21st Century Necromancer

After much consideration, Chen Yu decided to have his girlfriend help him with his paper.

While part of it was because Chen Yu himself was not skilled at writing papers and wanted to have his girlfriend help him organize the paper, more importantly, he hoped Jounouchi Hiromi would gain some advancement.

One should not assume that female doctors have bright career prospects just because the Eastern University Affiliated Hospital has a female Department Head of Internal Medicine and a female dean.

If that were the case, the large surgical department at the same hospital would not have just Jounouchi Hiromi as the sole female surgeon, and besides Yamamoto Hisae, the head of the department, there would not have been a lack of female doctors in internal medicine.

The medical profession inherently discriminates against female doctors, natively setting a higher threshold for women to enter the field compared to men. One notable medical school in Japan even manipulated admission scores to prevent women from entering, resulting in no female students for many years until the scandal was finally exposed after more than a decade.

In fact, in Japan, the act of women working is itself subject to discrimination. From an employer's perspective, after all the effort of training a competent employee, they're faced with a sequence of events—falling in love, getting married, pregnancy, childbirth, and resignation—which can be overwhelming for any enterprise.

In Japan, there is, after all, a tradition of women resigning from their jobs after marriage to become full-time housewives.

For the medical profession, this issue is even more serious.

Due to the nature of the education system, one must at least finish high school before entering a specialized medical school and undergo at least six years of study (in China, it's five years for undergraduate, seven years for master's, and eight years for a doctorate, with an additional three years of postgraduate training) before becoming an intern, or what Japanese hospitals call a Trainee Doctor.

A Trainee Doctor needs at least two to three years of internship to become an official doctor. If one has connections, background, or a professor's recommendation, this period can be reduced to about one or two years, after which one can start practicing medicine officially and, with some luck, even be recommended to pursue a Doctorate in Medicine while practicing.

Thus, it takes at least ten years to cultivate a doctor with a doctoral degree. A female doctor who has been trained for over a decade may simply resign due to reasons like love and marriage, and return home to be a full-time housewife, thereby wasting all the educational resources invested over the years.

What hospital or medical school would want to endure such a loss? Which professor would recommend female doctors for a Doctorate in Medicine? Hence, it's no surprise that female doctors are rare.

Jounouchi Hiromi was naturally not a Doctor of Medicine as she didn't receive a recommendation due to her gender, and initially, she was just an ordinary anesthesiologist. Moreover, her promotion was hindered by her switch from anesthesiologist to surgeon due to Daimon Michiko.

So much so that up until now, she was still only an assistant professor, which was an advancement she obtained thanks to Chen Yu pushing for her promotion to assistant professor.

For a female doctor, being promoted to assistant professor in her thirties is already quite an impressive pace.

After all, someone like Chen Yu, who at eighteen was accepted into a university in China, completed a seven-year integrated bachelor's and master's degree program, and then went on to pass the doctoral program at the University of Tokyo Medical Department, finished his PhD in three years, became the main surgeon in thoracic surgery within a year, and made associate professor before thirty, has a career advancement pace that is not just rare but almost impossible for ordinary people to achieve.

Normally, doctors Chen Yu's age would be doing well to have reached the level of assistant professor. The ones who performed exceptionally might be promoted to lecturer in their thirties and then strive for an associate professorship before hitting forty, depending on luck or abilities, before finally competing for a professorship at a University Hospital.

With some luck, one might become a professor at a University Hospital before fifty; others, less fortunate, might remain lecturers for life.

For a female doctor like Jounouchi Hiromi, the possibility of ending up as a lecturer for life is quite high, considering the difficulty for female doctors to take on professorships at Japanese University Hospitals—this is more challenging than entering politics to be elected a member of the National Diet.

At least there are a few female members of parliament, but female professors are exceedingly rare.

This was why Chen Yu wanted Jounouchi Hiromi to help him with his paper. Since Jounouchi Hiromi wrote the paper and was also involved in the patient's treatment, there was no issue with her being the first author on the paper.

Once the paper was published in top-tier medical journals like The Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, or Brain, it would significantly benefit Jounouchi Hiromi's credentials. With this, even if Chen Yu continued to promote her to lecturer, there would be sufficient reason to do so.

If she could put together a few more papers of similar caliber, even an associate professorship might be within reach.

However, faced with her boyfriend's kindness, Jounouchi Hiromi hesitated, "Mr. Chen Yu, is this really appropriate? You did all the research, and you have to personally treat the patients. Me, becoming the first author just for helping you write the paper, just doesn't seem right..."

Jounouchi Hiromi was not the type to use any means necessary to climb the ladder. If she had been, she wouldn't have been implicated because of Daimon Michi and forced to switch from anesthesiologist to surgeon.

Although Chen Yu was her boyfriend and she was contributing by writing the paper for him, she could accept being named as the second author or similar, but taking on the title of first author so overtly was still something hard for Jounouchi Hiromi to accept.

"The problem is you know my level when it comes to writing papers, Hiromi. If I had to write this paper myself, I would eventually have to bother someone else to help me edit it. Your journey continues at empire

If you help me write it, you would be the main author of the paper, and being named the first author is no problem," Chen Yu said, showing a helpless gesture to Jounouchi Hiromi: "Besides, a paper like this doesn't mean much to me anymore, but for you, Hiromi, having such a paper published in an international journal would be a great help."

Despite Chen Yu's persuasive arguments, Jounouchi Hiromi still shook her head. Even though it was a well-intentioned offer from her boyfriend, she still did not want to unfairly claim someone else's work, even if she was to write the paper herself at her boyfriend's request.

Chen Yu was left scratching his head by Jounouchi Hiromi's firmness, but he also didn't want to go against his girlfriend's wishes. After giving it considerable thought, Chen Yu said to Jounouchi Hiromi, "How about this then, Hiromi? You help me write the paper first, and you also take care of the patient's ancillary healing.

As for the paper's authorship, let's not do the first author thing, we can co-author, and I'll put my name before yours. That should be okay, right?"

Hearing Chen Yu say this, Jounouchi Hiromi still hesitated for a while before reluctantly nodding her head.