Surgery Godfather

Chapter 233: Chapter 0218: A Fleeting Encounter

“Quit? Resigned?”

Huang Jiacai asked, joining him for a smoke.

“Couldn’t do it anymore, got fired.”

The engineer said while smoking, looking somewhat helpless and a little sad.

“What’s in your bag? Can I check it out?”

Huang Jiacai was curious. He was leaving his job with some scrap metal in his bag. Was he really selling scrap because he was short on cash?

“Sure, they all say it’s trash.”

The engineer opened his duffel bag himself. Huang Jiacai peeked inside; it was full of crude tools. He picked one out. It seemed like a meniscus suture gun. “What’s this?”

“A meniscus suture gun!”

“A copy?”

“My design.”

“You designed this?”

“Yes, it can do continuous suturing as long as the thread is long enough. As many stitches as you want in one go–”

Huang Jiacai found this interesting. He tried to pull the trigger, but it jammed after one stroke; it was completely unusable, and the design of this suture gun was quite ugly.

When the engineer saw Huang Jiacai’s interest, his eyes immediately sparkled. “This is just a rough sample. I made it manually, and its components were manually polished, hence, lacks accuracy. If the precision were right, this would be really useful.”

He demonstrated how to suture, but it again jammed after two strokes, taking much effort to unjam. He awkwardly said, “If I used slightly more precision parts, it would not jam. The gun could suture as many stitches as you want in a single go. No matter the length of the meniscal tear, it could be sutured in a matter of seconds. Even newbie doctors could operate it easily.”

Huang Jiacai carefully studied the device, which indeed worked as he described. If assembled with precision parts, it could surely achieve continuous suturing as depicted.

It was incredible that this unkempt man with stubble could design such an effective tool.

However, the manufacturing of this device required a significant investment, including mold-making, testing, trial-use, improvement, prototyping, process design, and setting up assembly lines.

“Did you design this all by yourself?”

Huang Jiacai couldn’t believe it. Such a fantastic device packed in a duffel bag as trash should be in a research and development lab.

“I have lots more blueprints that aren’t assembled. This is just one I brought to life.” The engineer proudly said.

“Why didn’t you report your achievements to your superiors?” Huang Jiacai found it unbelievable.

The engineer shook his head helplessly: “I’ve talked to the boss. They didn’t even take me seriously, thinking I was crazy. The boss didn’t even finish watching my demonstration before dismissing me.”

“Shouldn’t your department manager understand the value of these things?” Huang Jiacai was puzzled, finding it strange that no one cared about these devices.

The engineer bitterly smiled, “He mocked me, saying that I was playing with toys. Each item was useless and could never achieve the effects I was boasting. He suggested that I should aim for millions in salary rather than waste my talent here.”

“Why were you fired?”

“I borrowed money online, overdue, and the debt collectors hounded everyone on my contacts list, including all the departments in the company. That’s why the company decided to fire me.” The young man looked somewhat drained.

“I can still pay the money, but I just can’t do it right now.” The young man seemed determined.

Huang Jiacai took out a few more tools from the bag; they were all rough samples, some even pieced together from various parts.

“Gambling? Got stuck in online loans?” Huang Jiacai speculated.

He figured this guy must be a compulsive gambler. Otherwise, why would he be mired in online loans? From what Huang Jiacai had learned from the news, online loans were akin to loan sharking, with interests compounding quickly. A few thousand could quickly become tens or even hundreds of thousands. Debt collectors would relentlessly harass the debtor’s contacts and bombard them with insulting text messages and obscene photoshopped images. He had even seen news reports about people committing suicide because they couldn’t take the shame.

“No, my father was critically ill and in the hospital. We ran out of money and were about to be discharged. I have only saved a few tens of thousands over the past few years since graduating. It wasn’t enough, and I couldn’t borrow any more. I had no choice but to make an urgent loan, and online was the quickest.” The man clarified, stating that he wasn’t a compulsive gambler.

“Once you’re in the cycle of online loans, it’s hard to get out. What’s your plan?”

“It’s okay, I’ll definitely pay back the principal and some interest! Anything more, I won’t pay. They’ve already busted my contact list, but I don’t care anymore. Everyone’s too busy, no one cares about my problems, I’ve lost face long ago, I’ll speak when I have some money in the future.”

“How much do you owe?”

