Faulker was a little drunk, and now that a patient required emergency treatment, he was in a little bit of a daze and felt like he could defeat the world. He followed the ambulance to the hospital.
As Huo Congjun was a little worried, he followed the ambulance too.
As Ling Ran was a little late, he followed Tian Qi into her Rolls Royce like it was the most natural thing to do and headed to the hospital too.
In the car, Tian Qi gazed at Ling Ran who was sitting opposite her. Ling Ran looked like he was in a daze, and Tian Qi felt that he looked handsome and adorable at the same time. ‘He’s so good-looking!’
After taking in the sight before her for about half a minute, Tian Qi asked Ling Ran a little reluctantly, “Are you worried about the surgery?”
Ling Ran looked like he was just reminded of something. He turned, shook his head with a smile, and said, “Not really. I just received a mission.”
“A mission?”
“Yeah.” Ling Ran nodded and looked at the interface of the system.
The words were displayed mid-air, and they were semi-transparent.
[Mission: Give Cardiac Trauma Repair a try]
[Mission Details: Participate in cardiac trauma repair and feel how fun it is to carry out a cardiovascular surgery]
[Mission Reward: None]
Truth be told, Ling Ran had rarely encountered anything or anyone who was this stingy.
He knew that many people were very stingy. Take the middle-aged woman selling fruits in Lower Groove as an example. She always faked the readings on the scale and sold bad quality fruits. However, there was a limit to how stingy she was. For example, every time Ling Ran bought fruits from her, not only did she not fake the readings on the scale, but she also gave him free gifts.
Evidently, the system was not up to this standard today.
To put it in simple terms, he had never encountered such a stingy and useless system.
‘Since there’s no reward involved in the mission, there’s no need to talk about a reward. There’s no reason for mentioning it at all.’ Ling Ran reminded the system internally.
The words started flashing, and this continued for quite some time. Finally, the content changed.
[Mission Reward: Basic Treasure Chest]
Ling Ran waved in dismissal and switched off the interface.
Tian Qi asked, “What kind of mission is it?”
Ling Ran thought about it carefully and said, “An insincere one, I guess.”
“I see. Ignore it, then,” Tian Qi said with a smile on her face. “No matter who gives you the mission, sincerity is the least they can manage.”
“You’re right,” Ling Ran agreed.
A few seconds later, the system’s interface appeared before Ling Ran, and the words flashed.
[Mission Reward: Energy Serum]
Ling Ran pouted. ‘What’s the point of telling me directly what reward I’m getting instead of giving me a vague idea of it? It isn’t any better.’
“Send me to the elevator where I can go straight to the operating theater.” Ling Ran knew the structure in the car very well, and he pressed the intercom button to communicate with the driver.
The driver hummed in acknowledgment. Tian Qi asked Ling Ran, “How long will this surgery approximately take?”
“It’s hard to tell. If it goes smoothly, it’ll be less than an hour. But if things don’t go well, it might take a few hours,” Ling Ran answered.
Tian Qi hummed in acknowledgment and made a decision. “I’ll send you to the elevator and go home first, then. Sleeping too late is bad for the skin. I have to attend a board meeting tomorrow.”
“Alright, stay safe.” Ling Ran nodded.
This was when they arrived at the underground parking lot.
The driver jogged toward the door and opened it for Ling Ran. He then closed the car door.
Only after Ling Ran entered the elevator did the driver hear muffled cheers ringing out from behind him. He could not hear it clearly, and he did not dare to listen closely to it either.
In the operating theater of the emergency room, Faulkner took a deep breath and said with a smile, “Operating theaters definitely smell good. This place smells so much better than the banquet hall.”
“I thought that you like parties,” Huo Congjun said to the interpreter as he washed his hands.
Faulkner laughed out loud. “Do you call eating and drinking partying now? That’s not a party. Speaking of which, have the scans for the cardiovascular surgery come out yet? Is there a diagnosis yet?”
