Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Both Professor Huang and Ling Ran said nothing on their way.
Older people did not care about stuff like Cybertron [1] and Nebula M78 [2] at all. They would just sense the great evil that was the generation gap when they heard about such things.
If it were not for the fact that Ling Ran was the best hepatobiliary surgeon he knew, Professor Huang would have changed his mind right then.
Unfortunately, it was very hard for a person to fake his skills.
This was especially true when it came to surgical skills. Truth be told, after watching Ling Ran operate, Professor Huang did not even trust the two hepatobiliary surgeons he knew before this anymore, even if they were already chief surgeons.
To a certain extent, Professor Huang got to witness Ling Ran’s exponential growth for himself.
He had watched Ling Ran perform emergency hepatectomy, operate on patients with choledocholithiasis. He had also watched Ling Ran treat patients with gallbladder empyema and multiple pyogenic liver abscesses. He saw with his own eyes that with every passing day, the recovery time of patients Ling Ran operated on who suffered from the same illnesses were becoming shorter and shorter. Every single patient spent less time in the ICU and was discharged sooner compared to the preceding patient.
Most importantly, all of them survived.
Professor Huang was not the most moral doctor around. He sometimes accepted gifts from patients, often received bribes from pharmaceutical sales representatives, carry out freelance surgeries for extra income without his hospital’s permission every now and then, buttered up to his leaders, said things that went against value, cursed his patients internally, and told dirty jokes without bothering to hide it. However, even when he was going against his conscience, Professor Huang only had one comment when it came to Ling Ran.
‘He’s way too excellent.’
‘He’s way too f*cking excellent.’ On second thought, Professor Huang added a dirty word in his comment as emphasis.
Even though Professor Huang had been a doctor for years, he could not help but marvel at Ling Ran’s surgical skills. This astonishment of his only increased with every surgery of Ling Ran’s he watched.
However, Professor Huang did not really know how to get along with such an excellent doctor.
‘Do all young people nowadays act like this?’
But no matter what, Professor Huang felt like he needed a break. He believed that he needed some rest before he could get used to the way young people nowadays acted.
The generation gap was something that only time could heal.
The Toyota Coaster drove across the flyover and the beltway before entering the highway. It then went on for about two or three hundred miles…
At first, Professor Huang did not feel like saying anything. After a while, he felt like talking but did not know how to initiate a conversation. In the end, he merely watched Ling Ran who was fast asleep.
Six in the evening.
The Toyota Coaster entered a sanatorium.
“You were really deep in sleep.” Professor Huang handed a scarf to Ling Ran and sighed. “It’s a little colder in the countryside. Be careful not to catch a cold.”
“Oh, we’re here?” Ling Ran switched on the dome light and inspected the scarf before he wore it.
Surprisingly, Professor Huang did not find that habit of his abnormal, and he patiently waited for Ling Ran as he inspected the scarf.
Two staff members who were clad in suits stood outside the door to welcome them. They watched quietly as Ling Ran inspected the scarf, put on the scarf, inspected his surroundings, and slowly set foot in the courtyard.
“I’m sorry for not telling you beforehand that the sanatorium is located so far away. They didn’t allow me to do so.” Professor Huang explained.
Ling Ran nodded in a very amicable manner. “It’s okay, I’m not pressed for time. There’re not many hospital beds left in the Emergency Medical Center, anyway.”
Ever since the Emergency Department was expanded into an Emergency Medical Center, Ling Ran became very frugal when it came to the use of hospital beds.
Not only did he perform fewer finger replantation surgeries, but he had also taken on a larger number of freelance Achilles tendon repair surgeries.
Most patients who needed Zhu-Ling Achilles Repair Surgery were professional athletes, semi-professional athletes, and sports lovers who were located all over the country. They could afford to and were willing to pay for Ling Ran to carry out freelance surgery on them. Hence, most patients who received Achilles tendon repair surgery in Yun Hua Hospital were foreigners, and on average, there would be one or two cases per week.
Even so, because Ling Ran had been carrying out more and more hepatectomies, the number of empty hospital beds in Yun Hua Emergency Medical Center had been decreasing rapidly.
Every time this happened, Ling Ran would take on more freelance surgeries.
However, the place was indeed a little too far away from Yun Hua. So, he took a longer time to reach since he did not fly there.
