Ling Ran took a shower and changed into a new set of clothes. Only then did he exit the operating theater.
He felt that he needed to give this kind of difficult surgeries the basic respect they deserved.
Academician Zhu who had been waiting outside got a little anxious. The moment he saw Ling Ran, he could not help but ask, “Could there have been an accident?”
“No,” Ling Ran answered as firmly as usual.
Zhu Tongyi almost wanted to roll his eyes when he heard this. Ling Ran was way too young indeed to be able to give such a firm answer as a doctor. He did not bother to lecture Ling Ran, though. He merely asked, “Where’s Zuo Cidian?”
“He went to talk to the patient’s family members together with Zhang Anmin.” Even though Ling Ran did not like to communicate with his patients’ family members, this was a necessary step. Hence, he sent Zhang Anmin, who had a good idea of what was going on in surgery, to explain things to the patient’s family members in layman terms.
“I’ll give Zuo Cidian a call.” Zhu Tongyi whipped out his phone as he spoke. He was not able to supervise Ling Ran as he talked to other people round the clock, but Young Zuo was capable of doing so!
*Ring, ring…*
The call had just gone through when Zhu Tongyi heard Academician Du speaking to Ling Ran.
“Doctor Ling, you mentioned that I’ll be able to live for ten more years after receiving surgery. Is this true?”
“A patient usually wouldn’t die from a cancer recurrence within ten years after the cancer first occurred. So there’s a huge probability that you’ll get to live for ten more years.” Ling Ran possessed Master Level Hepatectomy and Perfect Level Lymphadenectomy. He also had access to simulations of his patients’ body using the Virtual Human. He could indeed increase his patients’ life expectancies by a lot. Of course, the survival rate of individual patients depended on the type of cancer they were suffering from. But Ling Ran could be said to be one of the most highly skilled surgeons in the field of oncology in the liver in this era.
Academician Du fixed his gaze on Ling Ran. “You’re not joking?”
Ling Ran shook his head.
“Hahaha…” Academician Du suddenly started laughing self-deprecatingly. “Actually, I don’t care that much about living for another five or ten years. Of course, it would be amazing to get to live for ten more years. But what I want the most is just to live for two more years. I just want to finish up all my ongoing projects successfully, and I would be satisfied already.”
Ling Ran said nothing.
“Doctor Ling, you can come over to take a look at my collection during your day off. Throughout these years, I’ve accumulated quite the collection of ores.” After Academician Zhu said this, he winked and said with a smile, “Some of them are really valuable.”
Ling Ran said calmly, “I don’t have leave.”
“No leave…” Academician Du froze for a moment and clicked his tongue at Academician Zhu, who had just ended the call. “You look like such a decent person that I’ve never expected you to be such a slave driver.”
“It’s nothing to do with me. Ling Ran’s just a workaholic like you. It would be hard to make him take a day off. Moreover, Ling Ran is employed by Yun Hua Hospital.” As Academician Zhu mentioned that last sentence, he got annoyed and was no longer willing to talk about it.
Academician Du laughed out loud. “Doctor Ling, why don’t you come and visit me? You can take the opportunity to take leave for one day. Not only will you get drained, but you’ll also get fat easily if you only operate on patients all day. It would be such a waste for you to get fat.”
This piqued Zhu Tongyi’s interest. He sized Ling Ran up for quite a while and judged him using the beauty standards of an orthopedist. He then said with a sigh, “Forget about it, he will look handsome no matter what.”
Academician Du was so pissed that he cleared his throat and said to Zhu Tongyi, “Old Zhu, don’t make things worse. I want Doctor Ling to take a look at my collection before I go under the knife and talk about geology for a bit while I’m at it. This is not too much to ask, right?”
“Old Du, you…” Zhu Tongyi did not know what to say. He knew how busy Ling Ran was. On average, Ling Ran operated on three patients a day. On busier days, he would be operating on eight or nine patients. Ling Ran can’t just satisfy the desires of every single patient. After all, he was not Aladdin’s magic lamp.