“Sixty thousand would settle it.”

Huang Jiacai took out each of the instruments inside one by one: “What’s this?”

“It’s a guided instrument used for cross-ligament reconstruction, this one is for the anterior ligament, there’s also one for the posterior ligament. It’s very practical, even better than those from Shi Lehui or Arthrex. It has a very high tolerance margin and is very easy to operate.”

The young man then taught Huang Jiacai how to use it.

“What’s your name?”

“Chen Zhi!”

“Huang Jiacai, G City regional sales manager of the company!”

“I’ve heard of you, you’re top of the company’s sales hero list.”

“Wait a moment, let me see if I can talk to the higher-ups for you. Stay here. I’ll see if I can help you talk to them about getting an advance salary to repay the money. These things you have are very valuable. Can you wait a moment?”

“Thank you, but it’s no use. I am here to clean up. I will leave after I finish this cigarette.”

“Stay, I will help you find a way, you must wait, can we connect on WeChat?”

The young man was surprised. Huang Jiacai, even though they had just met once, took the initiative to fight for the chance for him to stay. Even though the young man knew it was no use, he couldn’t bear to put out Huang Jiacai’s enthusiasm.

“Thank you!” he said gratefully.

Huang Jiacai picked up a meniscus suturing gun and returned to the R&D department’s lab. Everyone was still hanging around the samples.

An engineer was explaining these samples to help the sales team learn more about the company’s products.

“President Wang, may I have a word?”

Huang Jiacai quietly called President Wang who was leading the team over.

“President Wang, do you know an engineer from the R&D department named Chen Zhi?” Huang Jiacai asked directly.

President Wang was very familiar with him, his tone disdainful: “He? He was fired. That jerk has a lot of bad records. In the R&D department, he was doing nothing all day, I don’t know what he was up to, even ruining a machine that cost more than 100,000; his character is bad, always owing money, people who pressure him for payment even came to our company. Many employees of the company have received text messages, which are unbearable to read. He’s been fired. Why? You know him?”

“Yes, could you do me a favor, protect him, keep him here, and also, could you help by advancing his salary so he can repay his debt? This guy is a talent, the reason why he owes money is-” Huang Jiacai was trying hard to persuade President Wang, hoping he would help. If he helped, keeping Chen Zhi should be possible.

“Is that so? He’s really a friend of yours? I’ve never heard you mention him, you have connections in R&D headquarters?” President Wang looked incredulous.

Huang Jiacai laughed: “It’s true, If I didn’t know him, why would I bother with this?”

President Wang seemed to be in a predicament, took out his mobile phone, hesitated for a moment, “Jiacai, this is a bit difficult, it’s hard to keep him, not to mention advance his salary. He was personally dismissed by President Wei. But since he’s your friend, I’ll try my best no matter what.”

“Alright, thank you, President Wang.” Huang Jiacai was pleased. As long as President Wang stepped forward, there should be a glimmer of hope.

President Wang was a simple and straightforward man, who was very kind to Huang Jiacai.

When Huang Jiacai first came to G City, President Wang was working in a pharmaceutical company. It was him who introduced Huang Jiacai to the industry, taught him how to do business, and guided him all the way, even helping him rent a house.

Later, President Wang started his own business and founded a pharmaceutical company. He invited Huang Jiacai as well. Huang Jiacai did a lot for him and helped establish half of his business, securing a place in G City.

Then, due to various factors, President Wang’s pharmaceutical company was facing trouble. After selling the pharmaceutical company and taking a break, President Wang, on a friend’s advice, joined Ruixing as a shareholder along with others. President Wang also brought in Huang Jiacai to help him.

“Could you please help me talk about it now? It’s rather urgent, he has resigned and is about to leave.” Huang Jiacai feared that if he waited too long, Chen Zhi would leave.

“So urgent?” President Wang looked at the team that was still viewing, thinking he might be able to spare the time.

“Alright, I’m going now, just wait. I can’t guarantee that it’ll work, you don’t know President Wei’s temper, once he makes a decision, it’s very hard to change it. Especially this guy, he’s notorious in the company, he’s caused messes in the company. Those debt collectors kept harassing the employees, it was so bad that some had to change their phones. Dead cats and mice were even sent to the company.”

President Wang asked his secretary to take charge of the team while he hurriedly left.