“Professor Huang, Doctor Ling, Elder Mei is already waiting inside. It’ll take us around five minutes to go over. Please don’t take any photographs or stray from the main path,” one of the staff members said before he started walking forward.
The other staff member gestured to them to go forward. He waited until Ling Ran and Professor Wang started walking and trotted behind them.
Even though there were only four of them, they formed a very long line.
The staff members kept quite a distance from Ling Ran and Professor Huang, giving them enough space to talk.
“Elder Mei is a former leader of Changxi Province. He has suffered from liver problems for a long time and had always controlled it through the means of medication. He’s only considering surgery as medicine could no longer do the trick.” Professor Huang told Ling Ran about the patient in a hushed tone.
“What’s his illness? Is there a definite diagnosis?”
“Hepatolithiasis. It’s pretty serious,” Professor Huang said.
“I see. Hepatolithiasis…” Ling Ran nodded. He did not particularly look forward to it.
He had performed at least ten similar surgeries lately. As he possessed Master Level Hepatectomy, after performing ten cases of hepatectomy on patients suffering from hepatolithiasis, he could be said to be pretty skilled in such a surgery.
Professor Huang smiled as he gazed as Ling Ran. After being a doctor for such a long time, he pretty much knew how Ling Ran felt like right now. However, if it were not for the fact that Professor Huang had witnessed Ling Ran carry out hepatectomy on ten patients who suffered from hepatolithiasis, and that those surgeries were a success, he would not have dared to introduce Ling Ran to Elder Mei.
“Elder Mei suffers from quite a lot of underlying diseases. His high blood pressure, as well as heart problems, caused stricture of the bile duct, leading to repeated inflammation and pain…” Professor Huang continued telling Ling Ran about the patient in a soft voice. He then continued, “Ling Ran, this surgery is extremely important. You must put your heart and soul into it.”
“Understood.”
“You must absolutely put all your heart and soul into it…” Professor Huang said through gritted teeth.
“Okay” Ling Ran no longer knew what to say to Professor Huang. Or more appropriately, he did not feel like talking much.
Professor Huang coughed a few times before he sighed and said, “Doctor Ling, you can’t be greeting Elder Mei with this attitude. You must go in with the proper behavior.”
Ling Ran hesitated for a moment before flashing a socially appropriate smile. “Should I do this?”
“I’m not telling you to smile.” Professor Huang shook his head and said, “You must show that… We must show that we are not taking Elder Mei’s illness lightly. You might not know this, but even though Elder Mei is retired, he is a person of influence in Changxi Province. Every time there’s a festival…”
Ling Ran listened as Professor Huang rambled on for about half a minute. He looked puzzled. “Since Elder Mei is such an important patient, why did they let you handle this case alone?”
Professor Huang immediately froze.
Professor Huang pointed at his own nose and said a little ruefully, “I, Huang Mingyu, am a professor at the University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The number of good diagnosticians in our country can be counted on the fingers of one hand, and I’m among them. I’m skilled in trauma care and a master when it comes to integrating traditional Chinese medicine with Western medicine. To put it bluntly, there are very few doctors who are good in both traditional Chinese Medicine and Western medicine in our country. All the ones who are more renowned than me are already in their twilight years, while other considerably skilled ones are much less experienced than me…”
Ling Ran glanced at Professor Huang in confusion and said, “I thought that it would be better to hold a consultation, as based on what you said, shouldn’t they seek out a number of renowned and skilled doctors at the same time?”
Professor Huang was stunned once again. He only answered after a long while, “What do you mean… We can’t just be holding consultations all the time.”
“Since there’s going to be a surgery, shouldn’t a consultation be carried out beforehand?”
“Oh, are you talking about the treatment plan for his hepatolithiasis? We have already come up with one quite a while ago. He definitely needs hepatectomy. He was a little doubtful about it, and only decided to go ahead with it recently.” Professor Huang chuckled dryly.
Ling Ran hummed in acknowledgment once again.
Professor Huang glanced at Ling Ran in envy. “Anyway, we’re about to meet Elder Mei soon. Aren’t you nervous at all?”
Ling Ran contemplated for a moment. “Shouldn’t Elder Mei be the one who’s nervous?”
