"Alright, I'll definitely follow your advice."

"Don't take it lightly. Don't you feel your physical strength is failing you?"

"I could feel it. I thought it was because of the surgery, but I figured it would be fine once I fully recovered."

“If you were still in your early twenties, then taking a break wouldn’t be a problem. But you’re almost fifty, and it’s not so easy to recover from a loss through rest. Be careful, don’t push yourself like that anymore, we’re not young anymore,” Li Chu said earnestly, patting Sun Jianjun’s arm.

"Understood, Brother Chu."

"Alright, let's go back early. Your sister-in-law must be worried sick about you after being gone for so long."

"Hehe," Sun Jianjun scratched his head, "I let her know I was safe today."

“How can she be completely at ease if she doesn’t see you? Go back now, and we brothers can talk again when things are calm.”

"Okay, I'll head back now, Brother Chu."

“Let’s go together, I’ll go to the pharmacy in the front yard to get your medicine.”

"Qiu Nan, I'm going to see Jianjun off and get him some medicine while I'm at it."

"Sister-in-law, you're busy, I'll go now and come back another day."

"Okay, go back and rest well. Don't run around if you're injured."

"Okay, sister-in-law, goodbye!"

...

After a night's rest, Li Chu arrived at the hospital full of energy the next day and began a new day of work.

Good morning, Director (Teacher).

"Hello to you both." Li Chu smiled and nodded as he looked at Duan Jianing and Liu Ziqiang, whom he hadn't seen for a long time.

"Not bad, you look much more mature now. Let me see your medical skills again today, and see if you have improved over this long period of time."

"Teacher, why haven't you changed at all?"

When Li Chu went to the grasslands to deliver supplies in July, Duan Jianing and Liu Ziqiang went out with the horse team, so they did not meet that time. It has been half a year since the three of them last saw each other.

"What changes do you expect me to have in just six months? Is my hair completely white or my face covered in wrinkles?"

"Haha, teacher, it's not as exaggerated as you say."

"By the way, Jia Ning, Zi Qiang, did you read the book I wrote about herbal medicine, animal medicine, and mineral medicine that Wen Xuan took with you on this trip?"

"After looking at the teacher, Ziqiang and I have almost finished copying."

"You copied it yourselves?"

"Ah, we started copying it when we had nothing to do at night."

"Alright then, I won't give any to you two after they're printed."

!

!

"Teacher, didn't Wenxuan say you didn't plan to publish this book?"

"It's not going to be published. I'm planning to find a printing factory to print a few copies, as a few friends want them."

"Ah~" Duan Jianing and Liu Ziqiang both cried out in pain at the same time.

They decided to copy it themselves because they heard it wouldn't be published, and they were almost finished! Suddenly telling them there would be a printed version is such a blow.

"It's alright. Wouldn't it be better if you copied it down yourselves? If you could memorize it all, that would be even better. In the future, when you're prescribing medicine or researching new drugs, you won't need to look it up at all. You'll be able to do it effortlessly."

The two immediately shut up upon hearing this, worried that if they continued talking, the teacher might force them to memorize it, which would be disastrous.

Nurse Xiao Zhou stood to the side watching the two of them, covering her mouth and laughing incessantly.

"Xiao Zhou, stop having so much fun. The exam is in a little over a month. Have you memorized all the theory? Can you pass the practical exam? Can you remember the case studies?"

"Director, you can't be so harsh on me."

"Alright, starting today you'll be going to the obstetrics and gynecology department. I've already spoken to Director Liu, so you can go and learn from him."

"Really? Thank you, Director."

"Remember, put your heart into it and work hard. If you don't pass the exam in December, don't say you've ever worked here."

"Yes," the little girl replied excitedly, giving Li Chu a salute.

Nurse Zhou doesn't have much here, just a few books and notebooks, which she can easily carry away.

"Director, I'm going over there."

"Go ahead, go directly to Director Liu, she will arrange everything for you."

After nodding and greeting Duan Jianing and Liu Ziqiang, Nurse Zhou walked out of the clinic and headed toward her first and very important goal.

[I highly recommend Yeguo Reading; it's really good for tracking books. You can download it here: yeguoyuedu. Give it a try!]

"What's up? Are you two envious of her, or do you two also want to go to the OB-GYN?"

"No, no, no, teacher, you must be joking. Even if we were to go to the obstetrics and gynecology department, it would be fine for Jia Ning, but how could I possibly go to that department?" Liu Ziqiang frantically shook his head.

Li Chu had always been puzzled. As far as he knew, there really weren't any male doctors in the obstetrics and gynecology department. Even when the students came to intern, the hospital wouldn't arrange for men to intern in the obstetrics and gynecology department.

However, there is no explicit rule prohibiting male doctors from working in obstetrics and gynecology departments, because clinical professions require training in all specialties.

The specialization only occurs at the graduate level.

But there are only a few graduate students now, and most of the doctors in the department only have associate's or bachelor's degrees, and some even have only a vocational school diploma.

I don't know when male doctors started appearing in obstetrics and gynecology departments, breaking this unwritten rule.

He couldn't imagine what those men who stayed in the obstetrics and gynecology department were thinking.

Also, I don't know when it started, but the medical profession has become incredibly competitive.

Forget about vocational school diplomas, junior college diplomas are no good either. Bachelor's degrees are okay at first, but they're sidelined later on. Community hospitals or township hospitals are passable.

Later on, master's degrees became less useful unless you graduated from a top university.

As for the top-tier hospitals in big cities, it seems that domestic PhDs are no longer enough; only overseas PhDs can get in.

Tsk tsk, it's terrifying to even imagine. Thirty years from now, if you want to know which organization has the most highly educated employees, research institutions won't matter. Just look at the top-tier hospitals in big cities.

They really do roll it as hard as they can, as long as it doesn't kill them.

People seem to have a higher happiness index nowadays.

"Huh? Where's Wenxuan? I remember he came this morning." Li Chu had felt something was off earlier, but couldn't quite put her finger on it. Now it dawned on her that she hadn't seen Li Wenxuan for a while.

"Oh, teacher, my senior brother was just called away by Dean Qian of the medical school."

"Okay, in that case, you two pack up and start seeing patients."

"yes"

...

Normal University gate

Wang Yueyue looked at her two classmates with a sense of helplessness.

"Feifei, I really don't have time to go to your place. After I finish what I need to do at school, I have to go home to take care of my child."

Her two classmates, a boy and a girl, were a couple, and their hometown was in the central mountainous region.

After graduation, he was assigned to teach at a high school in his county.

This was something the two, who had seen the outside world, simply couldn't accept; they had no desire to go back at all.