At the Operating Area of the Emergency Medical Center, Doctor Zhou brought along a few resident doctors, housemen, and interns, where they earnestly came to a small kitchen and said, “We’re doctors, and we have different habits when we are on duty. I won’t stop you from going about with your habits. However, first of all, I hope that everyone will follow me in this worship. Then, you can go and use your own method to worship other things.”
After speaking, Doctor Zhou nodded at the chef to greet him. Then, he unlocked the lock over the cabinet door with a serious face and took out a long… pork belly.
The pork belly was the length of an ordinary person’s arms. The color between the layers of fat and lean meat was very distinct from each other, and there was a thick hemp rope tied at both ends of the meat, as well as the middle. Everything seemed to be marinated in oil as it glistened.
“Is this pickled meat?” Intern Qi Zao, who came from Yun Hua University, instantly had her curiosity—cultivated from her stint as a campus journalist—stirred.
Doctor Zhou took a serious look at Qi Zao and said, “This is salted meat.”
“Salted meat?”
Doctor Zhou solemnly nodded. “I suggest that all of you eat more salted meat in the hospital.”
He stressed on the word “salted”.
Qi Zao was not the only one who understood it, several interns also understood it.
Doctor Zhou did not talk much. He stepped on a chair and hung the arm-length pork belly on a hook on the ceiling—the newly renovated cafeteria actually originally had no room for a hook on the ceiling. It was under Doctor Zhou’s request that one was installed.
When everything was prepared, Doctor Zhou waved his hand and led everyone to bow solemnly to the pork belly. Then, he muttered something under his breath.
Qi Zao looked around and found that Doctor Zhou was not the only one devoted to his worship. Even the senior resident doctors were also very devoted to their worship. The in-service training doctors who came from the lower floor also had solemn and serious expressions that did not lose to Doctor Zhou’s.
In comparison, the younger the doctor was, the lower their devotion to the pork belly was.
Qi Zao observed while thinking, and she wanted to pull out her phone to take this picture.
“Okay, let’s put it away.” Doctor Zhou straightened up. Naturally, his expression also relaxed a little. He ordered a resident doctor to take down the pork belly, put it back into the cabinet, and lock the cabinet door.
The resident doctors and in-service training doctors also relaxed.
The interns and housemen looked a little confused. A few of them looked like children who were dragged to City God Temple to pray during Chinese New Year. The interns and housemen also looked like they were not thinking too much, like the children dragged to City God Temple who gradually stopped thinking after they knocked their heads against the floor too much while they kowtowed to pray.
The tall and strong in-service training doctor, Ren Qi laughed out loud and snapped the crowd out of the atmosphere of worship by saying, “Coincidentally, I also bought apples. Everyone can eat some.”
He turned around and took out a fresh container from the refrigerator. When he opened it, the people saw neat rows of apples inside.
Ren Qi took another toothpick out and said while chuckling, “The apple slices might have turned brown after I cut it, but it’s still good.”
“What apple is it?” Doctor Zhou asked calmly.
“Ralls Janet,” Ren Qi replied just as seriously, as if he was giving a secret code.
Doctor Zhou nodded slowly. Then, he took a toothpick and inserted it into a piece of apple.
The other doctors took the apple slices one by one, and whether they liked it or not, they stuffed it into their mouths and chewed.
Qi Zao was at the back. She took a small piece of apple, but could not help asking, “Doctor Zhou, why did you choose Ralls Janet? Is it because Janet means grace?”
Doctor Zhou had worshipped the pickled meat and ate the apple. Now, he exuded a lackadaisical air as he said, “It doesn’t matter whether Ralls Janet means grace. Our requirements are not so strict. But some varieties are not suited to be eaten when you’re on duty, such as Red Fuji. They are red and flavorful, and isn’t that life-threatening? ”
Ren Qi nodded in agreement. “That’s true. This happened one year when I was on duty at the hospital. We ate a Red Fuji, and because of it, that night, four cars crashed into each other back to back on the county road, and eight people were injured in one breath. Think about it, that’s a county road, and the speed limit is at 12 mph, 24 mph, and 43 mph. Even so, four cars still crashed into each other. Isn’t it abnormal?”
