The Doctor Who Never Sleeps

The Doctor Who Never Sleeps is an urban medical novel by the web author Zhenxiong Chumo, serialized on Qidian. It began on June 19, 2020, and by March 2021 had reached completed status on the platform, totaling roughly 2.62 million characters across 1,278 chapters. The synopsis is brief: "Geniuses have their own troubles. Wu Mian, a suspected hyperthymestic, reluctantly returns to his hometown to become head of the medical affairs department. The story begins in the summer of his return." The protagonist, Wu Mian, is a highly skilled young doctor who, troubled by suspected hyperthymesia, leaves the big city to take a post at a grassroots hospital in his hometown. The story opens with him taking over the medical affairs department at Bajingzi Township Hospital, facing a rural medical environment with rudimentary equipment, short staffing, and outdated attitudes. Drawing on solid medical knowledge and sharp judgment, he begins with a case that has been treated as "exorcism," identifies the true cause, and proposes a workable plan, setting off a series of clashes with the old-school, pragmatic Section Chief Duan, the half-mystic doctor Wei Dabao, and others. The novel centers on the medical workplace, interweaving doctor-patient disputes, grassroots hospital management, industry rules, and tests of human nature. It follows the "max-level doctor returns to the starter village" formula: the protagonist is technically superb and decisive, yet must contend with constraints of resources, institutions, and human relations. The author is himself a clinician, and many cases in the book draw on real clinical experience; the professional details are solid, the pacing brisk, with a touch of humor and everyday texture.