The Surgeon's Studio

The woman was in her mid-thirties but looked younger than that. However, she had thinning hair.

Zheng Ren assumed it to be the side effects of chemotherapy.

There was a light-hearted smile on her face as she walked over with Chang Yue.

“Hey, why are you guys hiding like rats?” Chang Yue asked with a laugh.

Zheng Ren gave them a dumb smile and stayed mum. He did not know the details and decided to play it safe.

“Let’s get Su Yun and go to dinner,” Chang Yue said as she returned the cigarettes to Zheng Ren. “This chief resident of ours is just embarrassing. Leaving a half-packet on the floor like that.”

“You…” Zheng Ren opened his mouth, then promptly closed it.

He reigned in his emotions and berated himself for being hot-headed. Nevertheless, he was worried about the woman tagging along. What if the woman did something drastic after dinner and some drinks? Would they be safe?

Chang Yue had a bright smile on her face.

“A minor misdemeanor. Come on, I’m starving after that little breeze.”

“Okay, let’s get Su Yun.” Zheng Ren played along with her antics. He was not going to doubt her now.

Zheng Ren usually took a light year to build relationships with strangers until they were friends. Chang Yue managed it in a blink of an eye.

That was the difference between them.

Only Zheng Ren was in his white coat, so he went in to get Su Yun.

The man was a slowpoke. Perhaps he should add Su Yun in the WeChat group for convenience’s sake.

Zheng Ren had qualms with the dashing Su Yun even though the man was only doing his job checking up on patients post-surgery. He could pick up surgical skills just from a visual demonstration, after all.

In the ICU, Zheng Ren saw Su Yun seated between two hospital beds, monitoring patients’ vital signs.

Zheng Ren greeted the ICU nurses and approached Su Yun. “How’s everything?”

In the top right corner of his vision, the System notified him that both patients were stable and the symptoms of hemorrhagic shock had reversed.

They were still connected to ventilators to aid breathing. It took some burden off their heavily-injured bodies. Zheng Ren expected the tubes would be removed tomorrow.

“They’re stable now,” Su Yun said. He brushed dark curls from his forehead.

“You don’t need to monitor them overnight.”

“The ICU has on-call doctors. I’m an emergency department doctor, so I’ll monitor them for only two hours post-surgery,” Su Yun said stoically. The line alone chilled the ICU.

A few people were staring daggers at Zheng Ren.

He shuddered involuntarily.

“Let’s go.” Su Yun stood up and dusted his coat. Without a glance back, he headed straight for the ICU exit.

Zheng Ren felt imaginary daggers cut into his skin and quickly ran after Su Yun. He wanted to get out of this bloody ICU.

As they changed their outfits, Su Yun asked, “Why were you looking for me?”

“Ah, didn’t Chu Yanran tell you that we’re all having dinner together? I was going to check up on the patients, so they sent me to get you.”

The word ‘dinner’ made Su Yun’s expression change. His facial muscles twitched as he tried to fight his emotions. It was comical to Zheng Ren.

“I’ll tell them to hold back on the drinking. Rest assured.” Zheng Ren patted Su Yun’s shoulder with false concern.

“…”

They exited the ICU and found their four companions chattering animatedly with the woman from before at the lobby.

Su Yun was taken aback by the stranger.

Zheng Ren ignored Su Yun’s surprise and clapped his hands together. “The pretty boy is here, so let’s go.”

“What do you want to eat?” Xie Yiren asked him.

“You guys go ahead, and no need to get takeaway for me. The roads are slippery, so be careful. I’ll just grab a bite at the cafeteria,” Zheng Ren said.

“Oh, come on! We need to bring Miss Yun back here anyways. It won’t be any trouble, any trouble at all,” Xie Yiren insisted as she deemed good food to be the best thing in the world. She was not about to let Zheng Ren pass up this opportunity.

How troublesome. Zheng Ren had few opinions on food. He could go without eating were it not for his own hunger and need for sustenance.

In the end, the women ignored Zheng Ren and carried on their conversation in the elevator. Zheng Ren got off on the second floor while they went down to the basement parking lot.

As the elevator door closed, Zheng Ren put an arm to stop it. “Whose car are you guys taking? Does it have snow tires on?”

“We’re taking mine,” Xie Yiren piped up. “Volvos are the safest car out there and I never took off my snow tires.”

Zheng Ren went silent and allowed the elevator door to close.

He was not dumb enough to ask Xie Yiren if snow tires in summer would use up more gas. The woman owned a few properties in the central business district, so gas money was the least of her concerns.

Zheng Ren walked back to the emergency department alone.

The wind howled as snowfall continued. The lonely sound of his footsteps echoed in the hospital corridor.

If his life was a horror movie, this would be the part where something jumped out.

His path back to the emergency department was quiet, unlike the earlier journey to the ICU.

The chattering women and Su Yun were out for dinner along with Miss Yun, who worried Zheng Ren.

He hoped Chang Yue’s words were enough and that the woman was in a stable mental state.

Back in the emergency department, Zheng Ren made his routine rounds to check on patients.

The patient with gangrenous appendicitis was already awake and was taking small sips of his porridge.

Based on the severity of his appendicitis, it was not recommended to start eating too early. However, relying on glucose infusions alone would lead to slower recovery. Hence, Zheng Ren had decided that as long as the patient had passed gas, he was allowed to eat actual food.

He spoke with the man and found out the porridge was from this afternoon. Before Chang Yue left for dinner, she had heated it up for the patient. Zheng Ren was pleased with her quality of her care.

It was just a bowl of porridge, after all.

‘Chang Yue… is really a good person,” Zheng Ren thought.

He returned to the office. The room was silent as he entered. The on-call nurses were not familiar with Zheng Ren, so they minded their own business.

Zheng Ren was not Su Yun, so he garnered little interest from them.

He was fine with that. Picking up the Sciences of Hepatopancreatobiliary book, he started reading.

Zheng Ren once believed in the saying, “hard work pays off”.

Now, with the System, Zheng Ren had no right to say it. To the real world, his skills would seem like magic.

Despite that, reading was a habit of his for many years, so Zheng Ren still kept to it.

The emergency department was uncharacteristically silent. The strong winds likely deterred people from leaving their homes.

The peaceful night was a welcome one after a busy day.

At 9:00 pm, Su Yun came in with a box of food. A night shift nurse followed him.

The nurses had no interest in Zheng Ren, but Su Yun was another case altogether.

As the night grew, Zheng Ren became the third wheel.

He could feel the pointed glare from the young nurse and shook his head at this superficial world. How was an average-looking man to survive?

Zheng Ren ate his dinner with Su Yun’s voice regaling the story of Miss Yun as accompaniment.