Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
“Blackened black ash turns gray, gray fertilizer ash turns gray when it evaporates, evaporated gray ash may turn black when it flies back…” Huo Congjun stared at the hepatic portal vein that Ling Ran sutured, suddenly recited a tongue twister, and said, “Next line.”
There were a total of seven doctors in the operating theater right then. They looked at each other and dared not continue. They quietly sutured the duodenum, repaired the bile duct, and aspirated the blood. Then, they started to clean the wounds on the four limbs… The liver belonged to Ling Ran and the others were not qualified to touch it.
Huo Congjun pursed his lips and said, “All of you can’t be like this. You did not even speak clearly. In the future, when you attend international meetings as their speaker, how are you going to debate with people on stage? Am I right…? Watch me, gray ash turns black, black fertilizer turns black when it evaporates, evaporated black ash may turn gray when it flies back.”
The doctors who had stayed up for the whole night were about to fall asleep as they listened to him.
A doctor that came from the General Surgery Department to help could not help but say, “Aren’t the recent international meetings conducted in English?”
The operation theater fell silent.
Zuo Liangcai could not help but look at this person and said, “Doctor Liu, do you think it is suitable for you to talk like this to our department director?”
“Exactly, Doctor Liu. If the senior doctors chats with you and you do not know what to say, you can’t just retort like that,” a resident doctor shouted and hoped that the department director could remember him.
Even the circulating nurse today, Nurse Niu, looked at Doctor Liu with scorn and said, “The young doctors nowadays do not know how to joke, huh?”
Doctor Liu from the General Surgery Department immediately became alert, and his mind was clear. He quickly said, “No… I felt like sleeping just now. My brain is filled with ammonia, it’s as if I’m drunk.”
“It’ll be embarrassing for a doctor to be drunk on the operating table,” Zuo Liangcai said. He made his tone sound more serious and said, “But I do believe that your brain is filled with ammonia.”
A few of them started to chuckle.
“Are you awake now?” Huo Congjun smiled and looked at Doctor Liu from the General Surgery Department. He now looked more cheerful.
Doctor Liu said in a low voice, “My mind is awake now. I’m sorry about that, Department Director Huo. I was just spewing nonsense.”
“You weren’t spewing nonsense. It’s just that our understanding is different.” Huo Congjun raised his head, laughed, and said, “Don’t look down on the international academic languages. They moved from Latin to German, then to English. This is a process that happened over centuries, you know? But, in my opinion, since the doctors in our country had always focused on our country’s medical cases, there’s no harm in publishing research articles or speaking in an international meeting in our mother tongue.”
Doctor Liu looked at Huo Congjun with a dazed look. “You’re right.”
“Right? So, it’s important to be eloquent in our mother tongue.” Huo Congjun faced Doctor Liu and based his teeth. “There’s a small green donkey called Li Lulu in the house of the red carp…”
Doctor Liu did not quite understand.
“If you do not know the next line, you can just follow what Department Director said,” Zuo Cidian sighed and felt that this fellow was as dumb as a host who entered the KTV for her first time. He needed to teach him how to talk properly. This person was not professional at all, and most importantly, he was not cute.
Doctor Liu hesitated a little before he said, “There’s a small green donkey named Li Lulu in the house of the red carp…”
Huo Congjun snickered before he burst into laughter.
The atmosphere in the operating theater instantly became more relaxed.
Zuo Liangcai looked at Doctor Liu and teased him. “That’s right. You’re full of potential.”
Doctor Liu was wrought with anxiety and explained again, “I was really going to fall asleep just now. I can’t remember what I said.”
Then, Zuo Liangcai smiled. “Just because you’re tired, you decided to tug the tail of a lion?”
Doctor Liu was stunned and frowned. He said loudly, “We’re doctors, there are no one’s tails that we should be worried of tugging.”
Huo Congjun redirected his gaze gently 120 degrees to the left before he rolled his eyes five times and a half.
Zuo Liangcai was so terrified that his knees were weak.
“His tears dried up, but his fresh blood could not coagulate. He was covered in blood, and it was beautiful…” A familiar sound of Teng Ge’er’s Wounded Eagle was heard from Department Director Huo’s phone.
The young doctors from the Emergency Department already knew how to tap the rhythm according to the song when they heard the ringtone of their boss’s phone.
The resident doctor who was responsible for aspiration was someone to whom no one ever managed to remember his name because of his plain looks. He could not help but take a look at the patient’s abdominal cavity. The resident doctor was skeptical, ‘Blood, please don’t coagulate now.’
“Pick up the phone,” Huo Congjun said to the circulating nurse.
Nurse Niu took out his phone from his pocket and pressed the answer button.
“I’m performing surgery.” Huo Congjun started his conversation with that line.
