Great Doctor Ling Ran

Outside the door to the reception of the Emergency Medicine building.

A group of doctors stood according to their positions before the associate hospital director in a wide, fan-shaped formation. They stood as still as statues and with calm faces.

In less than two minutes, a considerably new Volkswagen Passat stopped in front of the door. When the DiDi[1] driver got down from the car and saw the sea of doctors in white coats, he froze for a few seconds.

Huo Congjun waved his hand, and two nurses pushed a gurney over in a flash and stopped in front of the car. The nurses’ gazes were firm, their movements exemplary, and their bodies straight.

“So painful, so painful.” A girl hopped out of the car with one leg and climbed onto the gurney. Her eyes were filled with tears, and she was whimpering.

Chief Hao got down from the other side of the car. He felt rather anguished and worried as he shook Associate Hospital Director Zhou’s hand [1] and said, “Kids are always flustered when they do things, and she ended up scalding herself. My mother was extremely shocked and insisted that I call the hospital. I have no choice but to trouble you.”

The girl raised her head abruptly and said, “I’m not a kid anymore.”

“We’ll talk about this when you enter university.” Chief Hao then put his palms together, bowed at the doctors around him and said, “Sorry, sorry for alarming all of you.”

The doctors did not have a lot of grievances to begin with. Because of Chief Hao’s politeness, they no longer felt any resentment.

When Associate Hospital Director Zhou saw that, he waved his hand to dismiss all the doctors. Since the hospital managed to show that they thought highly of Chief Hao, and Chief Hao felt that he was taken seriously by the hospital, everyone was happy.

Department Director Huo quickened his pace and asked Chief Hao about his daughter’s medical history, allergies, and other things. Meanwhile, Zhao Leyi followed the gurney to the treatment room and inspected the girl’s scalded area.

The girl immediately yelled, “Dad! Dad!”

Chief Hao who had fallen behind did not bother to continue with exchanging conventional greetings. He quickly ran to his daughter. “What’s wrong? What’s wrong?”

“You promised me…” Teary-eyed, the girl looked cute and adorable. Even though she was shouting, other people did not find her detestable.

Chief Hao chuckled, rubbed his hands together, and said, “About this… Hao Bei…”

“You promised me!”

“Alright, alright.” Chief Hao turned to Huo Congjun. He chuckled and said, “Department Director Huo, you see, we have an unreasonable request.”

“What is it?” Huo Congjun had experienced a lot of things in life and did not even bat an eyelid.

Instead, beside him, Zhao Leyi’s face twitched slightly.

A chance to show his face in front of the head of the healthcare system was hard to come by. He was really afraid that the other party would raise a weird request, and based on his experience, the probability of high-ranking patients raising strange requests was quite high.

Even though Chief Hao thought of a few different prologues to begin his request with, he dismissed all of them in an instant and said, “Can I request for Ling Ran-Doctor Ling from your hospital to treat my daughter?”

The moment he said that, Hao Bei nodded with tears in her eyes. “I want Doctor Ling…”

Huo Congjun ended up batting an eyelid. Even though he had seen many things after working in the hospital for so many years, the fact that the little girl wanted to see Ling Ran was still shocking to him.

Zhao Leyi was so offended that his lips trembled. When he first entered the field ten years ago, there were patients who liked to asked for old or famous doctors to treat them, and he could understand that. However, what reason was there for her to ask for Ling Ran? Did Ling Ran know how to treat burns?

“Ling Ran is not specialized in the treatment of burns and scalds, he might not be very good at treating them,” Huo Congjun answered tactfully. He believed that Chief Hao would understand.

Chief Hao sighed in an understanding manner and said, “Whatever it is, it would be possible to ask Doctor Ling to come and take a look at my daughter, right? Starting from a few days ago, this daughter of mine has been holding her phone and talking about Doctor Ling. Since she happened to be injured, she raised this request.”

All the doctors around them found this extremely unusual. ‘What did he mean by “happened to be injured”?’

The girl who lay on the gurney raised her head with effort and nodded fervently. “I want Doctor Ling to treat me.”

Zhao Leyi, who had already helped the girl take off her shoes, sighed internally. Even so, he did not stop with the work at hand.

Even when faced with an insensible patient, a doctor must not act insensibly.

In the end, even though there may be a possibility of the patient getting angry because her request was not fulfilled, she would definitely be angry if her scald did not receive proper treatment.

Early treatment was vital when it came to burns and scalds. Zhao Leyi used the soap and water he had prepared earlier to debride the patient’s wound. He did not dare to delay treatment just because the patient had a request.

“Young Zhou, give Doctor Ling a call.” Huo Congjun was very tolerant when it came to a patient’s requests. He fulfilled Chief Hao’s request without even giving it much thought.

