Chapter 767: Guess Who

Song Sisi stared intently at Li Xu, her eyes sparkling with near-worship. The more she looked at him, the more breathtakingly handsome she found this man to be.

For most women, an extraordinarily capable man acted as a powerful catalyst for their hormones. This “capability” could take many forms—wealth, high social status, immense competence, or awe-inspiring talent in a specific field. Ultimately, being drawn to strength was instinctual. And for Song Sisi, Li Xu’s unfathomable, all-encompassing mastery of medicine was the most lethal catalyst of all.

Even though she was always by his side and considered herself fairly familiar with him, Song Sisi never expected that Li Xu’s expertise would extend far beyond his god-like traditional Chinese medicine skills into the realm of surgical mastery. Judging from his calm demeanor in the resuscitation room early this morning and his performance on the operating table that left even Zeng Yunjun in awe, Li Xu was entirely capable of acting as the chief surgeon for major operations.

She wondered just how many more surprises this man had hidden away.

“It’s been a long night. You must be hungry, right? Let’s go get something to eat.” Li Xu glanced around, took Song Sisi’s hand, and led her to a breakfast stand that had just set up shop by the roadside.

They had two steaming bowls of tofu pudding and a few freshly fried, crispy dough sticks. It was a simple meal, but it tasted incredibly delicious.

After breakfast, the two took a taxi home. They unlocked the door and changed into their slippers. With a soft CLICK, the door shut, completely sealing off the hustle and bustle of the outside world. The previously tranquil atmosphere instantly shifted, becoming charged with a subtle tension as they found themselves alone in this private space.

For a moment, neither spoke; only the sound of their intertwined breaths filled the air. After a long while, the simmering hormonal tension reached its peak. Suddenly, Li Xu pulled Song Sisi firmly into his arms. They held each other tightly without a single word, diving straight into a long, passionate kiss that felt hot enough to melt them both. They kissed until they were breathless and on the verge of suffocation, only then pulling away with great reluctance.

A captivating blush painted Song Sisi’s cheeks. Her eyes were misty, and her lips were slightly parted as she panted softly. Her charming, seductive appearance ignited a fire in Li Xu’s chest. However, considering they had both stayed up all night and were physically exhausted, reason ultimately triumphed over impulse.

“Take a shower first and get some good sleep. Tonight… I’ll deal with you,” Li Xu whispered with a chuckle against her ear.

Embracing each other, they fell into a deep sleep. They didn’t wake until past three in the afternoon, finally roused by the pangs of hunger.

Later that afternoon, outside the ICU of the City Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Department Director Gong Zhengqi took off his sterile gown. Massaging his aching lower back, he walked out of the intensive care area alongside the Emergency Department Director, Zeng Yunjun.

“Old Zeng, that young man brought in the night before last with the ruptured spleen is completely stable now,” Gong Zhengqi remarked with a sigh as they walked. “During the ward rounds just now, the patient was awake. His vital signs are stable, there isn’t much drainage fluid in his tube, and the color is normal. He looks to be in excellent condition.

“Old Zeng, your scalpel is getting sharper by the day. With such a severe comminuted spleen rupture and massive intra-abdominal hemorrhage, normally, that spleen couldn’t be saved and would require a total splenectomy. Yet you managed to pull off a partial resection and repair, saving the remaining half!

“That kind of craftsmanship and suturing speed is absolutely impossible without twenty years of hard practice. Old Zeng, your skills are reaching new heights. Even I have to bow to your superiority.”

“Hey now.” Hearing this, Zeng Yunjun didn’t show a hint of smugness. Instead, he waved his hand and offered a bitter smile. “Old Gong, you’re flattering me to death. The credit for saving that spleen really doesn’t belong to me.”

“It doesn’t?” Gong Zhengqi froze and stopped in his tracks, looking at him suspiciously. “What, were you not the chief surgeon last night? But the surgical records clearly have your name on them.”

The City Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine wasn’t like the City People’s Hospital, which boasted numerous surgical departments and a robust roster of experts. The surgical departments here were few and far between; at most, they only really had one general surgery department. Over in the ER, the only people capable of performing a Level 4 emergency laparotomy and spleen repair—aside from the two general surgery directors who were on the verge of retirement—was Zeng Yunjun, their resident “old fast scalpel.” Had those two old guys been dragged out of bed in the middle of the night to operate?

“I was the chief surgeon, but… I can’t entirely take the credit for it.” Zeng Yunjun deliberately kept him in suspense, smiling as he spoke. “Old Gong, you would never guess who acted as my first assistant on the table that night, who helped me isolate the splenic pedicle vessels at the critical moment, or who suggested and guided that exquisite splenic repair and suturing.”

“You were, but you weren’t?” Gong Zhengqi was dizzy from the riddles, but his gossiping spirit was quickly ignited. Anyone who could earn such high praise from the usually arrogant Zeng Yunjun—to the point where he would willingly lower his own status to yield the primary credit—was absolutely no ordinary person.

“Was it a young hotshot?” Gong Zhengqi guessed tentatively.

“Mhm.” Zeng Yunjun nodded.

“They probably aren’t a doctor from our hospital, right?” Gong Zhengqi continued. He wondered if Zeng Yunjun had called in a visiting surgical expert from a major provincial hospital or even Capital City, or perhaps some genius surgical PhD who had just returned from studying abroad.

“He’s from our hospital,” Zeng Yunjun smiled.

“A doctor from our hospital? And a young one at that? Old Zeng, now you’re just messing with me.” Gong Zhengqi rolled his eyes at him in exasperation. “How is that possible? Do you think I don’t know exactly what our young general surgeons and emergency residents are capable of? If there really was a young surgical genius amazing enough to guide you through a spleen preservation surgery, how could he be living in obscurity? How could I not know about him?”

“He’s not from our Emergency Department, nor is he from General Surgery,” Zeng Yunjun said slowly.

“Not ER, and not General Surgery?” Gong Zhengqi’s brows furrowed tightly as his brain raced. Aside from those two departments, who else in the Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine could wield a scalpel? The orthopedics guys only knew how to saw bones and hammer nails, and the obstetrics and gynecology department only did C-sections. Could it be…

“An internal medicine doctor?” Gong Zhengqi blurted out in astonishment.

If it wasn’t the Emergency Department or General Surgery, coupled with Zeng Yunjun’s tone of awe and disbelief, it had to be an internist! And it had to be an internist with an extremely high status and reputation! Could it be? A flash of lightning suddenly struck Gong Zhengqi’s mind, and a name instantly leapt to the forefront.

“Dean Li?”

Young, genius, and having recently risen like a comet within the City Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine and the entire Feng City medical community—who else could it be but their newly appointed Vice Dean of Operations, Li Xu?