Xiang Xueming and two other medical interns stared at the money plants and spider ivy around them as they stood outside the small office. They felt curious, excited, and a little anxious at the same time.
Among them, Xiang Xueming’s thought process was probably the most complicated.
Ling Ran, who was also a medical intern just like him, had become the person in charge of a treatment group in the Emergency Center of Yun Hua Hospital. Even though it was something that had already happened, whenever he thought about it, he still found it unbelievable.
Of course, Xiang Xueming knew a lot of other unbelievable things about Ling Ran. However, that did not make him feel any less astonished right then.
In the past, when Ling Ran was still studying in Yun Hua University, he was also placed on a pedestal. Even before he started the semester, his photograph had already been circulated around the university, and he was known as an extremely handsome junior. The very first day he entered the university, he became a person of influence in Yun Hua City’s Student Union. After that, even every lecturer safeguarded Ling Ran at all cost…
“Xiang Xueming, do you know Ling Ran well?” Another boy from the same group, Zheng Jun had a more energetic personality, and he was extremely anxious every time he was rotated to a new department.
Xiang Xueming flashed a wan smile. “I know him, but he doesn’t know me.”
“How is that possible? Both of you specialized in clinical medicine. Haven’t you talked to Doctor Ling before?” The only girl in the group, Guan Fei, looked forward to meeting Ling Ran very much, so much so that her heart was about to leap out of her chest.
“Why would I have the chance to talk to Ling Ran… I mean, Doctor Ling?” Xiang Xueming deliberately changed his form of address. He was worried that he would call Ling Ran by the wrong title later and offend Ling Ran for no reason.
He had actually talked to Ling Ran before. He even greeted Ling Ran a few times, and Ling Ran had smiled at him twice in return, but that was all.
Even until now, Xiang Xueming still remembered Ling Ran’s warm and gentle smile. Plus, Ling Ran gave off a pretty good vibe too. But Kong Xueming had never dreamed about being friends with a student like Ling Ran.
When he was a child, he grew up in the mountains, and he started working for his family ever since he was around six or seven years old. He only detached himself from the farmland entirely when he was fifteen and went to study in the county’s top high school. He then took the college entrance examination and sat on a rock-hard seat of the “green train” to study in Yun Hua. During the first year, he paid for his fees and expenses using money borrowed from other people, and only applied for a student loan after that…
“Such a waste.” Guan Fei pursed her lips. It was as if the Dior lipstick on her lips was sparkling.
Xiang Xueming smiled.
“But it’s still better for you because at least, you get to see Doctor Ling often, unlike me. If it weren’t for the fact that I’m doing my internship in Yun Hua, I wouldn’t even have known that such a cool guy existed.” Guan Fei smiled and looked at the door in anticipation.
Xiang Xueming chuckled again. Even though he did not see Ling Ran much, he encountered girls like Guan Fei all the time.
A little indignant, Zheng Jun said, “Is Doctor Ling considered cool just because he doesn’t talk?”
“You can try to keep quiet too.” Guan Fei brushed her palm pass her cheek and pushed her cheek up to make herself smile.
Zheng Jun lowered his head. He was baffled. ‘Even a girl who scores six out of ten in terms of appearance knows how to act cute? Does she practice in front of the mirror every day or what?’
Guan Fei shifted her attention back to Xiang Xueming again and said, “Hey, be a little more upbeat. Remember to introduce us to Doctor Ling when he comes in later.”
“Okay.” Xiang Xueming nodded. He did not really care. His only aim was to obtain a good score in the recommendation form for graduates and be in an advantageous position when it came to job-hunting.
If he was able to participate in some surgeries, he would be able to find a job with even more ease.
Different hospitals had different standards when it came to recruiting new doctors, but most of them liked graduates with good internship results, and graduates who had participated in many surgeries as well as treated many cases. Those did not mean much on their own, but they showcased a medical intern’s attitude. If someone could not even manage the stress of being a medical intern properly, he would probably face plenty of problems during the years of being a houseman and resident doctor.
Xiang Xueming glanced at Guan Fei before he lowered his head to look at the pair of New Balance sports shoes she was wearing. ‘For a girl like her, even if she can’t help her family out, she probably isn’t in a rush to start working, unlike me. If I’m unable to stay in Yun Hua…’
Xiang Xueming shook his head. He did not need to think about what would happen if he did not get to stay in Yun Hua, because he did not have a choice. He never had a lot of choices in life anyway.
*Bang.*
Ling Ran stepped open the automatic door with a plastic bag full of grapefruit in his hand.
“Doctor Ling.”
“Doctor Ling!”
“Doctor… Ling.”
The three medical interns greeted Ling Ran respectively, and there was a bit of discordance in their greetings.
“Hey, all of you have sutured grapefruit before, right?” Ling Ran merely nodded as a greeting. Medical interns existed to reduce the burden of the treatment group, and not to burden the treatment group even further.
Zheng Jun, Guan Fei, and Xiang Xueming were all a little baffled.
“Take one grapefruit each and suture it. The one who does the best job can follow me into the operating theater as my assistant after this.” Ling Ran went straight to the point and did not even ask any questions.