“The diagnosis is out. Cardiac trauma,” Huo Conjun replied.
“This is what I call a party.” Faulkner started jumping up and down a little, and he looked like a martial artist who was about to go into the ring. There was a slight smile on his slightly tipsy face. “You know, every heart is unique, and this is probably the second time I’ve seen a Chinese heart. This is so exciting…”
“Is this what you call exciting…? You don’t have to interpret this.” Huo Congjun snorted a few times and asked, “How many times have you performed cardiovascular surgery?”
“Around twenty or thirty times. It’s not a lot, but cardiac trauma repair isn’t difficult, to begin with.” When Faulkner said that, he sounded amiable, and he no longer seemed like an arrogant doctor from Mayo Clinic.
It was quite obvious that he desired to carry out this surgery quite a lot.
After all, cardiac trauma was a typical emergency surgery, and it was not very difficult. Very few people would go to Mayo Clinic just for cardiac trauma repair.
When there were patients who suffered from cardiac trauma in Mayo Clinic every now and then, they would be operated by the cardiovascular surgeons. Compared with those surgeons, Faulkner was far less skillful in cardiac trauma repair.
Faulkner had only done around twenty or thirty cardiovascular surgeries throughout the years after so many years of working as a doctor, which meant that he only got to carry out one or two cardiovascular surgeries every year.
Huo Congjun did not mind, though. The Cardiovascular Surgery Department of Yun Hua Hospital was lousy anyway. It was also the middle of the night, and the resident doctors who were on shifts in the Cardiovascular Surgery Department were totally useless. Instead of waiting for associate chief physicians or chief physicians from the Cardiovascular Surgery Department to come over, he preferred to let Faulkner operate on the patient. He merely said, “This cardiovascular surgery is not part of our deal, alright?”
“Even though it’s emergency surgery, it’s not gastrectomy combined with hepatic resection, so it’s not part of the deal.” Faulkner nodded and agreed. Gastrectomy in combination with hepatic resection was a major surgery that took ten hours, and even if the surgeon was not carrying out the surgery, it would be a chore in itself to stand for ten hours straight. Comparatively, cardiac trauma repair was not too taxing on the body.
“Everything is fine on the side of the anesthetist, isn’t it?” Faulkner said and asked Hospital Director Bo as well as Lao Yongyong to come over.
Huo Congjun agreed to everything. When he returned to the operating theater, Doctor Zhou had already draped the patient. As the anesthetist worked, Ling Ran entered the operating theater with his hands clasped behind his back.
“The surgery hasn’t started yet?” Ling Ran was pleasantly surprised when he saw the scene inside the operating theater.
“You’re here just in time.” Huo Congjun chuckled happily. He then said, “Ling Ran will be the assistant, then.”
Even though Ling Ran was not an expert at cardiovascular surgeries, any doctor who could perform gastrectomy in combination with hepatic resection would be good enough to be an assistant in any kind of surgery.
Faulkner glanced at Ling Ran. He did not say much.
This was when a doctor from the Cardiovascular Surgery Department who was on shift ran into the operating theater in a hurried manner. He looked like an idiot as he entered the room and stood in a corner in a dumbfounded manner.
He saw the handsome Ling Ran, a random foreigner, and the extremely fierce Huo Congjun…
“Isn’t this… isn’t this patient suffering from cardiac trauma?” the resident doctor asked in a whisper.
“Do you know how to treat him?” Huo Congjun replied without even turning to look at the resident doctor.
The junior resident doctor quickly shook his head. “Not yet. Department Director Kang is rushing over.”
“The patient can’t wait anymore. Let’s get started.” Huo Congjun felt that he had followed the necessary procedure, and he nodded at Faulkner.
“We are carrying out an emergency thoracotomy now…” Faulkner said in English, and the interpreter who was standing at the corner of the operating theater interpreted what he said.
Ling Ran fixed his gaze on Faulkner’s hands, and his gaze slowly became focused.
