Great Doctor Ling Ran

Ling Ran slept until four in the morning. He was woken up by his alarm clock.

When he got out of bed and walked out of the on-call room, he could hear a lot of snores echoing in the corridor.

The doors of most of the on-call rooms were open. Only some of them had a portiere. Through the doors without portieres, doctors could be seen sleeping with their work clothes on. Some of them were barefooted, and some even covered their faces with their socks.

Yu Yuan was sleeping in the lower bunk of a bunk bed, which was located beside the door inside the first-string on-call room at the turn of the corner. The bottom half of her body was curled up underneath a blanket, while the entirety of the top half of her body was on top of the pillow. Her black hair looked a little golden underneath the light, and she looked like a Labrador who was wearing clothes and sleeping on its owner’s bed.

Ling Ran entered the on-call room and kicked the lower bunk Yu Yuan was sleeping in. He then tapped the top bunk of the bunk bed opposite Yu Yuan’s and said in a hushed tone, “It’s time to make ward rounds.”

Lu Wenbin, who was sleeping in the top bunk rolled over and said, “I’m not buying any pig hooves today.”

Ling Ran rolled his eyes and repeated, “It’s time to make ward rounds.”

“I don’t want this dream. Can I switch to another dream?” Lu Wenbin muttered in a determined manner.

Ling Ran kicked Yu Yuan’s bed again and raised his voice a little. “We need to make ward rounds now.”

“No, I’m not a hoarder. I don’t suffer from compulsive hoarding… Without a search warrant, you guys are not allowed to look at my collection. Not even in your wildest dreams!” Yu Yuan wiped her mouth and gulped.

Ling Ran found that extremely disgusting. He turned and walked out the room before calling their phones instead.

Two minutes later, both Lu Wenbin and Yu Yuan showed up at the end of the corridor.

Yu Yuan had even washed her face and put on lipstick.

“Let’s make ward rounds,” Ling Ran said.

“Now?” Yu Yuan looked at the time and said in resignation, “Doctor Ling, even though all the patients and their family members like you a lot, you will probably get scolded for making ward rounds at this hour of the day.”

Ling Ran said calmly, “We’ll first apologize to them and make some small talk in a respectful manner.”

“Hmm… This sounds like it would work.” Yu Yuan looked skeptically at Ling Ran. “You were probably not the one who thought of this.”

“Department Director Huo texted me.” Ling Ran waved his phone.

“Did a patient and his family members finally file a complaint against us?” Yu Yuan muttered to herself.

“What?” Ling Ran was shocked.

“Hu-huh? What?” Yu Yuan panicked a little. She felt like she had just said something wrong.

Ling Ran put his phone into his pocket and said, “There was a period of time when Department Director Huo was pretty busy and made ward rounds at two or three in the morning. This is why he is experienced in this.”

Yu Yuan looked like she just had an epiphany. “I see.”

“I see!” Lu Wenbin, too, quickly nodded. He then asked, “How about Old Zuo?”

“Zuo Cidian is extremely tired. We’ll let him sleep for a bit more.” After Ling Ran said this, he headed toward the ward area.

Yu Yuan and Lu Wenbin looked at each other and quickly followed Ling Ran.

Lu Wenbin said in a hushed tone, “Why does Old Zuo get to sleep more?”

“It’s probably because Old Zuo is so old that his age is equivalent to both of ours added together?” Yu Yuan’s voice was similarly low.

Lu Wenbin shook his head and joked in a hushed tone, “It might be because Old Zuo might get a heart attack soon, and Doctor Ling noticed it. Doctor Ling might have even carried out a physical examination on him…”

“This is also possible.” Yu Yuan slowly voiced her agreement.

The ward area of the Emergency Medical Center was full of patients and their family members.

Unlike the ICU, where the patients’ family members had to be separated from the hospital bed, in the ordinary ward area of the Emergency Medical Center, the patients’ family members were always crowded around the patients. Whenever the rooms were filled with patients, and hence a lot of patients’ family members, the temperature in the rooms would become higher by a few degrees Fahrenheit.

At this time, it was impossible to rely on the central air conditioning system to regulate the temperature, as the system had been working at maximum capacity to begin with.

“I’m sorry, but we’re here to check on you. How are you doing?” Yu Yuan woke the patient up in a soft voice and immediately flashed a smile, “Please raise your arms so that I can listen to your heart sounds.

