No matter how deformed or oddly shaped a heart was, Yan Feifan was confident that with his exquisite surgical skills and mastery of cardiac anatomy, he could reconstruct and reshape it into a normal heart.

However, he couldn’t be certain if this reconstructed heart would successfully restart, or if it would function stably and long-term once it did.

This was the most difficult aspect of repairing complex heart deformities: striking the perfect balance.

If the repair was too aggressive, the heart would sustain too much trauma and simply shut down, never to beat again.

Alternatively, it might work for a brief period before the wounds ruptured catastrophically, resulting in immediate death.

But if the repair was too conservative, the heart’s functional output would only improve slightly. This would merely treat the symptoms rather than the root cause, only buying the patient a little more time to linger on.

On Friday, Yan Feifan assisted Deng Chunming in completing a nearly eight-hour surgery to repair a young boy’s deformed heart.

The surgery was completed reasonably well; the boy’s repaired heart had resumed beating.

Yet, in Yan Feifan’s eyes, Mr. Deng’s approach during the procedure had been a bit too conservative and overly cautious.

Based on his analysis, given the extent of Mr. Deng’s repair, even with an excellent postoperative recovery, the boy would have to live a sheltered, sedentary life—like a noblewoman in ancient times who never stepped out of her courtyard.

With the output capacity of his repaired heart, heavy physical labor and strenuous exercise would be out of the question.

If the recovery went poorly, marriage and having children when he grew up would be impossible as well.

After the surgery, they returned to Mr. Deng’s office. Yan Feifan didn’t hold back, sharing his candid thoughts while Mr. Deng was resting.

“Conservative? Cautious?”

The exhausted Deng Chunming offered a faint smile. “Yan, to fully demonstrate my skills in repairing heart deformities to you today, this was the boldest and riskiest surgery I’ve performed in years.”

“Are you serious, sir?” Yan Feifan clearly didn’t believe him.

Deng Chunming struggled to sit up from the sofa and said slowly, “Yan, up to this day, I’ve performed fifty-two heart deformity repair surgeries of this difficulty.

“Take a guess—what do you think my success rate is?”

Yan Feifan shook his head and replied directly, “I can’t guess, sir. Just tell me.”

Deng Chunming sighed softly. “Twenty-seven successes, twenty-five failures. Barely over fifty percent.”

He paused, then suddenly ordered, “I’m thirsty again. Go pour me a glass of water!”

Recovering his energy much faster, Yan Feifan quickly got up and poured a glass for Mr. Deng and another for himself.

Deng Chunming took a small sip and continued, “Eleven years ago, I thought I was ready. Full of confidence, I started taking on these highly difficult heart deformity repair surgeries.

“The result? The first three all failed, one right after another.”

Looking as though he couldn’t bear to reflect on the past, he gloomily took a few more sips.

“For the next two years, I didn’t touch another surgery of that difficulty.

“It took another two years of preparation before, with my colleagues’ encouragement, I finally mustered the courage to take on one more.”

Deng Chunming recounted as he reminisced, “Strictly speaking, that surgery couldn’t be considered a success.

“Yan, you can go watch the video of that operation. Once you see it, you’ll understand what true conservatism and caution look like.

“Since then, through constant trial and error, there have been successes and failures, leading up to today.”

He looked up at Yan Feifan. “Kid, do you think I didn’t want to repair that boy’s heart better? The problem was, I had a feeling that if I went even a tiny step further, he would never wake up again.

“This sense of the critical threshold…” Deng Chunming’s tone was full of lament. “I only developed it in the last two or three years.

“And that’s exactly why my success rate for this level of surgery has seen a massive improvement over the past couple of years.”

Yan Feifan understood what Mr. Deng meant.

The “feeling” he mentioned was the ability to weigh one’s own capabilities against the patient’s condition, deciding what to attempt and what to leave alone, striking the perfect balance, and making relatively precise predictions about the surgical outcome.

It was just like when he performed plastic surgery—once the surgical plan was finalized, the outcome was basically set in stone.

This was because Yan Feifan had meticulous control over his own skills, a deep understanding of the patient, and absolute confidence in every aspect of the surgical process.

To him, achieving the final postoperative results was as natural and effortless as water flowing in a canal.

Yan Feifan smacked his lips. “Sir, it took you thirty or forty surgeries to find that feeling…”

Deng Chunming glared at him and snapped, “More strictly speaking, it took me over thirty years to find the feeling for surgeries of this difficulty.

“But then again, you’re hailed as a once-in-a-century medical genius. One year of yours is worth at least fifty of mine.”

Yan Feifan hurriedly expressed his modesty. “Not at all, not at all. Sir, you think too highly of me. I need to take things step by step, learning and accumulating experience steadily.”

Deng Chunming chuckled, teasing, “If you aren’t worth fifty years of mine, how did you dare to make a one-year agreement with someone?”

Yan Feifan knew Mr. Deng was referring to his pact with Chu Xiaolong.

He laughed sheepishly. “Sir, I saw he was completely resigned to his fate and ready to give up. I mainly did it to give him hope.”

Copying Yan Feifan’s usual habit, Deng Chunming rolled his eyes.

He quickly turned serious again. “Yan, we all hope you can create a miracle and successfully fulfill that one-year agreement on time.”

After a brief pause, he added slowly, “Yan, as far as surgical skills go, you’re already better than us. We don’t have much left to teach you, other than passing down the experiences and lessons we’ve accumulated.

“Beyond that, what’s indispensable is hands-on surgical practice.”

His tone turning solemn, Deng Chunming stated, “When it comes to complex heart deformities, there are no two identical cases in the world.

“You need to practice and gain as much experience as possible to handle even more complicated situations.

“In this process, failure is inevitable.

“I heard that the surgical accident on Wednesday—when that patient died on the table—was a bit too much for you to handle?”

“Not at all!” Yan Feifan quickly defended himself. “It’s just that the guys around me are overly concerned. They think I’ll be affected by it.”

Deng Chunming scoffed twice. “True or false, Yan, let me tell you this…”

He met Yan Feifan’s gaze, his warning stark. “When it comes to complex heart deformity repair surgeries, even with your genius, it’s impossible to master them without costing three to five human lives in the process.

“This is an incredibly cruel reality. Every one of us has paved our way with lives.

“If you don’t want to run away from it, you have no choice but to harden your heart and face it head-on!”

This made Yan Feifan’s mood instantly heavy.

He knew clearly that Mr. Deng wasn’t being alarmist or trying to scare him.

Yan Feifan could run simulations and practice in his mental space, but for surgeries of this difficulty and complexity, real-world practice and improvement were absolutely essential.

On his path to success, patients falling along the way seemed to be an inevitability…

At that moment, he felt a weight on his shoulder. Mr. Deng had stood up, walked over, and was patting him on the shoulder.

“Yan, compassion cannot command an army, and pure benevolence cannot practice medicine. If your heart isn’t hardened, you’ll never become a renowned master surgeon.”

Having delivered his lecture, Deng Chunming patted Yan Feifan’s shoulder heavily again. “Can’t you see I’ve finished my water?

“You have no situational awareness at all. Pour me another glass…”

At nearly six in the evening, having recovered much of his energy, Yan Feifan left the Cardiac Surgery Department and hurried to the Neurosurgery Department director’s office.

There, he met with Dr. Qiu Ge, Binhai University Medical Journal chief editor Tang Jun, and two other editors to discuss the publication of a special issue…

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