Huo Congjun recalled his time in the General Surgery Department when he had to excavate a whistle out of a patient’s intestines which had been full of fecal matter. He did not feel disturbed by it at all… until the following day when the patient blew the whistle inside the ward… Actually, he was not disturbed by it—it was not like he was the one blowing the whistle anyway.

Doctor Zhou said in a soft voice, “Ling Ran might still be in the middle of surgery.”

“Ask him to come over.” Huo Congjun winked.

Doctor Zhou understood what Huo Congjun meant. He rushed straight to the operating theater while taking out his mobile phone to make a call. After a short while, Doctor Zhou returned with Ling Ran in tow.

Before Huo Congjun could ask about it, Doctor Zhou said, “Ling Ran happened to have just finished a surgery.”

Huo Congjun nodded and breathed a sigh of relief. This was a good thing, because he was willing to try his best to fulfill the patient’s request within the realm of possibility.

“Ling Ran, come and take a look at this patient.” Huo Congjun waved and called Ling Ran over.

Clad in a large white coat, Ling Ran was a little tired. He followed Huo Congjun and went in front of the girl without saying word.

When Hao Bei saw Ling Ran, her mobile phone trembled in her hands.

“Doctor Ling, let’s take a photograph together.” Hao Bei could already imagine the huge number of people who would comment once she uploaded the photograph onto Qzone.

Ling Ran looked at Huo Congjun. “Didn’t you call me here to treat a scald?”

He had treated a few scalds before, and this was a good opportunity for him to put in more practise.

“It’s no rush, it’s no rush.” Hao Bei took out her mobile phone and turned on the beauty retouch feature. After looking at the screen for a while, she turned off the feature and only took a selfie with Ling Ran using the normal camera.

Ling Ran had a poised look.

Huo Congjun said with a similarly poised expression, “You may take a few pictures. After that, we will be giving you an anesthetic injection.”

Chief Hao said in surprise, “She has to get an anesthetic injection?”

“Since the scald is on her leg, there would surely be a certain degree of contamination. It would be better for recovery if the wounded area is thoroughly cleaned. The body metabolizes local anesthetics very quickly, and it wouldn’t affect her at all.” Huo Congjun had years of experience in the Emergency Department, and relied on his knowledge as he spoke.

If Zhao Leyi were to say the same thing, it would not have been as convincing.

After hearing what Huo Congjun said, Chief Hao nodded and allowed Zhao Leyi to carry on with the injection.

“I want Doctor Ling to give me the injection.” Hao Bei struggled, and the movements caused her so much pain that tears almost rolled out of her eyes.

Zhao Leyi got up in resignation and simply passed the syringe to Ling Ran.

Ling Ran did not reject it either. He ran his hand over Hao Bei’s leg and determined the site of injection using his Physical Examination Skill. He then jabbed the needle into her leg.

Hao Bei was enjoying it. She only hissed in pain and inhaled a breath of cold air, but Ling Ran did not show any special pity or tenderness to the girl.

After earnestly injecting a tube of lidocaine, he cleaned the wounded area with a brush. He then treated the blisters and rubbed an ointment on her wound…

Doctor Zhou looked a little guiltily at Chief Hao, but saw that the latter was sizing Ling Ran up with interest.

On the other side, Zhao Leyi quietly inched a small distance away and snatched the task of debriding and suturing a patient’s wound from a resident doctor.

Even though he did not get to treat Chief Hao’s daughter’s injury, Zhao Leyi still hoped to try his best to show his face. It did not matter that he was just performing a task beside Chief Hao.

As a doctor of Yun Hua Hospital, if he was fortunate and was spotted by the leader of the healthcare system, he had a chance of getting transferred to all kinds of temporary healthcare teams. It would be very beneficial for his career advancement in the future if he got to be in one of those teams.

The patient Zhao Leyi snatched from the resident doctor was a very young girl. She looked like she was only around six or seven years old. She probably knocked her arm against something and debris had entered her wound. She was already under local anesthesia, and the resident doctor had already debrided half of her wound, so the remaining tasks were not complicated.

The little girl had been consoled and hid in her mother’s bosom, but started to shout again. “I don’t want this uncle to give me the shot.”

Zhao Leyi frowned. He said with a smile, “Don’t be afraid, it won’t be painful anymore.”

“I want the older brother to give me the shot.” The little girl pointed at Ling Ran and retreated back into her mother’s bosom.

Everyone turned to look at them when they heard the commotion. Zhao Leyi froze for a moment. Even though he was thinking about ways to show his face, he did not expect to show his face in such an unpredictable way.

“This uncle’s injection won’t be painful either,” the young mother persuaded her in a soft voice.

The little girl shook her head firmly. “This uncle has small eyes, he won’t be able to see clearly.”

If it was not for the fact that everyone was staring at them, Zhao Leyi would have flung the needle holder onto the ground.

Meanwhile, Chief Hao scratched his chin. He seemed to be deep in thought.