Chapter Fourteen: The Physician from the Land of the Sticks

“Big sis, maybe you should take a break. You’ve been practicing all night—it’s about enough.”

Ye Qiu checked the time; it was past eight in the morning. Xiao Yuru had practiced all night, going through countless molds. Though her skill seemed sufficient, the look on her face still betrayed a lack of confidence.

“Yezi, I still don’t feel sure about this,” she confessed.

Even though the molds made by Yunyan were incredibly lifelike, they were not real people.

“Second sis, just try to relax,” Liu Yiran said, rubbing her eyes and glancing over the two of them. “You guys didn’t sleep at all, did you?”

As she spoke, her gaze lingered on Ye Qiu.

“How could I dare sleep?” Xiao Yuru admitted with a guilty sigh. “Honestly, I still feel like time slipped by too quickly.”

As they talked, they could faintly hear a commotion outside. The voices grew louder and more numerous, and the noise only seemed to be increasing.

What’s going on?

Ye Qiu opened the door and found more than a dozen people all turning to look at the entrance in unison. Professor Duan was among them, appearing quite familiar with the crowd.

“What are you staring at, Yezi?” Xiao Yuru peeked outside, then immediately retreated.

“What’s happening? Why are they here?”

“Who?”

“Our peers,” Xiao Yuru replied angrily. “Nearly all the practitioners in Linhai are here. What is Duan Jijin up to?”

“He knows it’s impossible for you to master reconstructive surgery in a day, so he invited all the peers to cut off your escape route,” Liu Yiran said, her face darkening. “Duan Jijin is truly vicious—he wants to make sure you can never work in the medical aesthetics field in Linhai again.”

“Yezi, thank you,” Xiao Yuru said, quickly realizing Duan Jijin’s scheme.

If it weren’t for Ye Qiu returning with artificial intelligence, she wouldn’t even have a chance to fight back.

“We’re family, no need for thanks,” Ye Qiu said, pumping his fist to encourage her. “Second sis, you can do it. Show that Duan what a true genius looks like.”

Xiao Yuru nodded, took a few deep breaths, straightened her white coat, and strode out with an air of confidence.

“Dr. Xiao, I heard you’re performing a nasal reconstruction today. Everyone would like to observe and learn—hope you don’t mind?” Duan Jijin approached with a cheerful greeting.

Xiao Yuru clenched her teeth in anger.

It was obvious these people had been brought by Duan Jijin, just to see her fail in front of her peers and ruin her career as a cosmetic surgeon.

“As long as the boss doesn’t mind,” she replied.

Plastic surgery hospitals guarded their techniques closely. Observation of advanced surgeries typically cost hundreds of thousands—no one would so kindly allow competitors to watch out of goodwill.

“The boss has already agreed,” Duan Jijin said, wearing an expression that dared anyone to disagree, then waved a few people over. “Boss Zhao, Dr. Wu, this is Dr. Xiao from our hospital—she’ll be leading the reconstruction today.”

Boss Zhao ambled over with a grin. “Dr. Xiao, you’re truly fortunate to study under Professor Duan—your future is limitless.”

“Professor Duan has trained in Korea, after all. Nowadays, if we want to train there, they won’t even look at us unless we pay a million or more. It’s better to be a female doctor, I suppose,” Dr. Wu said sarcastically, winking at the other doctors.

The implication was clear: Duan Jijin had spent a million to train in Korea, so why would he just teach the skills to her? Who would believe there wasn’t some shady deal involved?

The others didn’t bother to hide their sneers.

“Second sis, when Professor Duan admits defeat and calls you ‘Grandma,’ make sure the other doctors are watching. Some young people these days don’t even know their place,” Liu Yiran quipped.

Xiao Yuru couldn’t help it—she burst out laughing.

She was probably the youngest there, but if Duan Jijin had to call her ‘Grandma,’ then his seniority would be completely undermined.

Clearly, the others had no idea about the bet between Duan Jijin and Xiao Yuru. Duan Jijin explained a couple of sentences with a dark expression, and the crowd suddenly understood.

Yet instead of seeing Duan Jijin as despicable, most people just looked at Xiao Yuru with mocking eyes.

Dr. Wu, in particular, dropped all pretense and openly ridiculed her. “No wonder our hospital’s reputation is so bad lately. Turns out it’s the work of unscrupulous doctors—daring to perform such a complex surgery without knowing what they’re doing. At least go train in Korea first!”

“One can hardly trust domestic doctors these days,” Dr. Wu’s associate chimed in. “All they care about is money. At least if you train in Korea and then come back to scam people, it sounds more convincing. But to scam from the start—just drags down our entire profession. Korea’s standards are so much higher.”

“How can domestic surgeons compare with the Koreans? If it weren’t so easy to make money back home, I’d stay in Korea forever,” another said.

“Make the money first, then just emigrate,” Dr. Wu joked. “There are plenty of broke people who still want cosmetic surgery, and plenty of female assistants eager to learn the craft…”

They exchanged knowing glances and laughed, their eyes brimming with arrogance and the unashamed enjoyment of their own corruption.

Ye Qiu frowned. Now he saw it clearly: these people idolized Korea so much that, after mastering the techniques, they didn’t even bother pretending to have morals. They bragged about it openly.

He knew morality was always just a tool for controlling ordinary people, but these people didn’t even bother with appearances—he found them even more distasteful than the worst in America.

As they spoke, Chen Lu arrived at the hospital with Feng Ming and Zhou Kai.

Trying to impress Chen Lu, Zhou Kai had even brought along several trainers from the gym, including the boxing coach.

Chen Lu hadn’t expected her nasal reconstruction to attract so many people. She was stunned to see dozens of doctors and hospital bosses gathered in the lobby.

“She’s here. Let’s prepare for surgery,” Xiao Yuru said, now all business as she instructed the assistants to get ready.

The female assistant began prepping Chen Lu, while Duan Jijin leaned in to whisper condescendingly to Xiao Yuru, “If anything goes wrong, you know you can count on me to help—just ask.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Xiao Yuru replied coldly, turning to enter the operating room. The other doctors quickly changed into scrubs and followed her in, while the dozen or so bosses remained outside, chatting among themselves.

These were all small-time owners hoping to curry favor with Duan Jijin, to have him lend his name to their clinics and help them keep scamming patients.

Boss Zhao, who had spoken earlier, sauntered over to Ye Qiu and whispered, “Brother, if you offend Professor Duan in Linhai—even if Dr. Xiao is truly skilled—no hospital here will dare hire her.”