Great Doctor Ling Ran

In the afternoon, Yun Hua was washed down by a torrential rain.

Yun Hua Hospital’s white building sparkled against the backdrop of the blue sky. The steel-made words [Yun Hua Hospital] on top of the roof also looked brand-new after the rain

The large advertisement that covered the front façade of the medical technology building was about laparoscopic surgery. During the thunderstorm, the surgical instrument the doctor held in his hand—clad in a blue glove—looked like an evil professor’s weapon. However, with the fair weather right now, it looked like the toy of an an innocent teenage boy.

Family cars slowly exited the parking lot one by one, and the space in front of the hospital building which was extremely crowded a few hours ago began to empty out.

Ling Ran drove his little Volkswagen Jetta straight into the Emergency Department’s parking section in the hospital’s basement. The parking lots around him were all filled up. Just by seeing how none of the parking lots in the middle that had blue lines around them were empty, he knew that all the chief physicians and associate chief physicians were at work. It was obvious that yesterday was a peaceful day in the Emergency Department.

The Emergency Medicine building was perpetually filled with patients, their family members, and busy medical staff.

Ling Ran greeted everyone as he walked. He was quite used to this kind of situation. This was especially true when he was still a student. On the first day of every term, on his way to and from class, there would be countless girls saying and doing all kinds of weird things.

The people in Yun Hua Hospital were obviously a lot more rational compared to the ones in school. Perhaps because he was not away long, no one stopped him in his tracks to pass him letters or flowers.

Ling Ran arrived at the office without problems. When he saw that Department Director Huo was not around, he greeted a few doctors who had stayed behind in the office to take care of things before he sat down in his chair and leaned comfortably against the backrest. He then turned on his computer to catch up with the department’s latest updates.

Meanwhile, in a WeChat group, which he did not know had existed, post after post appeared at lightning speed.

[#location# Doctor Ling just arrived at the parking lot.]

[His little Volkswagen Jetta is so adorable.]

[It looks well-washed.]

[Doctor Ling must really like this car. How I wish that I could see the way Doctor Ling is drenched in sweat when he washes his car.]

[Wow, with this hot weather, he’ll probably have to take off his shirt if he’s drenched in sweat.]

[#location# He just entered the Emergency Medicine building.]

[We’ll finally get to see Doctor Ling again.]

[I’m so anxious.]

[I showed his picture to my friends from the provincial hospital some time ago. They stopped showing off the doctors in their hospital after that.]

[#location# He just arrived at the office.]

[It’s time to throw the die!]

[Let’s go!]

…..

The office door was slowly pushed open. The young nurse, Su Mengxue, craned her neck as she walked into the office. She held two journals. Pleasantly surprised, she called out, “Doctor Ling, you’re really here!”

“I just arrived.” Ling Ran wore a very relaxed expression. When he was in the Orthopedics and Sports Medicine Center, he always felt very anxious when he saw the large number of vacant beds. He was less anxious when he was in Yun Hua Hospital. The difference was probably like that of eating at a buffet, and eating in one’s own house.

“It’s great that you are back, Doctor Ling.” Su Mengxue sighed softly, emanating the youthful aura exclusive to young girls.

“Do you want some yogurt?” Ling Ran took out a bottle of yogurt from the drawer under his table and handed it to Su Mengxue.

“Mm-hm.” Su Mengxue only remembered her mission after she took the yogurt from Ling Ran’s hand. She quickly said, “Doctor Ling, your research papers are published.”

As she said that, she placed the two journals she held in her bosom before Ling Ran. They were already a little warm from her body temperature.

The one on top was the [Chinese Journal of Hand Surgery], while the one at the bottom was the [Chinese Manipulation and Rehabilitation Medical Journal].

The wings of small paper cranes peeked out from both of the journals, and their bodies were slipped in between the pages of the journal, functioning as bookmarks. Ling Ran saw his research papers the moment he flipped open both journals.

His thesis, [The Key Points of Chiropractic Manipulation for the Cervical Spine: Exploration of 450 Cases Using Spinal Back Manipulation], was published in the [Chinese Manipulation and Rehabilitation Medical Journal]. The journal was extremely uninfluential, and the only benefit one could gain from being published there was the fact that they got published. But when it came to career advancement and increasing the number of dissertations one published, the journal’s uninfluential nature would not be of much effect. It would still be counted as a published thesis, and for clinicians who did not have many opportunities to publish their papers, it was considered a mediocre achievement.

However, it was a different story when it came to the [Chinese Journal of Hand Surgery]. Even though an Article Influence Score of 0.45—which meant that every year, one out of two dissertations would be cited once—was not considered high, its score was considered quite good when it came to a Mandarin journal. Clinical medicine journals with an Article Influence Score of over 1.0 in China could be counted on one hand. Most importantly, it was a journal under China, so when those in the field brought it up, they would feel incredibly prideful. [The Key Points of the M-Tang Technique: Exploration of 368 Cases Using the M-Tang Technique] was not an extremely excellent thesis to begin with, and it was a considerably good choice to publish it in the [Chinese Journal of Hand Surgery].

Of course, for young doctors, publishing any research paper was a very precious achievement.

Many hospitals including Yun Hua Hospital followed a rating system when it came to promoting their doctors to higher positions. There were various criteria when it came to the addition and deduction of points.

