Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After Lower Groove Clinic was renovated, not only did it retain its historical air, but it was also embellished with modern elements. The more a person looked at it, the more he would find it pleasant to the eyes.
The designers even trimmed the old trees in the courtyard and filled the gaps on the corridors with all kinds of plants.
The devil’s ivy were breathtakingly beautiful after they were watered.
The spider plants hanging high up enjoyed abundant growth.
Some of the neighbors who were passing by the clinic had stayed in Lower Groove for a few decades. All of them were full of praises for the clinic’s new look, but they were still doubtful of the quality of healthcare provided. However, whenever they fell sick, they still showed their neighbors some support and visited Lower Groove Clinic.
Lower Groove Clinic experienced an exponential growth in terms of the number of customers, and the owners of the clinics nearby felt like crying when they saw how crowded Lower Groove Clinic was.
Even the most influential officers in the area, the director of the subdistrict office, visited the clinic and carried out an inspection.
With a smile on his face, Ling Jiezhou attended to the director of the subdistrict office in a relaxed manner without needing to spend a single penny.
He had been running the clinic for thirty years. Even though he had never met officers who ranked higher than that, he was very experienced in dealing with the director of the subdistrict office and those ranked below him.
Before the director of the subdistrict office left, Ling Jiezhou even shamelessly asked the latter to take a photograph together with him. He then printed the photograph, got it laminated, and hung it on the white wall of the observation room.
“This looks a little empty. Let’s take more photographs in the future and hang them on the wall so that it looks better.” Ling Jiezhou hung the photo frame on the nail he just hammered into the wall. He then took a few steps backward and nodded. He did not seem very satisfied.
A white wall with a photograph with two people inside would be quite an eerie sight at night.
“We can add a caption: A photograph of Ling Jiezhou and the director of the subdistrict office of Victory Door.” The loud sounds of Juan Zi’s footsteps rang out, and she commented when she saw the photograph.
Doctor Xiong, who was standing beside them, laughed when he heard that.
Ling Jiezhou, though, thought earnestly about it for a moment. “I think Juan Zi just made a good suggestion. We shouldn’t look down on our director of the subdistrict office. Besides, we can also do the same when other famous people visit our clinic. Hmm, we shouldn’t place a caption there for the time being though. It’ll make the picture and the caption look too lonely.”
Even though Doctor Xiong really felt like retorting, what Ling Jiezhou just said might very well manifest. Even if he were to disregard other things, Ling Ran was so good in massaging people that there were senior citizens from the sanatorium who made bookings just for that. Doctor Xiong had no choice but to say, “Why don’t we hang photographs that Ling Ran took together with famous people instead?”
“No, that would take the spotlight away from the owner of this clinic.” Ling Jiezhou immediately rejected the idea.
Doctor Xiong could not help but be stunned. ‘You sound so logical that there’s really nothing else I can say.’
Juan Zi clapped, and the sound produced was so loud that it was as if a car crash just happened. She chuckled and said, “With the way our clinic is progressing, the wall will soon be covered with photographs.”
“You’re right.” Ling Jiezhou immediately became happy. “When our clinic expands in the future, you can be the head nurse.”
“Thank you, Director Ling.”
Ling Jiezhou froze for a moment. He then laughed out loud.
Juan Zi’s cheeks were so puffy that she looked like a hamster. She laughed along with Ling Jiezhou and continued. “Director Ling, since our clinic was just recognized by the director of the subdistrict office, we should throw a celebration, don’t you think so?”
“How should we celebrate?” Ling Jiezhou was immediately on guard.
“Isn’t there a pheasant left from yesterday? Let’s make soup with it and have it with rice.” Juan Zi was salivating at the thought of it. She then continued. “It would go well with some beef and pork cheeks. We can also cook some pig’s tails while we’re at it. I can totally eat three bowls of rice with these.”
