful of thumbtacks in his shoe. He couldn’t begin to imagine the kind of pain Liu Yudong must have endured.

Just then, with another TINK, Chen Yu extracted another bone fragment.

A total of ten.

Chen Yu glanced up at the observation gallery.

In truth, this was why he’d given Su Jun special permission to cover the story, even allowing him into the observation gallery. He wanted Su Jun to see it with his own eyes, to report on it, and to let every fan in China see exactly how the Basketball Association treated its National Team players.

The main fragments had been removed from the right knee, but he still had the left knee to do.

Chen Yu then removed three more bone fragments from Liu Yudong’s left knee.

Thirteen bone fragments in total from both knees. It was no exaggeration to say he could have qualified for the Paralympics.

"That’s horrible," Yi Xiaohua gasped from the observation gallery, her eyes beginning to redden.

Su Jun’s face was grim. He remained silent, but his mind flashed to the Sports Bureau’s punishment of Xinlan City.

’Gross mismanagement,’ he thought. What a bitter irony.