Doctor Zhou nodded in admiration. “Some young doctors and nurses don’t understand this. They think things can be peaceful by just eating any piece of apples. They don’t use their brains to think. Red Fuji, Red General, Red Star Apple, and some other varieties cannot be eaten during night shift. Those are basically complots!”
“Red Fuji is the worst. It’s red and flavorful. It’s a real killer.”
“The Red General is not much better. It has general in its name. I once encountered a patient who only had appendicitis and was going to have surgery the next morning. But that night, he suddenly started hurting like hell, and when we sent him into the operating theater and took a look, good grief, his appendix started suppurating, we were basically racing against time…”
Qi Zao listened, and she swayed. As she looked at the apple in front of her, she found that she did not want to eat it anymore.
At this moment, Doctor Zhou stretched lazily and said, “I’ll go back to sleep first. If anything happens, you should discuss it among yourselves. If you can’t solve it, call me.”
Ren Qi and the others agreed willingly without any dispute.
Doctor Zhou nodded with satisfaction and then wobbled straight to the on-call room.
The other doctors dispersed with loud discussions. Those who were not a second-string doctor can also sleep for a while during their shift. If they were lucky, they could sleep up to eight hours without a problem.
Of course, there was nothing they could do if their luck was too bad, and they would end up not sleeping for an entire night. They also had to continue performing surgery the next morning, though this was a common experience for resident doctors.
Qi Zao fell to the back. She looked at the crowd with an indescribable expression, and her heart was incredibly heavy.
“That’s how people are when they get old. Don’t bother about them.” An intern in the same group felt that he just gained an opportunity to talk to her, and he hurried forward to speak to her so that he could curry to her favor.
Qi Zao grunted, lowered the half piece of apple she took a small bite from just now, and quietly threw it into the trash while nobody was around her.
“Yes, superstition is boring.” The boy who was also in his internship also threw his apple into the trash, despite the fact that he had eaten most of it.
“I don’t like apples,” Qi Zao said, looked around and sat in the corner of the cafeteria.
“I also don’t like to eat them either.” The boy hurriedly followed her and looked at where Qi Zao had chosen to sit. He could not help but feel happy and quickly sat across her.
Qi Zao frowned and did not say anything. She just played with her phone and watched the people in the cafeteria from the corner of her eyes.
The boy smiled. The scene of everyone playing with their phones after meeting with each other was not an unfamiliar sight. An anti-social and naive girl would be easier to conquer. The boy spoke in an experienced manner, “Qi Zao, what’s the APP you’re currently using the most now?”
“Are you hungry?”
“Are you hungry already?” The boy was surprised. Was she going to attach the label of a glutton on him? It seemed that his Premium Haidilao membership would have a chance to play a role again.
Qi Zao shook her head, leaned over, and took out a mango from her LV bag. She put it in front of the boy and said, “I’m asking you if you’re hungry.”
The boy rejoiced. How could a man say that he was not hungry at this moment? He quickly said, “I’ll peel it off, let’s eat together.”
Qi Zao nodded slowly, took out a dragon fruit, and quietly placed it in front of the boy.
The boy froze and thought, ‘Could it be that she’s the glutton?’
Without waiting for him to understand what was going on, a Wangzi milk was placed beside the mango.
“Mango… Dragon, Prosper?” The boy finally understood something. He looked nervously behind him and whispered when he saw no other doctors. “Um… Qi Zao, don’t be disagreeable with the teachers. If these are seen and things turn out to be very busy tonight, do you know how much trouble we’ll be in? ”
Qi Zao’s eyes went wide, and she knocked his head with her hand. She said, “Wouldn’t it be good if it’s busy? You don’t even know who you are, do you? You’re an intern. If there are no patients during our duty at night, you wouldn’t even have a chance to practice.”
The boy could not quite register what she said. “Don’t interns need to sleep?”
Qi Zao thought about it, and she took out a box of Mao Xue Wang Sauce from her bag and said, “If you are really afraid, then just eat half of the Mao Xue Wang.”
