Great Doctor Ling Ran

“Can you guys take some scans for us to look at?” Zhu Tongyi massaged his waist and straightened his body again as he raised the request.

Naturally, Huo Congjun agreed immediately.

Meanwhile, Yuan Wei and He Jinxiu looked extremely anxious. They asked, “Is there a problem?”

“There’s no problem. Your fingers are recovering very well, much better than those of ordinary people. I’d like to see what exactly is going on…” Zhu Yongyi told the patient what was going on with a smile. He then deliberately explained, “We are the ones who want to take a look at the results of those scans, so there’s no need for you to pay for them. You just need to corporate with us as we take those scans, and we’ll give you a consultation later.”

The gap between anxiety and happiness was only the size of a free checkup.

After staying in the hospital for quite a while, Yuan Wei and He Jinxiu knew that none of the checkups were cheap. As a nurse pushed Yuan Wei for his check-up on a wheelchair, he felt less annoyed about Xue Haochu removing his dressing earlier.

X-ray…

MRI scan…

Doppler ultrasonography…

CT scan…

Since Zhu Tongyi was tired of walking, he sat down inside the Emergency Department’s office and waited for someone to serve him a cup of tea. He sipped the tea slowly as he chatted, and he looked like one of those old men who stood by the roadside to watch other people play chess.

After chatting for a while, Zhu Tongyi reckoned that it was almost time for those scans to be completed. He curiously asked, “Where’s the doctor who operated on this patient? Why isn’t he here?”

“Ling Ran’s performing a surgery,” someone who knew Ling Ran’s whereabouts answered.

Zhu Tongyi hummed in acknowledgement. There seemed to be a slight hint of regret in his tone.

Zhao Leyi felt happy for some unknown reason. Even though the huge price he paid in exchange for a chance to show his face did not seem to be paying off, the situation was far worse for doctors who did not pay any sort of price and were stuck in the operating theater. Ling Ran could have had the opportunity to show his face, but that did not happen because he did not exchange shifts with another doctor. This was a rare opportunity, and Ling Ran missed it just because he did not pay a huge price…

“Go and get Ling Ran. See how’s the progress of the surgery he’s performing.” Huo Congjun glanced at his watch before he explained to Zhu Tongyi, “Ling Ran has always been quick when he performs his surgeries. I reckon that he’s almost done.”

“I can only stay a bit longer.” The academician did not have a fixed schedule. He was an orthopedist himself, and knew that finger replantation surgeries always took a long time. It would take an even longer time if an accident happened during the surgery. He definitely could not wait indefinitely for Ling Ran.

Huo Congjun did not expect that Zhu Tongyi would want to meet Ling Ran. Deep down, he was rather reluctant for them to meet. Hence, he was not proactive when it came to the matter, and just went with the flow. “The patient Ling Ran’s operating on today has two severed fingers. I have a feeling he’s probably coming out soon,” he said.

Lu Wenbin coughed a few times.

Huo Congjun arched an eyebrow and looked at Lu Wenbin. “If you have something to say, then say it. Don’t just cough.”

“Ling Ran’s already done with the patient with two severed fingers. But then a patient with three severed fingers arrived, and…” Lu Wenbin gave Huo Congjun a look, knowing that Huo Congjun would understand what he meant.

Huo Congjun immediately got it.

Initially, Ling Ran was only supposed to operate on a patient with two severed fingers and be free for the rest of the day. If anymore patients with one or two severed fingers were to arrive after that, they would be transferred straight to the Hand Surgery Department… But in the end, the new patient who showed up had three severed fingers.

Huo Congjun did not even have to think with his brain to know that Ling Ran definitely could not hold back his excitement and went into the operating theater again.

Huo Congjun could only chuckle as he looked at the academician. He felt a little regretful but rather relieved at the same time.

Zhu Tongyi smiled calmly. He never insisted on meeting Ling Ran, anyway. “No matter how good an egg tastes, it doesn’t mean one must take a look at the hen that laid the egg.”

The test reports were sent over the moment they were out.

Huo Congjun took them and gave them a once-over. He hesitated for a few seconds before he passed them to Zhu Tongyi. Then, he looked at Lu Wenbin and coughed a few times.

Lu Wenbin’s heart brimmed with joy. He arched his eyebrow and was about to say, “If you have something to say, then say it. Don’t just cough.”

However, he swallowed his words and bent his waist, which could carry a one-hundred-and-eighty pound weight in a deadlift [1]. Following that, he moved next to Huo Congjun in an obedient and submissive manner.

“Did you carry out Yuan Wei’s surgery together with Ling Ran?” Huo Congjun asked.

“Yes,” Lu Wenbin answered obediently like an intelligent Golden Retriever. He even rubbed his heels on the ground.

