At dawn, the rain was as heavy as ever.
It was as if Zeus had too many bowls of porridge with pork and century eggs and was having watery diarrhea.
Selena looked out from the window on the first floor of the hospital and saw that it was as if the land and the skies were mashed together. The rain seemed to have connected the land and the skies, and the boundary between them was blurry.
“Is this how the story about Pan Gu creating the world came about?” Selena muttered as she looked at the scene before her.
Ma Yanlin exercised his stiff neck and glanced outside. “It’s probably so. But at that time, there wasn’t any building as sturdy is this one… What I mean is that this hospital is probably pretty sturdy, isn’t it? Are there construction companies in Brazil that take a shortcut when it comes to materials?”
Selena said without hesitation, “Of course. The officials in Brazil are super corrupted. The petroleum companies in our country failed because of corruption.”
Ma Yanlin did not seem surprised as he said, “The buildings of the hospitals are built by the people working on your farm, aren’t they? The hospital is called Guozheng Charity Hospital, and its name after their big boss. They wouldn’t dare to make too much of the profit out of it, would they?”
“Probably not,” Selena said distractedly, “The floods in Brazil cause death every year.”
When Ma Yanlin heard her slightly cold voice, he could not help but tremble a little. He looked a little worriedly at the rain outside the window and said slowly, “The story of how Pan Gu created the world probably existed way back when people used to live in caves, right? Compared to lousily built buildings, caves might turn out to be a safer place to take refuge in.”
Selena turned to glance and Ma Yanlin and lowered her head. She seemed to be snickering.
Ma Yanlin froze. “Am I wrong?”
Selena covered her mouth with her hand and chuckled softly. “There’s a term in Mandarin. Let me think about it. What is it called again?”
“Hm?”
“Cave in… Or mud-and-stone flow?” Selena blinked curiously.
Ma Yanlin’s cheeks reddened. “That’s two terms.”
Selena hummed in acknowledgment. Of course, she had no intention of rising and beating up Ma Yanlin.
Ma Yanlin had no choice but to look outside the window again and watch as the land and the skies of Brazil continue to become one.
*Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap.*
Suddenly, soft claps echoed from the main hall.
Selena and Ma Yanlin looked at each other and started walking toward the main hall without hesitation.
Ma Yanlin speculated as he walked, “Doctor Ling had probably come out of the operating theater as all the patients in the recovery room should have regained consciousness already.”
“That’s for sure,” Selena said with certainty.
“True, that.” Ma Yanlin laughed. “Doctor Ling’s face is the only thing that can lift everyone’s spirits up.”
“Doctor Ling is capable of lifting everyone’s spirits up even without his looks.” Selena got annoyed. She turned and said solemnly to Ma Yanlin, “Doctor Ling carried out ten surgeries within one night. This is an unprecedentedly heroic act. If this were to make the news, there would surely be a commotion about it.”
Ma Yanlin suddenly did not know what to say.
It was a bit too much to say that operating on ten patients a night was a normal occurrence in Yun Hua Hospital. However, the Ling Treatment Group was extremely used to carrying out ten surgeries within a night.
This was especially true when it came to operating on patients starting from the afternoon until the following day. Ling Ran usually carried out five hepatectomies a day with a few minor surgeries in between to lighten up the atmosphere.
However, the Ling Treatment Group never saw such an act as unprecedented.
With their speed, they could not even emerge victorious in Changxi Province.
Doctors who could carry out surgeries consecutively for twenty to thirty hours, with seven to eight or even eleven to twelve patients being operated, were indeed rare. However, it was definitely not an exemplary act, as there were quite a lot of doctors in Changxi Province who could do the same.
“It’s indeed quite a lot.” Ma Yanlin chuckled and could not help but say, “I have carried out ten surgeries a night before too.”
“Alone?” Selena was astonished.
Ma Yanlin chuckled a few times. “I was helping Doctor Ling out.”
“Doctor Ling is truly amazing.” There were stars in Selena’s eyes as she concluded.
While they spoke, they arrived at the main hall.
As a few patients, many patients’ family members, and some irrelevant people watched, Ling Ran sutured a patient’s wound.
Ling Ran worked very quickly. He finished debriding the wound before everyone could blink and speedily sutured the wound with the simple interrupted suture technique. He made a knot with one hand, and he looked extremely cool doing it. He stopped for a moment to align both sides of the wound and made several continuous stitches again. Soon, he was done suturing the large wound on the patient’s arm.
