The Surgeon's Studio

The rest of the morning was uneventful.

In the afternoon, Zheng Ren received a call about a patient in the emergency department that required his attention.

He rushed to the emergency department. The patient awaiting him for consultation was a middle-aged woman with a provisional diagnosis of acute appendicitis.

The System confirmed the diagnosis.

There was nothing left to do but to admit her to the ward. Whether she would undergo emergency surgery tonight, or do so tomorrow to ensure sufficient fasting, her medical history had to be taken before any decision could be made.

Zheng Ren instructed a nurse to bring in a wheelchair to send the patient to the emergency ward.

The patient was curled up on the bed, unescorted, in the general surgery consultation room. She seemed pitiful, having to seek surgical treatment alone.

Zheng Ren assisted the nurse by gently transferring the patient to the wheelchair and pushing her out of the consultation room.

Even though Su Yun was tagging along throughout the process, he watched them coldly without lending a hand.

Zheng Ren had no desire to understand Su Yun’s personality and why he was indifferent to certain patients.

The brat’s psychological trauma was untreatable via surgery, so there was nothing he could or would bother to do to remove the old scar.

“Little Heng, Little Heng…” exclaimed the middle-aged woman repeatedly in the wheelchair, the agony in her soft voice clearly detectable.

‘That must be her son’s name,’ Zheng Ren guessed.

Sea City had gradually declined, with a popular saying going, “Investment does not go beyond Shanhaiguan Pass”. Youngsters with the capability to do so preferred to move to the South nowadays.

After all, there were higher salaries and more business opportunities for a better future there.

This middle-aged woman’s son was probably working, which would explain why she was alone despite having acute appendicitis.

“Where are you guys taking my mom?” Before Zheng Ren rounded the corner with the wheelchair, he heard a voice coming from behind him.

Huh? Zheng Ren froze immediately.

The patient’s family was actually here? Was he Little Heng? Why did he not respond when his name had been called out repeatedly?

A pale-looking young man in his twenties approached them with his gaze fixed on his phone. The only time he raised his head was to check where he was going, which was done very briefly as he quickly refocused on his phone, fingers continuously flying across the screen.

“…” Zheng Ren could feel something huge and heavy, like a big stone, pressing on his chest. ‘Wow, this kid is really immersed in his phone.’

“Who are you?” asked Zheng Ren.

A few seconds later, the young man replied, “I’m her son.”

No eye contact.

Was he playing games? Zheng Ren was aware of currently popular mobile games such as Honor of Kings and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, but he had never tried any of them.

During his free time, he would revise or refill his batteries by reading web fiction for a while, but playing games to pass the time never crossed his mind.

“Your mother has acute appendicitis and requires surgery,” Zheng Ren explained as he continued on his way to the emergency ward.

This was merely a habit of his. After all, returning to the ward in silence with the patient’s family was extremely awkward.

“Okay,” replied the young man casually. His eyes were still glued to the phone, and it was unclear if he had heard whatever Zheng Ren had just said.

“When was her last meal and drink?” questioned Zheng Ren.

There was silence for at least ten seconds; the man seemed to realize that Zheng Ren had asked a question only upon reaching the elevator. “What did you say just now?”

“…” Zheng Ren grumbled internally.

He had encountered various kinds of f*cked up patients and family members. Although this was not an endangered or protected species, it was also a rarity.

“When was your mother’s last meal and drink?” Zheng Ren repeated.

“How am I supposed to know? Ask her yourself.” The young man hesitated upon seeing the elevator and asked, “I’m going to take the stairs. Which floor are we going to?”

“The second floor.” Zheng Ren’s expression was cold and flat.

“Wait for me at the elevator on the second floor,” said the young man as he walked directly to the staircase while staring unblinkingly at his phone.

“Doctor, I took medicine and a sip of water at twelve o’clock, and that was basically it,” answered the middle-aged woman in the wheelchair, enduring intense abdominal pain.

Zheng Ren responded with a stern expression, causing the atmosphere in the elevator to become inexplicably unpleasant.

The middle-aged female patient seemed to detect Zheng Ren’s emotions and explained, “Little Heng is a good kid, but he is still young, so please forgive him for his slight immaturity.”

Slight… immaturity? Was she being serious?

Zheng Ren could detect infinite love in the patient’s tone.

However, as a doctor, this was not a part of his job and his only responsibility was to treat disease.

Even police officers could not handle this type of issue, so what could a doctor possibly do?

The young man was still nowhere to be seen when they reached the second floor. Zheng Ren stopped and announced, “Since the patient has fasted for long enough, inform Xie Yiren and Little Chu to prepare for surgery.”

Su Yun, like a shadow trailing Zheng Ren, acknowledged his instructions.

“You’ll undergo surgery soon. It’s just a minor operation, so don’t worry too much about it,” said Zheng Ren.

“My appendix will be removed, right? When can I get off the bed after surgery?” asked the patient.

“You can walk to the bathroom in about a day, but be careful not to reopen the wound; we’ll remove the suture in five to seven days.”

“That’s too long. What is Little Heng going to eat if I can’t cook?” Despite her agony, the woman was still worried about that young man, who presumably was still on his way up the stairs.

“…”

Zheng Ren was an orphan. Even though the teachers and aunties in the kindergarten had treated him kindly, they did not spoil him as much as this patient excessively loved her son.

She would undergo surgery soon and yet her only concern was that she could not cook for her beloved son?

This…

“You can just order food online, it’s the same anyway.”

“No can do. Outside food is usually cooked in gutter oil. Toxicity aside, it’s not delicious either. Little Heng can’t tolerate that kind of food,” the middle-aged woman said guiltily, “It’s all my fault. Why have I fallen sick?”

Zheng Ren once again remained silent. They were not on the same page and there was no way he could understand the thoughts on her mind.

The two doctors and patient stood in the corridor and waited for nearly a minute before the patient’s son slowly emerged from the stairway with the phone still in his hands.

The colorful lights of the phone reflected brightly off his facial features, at the same time accentuating the darkness where the light failed to touch. What a gruesome sight!

Zheng Ren kept quiet and pushed the wheelchair to the emergency ward.

‘I think Chang Yue might have trouble communicating with this kind of person,’ he conjectured.

After arranging a bed for the patient, he pushed her directly to the treatment room for preoperative skin preparations.

She was going for surgery soon, so it was better not to cause her any unnecessary disturbances.

Su Yun went to the operating theater straight away to prepare for surgery.

The preoperative preparations for acute appendicitis was relatively easy. After documenting the patient’s medical history and instructing Chang Yue to put the case in writing, Zheng Ren printed out a set of preoperative informed consent documents and hospital admission forms and started looking for the patient’s son.

Earlier, he had taken way too long to complete his mother’s admission process.

However, the patient’s son was gone when Zheng Ren arrived at the treatment room, and he could see the patient’s agony as she curled up in the wheelchair in a posture that was uncomfortable to watch.

The desolation was indescribable.