"It's essential."
Zheng Ren opened the lunch box, still warm to the touch, in the on-call room and saw his main dish—stir-fried chili pork with white rice.
"Stir-fried chili pork from Denver House. This is a secret family recipe that has been passed down over the generations, but I think it tasted alright." Su Yun sat down on the other side of the table and introduced the food to Zheng Ren.
If he was a server in a restaurant, he would undoubtedly be the worst. There was a complete absence of enthusiasm and it carried across.
Zheng Ren took a bite. It tasted just fine.
The food was not unpalatable, and he was not a picky eater, so anything would be fine as long as his stomach was filled.
The fact that Zheng Ren devoured the food without savoring its taste fueled Su Yun's urge to criticize him out of discomfort.
However, before he could do so, Zheng Ren suddenly asked, "How about you?"
"What about me?"
"Why did you leave Union Medical College Hospital?" asked Zheng Ren.
An eerie silence dominated the on-call room, punctuated only by Zheng Ren's chewing.
"I guessed there had to be a story." Zheng Ren, wiping his mouth after finishing his food, cleaned up the table and asked, "I heard that you had been accepted as a doctoral student in Union Medical College Hospital, so why didn't you continue your studies?"
"Does it have anything to do with you?" Su Yun raised his head and shot back. His sharp gaze penetrated his black bangs as if trying to pierce Zheng Ren's heart.
"You're my assistant, and I think something is bothering you. If we don't sort it out, I worry that you might become lost in the throes of passion and commit a crime."
Needless to say, Zheng Ren's awful joke only made the situation even more awkward, so Su Yun merely responded with a disdainful gaze.
Zheng Ren did not seem like he was looking for an answer. Perhaps he was merely asking out of boredom, or he just wanted the nancy boy to shut up and stop criticizing him.
Since Su Yun chose to remain silent, Zheng Ren started making his bed and brushing his teeth.
Su Yun was still quiet when he was done.
"Goodnight," said Zheng Ren, turning off the lights when Su Yun made no attempt to respond.
After a long time in the dark, Su Yun sighed softly.
The sound was full of helplessness and sorrow.
'What an emotional guy,' Zheng Ren thought after hearing him through a semi-conscious state.
"I had an unfortunate encounter that year." Su Yun's voice was cold and hardly discernible, making it echo around the room.
The sudden statement startled Zheng Ren and he jolted awake.
"A patient with an indifferent family had come to Union Medical College Hospital for consultation, and it was a fairly new encounter for us at the time."
Patients from overseas generally visited Union Medical College Hospital, one of the largest hospitals in the country, for treatment, hence the rarity of such an occasion.
Zheng Ren had encountered countless family members who were indifferent and unsupportive towards patients, so it did not surprise him.
"The surgery had been scheduled, but no one signed the preoperative informed consent doc.u.ments for some reason." Su Yun seemed to be trying to recall a memory that he had tried but failed to bury in the dusty recesses of his mind.
"That day, I noticed that the family was acting strangely. Sometimes, being observant is not a good thing. If you were in my shoes, none of these would have happened."
"..." Zheng Ren was speechless; he had not expected Su Yun to insult him even on his way down the memory lane. Perhaps in Su Yun's eyes, he had no other value apart from his expertise in surgery.
"I noticed one family member had added something to the infusion bottle, so I immediately contacted my teacher. He arrived shortly, sealed off the flow and found evidence of tampering, but the worst was yet to come. As we were resuscitating the patient, that family member struck my teacher's head with a chair.
"I was dazed at that time. I never knew such people existed.
"Blood gushed out of the exposed wound on my teacher's head, and its metallic scent filled the entire ward. The ward was no longer a place of rescue; it had become a nightmarish hell."
Like a devil crawling out of an abyss, Su Yun struggled and mourned silently. Negative emotions—anger, reluctance, helplessness—filled the entire room, causing its temperature to drop by several degrees.