Basically, if a doctor were to carry out all of his normal tasks, work overtime when he was required to, obey his leaders, not make any mistakes or receive any complaints, then he would be able to score between seventy-five and eighty points. Most of the time, a doctor needed to score around eighty-five points to receive a promotion. That would be when publishing a research paper, receiving a bonus, making a research breakthrough, and so on come into the picture.

For an ordinary doctor, the publication of two dissertations would be an opportunity for them to get an immediate promotion, or to get onto the fast-track and get promoted several times.

However, whether it was in ordinary or core journals, it was very tiring for a doctor to publish two research papers. Very few doctors from ordinary regional hospitals were able to do this.

With the workload of an ordinary doctor, unless one paid other people to write his research paper, or bullied younger doctors into writing it for him, he would only be able to write around two research papers every five years—without neglecting the regular tasks he needed to perform to get enough points for a promotion.

At this moment, Su Mengxue gazed at Ling Ran in awe and said, “Doctor Ling, you’re seriously amazing to have written two research papers in one go.”

“I received help from quite a lot of people,” Ling Ran answered honestly.

Su Mengxue blinked as she said earnestly, “As the saying goes: a just cause enjoys abundant support, while an unjust cause finds little.”

When the other doctors in the office heard this, they were shocked speechless. ‘What? Can this saying be applied to such a situation…?’

When they saw such a beautiful young nurse gazing at Ling Ran in admiration and racking her brain for words to praise him, even middle-aged doctors wanted to lament at the unfairness of this world.

“Doctor Ling, I’m going to take my leave now.” Su Mengxue waved her hand reluctantly. She looked extremely adorable.

Ling Ran nodded with a smile and took out a bar of chocolate from his drawer in passing. He handed it to Su Mengxue and said with a smile, “I got this from Shanghai. Why don’t you give it a try?”

“Mm-hm.” Su Mengxue’s heart was as sweet as honey as she walked vivaciously out of the office.

Ling Ran lowered his head to read his research papers. They were only slightly edited, and the meaning and structures were basically retained. Compared to other research papers from the same issue, his research papers were roughly of an average level. Research papers related to clinical medicine were basically just summaries of experiences, and were rarely groundbreaking.

The doctors in the office congratulated him one after another. Some of them were just following the crowd, while some of them were truly envious.

For most doctors, writing a research paper was even harder than performing a hundred surgeries. Writing two was totally out of the question.

*Ring, ring…*

The office phone rang, jumbling up everyone’s train of thought once more.

One of them answered the call. He hummed a few times in acknowledgement while his expression became solemn.

The doctor hung up the phone and said, “There was a public emergency. Everyone must report to the resuscitation room now.”

“How serious is it?” All the doctors stood up.

“Level 3, relatively serious.”

Public emergencies were divided into levels. Level 1 was for extremely serious emergencies, Level 2 for serious emergencies, and Level 3 for relatively serious emergencies.

A relatively serious emergency indicated that three people were either dead or in critical condition. In a city like Yun Hua, even though cases like these needed to be handled earnestly, it was not a very uncommon situation.

According to the requirements of Yun Hua Hospital, all medical staff in the Emergency Department must be mobilized when such an emergency occurred. Aside from that, when other departments received news about it, they must also immediately dispatch relevant doctors to the Emergency Department.

Ling Ran placed the journal in his hand on the table, grabbed a large white coat, and followed the others as they walked quickly. When he arrived at the resuscitation room, he saw that a crowd of doctors were gathered there. They were all waiting for the ambulance to arrive.

Huo Congjun stood at the forefront of the crowd. He had a determined gaze, and his large white coat looked like a cape as it swayed along to the breeze from the air-conditioner.

The great superiors of the department such as Department Associate Director Du and Chief Physician Tao stood beside him, while young and strong attending physicians like Zhao Leyi and Zuo Liangcai flanked the superiors. They looked well-trained.

Doctor Zhou and a few resident doctors stood in the corner of the room. Doctor Zhou knelt on a one-legged stool and put half his body weight on it. With his head lowered, he looked at his cellphone with one eye, and observed the situation around him with the other eye.

Ling Ran immediately walked over and tapped Doctor Zhou’s shoulder from the back as a greeting.

Doctor Zhou was so shocked that he almost dropped his phone. When he turned and saw Ling Ran, he snapped, “You come back without gifts, and give me a scare instead?”

“I bought some Shanghai local specialties from Taobao. They’ll be arriving in the afternoon.” When it came to buying gifts, Ling Ran was still quite experienced.

Doctor Zhou’s lips twitched. “You’re going to be spending a lot of money, let me tell you that.”

“Academician Zhu paid me surgery fees. Each was more than a hundred RMB.”

“How much can you do with one hundred…” Doctor Zhou paused and realized that something was not quite right. He asked, “How much did you receive in total?”

“31,555 RMB,” Ling Ran answered precisely.

“You did three hundred surgeries?!” Doctor Zhou felt tired just thinking about it.

“Not that many. Some of the surgeries paid more. I did less than two hundred surgeries in total,” Ling Ran said as if it was nothing special. He then asked, “Do you know what emergency this is?”

Doctor Zhou scratched his chin and whispered, “From what I heard, a robber drove against traffic during his escape and crashed into a sedan. The three people in the sedan died on the spot, while the robber was injured. He’s being sent here now.”

“Oh…” Ling Ran looked at the crowd of doctors around him and said, “So, we’re not actually needed here?”

Doctor Zhou said assuredly, “I’m definitely not needed—”

“Ling Ran!” Huo Congjun knew that Ling Ran had returned, so he called out loudly, “Come here and receive the patient with us.”