The Surgeon's Studio

Ding-dong…

The mission completion sound was indeed heart-warming.

[Sudden Mission: The Opponent’s Submission completed. Completion rate: 100 percent.]

The System’s robotic female voice was like music to Zheng Ren’s ears.

[200 skill points and 10000 experience points obtained. Time used: 2 hours and 15 minutes. Additional 14100 experience points awarded.

[Hidden Side Quest: Heartfelt Admiration completed. The host has acquired the opponent’s admiration. Every reward in this mission will be doubled.]

Zheng Ren was momentarily stunned. According to the System, Cen Meng must have admitted defeat, but because he had achieved a 100-percent completion rate in this surgery, Cen Meng knelt down completely and sincerely without the slightest grievance?

This was actually a thing?

Zheng Ren stopped bothering about Cen Meng and started counting his profit like a hamster trying to survive the winter.

‘48200 experience points and 400 skill points. That’s very good! How good it would be to encounter more opponents like Cen Meng,’ Zheng Ren thought happily.

Zheng Ren currently had 1370 skill points in total—970 points in his inventory plus 400 points acquired from the mission. If he used up all his skill points, he would have a little over 3200 points in his general surgery skill tree, one step closer to the Master rank at 5000 points.

There were 48400 experience points in the inventory, which meant Zheng Ren could once again purchase a few hours of surgery intensive training time. However, he decided to hold onto them as he had no need for training at the time being. Besides, the points would not devalue while in the System, right?

The mission tab gave Zheng Ren a sense of satisfaction.

Every doctor would feel content whether they were saving lives or improving their skills.

Zheng Ren was taken aback when he noticed the main mission’s progression.

An incision and drainage for acute obstructive suppurative cholangitis was considered a tier-three surgery, and thus according to the terms in the main mission, it was equivalent to four tier-one surgeries.

However, the completion rate…

Zheng Ren had completed the main mission—The Best Surgeon—twice after performing several cholecystectomies and appendectomies these past few days.

There was still some progression left after receiving the rewards twice, but Zheng Ren noticed a notification upon seeing the main mission. “The mission has been completed. Please receive the reward.”

The completion rate should be 4+1=5, right? Why was there a reward?

Well, a reward was always good. Zheng Ren immediately clicked the “Receive” button without hesitation.

After obtaining 10 skill points and 1000 experience points, Zheng Ren then observed that the main mission completion rate was at seven.

In other words, the surgery he had performed just now was actually much more advanced than a tier-four surgery.

Was parasite removal considered a tier-five surgery? Even though Zheng Ren was aware that barely anyone in the world could properly perform a parasite removal surgery, parasitic diseases were still uncommon in China.

Every time a patient with parasitic disease was treated, the doctor in charge would brag about it and enjoyed public admiration by posting it on Xinglin Garden or Zhihu[1].

Zheng Ren was exhilarated to find out that he had completed what had turned out to be a highly advanced surgical procedure.

Even though there was no comprehensive improvement, his total savings of three skill books, nearly 50000 experience points and 1380 skill points put a warm smile on his face.

He had 1975 points in his general surgery skill tree as well.

This surgery had given Zheng Ren lots of benefits.

…

After the patient was transferred back to the ward, Zheng Ren put on a white coat without changing out of surgical attire and went for a ward round.

Since there were not many patients in the emergency ward, almost every patient had the privilege of their own sick room.

Zheng Ren saw Cen Meng taking care of a patient when he walked into the ward.

He knew that his former superior had completely admitted defeat, so he gave Cen Meng a forgiving smile and read the data on the monitor.

The patient’s vital signs were stable. He had fully regained consciousness from general anesthesia and was able to speak fluently.

The initial yellowish discoloration of the skin, just like a Minion, had begun to recover at a rate almost visible to the naked eye.

“Zheng Ren, thank you,” said Cen Meng in embarrassment.

“No worries.” Zheng Ren waved his hand and smiled. “I’ll feel relaxed tonight knowing that you’ll be here taking care of the patient.”

“Postoperative recovery is uneventful. Good job on the surgery.”

They engaged in an awkward conversation afterward. Cen Meng had previously only created trouble for Zheng Ren and yet had been repaid with kindness, filling him with guilt and shame.

Not only was Zheng Ren unbothered by Cen Meng’s attitude, the man was not even spiteful, and that greatly mortified him. He did not realize that the System had already informed Zheng Ren of his sincerity.

Zheng Ren saw Chang Yue chatting with a patient when he visited the other ward. Both the patient and his family members were particularly enthusiastic toward Chang Yue, as if she was one of their own, to the point that Zheng Ren, the surgeon who treated the patient, was basically non-existent in their eyes.

‘That’s skillful.’ Zheng Ren sighed emotionally.

Chang Yue stopped chatting immediately upon noticing Zheng Ren’s entry to the ward.

In her opinion, chatting was just a means to improve the relationship between patients and family members. It was similar to psychotherapy in that it could hasten patients’ recovery.

She stood aside and half a step behind Zheng Ren, explaining the patient’s condition.

Chang Yue was able to clearly explain every trivial matter and one could understand the patient’s recovery process from her explanation alone without needing to personally check on the patient.

Most importantly, almost everything Chang Yue mentioned was the same as what was shown in the upper right corner of Zheng Ren’s vision.

Even if there were slight differences, that was not Chang Yue’s fault too as they were insignificant and unusual.

‘This clinician is very good.’ Zheng Ren nodded.

He did not know how to praise anyone. There was no one else he could compliment when he was still a junior doctor years ago, and now that he had been promoted to a chief resident, he still needed time to adapt to such a situation.

Chang Yue, who accompanied Zheng Ren for the rest of his ward round, was amazed at how quickly the patients had recovered.

However, Chang Yue was more aloof toward Zheng Ren compared to the patients. She seemed to have spent all her energy on them and simply had no interest in flattering her “immediate superior”.

Chang Yue’s trouble had been the talk of the town before, and even Zheng Ren was aware of it.

He actually found it interesting that her temper was much worse than his.

He admired her for her honesty and bluntness. As a doctor, it was considered the pinnacle of skill to cure patients’ illnesses and save lives. Anyone who thought they could get their way through flattery alone would have betrayed the white coat and their conscience.

Zheng Ren returned to his office after the ward round. He planned to utilize his free time for revision so that he could acquire skill points and reach the Master rank as soon as possible.

His phone beeped just when he opened his books.

It was the group chat created by Xie Yiren which included herself, the Chu sisters, Chang Yue and him.

The group was used for work-related issues only.

Therefore, Zheng Ren did not turn off notifications for it out of worry that he may not receive any emergency messages in time.

“Chief Zheng, the surgery today disgusted me,” said Chu Yanzhi.

“The feeling is mutual. I’m looking for consolation,” replied Xie Yiren.

“You won’t be able to get through this trouble if you don’t treat us to a meal. :face with hand over mouth:,” said Chu Yanran.

“What should we eat?”

“There is a newly opened restaurant in Jianshe Road, and it has good reviews too.”

“…”

“…”

There was no need for Zheng Ren to speak at all as the women had already decided to eat Sichuan boiled fish and that he would be the one paying for the bill.

Zheng Ren felt helpless. He had an average of over four hundred APM during surgery, but that was not the case during a conversation, especially with women. Soon, he was defeated.

[1] Zhihu is a Chinese question-and-answer website where questions are created, answered, edited and organized by the community of its users.