After a long while, Zheng Ren asked, "What happened after that?"
"The resuscitation was successful and the patient was discharged from the hospital, but my teacher suffered side effects of intracranial hemorrhage and has been unable to perform surgery since."
"The man who had struck him—"
"That's absolutely pointless," answered Su Yun coldly. Zheng Ren could imagine him brushing his black bangs aside and feel the contempt at the corners of his lips.
"Despite saving countless lives, he became crippled in the end." Su Yun sighed heavily again and added, "We live in an unjust world."
"Is that why you came back?" asked Zheng Ren.
"Yes," Su Yun said, "I didn't want to perform surgery anymore. In fact, I didn't want to involve myself with saving human lives any longer. Had it not been for you, I would have resigned and started a pet medical center."
"I'm sorry for you, then." Zheng Ren tried to make a joke to alleviate the dark, gloomy atmosphere in the on-call room.
"It's okay." Su Yun accepted his 'condolences' and asked, "I'm curious. How did you get so proficient in surgery at your age? More importantly, who taught you interventional radiology?"
"It's just talent."
"Pooh!" Su Yun replied scornfully, "you have greater innate talent than I do? I don't believe it. You're just a hard worker who became an expert after repeated practice. Are you bullsh*tting me?"
Zheng Ren was taken by surprise. Despite his narcissism and complete ignorance of the matter, Su Yun was closer than anyone to the truth.
His suspicion was technically right. Zheng Ren's competency in surgery was due to countless days of intensive training in the System.
"Curing disease and saving lives? I'm not that noble, and my teacher's hemiplegic state haunts me whenever I think about it." Su Yun smiled and said, "Let's go to sleep. I think I'll dream about my teacher and that dreadful hell tonight. How nice, here come those nightmares again."
'This man's view of the world…' Zheng Ren had no response. How traumatised was this man to be able to speak so dejectedly?
'The mist has dissipated and I've awakened from a dream, finally seeing the truth after an eternal silence,' Zheng Ren's mind suddenly recalled, but he could not remember where he had seen this phrase from or its author's identity.
Was it true or false? Zheng Ren preferred not to overthink it. It was better to remain ignorant in life, anyway.
The temperature in the room gradually normalized following Su Yun's silence, and he eventually fell asleep.
He woke up naturally the next morning, a rarity in the department as an emergency doctor would require extreme luck to sleep without disturbance three to five times a year.
As he got up, he saw Su Yun sitting on the bed with his back against the wall, absent-mindedly staring at the blue sky outside the window.
Had this man gone mad?
"You—" Just when Zheng Ren initiated a conversation, Su Yun snapped out of his thoughts and said with a wicked smile, "I'll push for the contrast-enhanced CT result and strive to get things done today."
Chapter 112 - A Spoiled Child
The rest of the morning was uneventful.
In the afternoon, Zheng Ren received a call about a patient in the emergency department that required his attention.
He rushed to the emergency department. The patient awaiting him for consultation was a middle-aged woman with a provisional diagnosis of acute appendicitis.
The System confirmed the diagnosis.
&nb
sp; There was nothing left to do but to admit her to the ward. Whether she would undergo emergency surgery tonight, or do so tomorrow to ensure sufficient fasting, her medical history had to be taken before any decision could be made.
Zheng Ren instructed a nurse to bring in a wheelchair to send the patient to the emergency ward.
The patient was curled up on the bed, unescorted, in the general surgery consultation room. She seemed pitiful, having to seek surgical treatment alone.
Zheng Ren assisted the nurse by gently transferring the patient to the wheelchair and pushing her out of the consultation room.
Even though Su Yun was tagging along throughout the process, he watched them coldly without lending a hand.
Zheng Ren had no d.e.s.i.r.e to understand Su Yun's personality and why he was indifferent to certain patients.
The brat's psychological trauma was untreatable via surgery, so there was nothing he could or would bother to do to remove the old scar.
