"Teacher Tong, I saw on the official website that there are over four hundred participants in this competition."

"If everyone participates in all the events, we might not be able to finish in two days." Lu Cheng sat opposite Tong Yuan'an, sincerely asking for guidance.

Reality had already taught Lu Cheng many things, so he paid no attention to others' 'indifference.'

Indifference is the norm; kindness towards you is a favor.

Very few strangers will be particularly courteous to you...

"Actually, it's like this. This provincial competition is about securing your best result, so it's held in a salon format. If you're willing to participate, you can theoretically join the same event up to four times."

"Many people, afraid of not performing well once, are given several chances."

"Not everyone will participate in all the events..." Tong Yuan'an replied.

Medical competitions differ from many others; there's no such thing as hacks or cheating in medical skill contests.

Or rather, if you can achieve better results through so-called cheating, it's not cheating; it's the truth.

Clinically, if you can help patients recover better, then you're impressive...

"Among the four tracks, vascular suturing is the most popular, also the main competitive direction in microsurgery. It has the most participants, and it's estimated you can participate only twice."

"Next, for instance, tendon suturing, substantial organ suturing, and nerve suturing have relatively fewer participants."

"Because they aren't perceived as having as much value, at least within the industry, many people don't recognize the value of these tracks..."

Hearing this, Lu Cheng nodded: "Teacher Tong, is there a possibility that some people haven't participated even once while others have participated twice?"

"That's definitely impossible? Participants sign in at the venue, and first-time participants are naturally prioritized."

"You don't have to worry about not participating even once," Tong Yuan'an said.

"The main purpose of skill competitions is not for rankings but for exchanging and learning, letting people from grassroots or prefecture-level city hospitals understand to what extent each technique can be performed."

"However, we can't be careless, because there are quite a few experts in prefecture-level city hospitals who might turn out to be dark horses."

"As doctors from teaching hospitals like ours, many of us have relatively less clinical experience. It's hard to ensure we're absolutely better in single-item operations."

"You know, the most impressive at Xiangya Hospital are the professors, whose comprehensive capabilities are higher than the directors at prefecture-level city hospitals, not us associate professors or those what-nots..."

Medicine is a long-term career. Although Tong Yuan'an is an associate professor and associate chief physician, he hasn't reached the peak of his career.

The peak for surgeons is between forty-five to fifty years of age, when one's energy, experience, theory, and skills are at their zenith.

Before this age, there's room for growth; after this age, physical strength and energy might not keep up as well.

...

After returning from Professor Tong Yuan'an's room, Lu Cheng appeared slightly downcast.

While waiting for the elevator in the lobby, Lu Cheng looked out the window. The lights across the river were dazzling, but they had nothing to do with him.

Of course, Lu Cheng knew this was just a provincial microsurgery competition; if he made it to the national competition, even fewer people would know him...

Returning to his room, he showered and slept.

The next morning, Lu Cheng got up at six-thirty. He didn't message Tong Yuan'an, as Tong had mentioned he had other commitments today.

Lu Cheng went downstairs to the buffet restaurant for breakfast by himself. Finished eating but not meeting anyone he knew, he pinned on his ID badge and headed to the third floor.

This 'conference' was officially named the Xiang Province Microsurgery Winter Exchange Meeting and Microsurgery Young Physicians' Competition.

There were a total of four floors; the fourth, fifth, and sixth floors were academic conference halls for gatherings and academic meetings of microsurgery professionals, including industry figures, practitioners, and graduate students.

The competition was held on the third floor, divided into four small areas—tendon suturing zone, nerve suturing zone, vascular suturing zone, substantial organ suturing zone.

Organizers' staff managed sign-ins, there were watching family members or young doctors, and also participants.

When Lu Cheng reached the third floor, hotel staff at the elevator lobby asked if he needed guidance.

Lu Cheng politely declined, as the signposts were already very clear.

After thinking briefly, Lu Cheng decided to head to the tendon suturing area first. No matter what, it was better to start with the competition project he was confident in.

The competition venue wasn't large; it was a small academic lecture hall where the seats were cleared but housed a full twenty-five microscopes and operating tables!

This meant it could accommodate twenty-five participants simultaneously.

At this moment, there was already a long queue in front of the registration table; Lu Cheng joined the back of the crowd.

As he got closer, Lu Cheng heard the conversation of a few people in front.

"I heard that Professor Tan from Xiangya Hospital and his team developed a new tendon suturing technique. Overall, it's more useful than the Modified Tang Method, so isn't this tendon suturing competition just for Xiangya Hospital to make up numbers?" 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

"So what? Does such a competition really have to be absolutely fair?"