“Department Director Huo, I’m Old Jia. Old Jia, from Liukai County Hospital.” The voice on the phone was very loud, and it could be heard clearly in the quiet operating theater.
Huo Congjun asked Ling Ran to continue with the surgery and gave a few hums to show that he knew who the speaker was. He laughed and said, “Department Director Jia, I remember that we met last time in Beijing. Why did you call me?”
“Well… I have a patient who has external injuries because of an accident. The patient is very young. He’s only around twenty-six years old this year. He was sent to the hospital at six o’clock in the morning, and he was confirmed to have a hepatic rupture. Our hospital has limited facilities. Even if the liver has been stuffed with gauze, it still has active bleeding. He has lost 338 ounces of blood by now.” Old Jia stopped talking for a while on the other side of the phone before he said, “We can’t handle this anymore, can you receive this patient?”
Huo Congjun had encountered many cases like this before, so no visible change of expression could be seen on his face, but everyone else in the operating theater showed this expression: O_O
A person with a normal body figure only had around 169 ounces of blood in his or her body.
In other words, the patient who was injured in the accident and mentioned in the phone had the blood in his body exchanged twice.
Huo Congjun hesitated for two seconds before he said, “We definitely won’t have enough supplies in our blood bank.”
“We’ll be in charge of coordination,” Old Jia gritted his teeth and said.
“Sure. I’ll take over this patient. Hurry and send the patient over.”
Old Jia immediately thanked him. He was already shouting before he even hung up the phone, “Call the ambulance and have them change direction! Send the patient to Yun Hua Emergency Medical Center…”
Huo Congjun raised his chin and gestured at Nurse Niu to hang up the phone.
Zuo Liangcai saw Nurse Niu put the phone back to Department Director Huo’s pocket. He said, “Those lower-ranked hospitals are just plain reckless. This is what I call disregarding human lives. Shouldn’t they have sent the patient over earlier? They only sent the patient over when they can’t handle it on their own anymore.”
Huo Congjun shook his head and did not plan to make any comments about the statement. He liked to rebuke others in their voice, not gossip about them behind their backs.
“Ling Ran, follow me later to pick up the patient.” Huo Congjun took a deep breath, lowered his head, and said, “Let’s try to end this within thirty minutes. Have someone ask the General Surgery Department to send another attending physician over. Just say that we can’t handle this alone.”
If the surgery did not end after thirty minutes, the attending physician from the General Surgery Department would need to become the chief surgeon.
Ling Ran would not let such things happen. While Huo Congjun was talking, Ling Ran focused and started to work on the liver.
From other people’s perspectives, Ling Ran shone as brightly as the light. Not only did his outstanding talent outshine the young doctors, his talents even allowed him to be on equal footing with Huo Congjun’s imposing presence.
“Needle holder.” Ling Ran extended his hand for the device, lowered his head, and continued to work.
Once Huo Congjun was done distributing the tasks, he snapped back to attention and placed his focus back on the current surgery, only to discover very abruptly that he could no longer participate in the surgery.
Ling Ran’s skillful movements even made Huo Congjun dazed for a moment.
From Huo Congjun’s experience of observing demonstration surgeries over the years, Ling Ran’s sutures were not just accurate, most importantly, it was clear that he also performed his sutures while taking into consideration that the liver was one whole complete entity on its own. In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to say that he considered the entire abdominal cavity as a whole complete entity on its own. This was the mindset the Emergency Department employed all the time, and it made Huo Congjun believe that Ling Ran was a very talented person even more!
“Department Director Huo, I finished suturing the duodenum.” Ling Ran was not the only one who was focusing and working hard in the operating theater. Zuo Liangcai also used 200% of his strength and finished his tasks faster than Ling Ran. Although the difficulty of their tasks was different, Zuo Liangcai still completed his task ahead of Ling Ran.
Huo Congjun tilted his head and cast a glance at the duodenum before he nodded and said, “Well done.”
Then, Huo Congjun decided to return to his original plan and help Ling Ran in trimming the sutures and expose the surgical field for Ling Ran. He made things easier for Ling Ran during the operation by lifting the liver, supporting the blood vessels, and doing everything. Nothing was impossible for him.
Ling Ran felt extremely comfortable. He could not help but think, ‘Indeed, having a first assistant who is at the level of a department director is more useful than someone like Lu Wenbin.’
“Thank you, Department Director Huo,” Ling Ran said something that was socially-expected and nodded at Huo Congjun.
Huo Congjun smiled faintly. “It should be me who thanks you on behalf of the patient. By suturing his liver this way, his liver has been protected. After a few years, he can probably drink a little.”
Ling Ran used his hand to poke the small and pink liver. He said in agreement, “He’ll need to let it rest for around three years.”
“Yes, it’s around that time.” Huo Congjun put on a smile, it made him look like a middle-aged man beside a barbecue stall.
