The Surgeon’s Studio

The golden chain as thick as a finger dazzled against the night sky.

“Doc… Doc… Doctor Zheng, I was wrong.” Black Tower had lost his usual savagery and looked incredibly pathetic after waiting for god only knew how long outside the door.

Zheng Ren ignored him and asked Little Six, “Brother Six, is this your car?”

An Audi Q7 was parked in front of the main entrance. Zheng Ren recognized this model, unlike Bu Li’s high-class luxury vehicle which was beyond the knowledge of the people at the bottom of the social hierarchy—Zheng Ren included.

“You’re too polite, just Little Six will do.” Little Six grinned and pointed at Black Tower. “Doctor Zheng, how are you planning to deal with him?”

“Deal with him?” asked Zheng Ren curiously.

Zheng Ren had never experienced this sort of underworld dispute, nor was he interested in finding out about it.

“I was instructed by Elder San to protect you. My brothers went to take a short break after seeing the huge rescue operation this afternoon and the police officers that even arrived on the scene to maintain order, but I didn’t expect him to trouble you then!” Little Six was getting exasperated and the scar on his face seemed to become alive as it radiated a bloodthirsty aura.

The arrogant Black Tower merely lowered his head without any inclination to defend himself as if he had transformed into Peppa Pig in Little Six’s presence.

“Oh… Have you eaten yet?” asked Zheng Ren.

“Not yet.” Little Six was stunned momentarily. After realizing that Zheng Ren made no attempt to look at or even mention Black Tower, he quickly walked past Zheng Ren and opened the door to the passenger seat.

“Thank you.” Zheng Ren smiled.

After Zheng Ren entered the car, Little Six walked toward Black Tower and kicked him without saying a word. Black Tower then fell to the ground instantly as if there had been a loss of structural integrity.

“You’re lucky Doctor Zheng can’t be bothered with you.” Little Six placed his foot on Black Tower’s cheek and twisted it, grating his face against the rough pavement with a sound that reminded Zheng Ren of a grinding contusion. “Hand in your company’s demolition and relocation contract tomorrow, and leave Sea City once and for all.”

Then, Little Six turned around and left him.

Plain and simple.

Little Six entered the car, ignited the engine and left the exquisite courtyard under the rich velvet blanket of night.

“Doctor Zheng, I’m a thug, so don’t feel too disgusted at some of my actions,” said Little Six with a grin. “These guys don’t know which way the wind blows. They act foolishly in public and still seek to prevail over others. I’m guessing it won’t take more than a few years for them to meet their doom at last.”

In the alleyway hung a red slogan—crime prevention is everyone’s responsibility!

Zheng Ren smiled and nodded in response.

“Doctor Zheng, where is your home?” asked Little Six.

After giving his address to Little Six, Zheng Ren thought for a while and suggested, “There’s a food skewer stall at the intersection. Since you haven’t had your dinner yet, why don’t we stop there and fill our stomachs first?”

Little Six was slightly surprised. “I thought you had your dinner just now?”

“Escargots, foie gras with fish roe, and the meat was undercooked. I haven’t had my fill yet,” answered Zheng Ren truthfully.

“Hahaha!” Little Six laughed. “Doctor Zheng, you’re a jolly man. I’m not used to Western food as well, and I think roadside stalls are much better than French cuisine.”

It was just a simple statement, but their friendship had strengthened further.

Zheng Ren and Little Six finally satiated their hunger after consuming dozens of food skewers. He then exchanged his phone number and WeChat ID with Little Six before going back home to rest up.

Little Zhao was nowhere to be seen when Zheng Ren returned home. After washing up casually, Zheng Ren undressed and lay on the bed for a deep slumber.

His mind dragged him into the oblivion of sleep because he knew everything would be fine.

It was already six o’clock in the morning when Zheng Ren woke up from a dreamless sleep.

A cold shower invigorated him.

He went to a restaurant downstairs to have breakfast before going to the hospital via public transport.

A clamor could be heard from even the main hall when Zheng Ren reached the emergency department. Too many patients had been admitted yesterday and there were hundreds of people—patients’ family members included—squeezing into the emergency department that had a total area of less than one thousand square meters. It would be strange indeed if there had been pin-drop silence in the department.

However, the noise itself soothed Zheng Ren’s heart.

Only a living man had the right to be rowdy and complain about poor infrastructure.

Patients and family members greeted Zheng Ren as he walked into the emergency department corridor. The fact that these patients, who had ‘Avatar’-like appearances yesterday, had lost their blue discoloration today pleased Zheng Ren even more.

He smiled and waved to the patients all the way to the duty room and changed his attire.

