He headed straight to the changing room, changing into scrubs at record speed.
The surgical lamp was blinding but Zheng Ren found it reassuring. Its familiar light was more welcoming than the bastard he had faced minutes ago.
Su Yun stood by his side in the assistant's position. The lower right quadrant of the abdomen was covered in a piece of white, sterile covering.
Xie Yiren had her hands on the surgical tray. Only one of the Chu sisters was present but he was not sure if it was Chu Yanran or Chu Yanzhi.
The three were casually talking about Miss Yun's surgery in the operating room.
When Su Yun saw him, he greeted Zheng Ren with a mocking remark, "Hey! What took you so long to get consent? Did you swallow your bedside manners?" The man was in a much better mood than yesterday night.
"..."
"No wonder you eat so little."
Zheng Ren shook his head and proceeded to wash his hands.
"You don't have to operate," Su Yun said.
"Huh?"
"Take a look. If there's no issue, I'll perform the removal." Su Yun removed the covering to reveal the surgical site.
The abdomen had been cut open cleanly. The ligament and appendicular artery were visible under the surgical light.
Su Yun had done the initial work and waited for Zheng Ren to arrive.
The guy was capable.
Zheng Ren studied the site. "Go ahead, then. I won't scrub in," he replied.
He stood aside and observed Su Yun like a mentor.
Zheng Ren assessed Su Yun's methodology. He was using an advanced technique and his ability was only slightly below Zheng Ren's.
This assessment was reaffirmed by the clean laparotomy Su Yun performed prior.
A swollen appendix was tossed into the surgical tray and Su Yun began closing up the abdomen. The surgery proceeded swiftly with cooperation between Su Yun and Xie Yiren.
"Good," Zheng Ren commented.
"Not as good as you, but close. As a perfectionist, I have to admit that," Su Yun said as he stitched up the subcutaneous tissue.
Zheng Ren ignored the competitiveness in Su Yun's words. The surgery had gone well without interference and that was a win.
"When will Miss Yun's scan be ready?" Xie Yiren handed over the sterile dressing, then started to pack away the instruments.
"I'll follow up with them later." Su Yun applied the dressing expertly and announced the surgery to be complete.
They lifted the patient onto a trolley stretcher and prepared to return her. Su Yun put on his white coat and left alongside Zheng Ren.
Beyond the operating room, the patient's son was seated with his knees up on the red plastic chair. The man was so engrossed in his phone that he did not notice the door open.
He was totally cut off from the world.
Zheng Ren spoke up in an icy tone, "Come look at your mother."
His words fell on deaf ears as the patient's son continued to play with his phone.
"Hey!" Zheng Ren raised his voice.
The corridor outside the operating room was empty and his voice bounced off the walls, echoing off into the distance.
"Xiao Heng…" The patient's head lolled to one side in search of her precious son. Her body was positioned awkwardly as it was still under the effects of continuous epidural anesthesia.
"Don't move too much. You might tear the stitches," Zheng Ren warned.
Behind him, Su Yun spoke up: "Chief Zheng, you go ahead and send the patient back. I'm gonna go change."
Without waiting for Zheng Ren's reply, he turned his back to the deplorable scene and went back into the operating room.
'What a nimble escape,' Zheng Ren thought. A few seconds too slow and now he was stuck alone with the abhorrent young man.
There was nothing that could be done. Zheng Ren called the young man a few more times, volume rising a notch with each call. Suddenly, the young man looked up and shouted back, "Why are you yelling? Where are your manners?"
Zheng Ren was speechless at the young man's outburst.
Manners? Did he even know what manners were?
Zheng Ren did not take kindly to being lectured by a bastard like him.
Nevertheless, he kept his mouth shut. Even with Su Yun's cutthroat remarks, Zheng Ren was never this outspoken.
The young man looked at his phone and an angry expression flashed across his face. Perhaps in his few seconds of inattention, his character had been killed?
He was furious. He gritted his teeth as he contained his anger at the great injustice.
"Come help me push the stretcher," Zheng Ren implored tiredly.
The young man shot him a hateful glare but switched the phone off. With one hand at the foot of the stretcher, he tugged it along as Zheng Ren pushed.
Chapter 114 - A Fond Mother Spoils The Child
It took twelve minutes to travel from the operating room on the third floor to the emergency department ward on the second floor.
The patient was lifted onto the hospital bed. Zheng Ren breathed a sigh of relief.
The sky was already dark. Two to three hours for an appendectomy that he did not perform. It dissatisfied him somewhat.
Chang Yue was typing up the first-time admission record, the ward round record, the post-surgery record and other paperwork.
"Be wary of the patient's family," Zheng Ren warned Chang Yue.
Whether she heeded his warning would be another matter.
After the surgery, Su Yun headed for the CT room to follow up on the 64-slice CT scan.
Before the end of their shift, Old Chief Physician Pan took Zheng Ren, Chang Yue and Yang Lei for a ward round.
In most of the rooms, the patient's family welcomed them with smiles and laughter, complimenting the surgical skill that speeded up their patients' recovery. When they got to the room of the patient with acute appendicitis, they were greeted with a sight of her a.d.u.l.t son taking up half the hospital bed. The patient was still recovering from anesthesia.
