The Surgeon's Studio

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Zheng Ren was left alone after the ladies happily went for their meal. Finally, some peace and quiet for more revision.

He was fully aware that Rome was not built in a day.

Reading books attentively offered many advantages. For example, during his intensive training in the System, how could he have come up with various creative ideas if he lacked even the basic knowledge of surgery?

Wasting the System’s intensive training time was a crime!

In addition, Zheng Ren had a feeling that the growth in his skill trees would make intensive training more beneficial in the future. If an expert in hepatobiliary surgery went for training in gastrointestinal surgery with a strong foundation, their learning process would be ten times faster compared to junior doctors who had just graduated. It was a logical assumption.

Zheng Ren was perturbed during his revision. He thought for a while and decided that it was likely because he had not gone for a ward round in the emergency department after visiting the wards.

‘Better just go and have a look, so that I don’t have to keep worrying about it.’

After ensuring that the patients in the wards were alright, Zheng Ren went downstairs to the emergency department. If all the patients’ conditions were stable, he could then return to his office and concentrate on his revision.

He was greeted with a flurry of activity upon reaching the emergency department corridor.

Unconscious drunkards who had been binge-drinking in the middle of the day were currently receiving gastric lavage. There were parents bringing their children, who were playing truant and pretending sickness, for consultations. People involved in minor traffic accidents were unwilling to relent and came to the emergency department to pursue their grievances.

Zheng Ren had gotten used to it after constantly experiencing these situations throughout his career.

There was a suppressed, despairing weep at one corner of the corridor, unlike the kind of theatrical wailing with a complete absence of tears.

Huh? What had happened? In general, patients visiting the emergency department were critically ill. Since their conditions were usually unexpected, the family members would express their emotions in a relatively straightforward way instead of letting out such a sob.

Zheng Ren walked toward the source and felt even more puzzled.

Everything looked fine. A family of three was hugging each other and crying sorrowfully as if one of them was going to depart this life.

“Girl, you’ve to take care of your mother when I’m gone,” said a dark-skinned man, who appeared mature and hardworking, with dust and mud smeared across his body.

Judging by his appearance, he seemed to be in his fifties, but Zheng Ren read through the details on the upper right corner of his vision and realized that he was only forty-two years old.

They were most likely farmers from a remote village.

A swarthy lady knelt on the floor and sniveled alongside a middle-aged woman opposite her. Pearl-shaped tears rolled down their cheeks one after another with no sign of stopping.

“Dad, you’re going to be fine. Nothing bad will happen to you.”

“It’s okay. I don’t recognize many words but I can still understand them. I initially thought it was just a minor illness but I didn’t expect it to be cancer. Girl, as older generations once said, life and death are fated. I’m not going to blame fate, but I just regret leaving this world without seeing your marriage and my grandchildren in my lifetime.”

The more he spoke, the sadder he became. In the end, he choked up and words failed to leave his mouth.

Different characters would have distinct behaviours in a life-and-death situation.

However, this time… It was definitely the most absurd situation Zheng Ren had ever encountered in his life.

He quickly walked toward the family and tried to make his voice as gentle as possible so that he would not accidentally irritate the “terminally ill” patient.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” asked Zheng Ren.

“Huh?” The middle-aged man raised his head and saw Zheng Ren wearing green hospital attire underneath a white coat, unlike the other doctors he had seen previously. Thus, he presumed that Zheng Ren had a much higher rank than them.

“Doctor, please save my father.” The girl noticed Zheng Ren and immediately stood up.

Wow… The teenage girl aged around eighteen years old actually stood at 180 centimeters, which made Zheng Ren look extremely short…’What do the ladies eat nowadays? They’re so tall!’ Zheng Ren complained in silence.

The girl bowed deeply, trying her very best to convey her hope.

“Stand up and talk,” Zheng Ren replied with a smile, “Your father is fine.”

“He has cancer.” The girl’s complexion was ashen-grey with despair.

Zheng Ren shook his head and took the outpatient medical record from her hands. The details had been written very clearly and the diagnosis was exactly the same as the System provided—right inguinal hernia.

“This is a hernia, not cancer.” Zheng Ren’s mind went offline instantly.

“It was written here,” The girl pointed at the word “hernia” in the final diagnosis and said, “This is cancer[1]. Doctor, can you save my father?”

