My Youth Began With Him

“Hello?” Huo Mian said.

“Huo Mian, I’m Qin Chu’s mother.” Her voice was a little unnatural.

“Hi, did you need to talk to me about something?”

“I was a little reckless this morning… I spoke with Old Li afterwards. I’ve known him for years and know that he would never lie. You were right, I trusted Song Yishi too much.”

“I’m glad you realized that,” Huo Mian answered gently; she didn’t like Mrs. Qin, but the latter gave birth to Qin Chu and therefore still had to be respected.

“I hope you won’t take what I said this morning to heart…” Mrs. Qin said, a little embarrassed.

“Don’t worry, I won’t…”

“Oh, and… thank you for performing surgery on Qin Chu last time. I really appreciate you for not giving up on him during a crisis like that one… I know there’s nothing going on between you and Su Yu.”

“There really is nothing going on between us, I’m glad you believe me,” Huo Main replied faintly.

“The two of you should come home for dinner sometimes.”

Mrs. Qin never invited Huo Mian to her house, so out of politeness, Huo Mian couldn’t refuse. She nodded. “Okay, we’ll go when we have time.”

Then, they hung up and Huo Mian walked into her office.

“Dr. Huo, this is the receipt HR sent. The permanent position application you submitted for the nurse in your department wasn’t approved,” the deputy-director’s assistant said as he passed the receipt to Huo Mian.

“She wasn’t approved? That’s impossible…” Her assistant’s skills were more than enough to receive a permanent position. Chen Jie wasn’t pretty, but she was incredibly good at her job, so much so that not many at South Side could compare with her.

Huo Mian looked down at the receipt and saw that the reason the application wasn’t approved was because Chen Jie hadn’t been working at South Side long enough.

She frowned. “Assistant Shen, who wrote the receipt?”

“The chief of HR, her department decides who gets permanent positions within the hospital.”

“HR? But I wrote a recommendation letter to the director himself,” Huo Mian said, startled.

“That’s no use, the director is a busy man and never asks about these things. The director’s assistant sent all those documents down to HR upon receiving them.”

“What about the deputy-director? He doesn’t take care of these things either?” Huo Mian continued to ask.

“He usually does, but right now he’s out of town at a medical symposium, so he delegated this task to HR.”

“Oh, I see.” Huo Mian nodded, and the assistant asked, “Chief Huo, did you have any questions? I can pass them along to the deputy-director.”

“It’s okay, I’ll deal with this myself.” Huo Mian nodded with a smile on her face. Then, she took the receipt and sat down on her office chair.

South Side wasn’t as corrupt as it used to be, but it wasn’t completely clean either.

The doctors all knew that nurses who wanted permanent positions had to have more than skills and professionalism; rather, they had to buy gifts and go through connections.

The relatives of department chiefs were bound to be promoted, but if you were just an ordinary citizen who didn’t have money nor connections, you would never be given a permanent position.

The only reason Huo Mian received a permanent position was because she performed an immaculate surgery, which prompted Director Wu to make an exception and promote her.

Originally, she thought that Chen Jie’s application would definitely be approved, but she was rejected. Later that day, however, she heard from the colleagues in her department that only 5 nurses were approved this time around, and they were all from different departments. These nurses were not outstanding, nor did they have good performance records. Moreover, one of them worked at South Side for less than 3 months.

Chen Jie had worked here for over a year, but her application was rejected because she ‘hasn’t worked at South Side long enough’.

Talk about irony…

“Chief, there are two booked appointments this afternoon, one at 2:30 PM and the other one at 3 PM, are those times alright?” Chen Jie knocked on Huo Mian’s door and asked carefully.

“That’s fine, Jie, come in,” Huo Mian waved her hand, gesturing for Chen Jie to come in.

Then, she gave Chen Jie the receipt she received earlier today, to which the latter smiled upon seeing. She wasn’t surprised. “I knew I wouldn’t have been approved. After all… I’m not good enough.”

“Jie, do you believe in yourself?” Huo Mian suddenly asked, and after a great deal of hesitation, Chen Jie replied with determination, “I… do.”

“Then… do you believe in me?” Huo Mian asked again.