Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
It was a busy day for the Emergency Medical Center of Yun Hua Hospital, and things only started to slow down at ten at night.
Patients who visited the hospital because they had nothing else to do were gone by now, and patients with minor ailments did not bother to go to the hospital at this hour of the day. Because of this, there were very few patients seeking treatment.
Aside from the Neonatology Department and Gynaecology Department, things had basically slowed down in other departments. The housemen and junior doctors took the opportunity to catch up on writing medical records, while the attending physicians hid in secluded corners to take a nap. The nurses were no longer chattering away. Instead, they quietly scrolled through their phones. This was a more entertaining activity, anyway.
As Zuo Cidian was too embarrassed to use Tik Tok in front of Ling Ran and the other young people, he walked over to a centipede tongavine and started toying with it.
It was ten at night, and even the centipede tongavine looked weary. It leaves were curled up, and they did not unfurl even after Zuo Cidian toyed with them for a long time.
Zuo Cidian deliberately fiddled with a dark green leaf. Compared to the tender leaves around it, it was as if the dark green leaf had applied thick makeup on itself. It was extraordinarily green, too green, in fact, that it looked like a middle-aged man who loved visiting the disco. It might be more skilled than the others, but no one cared about it.
“Life isn’t easy for you either, huh?” Zuo Cidian released his grip on the leaf, and the stretched-out leaf curled up once again.
The aged leaf trembled a few times before it stopped moving. It looked like it was no longer elastic.
“What are you thinking about?” Nurse Niu was on night shift today. she stared at Zuo Cidian’s eyebags for a moment and teased him, “Is it just me, or has your eyebags gotten worse?”
“Is it obvious?” Zuo Cidian sighed and said, “I’m on night shift once a week. It was still okay in the beginning, but I’m feeling more and more tired nowadays.”
“You can talk about it to Doctor Ling. There’re a lot of doctors under him nowadays, and he might be able to cut down on your night shifts.” Nurse Niu made small talk. She was around Zuo Cidian’s age, and was no longer on the same frequency as the young nurse. There was also very few doctors who she could get along well with.
Zuo Cidian swallowed a mouthful of warm water and shook his head as he said, “I can’t do that. If he were to give me fewer night shifts, wouldn’t the others have to be on shift more? This wouldn’t do.”
Since he was still a resident doctor, he had to fulfill his responsibility as a resident doctor. Zuo Cidian who had remained as one of the low-level staff members of the hospital for many years was not confident that he was in anyway special. The fact that he was old and weary was not the fault of others. It was his own problem.
Nurse Niu was just making small talk. She then smiled and said, “It’s still comparatively better to be a doctor. At least you guys have something to look forward to. For nurses, unless you manage to become the head nurse, you have to be on night shift whenever they ask you to do so. There’s no escape at all.”
“Well, nurses can still get good husbands.”
“True, that.” Nurse Niu pouted as she spoke. “If only my husband were the president of a bank, I wouldn’t need to be on night shift anymore.”
It was breaking news in the hospital that a certain nurse’s husband had become the director of a bank. After her husband was promoted, a nurse in the Cardiothoracic Department no longer had to take on night shifts and only worked during a day. Even if she were to do nothing at work, no one could do anything about it. Reality was often harsh.
Zuo Cidian, though, merely flashed a smile. When it came to this, it was different for doctors. Even if his wife were the president of the bank and could decide whether the hospital was eligible for a yearly loan of tens of millions or even a billion RMB, he would still need to work night shifts whenever he was required to. Of course, given that he even had a wife.
“Doctor Zuo, there’s a patient.” A nurse came over and notified Zuo Cidian.
Zuo Cidian immediately said, “I’ll call Doctor Ling over.”
Nurse Niu gasped in astonishment. “Why don’t you just get a third-string doctor straight away?”
“Doctor Ling told me to inform him if there’s a patient, and that he wants to treat more patients today.” Zuo Cidian talked about Ling Ran in a respectful tone even though Ling Ran was not around.
Nurse Niu felt like laughing as she looked at Zuo Cidian’s demeanor. “Do you take everything he says seriously? Perhaps Doctor Ling was just being polite.”
Zuo Cidian laughed. “You know how Doctor Ling is like, right?”
Nurse Niu laughed out loud.
“Alright, I’ll have to hurry up and inform Doctor Ling.” Zuo Cidian waved and left.
At this moment, the nurse who came over to inform Zuo Cidian felt conflicted. She immediately chased after Zuo Cidian and said, “I’ll go over. Doctor Zuo, why don’t you rest?”
“No, this won’t do. How could junior doctors rest when senior doctors are working?” Zuo Cidian sped up and made things obvious. ‘I’m not robbing you off your chance to contribute. I’m just an old boot licker.’
Soon, Ling Ran walked out of the waiting room.
“Have Han Yu and the others left?” Ling Ran looked around and asked.
“They’re all gone. We can’t just let them stay in the treatment room forever.” Nurse Niu had a smile on her face as she advised Ling Ran. “Doctor Ling, you should rest more. There’s no need for you to trouble yourself with patients with minor ailments.”