Ling Jiezhou really felt like mocking Juan Zi as he gazed at her, but he decided to hold his tongue.
“Yeah, we should do that. This is a very joyous occasion indeed,” Ling Jiezhou said insincerely. He then asked, “Should we have saute beef with cayenne pepper or boiled beef slices with sauce?”
“Braised beef!” Juan Zi’s saliva was about to drip out of her mouth.
“No problem. Let’s all have dinner together after work. I’ll be cooking.” There was a smile on Ling Jiezhou’s face.
Juan Zi nodded in satisfaction and left with a fluid transfusion bag beneath her arm. She stomped away from the place with her 112-pound left leg and 108-pound right leg.
Ling Jiezhou and Doctor Xiong sighed in relief.
Ling Ran went home for dinner at night too.
The 2.5-pound pheasant that had been stewed all day filled the space with fragrance.
There were a beef shank, a pork cheek, and a whole plate of pig’s tails on the table. The dining hall looked like a stall selling braised meat.
Ling Ran could not help but arch an eyebrow when he saw that. “Is Sister Juan Zi on a diet again lately?”
“I reckon so.” Ling Jiezhou wore a solemn expression. “She said that she wants to eat three bowls of rice.”
“Is the rice cooked yet?” Ling Ran, too, seemed like he was not taking matters lightly.
Ling Jiezhou nodded and pointed behind him. There were three steaming rice cookers on the stainless-steel table in the newly-renovated kitchen.
Doctor Xiong coughed a few times and said, “I won’t be joining you guys for dinner. My wife’s waiting for me at home, so I need to head back early…”
“Old Xiong, Juan Zi talked about a celebration, didn’t she? What am I going to tell her when she asks about your whereabouts later?” Ling Jiezhou gently destroyed Doctor Xiong’s plans for escape.
Doctor Xiong muttered, “Just tell her, erm, that I’m going home to accompany my wife.”
“This is Juan Zi’s first meal after her diet ends.”
“She didn’t tell us that.”
“If she’s still on her diet, she would at most have some meat. She definitely wouldn’t eat rice. And if it has been some time since her diet ended, she wouldn’t ask for three bowls of rice either.” Ling Jiezhou laid out the facts and reasoned with Doctor Xiong.
Women who were on a diet were scary, and this was especially true when it came to Juan Zi.
And she was the scariest when her diet failed.
Doctor Xiong quietly stopped in his tracks.
“Can you make some vegetarian dishes?” Doctor Xiong sighed. “I don’t have my gallbladder anymore, and I can’t eat meat.”
“I prepared some vegetarian dishes. Look at how afraid of Juan Zi you are. I know that you don’t have your gallbladder anymore. No one’s planning to steal your food, anyway.” Ling Jiezhou laughed at his own joke and continued. “Our clinic doesn’t specialize in traditional Chinese medicine, after all, and no one’s eyeing what little bile you have left.”
Doctor Xiong stared at Ling Jiezhou with a stupefied expression and said flatly, “Lame. I feel cold just by listening to this joke of yours.”
“Then there’s no need for cold dishes.” Juan Zi who had just replaced the fluid transfusion bags of all the patients came over. As she gazed at the meat on the table with her tired eyes, she flashed a gentle smile. “These are enough, I think. Is the chicken soup done yet? How about the rice? Should we make some boiled fish? I don’t think we have any fish left, though.”
Everyone listened obediently to what Juan Zi had to say and gestured at one another with their eyes.
‘Juan Zi definitely went on a diet!’
‘The diet definitely failed!’
‘Juan Zi is so scary…’
Doctor Xiong was the one who was trying to tell everyone how scary Juan Zi was.
…..
Ling Ran quietly participated in the bizarre celebration. He gazed at Juan Zi as she retrieved the bowl that she used every single time her diet failed. The diameter of the stainless-steel bowl was longer than the tibia of an adult, and its depth was longer than a child’s foot.
There were even words engraved on the stainless-steel basin: Xiu Juan.