The patient, who was woken up at four in the morning, was totally dumbfounded. He looked at Yu Yuan and the others like they were night thieves.

Ling Ran walked behind Yu Yuan and Lu Wenbin without saying a thing as they made ward rounds.

Even though there was a sudden emergency, they still had to carry out their usual tasks, and making ward rounds was one of them. This was the difference between working in hospitals and working in any other institution. For some jobs, employers could put all their focus on a certain task when things got busy. However, if all the medical staff in a hospital put all their focus on a certain task and neglected their usual tasks, it might result in a sudden hike in mortality rate.

Aside from this, a surgeon’s work did not end with the completion of an operation. There were plenty of follow-up tasks. In short, a doctor’s work was never-ending. Even if ten doctors were assigned to take care of only one patient together, they might also need to work till dawn. Similarly, if a doctor were assigned to take care of ten patients, it was very possible that he would need to work till dawn.

“Hello…”

“Excuse me…”

“I’m sorry…”

“Is it possible for you to…”

The doctors of Ling Treatment Group tried their best to speak pleasantly and politely as they made ward rounds, and did not end up upsetting too many people.

When they arrived at a room that did not quite fit into the ring-shaped ward, they encountered another group of doctors.

“Doctor Ling, are you making ward rounds?” Department Associate Director Du greeted Ling Ran with a smile in the manner of a genial senior doctor.

Ling Ran nodded. “We’re almost done.”

“Oh. What time did you start?”

“Four.”

“We started at half past three. It seems that we were a little slower. However, we’re done now. Doctor Ling, do carry on with your tasks, then. I won’t be disturbing you.” Department Associate Director Du chuckled. He clapped, a little pleased with himself, and a few doctors walked out from the rooms behind him. They were exercising their limbs and looked a lot like zombies.

Those who were not in the know would think that the doctors were even more gravely ill than the patients.

“We’re done with the ward rounds too,” Yu Yuan said, not willing to show any sign of weakness.

Department Associate Director Du hummed in acknowledgement and said, “Let’s have breakfast together, then. I’ve gotten someone to deliver some dim sum from Auspicious Wealth House. There’s stuff like steamed pork ribs and beef balls.”

The moment the zombie-like doctors heard that, they looked like they just smelled some sort of tantalizing aroma. They raised their heads in unison and straightened their necks while cheering.

All of them had woken up at dawn and worked for a few hours, and were craving for a scrumptious breakfast.

Lu Wenbin licked his lips and could not help but say, “We can make you guys some rice with pork trotters…”

All the doctors from Department Associate Director Du’s treatment group flashed a smile.

“Excuse me.” Three men who were also wearing large white coats but had toques on their heads came before the doctors.

Behind them, Tian Qi was clad in a dress and wore a pair of heels.

Even though the dress covered her feet, it did not affect her movements. The dress seemed to be tailor-made for her, as it matched her height exactly.

“Doctor Ling, I happened to pass by Yun Hua City, so I thought of bringing some nice food over. You guys haven’t eaten breakfast yet, have you?” Tian Qi flashed a polite and socially appropriate smile at the other doctors. She only seemed a little anxious when she turned to face Ling Ran again, “I have sent all the cutlery to the kitchen. I’m worried that you guys would get too hungry, so I brought some drinks too.”

As she spoke, the cook in the middle lifted the dishcover on the food delivery cart.

There were iced water, warm water, iced milk, warm milk, orange juice, apple juice, grape juice… The bottles of drinks were neatly arranged in two rows. and there were crystal-clear glasses beside them. There was even a bottle of brandy.

The zombie-like doctors licked their lips as they raised their heads. Their gazes were filled with longing.

“Pour them some water and juice.” Tian Qi generously gestured at the cooks to serve the doctors. The cooks started pouring glasses of drinks and giving them to the doctors.

Ling Ran got himself a glass of warm mineral water and held it between his palms. It was not too hot and not too cold, and came just at the right time as he needed to replenish the water in his body.

“You mentioned that you were passing by Yun Hua City just now?” Ling Ran asked Tian Qi after he drank a mouthful of water and raised his head.

Tian Qi smiled. “I’m going for a vacation.”

“Where are you going?”

Tian Qi continued smiling. “Tahiti, where I get to swim with the fishes.”