He did not know about such formalities. He was not good at them, and he did not care as well.
As a result, when he faced the medical interns Department Director Huo assigned to him, the only thing Ling Ran could do was immediately assign them a task.
Meanwhile, the three medical interns were rather dumbfounded.
They had been interning for almost a year, and it was the first time they had encountered such a situation.
“Can I suture it however I want to?” Xiang Xueming was the first one to come back to his senses. He heard the phrase “follow me into the operating theater as my assistant” very clearly.
Regardless of what Ling Ran’s actual position in Yun Hua Hospital was, Xiang Xueming knew that the group leaders of treatment groups had a lot of authority when it came to operations. There would never be a lack of ordinary patients in a tertiary Grade A hospital like Yun Hua Hospital. The only thing medical interns needed was for those doctors to give them the chance to participate in surgeries.
Xiang Xueming immediately lowered his head and started to choose a grapefruit.
Grapefruit that were supple with smooth skin were suitable for suturing. The reason was the skin of dried-out grapefruit would become crumbly and possibly fall apart the moment you pull the surgical thread with force. However, it was also hard to suture grapefruit with skin that was too thick, especially if you want to suture it beautifully because that meant they had to control the thickness of the thread. If the skin was thick, you would need to exert a lot of force to pull the thread, and that might cause the surgical thread to cut through the grapefruit’s skin.
Xiang Xueming chose the grapefruit with the most elasticity and smooth skin because it would be the easiest to suture. It was also of moderate size, so his workload would not be too high.
Even though Zheng Jun and Guan Fei were one step behind Xiang Xueming, both of them were not picky. Each of them chose a grapefruit that was somehow suitable for suturing from the remaining selection.
Xiang Xueming had no time to care about what the other two were doing. He retrieved a surgical thread and started to work hard.
Even though he did not know Ling Ran well, he knew one thing; while Ling Ran did not like to talk, he was a reliable person. Since he had promised to give one of them the chance to participate in an operation, he would definitely not go back on his word.
Ling Ran did not have the intention of explaining things either. He went back to his office table and began to write his research paper.
His paper was basically done. It was just a little too long, and he needed to edit it to make it shorter.
Zheng Jun and Guan Fei returned to their senses too. They quickly found somewhere to sit down and started to suture their grapefruit.
For a time, the tapping of the keyboard and needles poking through grapefruit skin were the only sounds heard in the office.
After a while, Guan Fei quietly raised her head.
Ling Ran was sitting under the sunlight. His back was straight, and his gaze was fixed on the computer screen in front of him. The golden sunlight shone on him, and it was as if a cluster of brightly-colored flowers had bloomed on his body.
Guan Fei inhaled blissfully, as though she was inhaling the sunlight into her belly.
“I’m done.” Xiang Xueming leaped up as if he was afraid that someone might beat him to it.
“All right,” Ling Ran replied and continued to work.
Xiang Xueming sat back down and felt a little uneasy.
A few minutes later, Zheng Jun finally finished suturing his grapefruit. He raised his hand meekly to report to Ling Ran that he was done.
Ling Ran nodded and hummed in acknowledgment. It did not look like he had any intention of coming over and inspecting the grapefruit.
Now that the other two were done, Guan Fei had no choice but to speed up.
Compared with Xiang Xueming and Zheng Jun, it was obvious that Guan Fei had not spent much time honing her suturing skills. She was inclined toward internal medicine, and she never cared much about her surgical skills to begin with. Aside from that, it was also because she would rather spend her time on other things.
“Doctor Ling, I’m done!” The time Guan Fei spent on suturing her grapefruit was as long as the time spent by the other two combined. However, when she was done, she was even more excited than the other two combined.
“Coming.” Ling Ran wrote the conclusion to his research paper before he went over to inspect the three grapefruit.
From an aesthetic point of view, Xiang Xueming’s grapefruit was obviously the ugliest. This was because he added a few more stitches while he was waiting for the others. Comparatively, Zheng Jun’s grapefruit was the lowest in terms of the degree of completion. Even though he took a shorter time than Guan Fei, his work was a lot cruder.
“Xiang Xueming did the best job. Go ahead and change into scrubs, then wash your hands. Have you entered the operating theater before?” Ling Ran quickly made his decision.
Xiang Xueming nodded nonstop and said, “I’ve carried out epidermal sutures twice.”
“All right.” Ling Ran then turned and said to Zheng Jun, “Peel the skins of all the grapefruit and send them over to the nurses’ station. After that, you and Guan Fei can go to Yu Yuan so that she can tell you guys about the standard precautions.”
After Ling Ran said that, he went straight to the operating theater with Xiang Xueming.
Meanwhile, Guan Fei leaped in joy. When she saw how baffled Zheng Jun was, she giggled. “Doctor Ling remembered my name.”
Zheng Jun was so exasperated that he felt like laughing. “I remember your name too.”
“Please forget it.” Guan Fei flipped her hair. She then turned to have her back facing Zheng Jun and started using her phone.