This was Juan Zi’s name.
Not even the rice from one rice cooker could fill up the stainless-steel basin.
Juan Zi quietly poured chicken soup into the bowl and took some beef. She then shoved some pork cheek and pig’s tails into her mouth.
“I’m done. I’ll head back to the hospital first.” Ling Ran finished all the rice in his bowl at lighting speed. He then rose and prepared to leave.
“It’s late, though.” Ling Jiezhou extended his hand and tried to make his son stay with him to face Juan Zi’s wrath.
Ling Ran shook his head in determination. “There’s still some surgeries scheduled for tonight. I need to head back.”
After Ling Ran said that, he turned and went to the garage. He then entered his Volkswagen Jetta and drove away at lightning speed.
The garage was also renovated, and the walls were silvery and white, giving off a rather modern vibe.
The Volkswagen Jetta had just been washed, and its engine emitted loud sounds. Even though it was going slow because of the heavy traffic, the sounds were still as loud as ever.
Ling Ran held the steering wheel with both hands and drove carefully. He did not let his guard down just because the car was going slower than a tandem bicycle.
Ling Ran did not like driving at this time of the day. The traffic was extremely bad, and it was such a waste of time. If Ling Ran had a choice, he would rather wake up at three in the morning and head to the hospital.
*Wee woo, wee woo…*
An ambulance drove up to his car.
Ling Ran looked around and tried to make way for it, but there was no space at all.
The cars at the front would not be able to hear the ambulance either.
“Heart attack patient. Can the cars in front please make way?” The person sitting in the passenger seat of the ambulance yelled loudly.
Ling Ran furrowed his eyebrows. A car in front happened to inch forward, and Ling Ran immediately steered his car to the side so that the ambulance could go forward.
The ambulance stopped again after around thirty-two feet.
Someone opened the back door of the ambulance, and a family member of the patient ran out. A paramedic could be seen performing CPR.
It was obvious that the paramedic was kind of tired. CPR was a physically taxing procedure, after all.
Without hesitation, when the car in front inched forward, Ling Ran straightaway drove his car into a flower bed beside the street. It was not expensive to repair a Volkswagen Jetta, and Ling Ran did not mind even if the bottom of his car was damaged because of this.
Ling Ran exited his car and ran toward the ambulance in front of him. He said as he climbed into the ambulance, “I’m Doctor Ling Ran from the Emergency Department of Yun Hua Hospital. I’ll help you with the CPR.”
The paramedic was already so tired that she was about to faint. If it were not for the fact that a human life was involved, she would have given up a long time ago.
When she heard what Ling Ran said, she immediately made way for him.
Ling Ran took over without missing a beat and started pressing the patient’s chest with force.
At this point in time, the drivers and passengers of the cars at the back had also realized what was happening. They started honking, and some of the more empathetic ones even exited their cars and ran forward to shout for cars to make way just like the patient’s family member.
The ambulance finally started to move slowly. After a while, the traffic police had also arrived to help divert the traffic.
“Go straight to Yun Hua Hospital. Call the Emergency Department and tell them to prepare to receive the patient. Tell them the patient’s condition.” As Ling Ran performed CPR, even his voice had become rhythmic.
He did not know how long the CPR had gone on before he took over, but with the speed the car was going right now, by the time they arrived at the hospital, it would definitely be considered a prolonged CPR. Such a patient had a higher chance to be brought back to life at Yun Hua Hospital.
The paramedic could see that Ling Ran was a professional from the way he carried out CPR. She immediately agreed to his request and made a call.
*Hooooonnnkkk.*
A few cars behind them honked again.
The driver of the ambulance with its back door opened, too, honked a few times. He then slowly drove away from the congested area through the path created by the cars in front.
After the ambulance drove away, the path quickly disappeared.
A few minutes later, just like waves that disappeared into the sea, it was as if nothing had happened at all.
