Great Doctor Ling Ran

One of Hao Bei’s legs was held suspended in the air. She lay on the hospital bed, flat on her back while she went through her phone.

Having the wounded limb at a higher elevation than the heart could potentially reduce the occurrence of edema. That was why many patients with mild burns were often hospitalized for further observation. Hospital Director Zhou had proposed to install a bed in Chief Hao’s home to make it easy to facilitate Hao Bei’s recuperation process. However, her proposal had been turned down by Chief Hao.

As a result, Hao Bei was able to comfortably stay in the Emergency Department of Yun Hua Hospital, even as she posted a great number of selfies on her Qzone page.

Her posts stood out among many others, as more viewers started mingling around her status.

[I have laid eyes upon the most handsome doctor in Yun Hua. He is definitely the most handsome one there is.]

[Prince Charming is so beautiful that my tears have fled from my eyes.]

[A blessing in disguise, I encountered a handsome man, and hence, I am happy.]

After she was done showing off, Hao Bei no longer felt pain in her leg. She changed into another pose and stared at the treatment room pitifully. She asked the young nurse beside her, “Sister, when is Doctor Ling coming over?”

The young nurse was not particularly fond of Hao Bei. She tried her best to remain civil and said, “Doctor Ling won’t be coming over here.”

“Why?” Hao Bei suddenly straightened her back for a brief moment before she fell back down on the bed.

“Doctor Ling normally remains in the operating theater.”

“Then… when does he leave?”

“He doesn’t.” The young nurse packed up her stuff. She was getting ready to leave.

“Uhm, uhm…” Hao Bei called out twice and reached out for the nurse’s arm. She said, “He will eventually come out, right? When is he having his meal? Where is he having his meal?”

“Doctor Ling doesn’t come out to have his meals.” The young nurse shot a glance at Hao Bei. Her mood seemed to lift ever so slightly as she said, “Doctor Ling will just have his meals in the Operating Area.”

Hao Bei pouted and said, “I want him to change my dressing.”

“Then I shall go ahead and ask.” The young nurse did not directly reject Hao Bei’s request, nor did she give Hao Bei any affirmation.

Hao Bei felt helpless. She muttered to herself. “How many operations are there for him to perform, huh? Patients like us in the emergency room are also very important.”

As she said that, the little girl beside her bed could not help herself but begin nodding her head madly.

The young nurse tilted her head. She said sternly, “Doctor Ling would never run out of operations to perform. Forget about coming out to change your dressing. His meals are as scarce as anything. He truly has a hard time.”

“He really has that many operations?” Hao Bei and her family worked in the healthcare system. She also knew many things about doctors and hospitals. She was dubious about the young nurse’s words.

If they were willing to, a hospital like Yun Hua Hospital would never run out of operations to perform. It was indeed hard for the doctors. But if it was necessary, the hospital also had the means to limit the number of operations.

The young nurse nodded her head gravely and said, “Doctor Ling has a very hard time, especially when there are a lot of patients for him. In other hospitals, the patients would have been required to undergo amputations. Only Doctor Ling is capable of performing the operations… Now, Doctor Ling has to operate from morning till night. He has to perform at least six to seven operations every day.”

Hao Bei, who understood how hospitals worked, was shocked. “Performing six to seven operations every day? That would be exhausting, right?”

“That’s right.” the young nurse pouted and said, “He operates for over twelve to thirteen hours every day. He will sometimes come out to perform ward rounds…”

When the nurse realized that she had spoken too much, Hao Bei had already caught on the main point and repeated her words, “I see, Doctor Ling does come out for ward rounds.”

The young nurse did intend to continue chatting with her. She stomped away.

Hao Bei smiled. She hugged her phone and sank back into her daydreams.

…..

Just as the young nurse said, Ling Ran’s daily number of operations had increased, and he now performed six surgeries per day. She was wrong about how Ling Ran would be exhausted. He did not for one moment believe that his situation was tough.

What was so tough about staying in the operating theater?

The temperature in the operating theater was constant all year long. Even a change in the temperature of more than two degrees was not permissible. With the ventilation system that went through the entire floor, not only was there not even the slightest scent of medicine in the air, it also prevented people in the building from getting into contact with the haze in the city.

Even though the operating theater’s shower room, washroom, canteen, waiting room, and the other rooms were far from being fancy, they were all clean, regularly and routinely cared for. The floor could allow more than ten doctors and nurses to live in relative comfort. Most of the time, only a few people were in the operating theater of the Emergency Department.

Lu Wenbin would also bring in some vegetables and meats that had been stewed in soy sauce and garnished with spices from time to time. His skillset had been rather extensively upgraded. Not only did he have to make traditional pork legs, pork shoulders, chicken feet, duck wings, chicken wings and many more, he also had to make a pot of stew soup which was used to beef stew, mutton, beef tripe, goat tripe, and many other types of food. Occasionally, he would also have the chance to add in chicken feet or duck wings into the stew, giving each dish a unique taste.

This living environment and this perfect, smooth-flowing life that called for no unnecessary exertion was one so good, that Ling Ran would not leave the Operating Area, if not for the treasure chests provided by Sincere Gratitude.

Performing surgeries was barely a chore for Ling Ran.

Back when he was in school, he would sometimes remain in the dissection room in the middle of the night to accompany the cadavers[1], forever honing his skills. Now that he had a bunch of people accompanying him, he would acquire Sincere Gratitude rather frequently. Ling Ran simply could not find any reason for him to be unhappy about this situation.

