“Doctor Ye, let me help you get it.” Yu Yuan proactively scurried in front of Ye Sigong. After carefully looking at the items around him, she helped to take up a bone cleaver that was in a casing and put it on her shoulder.
Ye Sigong turned his head around to have a look, and he had a shock. He thought, ‘If I used a camera and took a photo without anything else in the picture to serve as a comparison, other people would think that you’re holding a zhanmadao and going to a battlefield.’
“There’s no need to, Doctor Yu,” Ye Sigong politely said to Yu Yuan. He just joined Ling Ran’s treatment group. Naturally, he would need to be careful and conscientious so as to not offend anyone.
Yu Yuan glanced at Si Yegong in displeasure and said, “Are you complaining that I carry too little?”
In truth, honestly speaking, and from the bottom of his heart and all his rationale, Ye Sigong did actually think that she was carrying too little.
Using a bone cleaver to chop a hare normally could not be said to be easy. But when that bone cleaver was placed on Yu Yuan’s shoulder, Ye Sigong was really afraid that if she were careless, the casing would fall apart, and it would chop off the only chief resident in the team on the spot.
“It’s not about carrying less or more. I’m just embarrassed to let you carry it. I can carry it myself. It’s not particularly heavy, and I’m used to it. Your hands are delicate and meant for holding pens, you shouldn’t be doing this work.” Ye Sigong wore an honest, innocent look. Although he was trained in a county hospital, he did not fall behind in learning the skill he needed to spew bullsh*t and kiss another person’s a**.
Yu Yuan grunted and said, “I was being considerate because you have to suffer a lot since you have to cook for an entire day and also perform surgeries.”
Ye Sigong quickly said, “I’m just doing my job.”
“Homecook dishes are pretty nice. Last time, when we go out as freelance surgeons, we would be busy going back and forth between places, and we would just deal with our meals in random restaurants. Now, many hospitals and doctors come to find Doctor Ling. Usually, we’ll need to be out for two days, and if no one cooks for us anytime soon, we’ll die from all the salt from Lu Wenbin’s dishes.” Yu Yuan was smiling.
“I’m happy as long as you enjoy it,” Ye Sigong humbly replied.
“We like it. I especially like that beef stir-fry.” Yu Yuan sighed in her mind. ‘We finally got to chat about the main topic.’
“If you like it, that’s great. Then I’ll make another beef stir-fry today.” Ye Sigong had somehow started to understand what was going on, but he was secretly rejoicing. As a newcomer in-service training doctor, not being able to mix into the Ling Treatment Group was Ye Sigong’s greatest worry. If that were the case, even if he had Zuo Cidian’s support, he reckoned that he would not be able to continue staying for a long time.
Things were pretty good like this. Although he had to spend a lot of time in the kitchen, it was fine, because all in-service training doctors had to do non-medical related stuff all the time.
“Your candied apple fritters are actually not bad too,” Yu Yuan added.
Ye Sigong nodded continuously. “These are all simple dishes, no problem.”
“By the way, there’s this one dish that I really like when I was young. It’s called braised aubergines, but many people can’t cook them well…”
“I’ll go and learn it from my teacher.” Ye Sigong obediently smiled. “My teacher works at Tai Fung Lau Peking Restaurant, and their skills are handed down throughout the generations in his family. It has been in my county for almost a hundred years.”
“That’s incredible. That’d be great.” Yu Yuan nodded in satisfaction and put down the zhanmadao from her shoulder before passing it over to Ye Sigong. She laughed and said, “Then, you have to learn it well. How did you know him?”
Ye Sigong laughed and said, “He had a stomach ulcer and underwent surgery at Yun Hua Hospital. Then he went to our county to change the dressing and receive an IV transfusion. That’s how we met. At that time, I was still a resident doctor.”
“Oh… that master chef had a stomach ulcer because he ate too much?”
“It’s mainly because he didn’t have a fixed schedule for his meals. It’d be too easy for him to overeat or drink…” Ye Sigong recalled and said. “It’s also mainly because a few customers ordered dishes that were not delicious, and some of them ordered dishes that were too delicious…”
“Being a master chef is not easy,” Yu Yuan emotionlessly offered a word of praise.
…..
Like a storm sweeping through everything in its wake, Ling Ran’s team went from Yun Hua Hospital to Liukai County Hospital. Then, they went to Yiyuan County Hospital and moved on to the First People’s Hospital of Wuxin City…
There were very few hospitals that could provide a full day’s worth of patients to the Ling Treatment Group.
There was a big difference between a treatment’s group efficiency in performing surgeries and its working capabilities versus a simple freelance surgeon.
Ling Ran was different from a normal freelance surgeon. He did not particularly care about money, partly because he was one of the high contenders for freelance surgery in the market, and the other reason was that he was one of the few who were willing to bring their treatment group along.
Normal freelance surgeons would only take surgeries for money. Practicing their surgeries could only be considered their second reason behind performing freelance surgeries. After all, being a doctor was so tiring that every rest day was like a blessing. If it were not for the huge sum of income, very few people would be willing to rush around performing surgeries. It would be better to roast some meat at home and smell its aroma.