The crowd could not help but start clapping again.
Even though it was pretty hard on the patient to only get his wound debrided and sutured more than ten hours after he was injured, for Brazilians, this was a normal occurrence in government hospitals.
It was very normal for patients with skin lesions to only receive treatment after a few hours under normal circumstances, let alone during a flood.
Moreover, after operating on patients all night, Ling Ran had stabilized the condition of all the badly wounded patients. Hence, even though the family members of those patients who sustained minor wounds had not gotten treated yet, for some reason, they felt more at ease. Not only that, they were in high spirits.
As Ma Yanlin stared at Ling Ran’s back, he was envious and full of praises for Ling Ran at the same time. He quickly went forward and asked, “Doctor Ling, do you need help?”
“Apply the dressings and bandage the wound.” Ling Ran did not ask Ma Yanlin to treat any patients. He had already treated all the badly wounded patients. As for the remaining patients, he had treated them one by one, starting from the most heavily wounded (in this situation) to the most lightly wounded. The wounds on the patients who were not treated were not really serious. Since they lacked manpower and drugs right now, Ling Ran decided to deal with those patients himself rather than let Ma Yanlin do it.
Ma Yanlin hummed in acknowledgment. He did not really look surprised as he muttered in a soft voice, “I knew it.”
“Knew what?” As Selena was acting as a part-time interpreter right now, she was listening closely to what everyone was saying.
Ma Yanlin snuck a glance at Ling Ran, and only said when he saw that Ling Ran was not paying attention to him, “Since we don’t know when the rain will stop, Doctor Ling is definitely reluctant to let these patients slip out of his hands. He had definitely arranged them in the order of who would be treated first.”
Selena realized something as she nodded. “Doctor Ling is always so considerate of patients, isn’t he?”
…..
“We don’t know when the rain will stop. We can’t even be sure that not all the patients inside there have died.”
Seventy-five miles away at Botal City, Lucio, who was the site person in charge, was clad in a uniform. As he held a satellite phone, he spoke in a hushed tone.
Behind him, people who were clad in all kinds of uniforms walked around in a hurry with solemn expressions on their faces.
The rain was a lot less heavy in Botal City compared to Cuba Town. However, it showed no signs of stopping, and the water level of the river in the city was so high that it seemed like a flood would break out at any time.
Due to the circumstances, the members of all the organizations who were here for the rescue mission no longer intended to travel 75 miles to save the people in Cuba Town. They merely put on an act of coming out with a plan as they tried their best to not be saddled with the responsibility.
However, the voice on the other end of the satellite phone was tremendously firm, to the point that it was hard for Lucio to say no to him.
“Mister Guozheng, we understand what you are feeling right now. But due to the current circumstances, the helicopters aren’t even free. From what we can see now, there’s only the possibility of contacting them tomorrow,” Lucio spoke carefully to Tian Guozheng in a low voice. Truth be told, if Tian Guozheng was just an ordinary rich man, Lucio would not pay any heed to him. He was a rich man who owned a large farm too. However, when it came to dealing with Tian Guozheng, Lucio was not as brave.
Lucio’s second-in-command, who was standing not far away from him, looked worriedly at him. He strained his ears to listen to the conversation.
Unfortunately, he could not make out anything the person at the other end of the line was saying. Lucio continued explaining, “Mister Guozheng, I have dealt with quite a few similar floods. Due to the circumstances, the presence of a dead body may cause a large-scale infection. Hence, it could be too late to send over a large number of supplies. Right now, what we should do is to think of a way to control the outbreak. Moreover, I can think of a way to get a few people out of there… Alright, I understand.”
After Lucio hung up, he could not help but sigh loudly.
“Does Mister Guozheng agree with our plan?” His second-in-command took a step forward and said in an extremely soft voice.
“They will stay in Cuba Town until we evacuate everyone in Guozheng Charity Hospital.”
“What do we do, then?” His second-in-command was extremely shocked. “We can’t just leave Tian Guozheng in Cuba Town.”
“Yeah, we’ll still have to think of a way to get all of them out. Aside from this, do send more supplies over. Cuba Town is still in an orderly state right now, so no major problems should arise as long as they have enough supplies…” Lucio said and shook his head a little. “The hospital is lacking in supplies, and so many people are heavily wounded… We’ll have to be well-prepared if we’re going to the hospital. Enes, get ready to see hell.”
