Unlike in many other jobs, teachers would get a winter vacation from their work. Whenever a professional athlete retired in China, it would be common for them to go to the various schools in the provincial capital and become a physical education teacher. These former pro athletes would no longer have their glory. Instead, they would start dealing with an average daily life and work. Although they were former pro athletes, Chinese athletes wouldn"t have very good medical insurance. Many pro athletes would start feeling pain in their bodies after retirement due to their previous strenuous exercise and injuries!The television advertis.e.m.e.nt that w.a.n.g Yongyong partic.i.p.ated in indeed managed to grab the attention of quite a few people. Many people who were personally acquainted with w.a.n.g Yongyong started calling him to ask about the surgery he received.
Although w.a.n.g Yongyong hadn"t been paid anything for the advertis.e.m.e.nt, he was quite grateful that Ma Wentao had waived the surgery fee for him in exchange. Thus, w.a.n.g Yongyong did his best to explain everything in great detail and answer any questions that he was asked.
Ma Wentao had chosen a good strategy to develop his first hospital. Business was improving slowly. Zhang Fan also managed to recruit a few doctors for Ma Wentao from smaller city hospitals, so Ma Wentao"s hospital"s surgical department wasn"t as short-staffed as before. Since Ma Wentao"s hospital also had several expert doctors from Raptor City as department directors working here for half of the month, this also helped his hospital to gain market share among Chasu City"s government employees.
To explain simply, Ma Wentao was especially targeting Chasu City"s government employees. The government employees would have higher income than average. They would be able to accept slightly more expensive medical fees as long as the treatment was proper and good. Since Kuake City Secretary Zhao recently fainted during a government meeting, went comatose, and never woke up again, this incident scared many government leaders into paying more attention to their health.
There were some government leaders who were unwilling or found it inconvenient to go to a public hospital for various reasons. These government leaders then chose to visit Ma Wentao"s hospital for a checkup. Ma Wentao"s hospital was now leading Chasu City in receiving phone call reservations for checkups.
The number of people coming to the internal medicine departments of Ma Wentao"s hospital was gradually increasing. Ma Wentao already began to purchase as much land as he possibly could. Since he"d obtained the information on the high-speed train line quite early, and because the land he was purchasing was in a rather undeveloped and desolate area, the price wasn"t high. He could purchase one acre for just 10,000-20,000 yuan. Ma Wentao had a lot of capital on his hands, so he was able to purchase the land quite swiftly.
Since Ma Wentao had been able to obtain this information through his information channels, he knew that there would also be some others out there who were also privy to such special information. This would slowly cause the land in this area to rise in price. However, Ma Wentao had likely been the first to plan to do anything in this area. Since he was the first to start purchasing land here, he would save a tremendous amount of money.
The weather was becoming colder, with snow falling everywhere. The heating in Shao Hua"s family"s old apartment broke down yet again. Back when the apartment had been constructed, the work had been rushed, so there were many problems with the safety standards. For older apartment complexes, it would be common that there would be water pipe explosions in summer and heating pipe explosions in winter. Shao Hua"s family had a discussion, and decided to officially move everything into Zhang Fan"s home. There wasn"t much to move to begin with, and the stuff here had been left untouched for quite a while since Shao Hua"s parents had already been living in Zhang Fan"s home.
In bigger cities, it would be quite easy to take care of moving as you could simply call a moving company. However, that wouldn"t be possible in Chasu City, because n.o.body was interested in doing such work. The laborers in the border province would rarely go to inland China to find work, because physical labor work was easy to find here.
In summer, the laborers could easily find a decent paying job at a restaurant or a construction site. In autumn, they would all be going to the farms to help harvest cotton. As the border province was China"s biggest producer of cotton, there was so much cotton that people from inland China would even have to come over to help harvest cotton. Just the border province"s people alone wouldn"t be sufficient.
In winter, since Chasu City had a large amount of snowfall, it would be impossible for the Sanitation Bureau to deal with so much snow. Thus, the task of sweeping snow on the road right in front of each company was delegated to the companies themselves. No matter what the companies thought of this, they would still be responsible for clearing the snow. Typically, the company"s size would determine how much snow they were responsible for clearing.
Chasu City Hospital, which was quite large, was responsible for clearing about three kilometers" worth of snow. This would be no easy task. It would be quite common for there to be 10 cm or more of snow after a major snowfall. It would take all medical personnel all day to clear so much snow. Thus, the hospital would usually hire contractors to clear the snow instead. Many people would be willing to take such work for a reasonable price.
Since there were plenty of physical labor jobs, it wouldn"t be that easy to find people willing to be movers. Moving companies couldn"t develop in a smaller city like Chasu City. This meant that you would have to do your own moving. Zhang Fan contacted a group of young rotation doctors. Several of Shao Hua"s relatives also came to help with the moving. Zhang Fan borrowed a large truck from the hospital"s logistics department, and used it to move everything to his home.