The emergency department was operating in an orderly manner. After Zheng Ren accompanied Old Chief Physician Pan for a ward round in the morning, Old Chief Physician Pan then went to the hospital to deal with allocation of medical staff and equipment into the emergency center.

Since their poisoning had been treated and they had recovered physically, a few patients started approaching Zheng Ren to request hospital discharge.

He provided the same explanation every single time. “Liver functions will deteriorate after acute poisoning. During the resuscitation process with methylene blue, there may be exudative inflammation which can irritate the gastrointestinal organs such as intestines, bile ducts, pancreas and so on.”

In summary, patients had to remain hospitalized or stay in the emergency department for one week, and hospital discharge was possible only after their conditions had stabilized without any signs of complications.

Since their lives were no longer in peril, they changed their minds from simply receiving treatment to receiving treatment in better conditions.

It was just an inadvertent psychological request, but it troubled Zheng Ren greatly.

Numerous phone calls were made to Zheng Ren, Old Chief Physician Pan, senior consultants of each department, and even the hospital directors inquiring about the patients’ conditions and requesting transfers to better sick rooms.

It was extremely difficult to request a deluxe private sick room during this sort of large-scale food poisoning incident.

Thus, after enduring the unbearable noise in the emergency department corridors for two more days, the patients, who assumed their conditions had indeed stabilized, began building up their determination to solve this problem—self-discharge.

No matter how Zheng Ren persuaded them, they always had a thousand reasons to argue with.

Zheng Ren also felt helpless with the limited infrastructure in the hospital. Some elderly men… Almost everyone had inadequate rest, and some people with cardiovascular disease even started experiencing symptoms such as arrhythmia.

Left with no choice, Zheng Ren used a standard template and made a form for discharge against medical advice—self-discharge would be allowed only after signing the document stating that the patient or their family member insisted on a hospital discharge against doctor’s orders. The doctor had explained the possible complications clearly and the patient would be held responsible for any potential consequences that may arise from their decision.

The form dispelled some patients and family members’ plan of leaving the hospital. It was just one week, anyway. It would be over soon.

However, most people decided to ignore Zheng Ren’s advice and signed the documents.

The corridor gradually emptied after some patients left the hospital.

There were no major emergency cases this fine day and Zheng Ren did only two minor wound closures without requesting Xie Yiren’s assistance.

It felt good to be able to enjoy some leisure time as Zheng Ren sat in his office and stared blankly at the yellowing leaves through the window.

His lifespan would be cut short if today had been as busy as yesterday and the day before.

Every patient who had suffered nitrite poisoning had gotten out of danger due to timely resuscitation, with the silver lining being that no large-scale deaths had occurred.

Zheng Ren overheard from the nurses’ gossip that a chef in the largest braised meat chain store in the city had mistaken nitrite salt for edible salt, which had caused the mass poisoning.

Why would a braised meat restaurant have nitrite salt? Zheng Ren speculated that it had been used as a preservative to make stale meat look more desirable.

Was the boss arrested? How severe was the punishment? These were none of his concerns.

His mind was focused solely on the fact that he had to perform emergency hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery. Since the intensive training time in the System had been inadequate, he had no choice but to perform an old-fashioned open cholecystectomy instead.

He was more proficient in open cholecystectomy since he had not practiced laparoscopic cholecystectomy yet.

Zheng Ren had his own plan in this issue. In order to prevent any potential accident happening during surgery, he needed to familiarize himself with local anatomical structures, which he could not do by simply dissecting cadavers in medical institutions.

Now that he had a good knowledge of the local anatomy of the gallbladder area, he just needed an opportunity to purchase intensive training time for laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

More than twenty days of intensive training were simply not enough.

Nowadays, most people chose to perform the laparoscopic over the open option in hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery, and that included simple cases of pancreatic cancer and gallbladder cancer too.

Zheng Ren disagreed with this method because it was difficult to remove tumor tissue through a tiny scope. Moreover, if the surrounding tissue was contaminated with tumor cells, the patient may face an increased risk of metastasis.

However, hepatobiliary and pancreatic malignancies were rarely seen in the emergency department, so mastering emergency cholecystectomy was his only concern at the moment.

Zheng Ren had an urge to pour all 930 skill points and 75000 experience points from his inventory into the hepatobiliary and pancreatic skill tree.

Perhaps he would have done that a long time ago had the System not threatened him with elimination.

The threat of elimination was like the Sword of Damocles hanging above Zheng Ren’s head, forcing him to be prepared all the time to face some unpredictable danger.

During his free time, Zheng Ren would revise hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery again and again so that he could familiarize himself with local anatomical structures and its surgical procedures.