Old Chief Physician Pan's face was grim. "Get up, you."
He was a man who had been through war and witnessed countless deaths. The murderous aura currently radiating from the old man surprised Zheng Ren.
The patient's son was startled from his nap and was about to throw a tantrum when he saw Old Chief Physician Pan's expression.
Instead, he said nothing and curled up against his mother's side like a baby quail.
"Doctor, the child is just tired. He didn't get enough sleep last night," the middle-aged woman said as she fought her pain. She shifted her body and tried miserably to shield the young man.
Each movement brought a stab of pain to her incision site.
Old Chief Physician Pan coughed lightly. It was not his place to criticize the patient's parenting, so he began routine questioning.
Chang Yue stood behind him and wrote up the conversation.
"No major movement for a day. You can start eating after passing gas," Old Chief Physician Pan advised in the end. He turned to leave the room.
He was clearly in a bad mood, apparent from the look on his face.
That was the patient's son, not his. So, just like Zheng Ren before, Old Chief Physician Pan could only ball up his anger and keep it within himself.
The other patients in the room were stable. Old Chief Physician Pan had confidence in Zheng Ren's and Chang Yue's work ethics, so he only sat in briefly before leaving for the office.
An hour later, Su Yun returned with the 64-slice CT scan.
Zheng Yue placed the scan on the film viewer and used his phone to capture the image.
He studied the scan in detail and made sure his phone camera had captured it clearly. Then, he sent the photos to Chang Yue for her negotiations with Manager Feng from China Changfeng Microinvasive Surgery.
Chang Yue was not in the office. She was probably speaking with one of the patients.
Zheng Ren went to look for her to discuss Miss Yun's surgery.
…
…
It was another quiet night. As the weather got colder, fewer roadside stalls were open. There was less drunken fighting and even if there were, thicker clothing led to fewer injuries.
The drop in cases of emergency surgeries was a blessing to Zheng Ren's sleep schedule.
It was morning when Zheng Ren was woken by shouts from a patient's room.
A shiver crawled up his spine and he quickly rushed out.
Following the sounds, Zheng Ren managed to locate the source.
Before he could enter the room, the young man from before barged out furiously, nearly colliding into him.
Zheng Ren frowned. 'What's this young man up to again?'
He moved aside and allowed the man to stomp past before entering the patient's room.
The middle-aged woman who was recovering from her appendectomy had her head under the covers. From its shuddering, Zheng Ren gathered that she was crying.
The patients who shared the room, as well as their families, had looks of disapproval.
Zheng Ren asked, "What happened?"
Two of the patients who had more or less recovered remained silent. They had snuck off last night and therefore did not know the full story.
However, they were also shocked at the turn of the events.
One of the other patient's family members spoke up: "Her son wanted her to prepare a meal for him. I told him his mother was still recovering from her surgery and he should just order delivery. He got mad and slapped her."
"..."
Barbaric.
Zheng Ren sighed. He felt helpless. Some words of consolation would be nice, but it would be difficult to do so without being judgemental. After all, it was her parenting that led to this.
After a few seconds of contemplation, Zheng Ren decided to leave this conundrum to his junior, Chang Yue. Perhaps the fearless resident doctor could find a solution to this.
Zheng Ren went to the office and ran into her just clocking in. He gave her a summary of the patients' status and asked about the discussion with Manager Feng.
Manager Feng had been very cooperative. He had passed on the CT scan images to the professor in Sorcery Capital and they would have a verdict on the case after the professor's morning rounds.
Zheng Ren was eager to work with the professor. He wondered how being the Master rank in interventional surgery would compare against the world's best.
He had an inkling that the difference could be translated into the skill point difference between a Master and Grandmaster.
Nevertheless, he wanted to witness it with his own eyes.
As he was finishing up his paperwork, Chang Yue came into the office with an odd look on her face.
This was the first time Zheng Ren had seen this expression on her. He asked out of curiosity, "What's wrong?"
"A doting mother spoils the child."
That was pretty telling.
"She tried calling her son but all her calls were rejected. Then, he blocked her number."
There was nothing they could do about the situation, so he changed the topic to the Sorcery Capital professor.
Maybe Chang Yue could compose the patient, if she had the patience.
What could anyone say about an a.d.u.l.t in his twenties acting like a wild animal?
Zheng Ren failed to hold back a sigh. He sat back down and started reading.
Chang Yue took a moment to manage her emotions. Then, with her spirits recovered, she trudged out into the hospital ward to get acquainted with patients and their families.
During lunch break, the wards were less hectic.
Some of the patients who lived near the hospital had covertly returned home after morning checks were complete.
Although insurance companies did not allow patients to leave the hospital, doctors could not force them to stay, either.
If they did so, it would be considered unlawful detention and could become a huge problem if a hard-headed family sued them for it.
In the hospital, they had the triple, double and single suites. Single rooms were limited, while triple rooms were usually cramped with three patients and their families making the air stuffy and uncomfortable. Therefore, doctors usually turned a blind eye to patients leaving their rooms as long as they signed liability disclaimers beforehand.