All of the old friends and neighbors in the area also came over to help out with the moving. Shao Hua and her parents all had nice personalities and got along well with others, so many people came over to help out.
"Oh my! You guys are really going to enjoy yourselves, moving to Qinghua District. That district really is so nice. Our district here is so problematic, always having blackouts or heating problems!" The neighbors kept giving their blessings.
Although new furniture had already been purchased for Zhang Fan"s home, the truck was still filled with old furniture and things. Shao Hua"s parents were unwilling to throw away the furniture and items that had accompanied them for so long already.
It took about half a day to finally organize everything. Luckily, many people had come over to help out. If it had only been Zhang Fan and Shao Hua"s family doing the moving, it would have likely taken an entire week.
After the moving was finished, Zhang Fan treated everyone who helped out with the moving to a meal. Several female rotation doctors had also come over to help with the moving, even though Zhang Fan had only invited the male rotation doctors. This was because the rotation doctors were all acquainted and working together. Many people gave face and came to help Zhang Fan with the moving. Tong Lili had also arrived, but she felt something pent up in her chest for a reason unknown to herself when she met Shao Hua.
Was Zhang Fan outstanding? At Chasu City Hospital, he could already be considered one of the top talents. It was only normal that other women would be interested in him. Tong Lili stood still in a daze, not knowing what to think as she watched the busy Zhang Fan constantly greeting others.
"What are you looking at?" Lu Shuyan from gynecology came over. She followed Tong Lili"s line of sight and saw Zhang Fan.
"Tell me, do excellent men always belong to someone else already?" Tong Lili and Lu Shuyan had a good relations.h.i.+p. The two of them had grown up in similar environments, which had helped them to really get along well with each other when both were rotation doctors in gynecology together. They gradually became close friends.
"People always think that what they can"t have is the best. No need to overthink things. You"re quite excellent yourself. There will be another excellent man out there waiting for you!" Although Lu Shuyan was trying to console her friend, she also felt heartbroken inside herself. This was because her own boyfriend had just broken up with her. His promises to be with her forever had been nothing in comparison to the better job offer that he received!
There were many young adults here, so the crowd was easy to please. Zhang Fan wasn"t stingy, and paid for big and expensive dishes. There was a lively atmosphere. Everyone was tired from lifting heavy things all day, so of course Zhang Fan would need to treat them with alcohol. Naturally, Zhang Fan wouldn"t be drinking toasts with anyone, so he could only rely on Shao Hua for this as she had good alcohol tolerance, being a girl from the border province.
These young adults were all doctors who had come here to help Zhang Fan to give him face. They didn"t drink much, and only made a show of drinking. But when Shao Hua started toasting the female doctors, some people finally started to try and force Shao Hua to drink a lot!
"Sorry to trouble all of you today. Please, eat and drink well tonight, and come visit us often if you have the time!" Shao Hua said polite formalities as she toasted the female doctors.
"h.e.l.lo, nice to meet you for the first time. My name is Tong Lili. I"m Teacher Zhang"s disciple. Should I be addressing you as teacher"s wife?" Tong Lili smiled like a blooming flower and spoke in a polite tone while also smiling in a friendly manner. She was slowly getting accustomed to Chinese social customs.
"Aah! Both of you are coworkers, so there shouldn"t really be anything like a teacher and disciple. My name is Shao Hua." Although there was nothing wrong with Tong Lili"s expression or tone, Shao Hua still instinctively felt that something was off. A woman"s instincts would often be quite scary.
"Our job is one where skills matter, so there really are teachers are disciples. This is my first time meeting a teacher"s wife. Please allow me to toast you several gla.s.ses!" Tong Lili then immediately started clinking her winegla.s.s against Shao Hua"s and drinking wine. Tong Lili made Shao Hua drink several gla.s.ses. Shao Hua was quite uneasy with how overly polite Tong Lili was! Women would always understand women the best.
"My name is Lu Shuyan. I"m from the gynecology department. I was Zhang Fan"s partner for some time. Allow me to also toast you several gla.s.ses!" Lu Shuyan was now thinking about her ex-boyfriend due to Tong Lili. Lu Shuyan was thus in a bad mood because of this, so she wanted to drown her sorrows in alcohol!
w.a.n.g Hong had also arrived. Although she was now officially in a romantic relations.h.i.+p with an outstanding youth from Chasu City CPC, of course she wouldn"t miss such a gathering for young doctors. Since she felt that it would be fun to watch a ruckus, she also joined in toasting Shao Hua.
"Doctor Zhang is the best doctor amongst our group of doctors who joined at the same time. He"s far too outstanding, so you"ll have to watch him properly in the future!" w.a.n.g Hong chuckled as she raised her own winegla.s.s.