The Surgeon’s Studio

Chapter 171: In Serious Trouble

After a long while, Zheng Ren regained his composure and brought his hands to his mouth, trying to warm himself by exhaling onto them.

He returned to the emergency ward and instructed Yang Lei to return home before going for a ward round. When he ensured the patients’ conditions were stable and warmth was finally returning to his body, he changed his clothes and went to bed.

Three uneventful days passed in the blink of an eye.

Xie Yiren bought a new suit for Zheng Ren. He had no idea what brand it was, but it suited him perfectly.

The plain-looking Zheng Ren actually appeared somewhat stylish when he put on the new suit; as the saying went, “Clothes make the man.”

Miao Xiaohua, whose condition had stabilized, was extubated on day two post-op and transferred out of the ICU to the emergency ward on day three.

During this period, Zheng Ren performed around a dozen operations—appendectomies and cholecystectomies. Fortunately, major resuscitation operations that induced hypertension in the staff did not occur.

Manager Feng had provided flight tickets as well. At Su Yun’s insistence, Changfeng Microinvasive Surgery had also booked a flight ticket for him as it was normal for two medical practitioners to attend academic conferences and perform research together.

In the early morning on the day of their departure, Xie Yiren personally drove Zheng Ren and Su Yun to the airport.

To Zheng Ren’s slight disappointment, Xie Yiren did not give him a warm hug this time. She even smiled and dodged when he extended his arms for a farewell hug.

She must have felt embarrassed to do so in Su Yun’s presence.

Zheng Ren redirected his resentment to the sharp-tongued nancy boy.

After their flight tickets were verified, they went through the security check and waited for the airplane.

Sea City Airport was relatively small with all flights scheduled to depart for Imperial Capital and Sorcery Capital. If one wished to visit another city, they would have to transfer to a flight from either of those cities.

“Doctor Zheng, are you going on a trip?” a man greeted enthusiastically as they waited.

Zheng Ren raised his gaze and felt a sense of familiarity, but could not identify the man.

Even so, he was polite enough to stand up, extend his hand and fake a smile.

“I’m going for a meeting in Imperial Capital.”

The man, an experienced socializer, was able to discern the truth from Zheng Ren’s slightly embarrassed expression. Without feeling awkward, he smiled and explained, “Doctor Zheng, you diagnosed my mother’s headache.”

“Headache?”

“Dentures…”

Oh! Zheng Ren immediately recognized him after remembering the medical condition. He was the family member whose mother had had an unexplainable headache when Zheng Ren first obtained the System.

Subsequently, Zheng Ren’s attitude toward the man softened significantly.

“My name is Cui Heming. I’d highly appreciate your kind guidance in the future,” the man said.

They continued chatting for a while. Cui Heming was not disgusted by Zheng Ren’s poor communication skill and exchanged phone numbers and WeChat IDs with him.

Just as he was about to leave, Zheng Ren said, “Mr. Cui, have you been stressed out recently?”

Cui Heming was momentarily stunned. Zheng Ren was a doctor, not a fortune teller, right? What did he mean by that?

Was Zheng Ren going to change his destiny next?

“Your blood pressure is high. You should keep it under control.” Zheng Ren smiled.

Cui Heming smiled bitterly.

That had been the case recently. The advent of economic winter had tightened liquidity and brought all financial supply chains to the verge of collapse.

Cui Heming had implemented retrenchment to manage his company in Imperial Capital. It was indeed an exhausting and arduous task.

However, he remained optimistic about the current situation. Since winter had arrived, could spring be far behind?

As long as he could pull through, with the experience accumulated and his social network expanded, his company would certainly welcome explosive growth in the coming spring.

However, his body had truly been in suboptimal health due to recent overwhelming work stress.

He acknowledged Zheng Ren’s kind advice and thanked him with a nod and a smile.

“How do you know he had hypertension?” asked Su Yun when Cui Heming walked away.

“I felt it during the handshake,” answered Zheng Ren perfunctorily.

“Cheh[1], you must have guessed it.” Su Yun concluded, ending the short conversation.

Zheng Ren stared at the slowly vanishing Cui Heming. The font on the System panel at the upper right corner of his vision was painted in light red.

It was not serious, but still required treatment.

According to the System, Cui Heming had a stage three essential hypertension with his blood pressure currently at 170/110mmHg.

Cui Heming’s elevated blood pressure was presumably caused by chronic overwork. He had never paid any attention to it, nor had he consulted a doctor for check-up and treatment.

The most Zheng Ren could do was to, hopefully, provide a reminder for him to focus on his health.

However, Zheng Ren could not make his advice sound too serious. After all, hypertension was a common disease and the risk of major complications could be minimized as long as it was carefully monitored and controlled.

Twenty minutes before boarding, a couple in their thirties pushed a wheelchair to the boarding gate with a first-aid kit in the man’s hand.

Zheng Ren stole a glance at them, and the System panel showed that the old man had an advanced stage of lung cancer with multiorgan metastases.

The couple must have decided to take the old man for a vacation around the globe while ambulation was still possible. Zheng Ren had seen many similar cases throughout his life.

Elderly people had experienced poverty, and the concept of frugality was deeply rooted in their minds. If their children did not strongly insist on bringing them for vacation, barely any of them would be willing to spend more than ten thousand yuan on luxurious entertainment.

However, their mindset had changed following the continuous improvement of the economy.

After conversing with airport staff for a while, the couple presented their documents and boarded the airplane at the business class boarding gate.

Bringing medicine and a first aid kit aboard an airplane required formalities, and as for the documents required, Zheng Ren had no idea what they entailed since he had never done it before.

He finally got to enjoy his leisure time without needing to worry about emergency resuscitation or patients’ recoveries. He even excitedly read his novels when waiting to board.

Su Yun, who was also not in a hurry, absent-mindedly stared at the blue sky outside the window with his black bangs flowing elegantly across his forehead.

Finally, both of them took their suitcases and leisurely boarded the plane to Imperial Capital.

There were not many passengers on the plane. The stewardesses were very beautiful, and Zheng Ren was at ease.

He would not receive any emergency calls, and he did not have to worry about exhausting major rescue operations. He had plenty of idle time right now.

When the airplane was about to take off, Zheng Ren powered off his phone, picked up a pictorial from the seat before him and started reading it.

Meanwhile, Su Yun put on his earphones and asked for a blanket, preparing for a nap.

As the plane rose steadily into the air, Zheng Ren opened his mouth to ease the discomfort in his eardrums.

A few minutes later, a suppressed groan was heard.

The stewardess heard the sound and immediately unfastened her seatbelt without caring about the incline and turbulence caused by takeoff.

Zheng Ren’s heart sank as the groan did not sound pretentious. What had happened?

He turned around and saw the ashen-faced Cui Heming clutching his chest in his seat.

At that moment, the details on the System panel at the upper right corner of his vision had turned from stage three essential hypertension, highlighted in light red, to a dark shade of red, like a glass of wine with a bloody metallic scent.

F*ck… He was in serious trouble!

[1] Originating from a Chinese expression, this displays scorn, realization, or a mocking behavior, etc. -Urban Dictionary