Her eyes were lucid and crystal clear like limpid spring water in a mountain valley.

“…” Zheng Ren suddenly realized that the reason for this family’s sorrow was because… because… because they misidentified the word.

Zheng Ren had been working in the medical field for almost seven years, and this was the first time he encountered this issue.

It was said that doctors’ handwriting was atrocious, and that was the truth. There was a good reason for that—previously, all prescriptions had been handwritten and half of the text was in Latin. Doctors, especially those working in the emergency department, would be beaten to death if they took their time writing medical records.

However, everything had been computerized, and ugly handwriting was basically non-existent in the current world.

Zheng Ren had no idea how to react to this situation.

“Lady, this word is called hernia, not cancer,” Zheng Ren tried his best to be gentle in his explanation. How he wished Chang Yue could assist him at this moment.

Judging by Chang Yue’s communication skills, she could probably convince this family in deep grievance within a minute.

On the other hand, Zheng Ren had to explain further before he could successfully persuade them.

“Huh?” The girl froze for a moment, rubbing the corner of her shirt with her fingers repeatedly as if she was going to tear it to shreds in confusion and shame.

“This disease can be easily treated.” Zheng Ren smiled.

“Doctor, you can’t lie to us. We really don’t have enough money,” said the middle-aged man honestly.

“Don’t worry. If you undergo the surgery on time and there is no bowel necrosis, you can be discharged in three days and go to work in one week,” replied Zheng Ren.

The family was still in a trance after escaping death. They were dazed and confused as they had not completely come out from their deep mire of sadness.

This was an elective surgical case and belonged to the general surgery department.

“Let’s go. I’ll ask other doctors to handle your hospital admission process. In the ward, you’ll undergo examination and testing. If there are no contraindications for surgery, we’ll then perform the operation. It’s just a simple procedure, so don’t worry.”

“Am I really fine?”

“Yes, really.” Zheng Ren could only use simple, mundane words to convince this family.

“Chief Zheng, where are you? We’ve returned with your meal. Well, they’re basically leftovers.” Zheng Ren received a call from Xie Yiren amidst the trouble.

“Ask Chang Yue to come to the emergency department,” instructed Zheng Ren who seemed to have found his lifesaver.

Soon, Chang Yue, dressed in snow-white with a red stethoscope hanging on her shoulder, entered the emergency department with her ponytail dancing with every footstep.

Where did such a young, beautiful lady get her communication skills from? Zheng Ren was puzzled.

After listening to Zheng Ren’s explanation, Chang Yue smiled and said, “Leave it to me.”

Then, Chang Yue, who seemed to radiate a calming and peaceful aura, brought the family to a quiet corner. Zheng Ren sighed in relief and went for a ward round in the emergency department observation units.

The patients’ conditions were relatively simple. In the surgery division, a patient with head trauma had been admitted for observation to prevent possible delayed traumatic intracerebral hemorrhage. In the internal medicine division, the cases were mainly acute gastroenteritis secondary to binge eating and drinking.

The diagnosis and treatment of these cases were simple.

After looking around the unit and ensuring that there had been no misdiagnoses, Zheng Ren finally felt at ease.

Zheng Ren vaguely heard laughter from the corner of the corridor upon exiting the last observation unit.

He walked over and saw the middle-aged woman holding Chang Yue’s hand in delight.

Had Chang Yue become one of their own just like that?

Zheng Ren was truly amazed and felt that he could never achieve such a skill even if he had his whole life to do so.

Chang Yue chatted with the family, who had smiled away the sadness, for a while and then went to Zheng Ren. “Chief Zheng, the patient has agreed to receive surgical treatment. Should I admit him to the ward now?”

“Hey, this is an elective surgical case. We can’t accept him,” Zheng Ren quickly said.

There were rules in the hospital and it was better not to break them without support from powerful superiors. Otherwise, the consequences would be disastrous.

“The patient’s condition is simple, but the problem is that they’re poor,” said Chang Yue as she stood in front of Zheng Ren. Whenever she was fulfilling her duty, the smile she wore while chatting with the patients and family members would vanish without a trace.

[1] Hernia (疝) and cancer (癌) look almost similar and hence, the confusion.