The Surgeon’s Studio

Department Chief Kong was speechless.

A pair of innocent and confused eyes gazed at him. Zheng Ren truly could not comprehend Department Chief Kong’s hesitation.

Similarly, Department Chief Kong was at a loss. Despite his obvious hints, Zheng Ren was still in denial.

In the end, the old chief gave up. ‘Let us try his method. If anything goes wrong, I’ll be there to handle things.’

He had already agreed to the surgery prior. Going back on his word would paint him as the bad guy.

Throughout his long medical career, Department Chief Kong had met countless liver cancer patients. General surgery was rarely a viable option. Interventional surgery was a better choice but there were limitations to targeting. The whole liver was typically pumped with lipiodol and chemotherapy drugs during interventional treatment.

If there was a slim chance that this new procedure would work, Department Chief Kong was willing to try it.

Even at the cost of his reputation.

“Just keep going through the case details.” The department chief forced a smile that ended up looking more like a grimace. “I’ll talk to the patients. If there’s anything you need, let me know.”

“Thank you, Chief Kong.” Zheng Ren gave the man a brilliant smile. His sunny disposition was easily misinterpreted as condescension.

Su Yun saw the discomfort on Department Chief Kong’s face and connected the dots.

Su Yun was a different breed from Zheng Ren. He had spent a few years mingling with the scientific community in Imperial Capital and was thus accustomed to their ways of thinking.

He cleared his throat audibly, displeasure evident from his mannerisms despite his not saying a word.

Wholly focused on the task at hand, Zheng Ren was oblivious to the choppy undercurrents of the room.

He first went over the patients’ histories, then their scans. Once those were done, he brought Su Yun along to visit the patients in person.

The first one was a short-tempered man of sixty-odd years. From his heavy accent, it was clear that he was from another province.

Communication was hindered by their language barrier. Zheng Ren spent 30 minutes extracting the information he needed through a mixture of verbal and improvised sign language.

They learned the patient had been suffering from Hepatitis B for the past 30 years, showing signs of an enlarged spleen, hepatic cirrhosis, portal hypertension and gastric varices.

He had been admitted to a local hospital after vomiting blood a month ago. The doctors suspected malignancy from CT scans of the liver and performed a contrast-enhanced MRI scan, which found that a large portion of his liver had turned cancerous. There was little hope for treatment.

Local doctors had then advised the patient to go to Imperial Capital as a last resort.

After he got his answers, Zheng Ren returned to the office to type up the details before proceeding to the next patient.

Su Yun followed him silently. Unlike Chang Yue, he did not carry a pen and paper to make notes as Zheng Ren questioned the patients. He only stood there with folded arms as if the whole situation had nothing to do with him.

Zheng Ren ignored the man.

On his third patient, Zheng Ren recognized a familiar lilt that reminded him of his hometown.

He looked at the charts: the patient was from Provincial Capital, which was fairly close to Zheng Ren’s hometown.

Qin Liren was happy to meet someone from the same province.

“Little doctor, why aren’t you wearing your name tag?” Qin Liren wanted to learn who this successful young man was.

He was not having a good time in the hospital.

The noise in the room made sleep elusive. With his emotions as turbulent as they were, it added insult to injury.

Yet, there was nothing he could do. He simply had to grin and bear it.

Zheng Ren’s appearance was the highlight of his day.

“Oh, I’m not with the hospital. My name is Zheng Ren. You can call me Dr. Zheng or Little Zheng.” Zheng Ren smiled, then looked down at his notepad, writing down the patient’s details.

The smile on Qin Liren’s face froze.

Was this guy a trainee doctor?

Although he was not familiar with the hospital’s hierarchy, Qin Liren knew the difference between trainee and in-house doctors.

The young man from his province was honing his skills in this hospital.

Qin Liren was somewhat disappointed. He had hoped to ingratiate himself with the doctor to milk favor but he knew that a trainee doctor had little clout.

His plan had been to stuff a few thousand yuan into Zheng Ren’s pocket and ask for a single room; not that that would work now.

“Little Zheng, how long have you been training here?” Qin Liren asked with a warm smile. The thoughts in his mind did not affect his genteel demeanor.

“I’m not training. I came here to observe and will be leaving in a few days,” Zheng Ren replied and followed up with a question, “Have you experienced any discomfort lately?”

Qin Liren was baffled. Was this man not even a practicing doctor?

He was only here to observe and Qin Liren was still supposed to entertain his questions?

Qin Liren felt the doctor was wasting his time.

“Li—Little Zheng, how about you do some of the chores?” He ignored Zheng Ren’s questions.

“I’m here to get your medical history. Once Chief Kong is ready with the CT scan, we’ll do it first thing in the morning. I’ll perform the scan reconstruction and if everything goes according to plan, I’ll operate the day after tomorrow,” Zheng Ren clarified.

The muscles on Su Yun’s face twitched.

Zheng Ren was likely the only person who could be this oblivious in such a situation.

All he could think of was the surgery.

‘This man…’ Su Yun was speechless.

After hearing Zheng Ren’s explanation, Qin Liren’s face darkened. He refused to answer Zheng Ren’s questions and laid back down on his bed. He covered his face with the hospital blanket that he had previously complained about.

The reaction shocked Zheng Ren. He shook his head and left the hospital room.

“Did you really not know what that man was thinking?” Su Yun asked from behind him.

“I did.”

“And yet you told him the truth.”

“That was his choice. I have no right to refuse if he wants Chief Kong to perform the surgery.” Zheng Ren returned to the office and reported the incident to Department Chief Kong.

Department Chief Kong remembered the phone call from two days ago. Qin Liren was a patient whom he had personally handled.

He went to speak with the patient but did not manage to persuade him. Qin Liren was adamant and refused to let Zheng Ren operate on him.

Department Chief Kong was frustrated but respected the patient’s wishes.

Patients with liver cancer had mean tempers, so Department Chief Kong did not bother prolonging the argument. A brief conversation later, he placed Qin Liren under his research graduate, Shen Liang’s care.

He would let Shen Liang—also the department’s chief resident—handle the surgery. Perhaps he would go in and observe if someone asked him to. It was sufficient for him to inform Chief Resident Shen of the diagnosis and course of action based on pre-surgical tests and examinations.

Department Chief Kong was confident in the quality of the research graduates here. They were on par with the department chiefs of prefecture-level Grade A hospitals.

Just like that, Zheng Ren’s number of patients went from five to four.