“What was the exact situation?”

“It was…” Lu Wenbin was rather baffled by the question. In a low voice, he said, “It was an ordinary surgery. He called for Su Jiafu, Yu Yuan, and me. Wang Jia was the scrub nurse…”

“That’s not what I wanted to know.” Huo Congjun waved his hand dismissively. It was inappropriate for him to continue to debrief Lu Wenbin in front of so many people anyway.

Since Zhu Tongyi did not gather anything useful after he listened closely for a while, he proceeded to read the scans, one by one.

After he read the scans for some time, Zhu Tongyi rose abruptly and laid them out on a table. Xue Haochu immediately went forward and helped him with it.

Huo Congjun watched them silently. When it came to the orthopedics, Zhu Tongyi’s abilities far surpassed everyone’s in the room. He naturally had the rights to read the scans whichever way he wanted to.

“The surgery was done pretty well.” Zhu Tongyi suddenly raised his head and chuckled a few times as he faced Huo Congjun.

“He’s a pretty talented young man,” Huo Congjun went along and answered Zhu Tongyi.

“This young man… Ling Ran? Is he still in the operating theater? How much longer do you reckon he’ll take?” Zhu Tongyi asked.

Huo Congjun looked at the person beside him.

Lu Wenbin rubbed his heels against the floor and said, “Probably a little over an hour.”

“That’s all right. We’ll take a rest first, then.” Zhu Tongyi flashed a wide smile, his white hair swaying along with his head. He then asked Xue Haochu to keep the scans.

Zhu Tongyi’s words from before flashed in Huo Congjun’s mind. ‘No matter how good an egg tastes, it doesn’t mean one must take a look at the hen that laid the egg…’

At that moment, Zhu Tongyi obviously wanted to take a look at the hen that laid the egg.

Huo Congjun looked out the window, feeling displeased. ‘People nowadays fart whenever they wish to, no matter how amazing they are…’

All the young doctors were very happy, though. They took the opportunity to go forward and ask all kinds of questions, regardless of whether they were relevant or not.

No matter what answer Academician Zhu gave them, at least they finally got the chance to show their face.

Zhu Tongyi happened to be in a pretty good mood too, and answered a few questions earnestly, making it seem as if he was holding a forum.

Zhao Leyi was the most excited among them all. He trembled violently and said, “Academician Zhu, I’ve been carrying out a lot of surgeries on elbow joints lately, and I encountered a few problems regarding the medial approach…”

“Hm, Xue Haochu, can you answer that question?” Zhu Tongyi casually called one of his students to answer the question before he picked his cup up and drank a mouthful of tea. He felt a little thirsty after speaking for quite a while, so he took the opportunity to test his own student with Zhao Leyi’s question.

After Xue Haochu was called, he pondered calmly for more than ten seconds before he answered Zhao Leyi’s question.

As Zhao Leyi gazed at Xue Haochu, who was around his age, he could not help but feel dejected.

All the PhD students under Zhu Tongyi were carefully selected by the academician. Right then, Xue Haochu demonstrated profound theoretical knowledge.

Zhao Leyi proceeded to look at the other doctors who accompanied the academician, and none of them showed any obvious change in expression. It was obvious that what Xue Haochu just demonstrated was not extraordinary to them at all.

However, the question Zhao Leyi raised was based on real problems that he had encountered. Even though it was a good thing that he got an answer, to have his problem solved so easily…

Zhao Leyi retreated silently. He then took a few more steps back, stood at the corner of the meeting room, and spoke no more.

Once he lost some interest in trying to chase after fame and benefits, Zhao Leyi finally realized that Zhu Tongyi totally did not care about what was happening in the meeting room as he listened to the conversations around him.

Zhu Tongyi leaned against the backrest of his chair and rested his chin on his hand. His gaze was empty while he looked forward. Even though he looked like he was listening to what everyone was saying, in reality, he had other things on his mind.

After a long time, Zhu Tongyi sat up and spoke again in an urging tone, “How’s Ling Ran progressing with the surgery?”

Lu Wenbin had been paying attention to that. He glanced at Department Director Huo before he said, “He’s started with the third finger and is almost done with the surgery.”

“That’s pretty quick,” Zhu Tongyi commented and leaned back in his seat.

At that moment, Huo Congjun felt especially unsettled. He chuckled a few times and said, “Academician Zhu, don’t you plan on visiting other departments?”

“Your department is my last stop today.”

“It’s dinner time now…”

“I’ve delayed my dinner appointment by a little. There’s no rush,” Zhu Tongyi said in a very reasonable manner.

Huo Congjun furrowed his eyebrows, but there was nothing that he could do.