"Little Heng, Little Heng…" exclaimed the middle-aged woman repeatedly in the wheelchair, the agony in her soft voice clearly detectable.
'That must be her son's name,' Zheng Ren guessed.
Sea City had gradually declined, with a popular saying going, "Investment does not go beyond Shanhaiguan Pass". Youngsters with the capability to do so preferred to move to the South nowadays.
After all, there were higher salaries and more business opportunities for a better future there.
This middle-aged woman's son was probably working, which would explain why she was alone despite having acute appendicitis.
"Where are you guys taking my mom?" Before Zheng Ren rounded the corner with the wheelchair, he heard a voice coming from behind him.
Huh? Zheng Ren froze immediately.
The patient's family was actually here? Was he Little Heng? Why did he not respond when his name had been called out repeatedly?
A pale-looking young man in his twenties approached them with his gaze fixed on his phone. The only time he raised his head was to check where he was going, which was done very briefly as he quickly refocused on his phone, fingers continuously flying across the screen.
"..." Zheng Ren could feel something huge and heavy, like a big stone, pressing on his c.h.e.s.t. 'Wow, this kid is really immersed in his phone.'
"Who are you?" asked Zheng Ren.
A few seconds later, the young man replied, "I'm her son."
No eye contact.
Was he playing games? Zheng Ren was aware of currently popular mobile games such as Honor of Kings and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, but he had never tried any of them.
During his free time, he would revise or refill his batteries by reading web fiction for a while, but playing games to pass the time never crossed his mind.
"Your mother has acute appendicitis and requires surgery," Zheng Ren explained as he continued on his way to the emergency ward.
This was merely a habit of his. After all, returning to the ward in silence with the patient's family was extremely awkward.
"Okay," replied the young man casually. His eyes were still glued to the phone, and it was unclear if he had heard whatever Zheng Ren had just said.
"When was her last meal and drink?" questioned Zheng Ren.
There was silence for at least ten seconds; the man seemed to realize that Zheng Ren had asked a question only upon reaching the elevator. "What did you say just now?"
"..." Zheng Ren grumbled internally.
He had encountered various kinds of f*cked up patients and family members. Although this was not an endangered or protected species, it was also a rarity.
"When was your mother's last meal and drink?" Zheng Ren repeated.
"How am I supposed to know? Ask her yourself." The young man hesitated upon seeing the elevator and asked, "I'm going to take the stairs. Which floor are we going to?"
"The second floor." Zheng Ren's expression was cold and flat.
"Wait for me at the elevator on the second floor," said the young man as he walked directly to the staircase while staring unblinkingly at his phone.
"Doctor, I took medicine and a sip of water at twelve o'clock, and that was basically it," answered the middle-aged woman in the wheelchair, enduring intense abdominal pain.
Zheng Ren responded with a stern expression, causing the atmosphere in the elevator to become inexplicably unpleasant.
The middle-aged female patient seemed to detect Zheng Ren's emotions and explained, "Little Heng is a good kid, but he is still young, so please forgive him for his slight immaturity."
Slight… immaturity? Was she being serious?
Zheng Ren could detect infinite love in the patient's tone.
However, as a doctor, this was not a part of his job and his only responsibility was to treat disease.
Even police officers could not handle this type of issue, so what could a doctor possibly do?
The young man was still nowhere to be seen when they reached the second floor. Zheng Ren stopped and announced, "Since the patient has fasted for long enough, inform Xie Yiren and Little Chu to prepare for surgery."
Su Yun, like a shadow trailing Zheng Ren, acknowledged his instructions.
"You'll undergo surgery soon. It's just a minor operation, so don't worry too much about it," said Zheng Ren.
"My appendix will be removed, right? When can I get off the bed after surgery?" asked the patient.
"You can walk to the bathroom in about a day, but be careful not to reopen the wound; we'll remove the suture in five to seven days."
