“So, who’s this Doctor Li that everyone seems to worship?” The new first residents asked.
The new residents had been working for a month and were slowly acclimating to the hospital setting. However, they started around the same time that Li Yun had requested his vacation, so many ACS residents were unfamiliar with him.
“Don’t let the rumors fool you!” Fan Geng cried out. “He’s a complete nutjob and a quack!”
Fan Geng had been spreading rumors to every new resident about Li Yun. Although Li Yun had a good reputation in the ER and ACS, everyone else thought he was borderline evil or annoying, so the new residents were somewhat inclined to believe Fan Geng, whose mother worked for Li Yun.
Li Yun was not aware of what had happened during his vacation. A few days after he returned from Imperial City, he walked into the hospital in casual clothes and a cap, almost like he was in disguise. Technically, he was still on his vacation.
While in the hallway, he could here all sorts of gossip. To his surprised, the legend of the Nian had expanded into a quack. If a lion beast could quack, it’s name would be Li Yun, the residents would joked.
“That mother*******!” Li Yun thought as he quickly figured out who was spreading the rumor. He knew from the work memo that the hospital had decided to hire Fan Geng. He wondered what sort of crack the chiefs were on when they had decided to hire that gaming obsessed guy.
Li Yun fumbled to himself, but he wasn’t particularly angry. Instead, he ignored the rumors and headed toward the ER. It was running better than he thought with An Luchang, Mi Xuan, and Doctor Hao teaching the new residents the ropes. There were few true emergencies that afternoon, but Fan Geng was running around like everything was a death and life matter.
“Fan Geng… Calm down, it’s just a bacteria cold,” Lui Jing said trying to calm Fan Geng cold after the patient with a cold sneezed on him. “Even if you catch a cold, it’s just a few days off…”
Fan Geng partially understood, but he didn’t want to catch a cold!!! That was less time for him to play League!
“Take care of people with chronic headaches,” said An Luchang, pointing to some of the people in the waiting room.
“Yes Doctor An!”
Fan Geng was a huge fan of Dr. An, who seemed to possess the ability to recognize a lot of symptoms just by looking at their faces.
“Why doesn’t he listen to me!??” Lui Jing was a bit upset that all the residents only followed An Luchang and Mi Xuan directions.
Li Yun let out a sigh after peeking at the condition of the ER, and walked into Chief’s Gao office and set down a letter. Chief Gao looked back angrily at Li Yun after looking at the resignation letter.
"You're really going to resign?" asked Chief Gao.
"I don't know if I have time to focus," Li Yun replied. “I don’t want the work at the clinic to interfere with the ER.”
Chief shook his head. "I thought you wanted to save lives. Have you completed your missions?"
"Yes and no," Li Yun replied. "I have saved enough patients already, but there are even more that I could save in the future. One surgeon can only save a limited amount of people in their lifetime. But if you compare it to a businessman, politician, and even celebrity, they all have the ability to affect the lives of billions of people."
Chief Gao nodded reluctantly. He could tell that Li Yun's mission had no bound, and it was the initial reason why he hated Li Yun so much. He had the potential to be a great surgeon, but he had an even greater potential elsewhere.
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"It is expected, but I am still not going to accept this withdrawal," Chief Gao gave Li Yun his letter. "Go wherever you want. I'll rather keep your name in our roster and put this in as extended leave without pay for you."
Li Yun was surprised that Chief Gao was offering to keep him. The perk was usually reserved for senior surgeons.
"This isn't anything special or anything against hospital policy,” Chief Gao said. “Just take it as a thank you for training An Luchang, Mi Xuan and the residents."
“Thank you.”
“It’s not just that, the hospital has been receiving special requests to have you perform surgery on people with rare iodine allergy or severe kidney disorder. Most of the clients are quite wealthy, so the director is requesting the ER take special charge of them.”
Li Yun’s reputation was spreading.
“If you can gather enough patients, then schedule it twice a week, I should be able to complete them,” Li Yun was confident he could perform the surgery quickly and efficiently. “First day for consultation, and second day for surgery.”
After talking to Chief Gao, Li Yun met with Chief Zhang. He had to gain support from Chief Zhang who had connections with CFDA, a national agency that review drugs for distribution.
“Shennong Pharmaceutical. Interesting that you’re going to start a pharmaceutical company,” said Chief Zhang while look through Li Yun’s business proposal. “But aren’t you being hasty?”
“Maybe I am, but I am confident that my medicine will work,” Li Yun replied.
It was Li Yun’s confidence that had influenced many doctors to invest in the company. In the end, Chief Zhang decided not to invest, but with good reasons.
“If your medicine is as effective as you say, I can’t imagine the other pharmaceutical companies just waiting to have you gobble up a chunk of their market share,” said Chief Zhang. “They have farther reach than me in CFDA, and you’re going to need someone with no conflict of interests to back you up. I might be your boss, but if I put money into your company, my opinions will carry less weight.”
Li Yun nodded. He wasn’t an experienced businessman, but he knew that Chief Zhang was correct. With Chief Zhang’s support, Li Yun focused on researching.
He had two main goals. The first was to create TCM supplements to reduce inflammation based on Little Yan’s formula. The second goal was to create the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID), basically his own version of ibuprofen and aspirin.
“Inflammation is a type of internal scar. It is beneficial to the body, but only if it was healed properly. When an inflammation remains after it had prevented a rupture or destroyed an infection, it would cause problems to the body. NSAID is used to reduce inflammation and pain by preventing the production of prostaglandins, a component that triggers pain.
The main difference is that the medicine would not prevent cyclooxygenase (COX) from creating prostaglandins, which prevents the body from over-clotting, raises the body temperature, and protects the stomach lining. Instead, the medicine would regulate and suppress prostaglandins from sending pain signals to the brain like acetaminophen…”
Li Yun slammed his hands on the dining room table, “ARE YOU TWO LISTENING!?”
Fatty and Ju De both shook their heads in denial and to wake themselves up from their nap. Once alert, they stared back at Li Yun, who was shooting death rays from the front of the conference room.
“Look boss, we’re just administrators with no medical background, couldn’t you simplify everything for us?” asked Fatty Fang.
“That’s already really simple. Reduce inflammation and pain. Once the job was completed, all the components would be excreted out of the body. The idea is similar to the formula for Little Yan, but the pill version is less potent and much safer for use. The problem is getting this medicine approved and marketed.”
“Are you anticipating problems with the approval process?” asked Ju De.
There were 5,000 small pharmaceutical companies aiming for the top, and the government was more in favor of consolidating companies to outperform other countries.
Li Yun’s advantage would be that his medicine was an original patent rather than a generic drug, which the majority of the domestic market was based on. With the global markets stabilized, the government will focus on creating more innovative drugs. If Li Yun’s company became the leader in that respect, it was possible to gain an untapped market share.
Unfortunately, the process for a drug to be approved was extremely strict. The domestic market was filled with counterfeit and poor quality drugs that were undermining the government’s interest. Even the people prefer multi-international brands because it was often considered safer. It was the main reason why Berne Pharmaceutical kept the foreign name despite it being owned by the Xia Family.
“There will always be problems when dealing with money,” Li Yun commented. “We are likely going to war with other smaller companies, and then bigger companies as well.”
Ju De rubbed his hands together in delight. He might not be familiar with medical jargon, but he was always ready for war.