The rooms were thus filled with the three patients who had their surgeries only a day ago and could not walk yet.
These patients had undergone laparotomies. Patients who underwent laparoscopic splenectomy could usually go home in twenty-four hours post-surgery.
The muted hospital ward was preferable to Zheng Ren. He liked it more than the chaos of the first general surgery department.
After noon, Zheng Ren's phone beeped. It was a WeChat message from Manager Feng of China Changfeng Microinvasive Surgery.
Chapter 115 - One Tree Does Not Make A Forest
"Good day, Chief Zheng. This is Feng Xuhui speaking," the voice buzzed from the phone.
Zheng Ren could hear his youth cracking through.
"What did Professor Pei say?"
"He is up for it. I have already booked the flight for tomorrow. He should reach Sea City at 1.30 pm," Manager Feng said cheerfully.
"Good. Thank you for your help." Zheng Ren was relieved.
All was going well. Zheng Ren had worried the Sorcery Capital professor's schedule was full. A delay of one or two weeks could see changes in Miss Yun's liver tumor.
Hepatocellular carcinoma was one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths.
Zheng Ren shared the good news in the WeChat group.
Once that was done, he took his book and went to the on-call room to rest.
He was up too early and his body bem.o.a.n.e.d the injustice. The lack of surgeries had made his body lethargic, so he decided to rest in case of emergencies coming in at night.
Zheng Ren found Su Yun sound asleep in the on-call room.
He laid down and entered the System.
It was time to check on his skills and missions.
As the morning surgery had been done by Su Yun, Zheng Ren doubted the System would mark it as one of his own. When he scrolled through the details, he saw a new mission had appeared without any announcement.
[Continuous Side Mission: One Tree Does Not A Forest Make
Surgeries are not meant for a single surgeon. Even the best surgeons need to rest. Therefore, it is time to develop an assistant surgeon.
Mission Details: Assistant completes ten surgeries.
Mission Reward: Master ranked 3D Reconstruction of CT Scans skill book.
Mission Duration: One week.]
The mission completion bar had one point in it from this morning's appendectomy.
One tree does not a forest make…if only Zheng Ren could pick another assistant. Although Su Yun was well-equipped to accomplish such a mission easily, Zheng Ren was still not fond of him.
He was somewhat curious about the mission reward, though. This was the first time the System had offered a book for a specific skill branch. Zheng Ren had not thought of a use for 3D CT scan reconstruction, but an additional skill was never a bad thing.
It was peaceful inside the System. The lake was crystal clear and the traces of blood on the lifelike fox statue had disappeared. Its eyes gleamed as if it was alive and Zheng Ren could feel its gaze.
Without distortion and stench of blood in the air, Zheng Ren felt at peace in the System.
He browsed through the System Shop. A look at his remaining experience points made him close the Shop menu.
It had been a few days without any missions, so this continuous side mission was better than nothing, although he was still more interested in getting his general surgery skills to Master rank.
With a slight taste of disappointment, Zheng Ren left the System.
He took an hour-long nap before being woken by a phone call. There was a case of acute appendicitis that needed his consultation.
Zheng Ren quickly rolled of
f the bed and put on his shoes. Su Yun was already awake, his eyes bright and aware.
'He really does look like a protagonist,' Zheng Ren thought.
The two went to the emergency department. After the consultation, they decided surgery was necessary. The patient was brought to Chang Yue and Yang Lei for registration and preoperative preparations.
With the ongoing side mission on hand, Zheng Ren decided to step aside and go in as the assistant, yielding the patient to Su Yun.
Su Yun took the opportunity given. Be it a laparotomy or laparoscopy, he displayed remarkable surgical skill and a profound knowledge of anatomy.
He was definitely more than a pretty face.
There were more patients today. They had two more cases of acute appendicitis and another of acute cholecystitis from noon to night.
For the laparoscopic cholecystectomy, Su Yun let Zheng Ren take the lead. He was required to observe the surgery once before he could replicate it.
Zheng Ren did not care who the lead surgeon was, as long as they were an adequate assistant. Su Yun handled all three acute appendicitis cases, one of which required a laparoscopic procedure. The side mission completion bar was now at six points. A few more appendectomies and he would accomplish the mission.
This was a great day, with emergency patients all throughout it. The last surgery ended at midnight and the emergency department was calm again.
Xie Yiren went home, adamant to not stay in the hospital. Zheng Ren worried for her safety but could never persuade her to stay, so he gave up trying.
The Chu sisters had arranged their work schedule to take turns with the night shift. As Zheng Ren could not tell them apart, he could only guess whose turn it was today.
After a silent night, the group were well-rested as they prepared to receive the fly-in surgeon from Sorcery Capital, Professor Pei.
Zheng Ren was on call in the emergency department, so he left it to Chang Yue to liaise with Feng Xuhui.
She kept them updated on the journey. Manager Feng was already at the airport an hour early. There were no delays to the flight and things were moving as planned.
At 1:45 pm, Manager Feng picked up Professor Pei and headed to the hospital.
The Surgeon's Studio c1-799 Page 62