"That's too long. What is Little Heng going to eat if I can't cook?" Despite her agony, the woman was still worried about that young man, who presumably was still on his way up the stairs.
"..."
Zheng Ren was an orphan. Even though the teachers and aunties in the kindergarten had treated him kindly, they did not spoil him as much as this patient excessively loved her son.
She would undergo surgery soon and yet her only concern was that she could not cook for her beloved son?
This…
"You can just order food online, it's the same anyway."
"No can do. Outside food is usually cooked in gutter oil. Toxicity aside, it's not delicious either. Little Heng can't tolerate that kind of food," the middle-aged woman said guiltily, "It's all my fault. Why have I fallen sick?"
Zheng Ren once again remained silent. They were not on the same page and there was no way he could understand the thoughts on her mind.
The two doctors and patient stood in the corridor and waited for nearly a minute before the patient's son slowly emerged from the stairway with the phone still in his hands.
The colorful lights of the phone reflected brightly off his facial features, at the same time accentuating the darkness where the light failed to touch. What a gruesome sight!
Zheng Ren kept quiet and pushed the wheelchair to the emergency ward.
'I think Chang Yue might have trouble communicating with this kind of person,' he conjectured.
After arranging a bed for the patient, he pushed her directly to the treatment room for preoperative skin preparations.
She was going for surgery soon, so it was better not to cause her any unnecessary disturbances.
Su Yun went to the operating theater straight away to prepare for surgery.
The preoperative preparations for acute appendicitis was relatively easy. After doc.u.menting the patient's medical history and instructing Chang Yue to put the case in writing, Zheng Ren printed out a set of preoperative informed consent doc.u.ments and hospital admission forms and started looking for the patient's son.
Earlier, he had taken way too long to complete his mother's admission process.
However, the patient's son was gone when Zheng Ren arrived at the treatment room, and he could see the patient's agony as she curled up in the wheelchair in a posture that was uncomfortable to watch.
The desolation was indescribable.
Chapter 113 - Where Are Your Ma
nners
Zheng Ren was numb from disappointment.
After the nurses checked her vital signs and completed their laborious preparation, Zheng Ren went to look for the patient's son.
As silence was the norm in the wards, he could not shout out for the young man. If he raised his voice, some old grandfather could suffer
a heart attack.
He suspected the man might not even hear him if he shouted.
When Su Yun came down and found Zheng Ren and Chang Yue only halfway done with the informed consent doc.u.ments, he brought the middle-aged woman into the operating room.
Zheng Ren spent ten minutes searching for the patient's son. He found him in the fire escape.
The man was seated on the steps, focused on his game.
Zheng Ren dragged the man, who was visibly annoyed, back inside.
He sat him down in the office and activated a video recorder to begin informing him about the appendectomy.
Zheng Ren explained every line and item, from anesthesia risk to assisted ventilation, in detail.
The patient's son kept playing his game. Zheng Ren was not sure if he was listening to the many risks that came with surgery.
Zheng Ren did his duty, suppressing the urge to slap the man. He continued his explanation.
It took fifteen minutes for Zheng Ren to finish explaining the simple appendectomy.
This was the most difficult informed consent procedure that he had ever encountered.
To complete the procedure, Zheng Ren needed the man to sign the doc.u.ment. As the man's attention was mostly on his phone, Zheng Ren insisted he write a clause at the bottom of the page. With exasperation in his eyes, the man wrote as Zheng Ren instructed, 'I have been informed of the risks accompanying the appendectomy and agree to the procedure.'
He had been on his phone for too long. There were many characters that he had forgotten how to write.
Zheng Ren had to ask him to follow the printed characters on the doc.u.ment. For some, he had to write them out on a blank piece of paper so that the young man could copy them down.
The whole ordeal was more draining than performing a surgery.
Once consent was given, Zheng Ren called the operating room to begin preparations. He carefully placed the doc.u.ments in his office drawer and locked it before leaving.
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