It was precisely due to this that the freelance surgeons in county and city hospitals were mainly the chief physicians from high ranking hospitals. Associate chief physicians would need to stay in their hospitals to perform surgeries and attend to the patients that came for treatment so that he could let the chief physicians perform freelance surgery elsewhere without worries.
In terms of career progression, those chief physicians who had reached the peak really did not have much else that they wanted to do and could do besides earning money from performing freelance surgery.
Under such circumstances, those chief surgeons who pursue safety would complete their own surgery, at least most of it, and then leave a few menial tasks to the local hospital’s doctor. If those chief surgeons went after efficiency, they would finish only the main parts of the surgery and pass over the remaining work to the local hospital’s doctor to finish them up.
However, no matter what pattern it was, they could not compare with the treatment group which Ling Ran led.
The treatment group members that Ling Ran brought along with him—regardless of whether they were Lu Wenbin, Yu Yuan, or Zuo Cidian—had experience in being assistants for hundreds of surgeries. Lu Wenbin even possessed a certain degree of experience as a chief surgeon.
Ye Sigong, the other in-service training doctors, and housemen could still operate the retractor and chatted to display their battle power, even if they did not fulfill the requirement of being a first assistant.
Such a team could not only become Ling Ran’s assistants. When the number of surgeries was large, they could independently handle a certain number of surgical tasks. For example, when it came to Achilles tendon repairs, Ling Ran would complete the suturing of the Achilles Tendon, while most parts of the suturing of blood vessels would be given to his team, along with the other parts. Take another example. During hepatectomy, Ling Ran would complete the exposure and the process of removing the liver before leaving the rest to his team… The way they operated during the surgery alone was already no different from the way Ling Ran performed surgery in Yun Hua Hospital.
If the local hospital’s doctor wanted to join, they could also join the team to perform the surgery. In normal situations, this would increase the surgery speed instead of slowing things down.
By venturing out two to three times every month to perform freelance surgeries and clearing up all the surgeries in the area, Ling Ran’s efficiency made the hospitals in Changxi Province to be unable to accumulate a large number of cases.
As he kept on treating all the patients until he reached the First People’s Hospital of Wuxin City, Ling Ran’s team finally encountered a minor problem.
“We contacted an expert from Shanghai to perform the surgery.” The patient’s family suddenly changed the previous plan during the preoperative discussion, and it surprised Zuo Cidian, who was going through the formalities.
An orthopedist of the First People’s Hospital of Wuxin City’s orthopedist and Liu Cishan, an assistant lecturer of the Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, was also shocked when they rushed over.
The First People’s Hospital of Wuxin City could already be considered to be Ling Ran’s territory, and it had been his for a long time. The assistant lecturers like Liu Cishan could be said to have had their skills in hepatectomy developed under Ling Ran. The Orthopedics Department’s expansion into arthroscopic surgeries and Achilles tendon repairs could also be said to have been entirely Liu Cishan’s doing.
“Why did you guys… suddenly change your mind?” The orthopedist could not throw a fit. He could only speak to the patient’s family nicely.
“I’m the patient’s elder sister. I’m working in Shanghai, and I know a few people in the medical system. I was quite occupied with work, so after returning back, I feel that, if possible, I’d like to hire a doctor from Shanghai to perform the surgery. It should be a better option” The patient’s backbone was obviously this forty-year-old career woman.
The orthopedist was furious. “If you invited another hospital’s doctor to perform the surgery, don’t you need to inform us as well?”
“Am I not informing you now? After all, we’re still inviting doctors from other places to perform the surgery, but the one we invited is far better, so it’s only natural that we should use ours…” The career woman spoke forcefully and with great justification.
Liu Cishan held back the orthopedist who was fuming and looked up before he said, “About this, it’s normal for you to have your own ideas as family members, but you could have told us beforehand. Now, the freelance surgeon we originally hired is here.”
“I’m sorry. Since Shanghai doctors are busier, we weren’t sure if we could reach him. This time, we’re lucky…” The career woman paused and looked at the people in front of her. She pouted and said, “If they won’t accept it, I’ll give them a red envelope.”
She squared her shoulders, and her Chanel blazer was dazzling.
“That’s not considered a red envelope.” When the orthopedist said this, he looked at Zuo Cidian with a troubled expression. The other party was willing to pay double the amount. He was afraid that if he continued and enraged the patient’s family, things would escalate, and this would become a huge trouble.
Freelance surgeries were always very tricky.
Zuo Cidian felt like he should not continue talking. He laughed and said, “A patient choosing which doctor to operate on him is normal. You don’t have to pay any fees.”
“Remember what you said.” Someone in the family immediately hung onto his words. It was only natural that they were not willing to pay more.
Zuo Cidian acknowledged this and said, “If you don’t mind me asking, which hospital in Shanghai is the doctor operating on your younger brother from?”
“The Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Center.”
“Academician Zhu’s hospital?”
“Yes, I hired Academician Zhu’s apprentice.” The career woman squared her shoulders and smiled. “I had to do a lot of favors for others before I was able to hire him, so I’m terribly sorry about this.”
“It’s fine.” Zuo Cidian smiled, and he tugged the doctors from the First People’s Hospital of Wuxin City’s doctors before they left.