“I had some spare time today, so I got enough rest.” Ling Ran had slept for two hours before this, and together with the effect of the Energy Serum, he could not fall asleep even if he wanted to.
Nurse Niu merely assumed that he had gotten enough sleep and said no more. She followed Ling Ran to help out.
Zuo Cidian, too, immediately put a foot forward and attended to Ling Ran.
The patient was an unlucky man who fell down at night and took a cab over by himself. He was holding his forehead with his hand, and he looked a little dirty.
When he raised his head and saw Ling Ran, Zuo Cidian and Nurse Niu standing before him, he could not help but freeze for a moment and ask, “How bad is my injury?”
Ling Ran asked the patient to remove his hand and said as he debrided the patient’s wound. “The wound is only four inches. You’ll be fine after I suture it.”
“Four inches?” The patients gestured with his hand and said in slight shock, “I thought that it would be three inches at most.”
Nurse Niu could not help but laugh out loud. “Then, you should have discussed it with the rock before you fell down.”
“No, I banged my head against the stairs.” The patient, too, started laughing as he spoke. He then winced in pain.
Ling Ran sutured the patient’s wound well with the buried heavy reinforcing suture technique and intradermal suture technique. As long as the patient took careful care of the wound during recovery, it would not leave an obvious scar.
Ling Ran was done after a few minutes and told Zuo Cidian to bandage the wound, prescribe drugs and give the patient an injection. Ling Ran then rose and walked around the treatment room.
The mission completion status of “Relieve Patients’ Pain” was only at 11/300. As Ling Ran had realized that it would take him a long time to complete the mission, he was not in a rush to do it.
Truth be told, if a person were to look at it from another perspective, Ling Ran’s progress was not very slow as he had completed one-thirtieth of the mission in a day. And the gifts found in Intermediate Treasure Chests were often pretty useful. It might even be a Perfect Level or Master Level Skill. Compared to ordinary doctors who had to put in plenty of time and effort to practice a skill, it took a much shorter time to acquire a skill by completing a mission.
And if Ling Ran were to look at the bigger picture, there was not much difference between suturing patients and performing cholecystectomy where patients could only be discharged after three to five days. After all, patients whose wounds were sutured experienced pain relief too.
With this in mind, Ling Ran decided not to be picky with patients. He sat in the treatment room all night long and treated all the patients who went his way. He treated almost one third of the patients, and it made things a lot easier for the other doctors.
Emergency rooms of tertiary Grade A hospitals were often shorthanded at night, and even the junior housemen were very happy that Ling Ran was helping out.
After all, ordinary people needed sleep.
Ling Ran kind of enjoyed being in the emergency room at night. There was an abundance of patients, and no one was scrambling for them. Moreover, the environment was quiet. He felt completely at ease over here.
He worked all the way until four in the morning. Ling Ran only stopped after he treated around twenty patients.
There were no more patients in the treatment room.
“I finally get to rest.” Zuo Cidian sighed miserably and collapsed into a chair. He was no longer willing to stand on his feet.
Those who were younger than him such as Doctor Zhou, and even Zheng Pei who was a senior resident doctor were in deep sleep right now. The forty-two-year-old Zuo Cidian was still a junior resident doctor, and it was hard for him to find any doctor to assist him.
“All right, then, go ahead and sleep. If there are more patients, we’ll just let other doctors treat them.” Ling Ran exercised his limbs. He decided to shower before heading outside the hospital for food.
The effect of the Energy Serum was still ongoing, and he would not be able to sleep even if he wanted to.
Zuo Cidian wanted to work a little longer, but his body could not take it anymore. He had no choice but to nod quietly in acknowledgment. A little guilty and ashamed, he then headed to the on-call room to get some sleep.
Ling Ran washed up before walking around the streets outside Yun Hua Hospital.
There were also alleys that looked like commercial streets, which were similar to Lower Groove, outside Yun Hua Hospital. There were supermarkets and small restaurants. Some of the snack bars started operating at around five in the morning.
Ling Ran picked a shop that looked clean and took a seat. He then ordered a bowl of tofu pudding and some fried dough sticks before taking his time to enjoy his food.
The tofu pudding was nothing special, and it was a little sour. However, it was appetizing.
The fried dough sticks were a little too thick, and they looked a little dry. But they were crispy and fragrant.
Ling Ran took the opportunity to rest and enjoy himself. He only finished his breakfast after fifteen minutes.
He glanced at cell phone. It was 6:01 am.
Ling Ran was about to slide his phone back into his pocket when it vibrated.
He just received a text message.
He tapped on the notification to reveal the full message, and saw that the message was sent by Xiang Xueming who was in Bazhaixiang. [The wife of the director of the Water Conservancy Bureau of our village has a half-severed finger. She is on her way to Yun Hua Hospital. I sincerely hope that you will treat him, Doctor Ling. I’m accompanying her on her journey. Xiang Xueming.]
Ling Ran was heading back to the hospital, anyway. He replied the text message. [I’ll go and get ready in the operating theater. When will she be here?]
[Around one and a half hours.] Xiang Xueming who had raced against time to message Ling Ran could not help but heave a long sigh of relief.
