Chen Yu had once asked Lexi what she saw in him, how they'd clicked.
Among that batch of resident doctors, Lexi, who was of mixed heritage, was by far the most beautiful.
'And her figure... unless you'd felt it for yourself, you couldn't possibly know that someone's skin could be as smooth as silk.'
Quite a few people were trying to pursue her at the time.
But in the end, Chen Yu was the one who won her over.
And what's more, it wasn't Chen Yu who pursued Lexi; she was the one who went after him.
Chen Yu was pretty baffled by this. At first, he assumed it was because he was handsome, but Lexi later told him it was because of his courtesy.
She said it started one day at work when everyone was using the same locker room.
While Lexi was changing, many of the men stared at her, and some even whistled.
At the time, of the eight male resident doctors, only Chen Yu had voluntarily turned away while Lexi was changing. He kept his back to her and didn't look, only turning around to finish changing himself after she had closed her locker door.
That one gesture left a deep impression on Lexi. It made her feel that Chen Yu was a polite and truly gentlemanly man.
Therefore, Chen Yu considered himself a polite person who wouldn't go out of his way to pick a fight with someone, especially a stranger.
But today, after seeing the shocked and utterly crestfallen Billings, Chen Yu didn't want to let him off the hook. He wanted to give him a piece of his mind.
"Mr. Billings, I don't care if you call me a fraud or a rookie. But I cannot tolerate your diagnosis. Now that the results are in, I'd like to know what you have to say for yourself."
Billings's expression was grim. Chen Yu's words made his face burn with shame. He gritted his teeth. "What do you want me to say? You just want me to admit your diagnosis was superior, that you're better, right? Fine! You're so great. I made a mistake. But so what? I refuse to believe you've never made a mistake in your life."
He still looked completely defiant.
Nearby, Wash frowned slightly.
"Shut up!"
Chen Yu suddenly feinted a punch, making Billings flinch, thinking he was about to get hit.
But the punch never landed. Chen Yu pointed a finger at Billings and said furiously, "This isn't about making a wrong diagnosis! I'm a doctor. I make mistakes too. But I'm willing to listen to other people's opinions, because we have a responsibility to our patients."
Every doctor has moments of uncertainty, moments when they're wrong.
Take Wash, for example. Yesterday, as soon as she heard Chen Yu's diagnosis of cartilage damage, she immediately went back to review the scans and then humbly consulted with him.
But Billings?
When Chen Yu suggested cartilage damage, not only did he refuse to perform any further checks, he baselessly questioned Chen Yu, calling him a rookie and a fraud who had no right to question his diagnosis.
He never once considered who would suffer the most if he were wrong.
It wouldn't be his damn reputation—it would be Hill.
"Do you have any idea how important a professional athlete's health is? It's their career! It's how they support their family! It's their dignity! Because of self-righteous doctors like you, a simple 'Sorry, I was wrong' is all it takes for you to move on as if nothing ever happened."
"But have you ever stopped to think about the athletes whose careers are destroyed by your mistakes? How are they supposed to move on?"
Chen Yu's chest heaved, his breathing ragged with emotion.
Before he was five, Chen Yu's memories of his father were crystal clear. He could vividly remember his father taking him to the amusement park, never missing a shot at the coin toss game. He remembered playing in the backyard, his father accidentally knocking him over with a football, then rushing over in a panic before scooping him up in a hug and bursting into laughter.
But after a back injury forced his father into retirement, everything changed. They lost the house. Every day was filled with his mother's endless complaints. Then came the drinking, the domestic abuse... until one day, when Chen Yu was fourteen, the police showed up at their door to inform them that a bloated corpse had been discovered in the river.
A dead silence fell over the room.
CLAP, CLAP, CLAP!
It was Svenson. He had suddenly started clapping.
The color drained from Billings's face. He ducked past Chen Yu and, with a dark expression, practically fled the room.
Wash walked over and patted Chen Yu on the shoulder, giving him a thumbs-up. "Well done!"
Chen Yu took a deep breath to compose himself. "Sorry, I lost my cool."
Wash shook her head. "Let's go. I think it's time we discussed a treatment plan."
Cartilage damage was no small matter.
「In the hospital room.」
Billings was gone, but Gabriel was there, his face a mask of misery, as if he were at a funeral. It was impossible to know what he was thinking.
Hill, however, looked calm. He had clearly prepared himself for this.
"You have two options."
Wash pulled over a whiteboard. "The first option is conservative treatment: taking glucosamine and undergoing PRP therapy. Fortunately, your cartilage damage isn't severe, so there's a chance it could heal completely."
Standing nearby, Chen Yu nodded silently.
Glucosamine is a substance essential for synthesizing proteoglycans in the cartilage matrix, and taking it can help repair and maintain cartilage.
Then there was PRP—platelet-rich plasma—therapy. Chen Yu had only started seeing related papers in the last couple of years. They claimed that this treatment, originally used for cosmetic purposes, could also be effective for ligament repair and cartilage treatment.
As a leader in the medical field, the Mayo Clinic would certainly offer such treatments.
"And then," Wash continued, "there's surgery."
She began to draw a diagram on the whiteboard.
"Using an arthroscope, we would remove the damaged cartilage. Then, we would harvest a piece of cartilage of the same size from another part of your body and transplant it."
At the mention of surgery, not only did Hill's expression shift, but Gabriel, standing beside him, also became extremely tense.
For an athlete, surgery almost always meant the end of their season.
Wash clearly guessed what Hill was worried about. "This is a minimally invasive procedure, so the recovery time would be quicker."
"The benefit is that it could potentially repair your cartilage damage completely. The downside is that you might not regain one hundred percent function, and the transplanted cartilage could develop scar tissue at the graft site. Besides, your cartilage damage is... how should I put it... it's damaged, but not to a severe degree."
"Chen, what are your thoughts?"
Wash suddenly looked at Chen Yu.
It was Chen Yu who had diagnosed Hill's cartilage damage, so he was more than qualified to offer a recommendation.
Hill also looked over at Chen Yu immediately.
"I don't recommend surgery."
Chen Yu stuck with his original opinion.
Hill's situation was awkward; it was nowhere near severe enough to require surgery.
Furthermore, as Wash mentioned, the cartilage transplant surgery would require an autograft, which usually involves harvesting cartilage from the knee joint.
For an ordinary person, that wouldn't be an issue.
But Hill was a professional athlete; he couldn't afford to lose cartilage from *any* of his joints.
"Right, conservative treatment is better," Gabriel chimed in hastily.
If he had surgery, the season would be completely over for him.
With conservative treatment, he might even be able to return mid-season, in time for the playoffs.
Of course, that was assuming the Magic could even make it into the playoffs.
Hill considered it carefully for a moment before saying, "Chen, I trust your judgment. Let's go with conservative treatment."
He paused, then added with a smile, "Besides, you promised you'd have me back on the court, healthy, in two months."
Chen Yu didn't know whether to laugh or cry. 'I think my actual words were that I'd *do my best*,' he thought.
But meeting Hill's expectant gaze, Chen Yu still gave a firm nod.