Night gave way to day. Wang Chuan, the surgical assistant, glanced up at the digital clock on the wall.

8:10 AM. The surgery had been ongoing for five hours and forty-five minutes.

Wang Chuan rolled his sore shoulders and stretched his back, his gaze returning to Yan Feifan’s hands.

The surgery was in its final stages. Ding Xuan’s nose had been completely reconstructed, and Yan Feifan was now performing the final, delicate refinements.

Yan Feifan’s hands were as steady and precise as they were at the start. He adjusted muscle bundles in a single, perfect motion, requiring no further correction.

This was a level of skill Wang Chuan himself could achieve.

But only during the initial phase of a surgery, when his mind and body were at their peak and he was meticulously prepared.

As his stamina and concentration waned, especially midway through a procedure when unexpected complications arose at the surgical site...

Wang Chuan could only rely on experience, carefully considering each move one step at a time, which slowed his progress considerably.

In contrast, Yan Feifan seemed to always know the next cut, and even the next five or ten cuts after that.

Yan Feifan’s surgical pace remained constant, his precision unwavering.

This incredible stability left Wang Chuan feeling both amazed and inferior, but also a little afraid.

He sometimes secretly thought, ’This guy, Yan Feifan, isn’t normal. He’s some kind of freak, something beyond human...’

The surgery continued. Unbeknownst to Yan Feifan and Wang Chuan, new developments were unfolding at the Affiliated Hospital as Monday began.

At 9:10 AM, a crowd of ten to twenty men and women had gathered in front of the main administration building, holding gimbal-mounted cameras and waving phones around to film.

They were vloggers, "Big V’s," and other independent content creators.

Qiaoyan’s exposé video about Yan Feifan had gone viral overnight, breaking into the top ten trending topics on several websites and sparking widespread discussion.

The Affiliated Hospital had issued a response, announcing a press conference for ten o’clock this morning.

These people had rushed over upon hearing the news, hoping to publish or live-stream firsthand information for their followers.

Besides these independent content creators, several reporters from legitimate media outlets like television stations and newspapers were also present today.

Their treatment, naturally, was much better than that of the content creators. They had already been escorted into a conference room by hospital staff to wait with tea.

Qiaoyan, for her part, was riding high.

She had never expected a single exposé video to generate so much buzz.

Overnight, Qiaoyan’s video had surpassed fifteen million views, with over ten thousand downloads and shares.

Her follower count had exploded by over a million, pushing her total past the three million mark in one fell swoop.

Qiaoyan felt like she was dreaming. It had all come so easily that it felt a little unreal.

Now, she was facing several cameras and phones, giving a live interview to a few of her fellow content creators...

"I wasn’t stalking him. I just happened to run into him by chance while I was filming a video at Water World..."

As she spoke, Qiaoyan suddenly noticed two black Audis pull up in front of the administration building.

Four well-dressed, imposing men in their forties and fifties, all wearing suits, stepped out of the cars one after another.

One of them, a man in his sixties, looked somewhat familiar.

Qiaoyan, who had done some homework before coming, suddenly brightened and shouted, "The Dean! Mr. Cheng, the Dean of the Affiliated Hospital, is here!"

At her shout, the dozen or so content creators swarmed around Mr. Cheng in an instant.

"Mr. Cheng, what are your thoughts on Mr. Yan?"

"Will your hospital be punishing Mr. Yan?"

"A fine, or termination?"

Surrounded by a dozen cameras and phones, Mr. Cheng was initially a bit flustered.

Once he understood their questions, he realized they weren’t here for him.

Mr. Cheng breathed a silent sigh of relief. He raised a hand in a practiced gesture, motioning for the crowd to be quiet.

After the content creators fell silent, Mr. Cheng cleared his throat and announced loudly, "Everyone, I have an announcement to make first..."

He paused, then said slowly, "As of today, I am no longer the Dean of Binhai University Affiliated Hospital..."

Mr. Cheng pointed to a stern, square-faced man in his fifties standing beside him and said, "This is..." 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

His voice rose a notch. "The Affiliated Hospital’s new Party Secretary, Secretary Meng."

Meng Huaxin, who had just been introduced, saw the cameras and phones all turn to him and broke into a warm smile.

"Everyone, you’ve been asking about Mr. Yan Feifan from our hospital. I only just watched the related exposé video on my way here."

"I’m not yet clear on the specific details."

"However, I can make my position clear to all of you..."

Meng Huaxin paused deliberately before continuing slowly, "The Affiliated Hospital, as one of the best hospitals in Binhai and even the entire country, is a public hospital. It is the people’s hospital!"

"’Serve the people’ and ’patients first’ have always been our guiding principles, and they are the standards we require of all our medical staff."

The moment Meng Huaxin finished speaking, Qiaoyan shouted, "Secretary Meng, I’m Qiaoyan, the creator of that exposé video!"

"I can assure you, the content of the video is absolutely true."

"Secretary Meng, that doctor, Yan Feifan, repeatedly claimed he had no time and refused the request of a student preparing for the college entrance exams."

"But just a few days later, he was splashing around with a beautiful woman at a water park."

"Is that ’serving the people’?"

"Is that putting ’patients first’?"

As she spoke, a few other content creators began to jeer, "How is the hospital going to spin this?"

"He says he has no time on the one hand, but a few days later he’s off enjoying his weekend. Is that what you call ’serving the people’?"

"Let’s see how the hospital tries to whitewash this and call a deer a horse..."

Meng Huaxin’s expression darkened. He said sternly, "Everyone, let me state my position again. If our investigation confirms that this young Mr. Yan truly lacks medical ethics, as the video suggests..."

"A young doctor like that absolutely does not meet our hospital’s high standards for its physicians..."

Qiaoyan asked for confirmation, "Secretary Meng, does that mean he’ll be fired?"

Meng Huaxin said gravely, "Correct. A doctor who does not put patients first does not meet the employment standards of our Affiliated Hospital."

He added, "On the condition that this young Mr. Yan is indeed as the exposé video portrays him..."

Yan Feifan put down the suturing instrument in his hand and glanced up at the clock on the wall.

"10:20 AM. Total time, seven hours and fifty-five minutes. Perfect!"

Yan Feifan looked at Wang Chuan across the operating table and said, "Director, I’ll leave the rest to you."

"I’m running on empty..."

Just as he finished speaking, his body began to sway.

Meng Yao saw something was wrong and quickly steadied him.

Who would have thought, Yan Feifan went limp as if he had no bones in his body, collapsing into her arms.

Meng Yao looked down at Yan Feifan in her arms—his eyes were closed, his breathing even—and asked in surprise as Wang Chuan hurried over.

"Director, is... is Mr. Yan asleep?"

Wang Chuan checked Yan Feifan’s breathing and heartbeat, then let out a sigh of relief.

"He’s asleep."

Wang Chuan couldn’t help but chuckle. "This kid is something else. He’s been putting out a steady performance with no signs of slowing down, then just... SNAP... powers down completely."

Meng Yao thought back on the surgery and chuckled as well. "Director, that’s a very vivid description..."

Just then, Yu Suye, dressed in sterile scrubs, burst into the operating room, shouting.

"Feifan, you’ve been fired by the new Party Secretary..."