Zhu Tongyi only got to see Ling Ran in his white coat after he waited roughly another hour.

Since Ling Ran had to meet the academician, once he was outside the door, the hospital’s administrative staff asked him to change into a new, large, white coat.

The brand-new, large, white coat even had marks on it, indicating that it had just been ironed. It fit Ling Ran perfectly and was of just the right length, making him look radiant and dashing.

Zhu Tongyi’s eyes brightened when he saw Ling Ran. He praised him, “He has the aura of a celebrity doctor.”

Huo Congjun looked at Zhu Tongyi vigilantly. He put on the expression he had when he was about to scold someone.

“Department Director Huo, Academician Zhu…” Ling Ran greeted them in his usual demeanor.

He received praises all the time, and people praised him in various ways every day. It was not something rare for him at all.

As a result, Zhu Tongyi had even more admiration for Ling Ran. He had praised a lot of young people before, and all of them reacted with reverence and awe. He rarely met young people who were neither obsequious nor arrogant like Ling Ran.

“We were looking at a patient you operated on earlier. His name is Yuan Wei. Do you remember him?” Zhu Tongyi asked with a smile.

“I remember him. He should be recovering pretty well, right?”

“Yes, very well!” Zhu Tongyi started laughing. “Can you tell us how you carried out the surgery?”

Ling Ran immediately realized that the patient Zhu Tongyi saw was definitely the one he operated on when trying to complete the [Perfect Suture] mission.

However, [Perfect Suture] only looked at the result after the surgery. Ling Ran actually did not use any special techniques when he sutured the patient’s fingers. If he were forced to say that he did something different, he would say that he had utilized some imported medical consumables and equipment.

However, everyone who performed surgeries knew that even though medical consumables and equipment were very important, under the hands of a skilled surgeon, their importance diminished. It was especially true for surgeries such as finger replantations. Now that the surgery was widely performed throughout the country, more and more medical consumables were needed. Hence the reason why the standards of the medical consumables produced by local manufacturers had also increased.

“I carried out the surgery as usual according to the standard method, in sequence. And… I spent a little more time than usual on debridement. The patient had pretty severe vascular thrombosis, which was slightly out of my expectation…” Ling Ran described it in a placid manner, without mentioning the fact that he put in special effort to carry out the surgery well. Most surgeons desired to carry out surgeries to the best of their abilities when they stood before operating tables. Such subjective mental activity did not affect reality.

In truth, surgeons with good skills would carry out surgeries well, while surgeons with lackluster skills would carry out surgeries horribly. It had nothing to do with their character, personality, or whether they were a slave to money, or anything else.

Zhu Tongyi listened earnestly, as though he was not familiar with how finger replantation surgeries were carried out.

Yet, some of the steps in the surgical methods used for current finger replantation surgeries in China were actually influenced by Zhu Tongyi. It was not an overstatement to say that Zhu Tongyi had suggested improvements to those steps.

Nevertheless, Zhu Tongyi listened to Ling Ran for more than ten minutes. He only drew a long breath after Ling Ran finished speaking and came to a conclusion. “It was just an ordinary finger replantation surgery.”

“Of course. It was just an ordinary finger replantation surgery,” Ling Ran answered.

“So, we’ve come to a conclusion here.” Zhu Tongyi flashed a motherly smile as he gazed at Ling Ran, “With your capable hands and superb skills, you managed to carry out high-quality finger replantation surgery just by following the standard method.”

Huo Congjun was livid at the side. No one was allowed to comment on Ling Ran’s skills, not even someone as great as Zhu Tongyi. “Ling Ran is a core member of Yun Hua Hospital’s Emergency Department. Of course his skills are superb!”

“A little too superb.”

“Is that a problem?” Huo Congjun fixed his gaze on Zhu Tongyi, ignoring the look on the faces of the hospital’s leaders.

Zhu Tongyi waved his hand in dismissal. He then rose and said with a smile, “Why would the fact that his skills are superb be a problem? He can solve problems with his superb skills.”

The smiling Zhu Tongyi looked at Ling Ran and said, “Doctor Ling, I have a case where an athlete has suffered a sports injury. Even though we already have a relatively complete plan, we have not been able to settle on a chief surgeon because it would require someone very highly-skilled. Would you like to give it a try?”

Before Ling Ran had the time to reply, a prompt appeared in his mind.

[Mission Completed: Perfect Suture]

[Mission Details: Utilize your Perfect Level Finger Replantation Skills to suture the patient, Yuan Wei’s fingers perfectly]

[Reward: Intermediate Treasure Chest]

Translator’s notes:

The deadlift is a weight training exercise in which a loaded barbell or bar is lifted off the ground to the level of the hips, then lowered to the ground. (Source: Wikipedia)