However, Zhu Yongyi could not say no to Academician Du just like this. He could only look at Ling Ran and wait for Ling Ran to make his own decision.
Before Ling Ran could say anything, Academician Du muttered, “I’m an academician after all, am I not? Back in the day, I once went on an exploration at the border of the country and didn’t go home for a year and eight months. My wife had to take care of our two kids all by herself, and had to rely on help from the neighbors. When my child fought with a neighbor’s child and got badly injured, I still had to apologize to the family. I can’t just ignore the fact that they had helped my family for more than one year just because our children fought…”
Zhu Tongyi sighed.
Academician Du, though, could no longer rein himself in. Gazing forward at nothing, he spoke in a low voice, and it was as if he was speaking to himself, “I have even mined uranium before. We all took turns exposing ourselves to radiation, and sometimes, when other people could not make it to their shifts, I volunteered myself…
“I’ve been to the snowy mountains, and I’ve also been to Gobi Desert. When I was assigned to go on an exploration to Golmud, I didn’t chicken out either…
“We had a mining accident at that time, and two people in our team died. I have been good friends with them for years.”
Academician Zhu could not take it anymore, and it was as if a large hand was clenching his heart. He said in a hushed tone, “Old Du, these are all in the past…”
“In the past, I have made my contribution too!” Academician Du gritted his teeth and said, “I don’t want… don’t want to die in the operating theater just like this. I know, I know that Doctor Ling is skillful and also extremely busy. But I just want to enjoy the special privilege of inviting Doctor Ling over to see my collection. Just this one time, is this too much to ask?”
“I’ll go,” Ling Ran said calmly, and he was being neither loud nor soft-spoken.
“You… you will?!” Academician Du froze for a moment, and blood had rushed to his cheeks due to how emotional he was just now. He let out a few soft coughs and gulped to relax his tensed up throat muscles. He then smiled a little and said, “I knew that young people nowadays are different from apathetic old pricks like you, Old Zhu.”
Academician Zhu did not know whether to cry or to laugh as he glanced at Academician Du. He did not actually find the whole thing funny. More than anything, he was feeling sentimental.
Being sick was a very private thing, and it might just be one of the most private things a person could experience. No matter what a prominent figure a person was, it would be very hard for them to face the fact that their life was going to end in an unperturbed manner.
Even though the First Emperor of Qin had various political and military achievements, he still looked for the elixir of immortality. Even though Eileen Chang [1] enjoyed a peaceful and steady life, it was very hard for her to keep her cool when she was plagued by illnesses.
“Where will we be going?” Ling Ran’s question jolted Academician Zhu out of his reverie.
“Are we leaving now?” Academician Du himself found this a little too abrupt.
“I just need one more hour. Once the patient I operated on earlier regains consciousness and I make sure that there’s nothing wrong, I’ll be able to leave.”
“Alright, great! I’ll call someone to make the necessary arrangements.” Academician Du was so happy that it was as if he got the grand prize in a lucky draw.
This was when Zuo Cidian walked over quickly, and Tian Qi was walking behind him.
To be more exact, Zuo Cidian looked like a hotel usher who was showing the way to Tian Qi.
Zuo Cidian did not seem bitter about it. Back when he was working in a town hospital, even those who owned Audis were people he needed to treat with reverence. Nowadays, he only had to do this with people who owned helicopters, which made him feel as if he was treating himself much better than before, and he was extremely contented.
Tian Qi was wearing a white dress. She walked past the two academicians, went before Ling Ran, and greeted him.
Ling Ran nodded. His expression was a bit solemn.
Tian Qi lowered her head a little and swayed slightly. When she saw that the hem of her dress was touching the bottom of Ling Ran’s pants, she blushed a little. Together with her smile, she looked like the moon amid the evening rays.