Ling Ran had slowly figured out the technique when it came to performing ward rounds.

If he performed his ward rounds from eight o’clock in the morning to noon and another from two o’clock to six o’clock in the afternoon, the rate of him acquiring Sincere Gratitude also rose a little. It was also a taboo to perform ward rounds before he operated, especially at three to four in the morning. If Ling Ran were to perform ward rounds during that period of time, the rate of him acquiring Sincere Gratitude would almost be zero.

Having adopted this schedule, Ling Ran worked for more than ten hours every day. On average, he was able to acquire two Basic Treasure Chests every day. It did not take long for him to open twenty treasure chests in bulk.

He had obtained nineteen bottles of Energy Serums and one Single Skill Book: Incision (Specialist Level Pencil Grip Style).

As Ling Ran had already acquired the Specialist Level Fiddle Bow Hold, his skills in incision were already sufficient for him to use—under the circumstance where a new skill was not required. With the addition of the Specialist Level Pencil Grip Style, he had more room for liberties with his method of incisions now, but there would be no change at all to the essence of the incision itself.

Instead, the dozens of surgeries Ling Ran had recently performed allowed Ling Ran to gain a deeper understanding of surgeries.

When he had performed flexor tendon sutures for over two hundred cases, even Ling Ran, who already acquired the Master Level M-Tang Technique, could feel the improvement.

To be more precise, he had attained a new level of mastery.

With the addition of two hundred surgeries on top of the three thousand upper limb dissections, it was difficult not to learn anything new. One could also develop new philosophies about the M-Tang technique, a fixed technique, after performing it over two hundred times. The Specialist Level Physical Examination could be used to analyze the patient before surgery. The Master Level MRI Analysis allowed him to understand the patient more after the fact…

The Microscopic Perineurium Anastomosis Skill, which was at Master Level, increased the number of patients for Ling Ran by a large margin. After seventy to eighty uses of it, it became his second nature.

In other words, Ling Ran knew the human hand like the back of his own hand.

“System, system, what is the ranking of my M-Tang technique?” When the clock hit six in the evening, Ling Ran completed his surgeries for the day.

As usual, he stood in front of the window and started updating himself.

“The standard of the M-Tang technique which you mastered is ranked number one in Yun Hua City, number one in Changxi Province, number seventy-eight in China. You will move one rank up after you perform another two hundred to three hundred surgeries using the M-Tang technique correctly,” the system answered, just like how it did for the past few days.

Ling Ran knew all too well that practice brought him closer to perfection. But the path to perfection was a very steep hill.

Ling Ran was not one bit anxious.

Back when he was at Yun Hua Medical Institute, he was not the most talented medical student. At best, he was only known to be ranked among the top three.

In Ling Ran’s mind, he had to be down-to-earth, study diligently and practice many times to surpass his cohorts.

His current progress had already exceeded his imagination, but Ling Ran would not change his way of doing things because of this shortcut.

“Doctor Ling.” Hao Bei carried two cups of milk tea and walked over swiftly.

She had also changed into scrubs, and it fit her very well. To fulfil Hao Bei’s request, the operating theater had put some effort into preparing her scrub.

“I don’t feel like drinking milk tea today,” Ling Ran answered bluntly.

Hao Bei’s smile stiffened. “Didn’t you say that milk tea was delicious?”

“I was thirsty yesterday.” Ling Ran took out his phone as he spoke. After giving a red packet to Hao Bei, he said, “Since you’ve bought it and brought it over, just leave it here.”

“You’re not even drinking it. So why are you giving me a red packet?”

A faint smile appeared on Hao Bei’s face as she passed the milk tea to Ling Ran.

She thought quietly to herself. ‘Doctor Ling is such a softie.’

“Su Mengxue’s the one who helped us buy our lunch. Returning her good gesture with a cup of milk tea should be reasonable, right?” Ling Ran said as if he was asking her a question.

Su Mengxue’s image instantly appeared in Hao Bei’s head. Her eyes were cuter than hers. Her chest was larger than hers. Her legs were longer than hers…

Hao Bei reached out and tried to grab the milk tea so that she could violently smash it against the wall…

Ling Ran evaded her hand with a swing of his arm. He looked at Hao Bei in confusion.

Hao Bei gazed at Ling Ran’s face. She felt drained instantly. She blushed slightly as she said, “I bought it for you.”

“And I have received it.”

“That’s not what I meant.” The high school student Hao Bei did not know how to handle the situation before her eyes.

Ling Ran seemed even more confused.

He had never tried to conceal his confusion. For the past ten or so years, girls surrounding him would do puzzling things. But whenever he asked them, the girls would normally give him a reasonable explanation.

Hao Bei’s face turned completely red. Then, just as expected, she started explaining while stuttering, “I’m actually here to give you some enemy intel.”

“Enemy intel?”

Hao Bei nodded her head hard and said, “Department Associate Director Pan is about to complete his in-service training. According to rumors, there will be another Japanese PhD holder flying in with him to work at Yun Hua Hospital. Department Associate Director Pan and you are doctors who use the M-Tang technique. The two of you are rivals, right? I can help you…”

Ling Ran started laughing. “The number of patients in this hospital who require M-Tang technique is far more than we can chew on. We’re not competing against each other.”

“Department Associate Director Pan is an associate chief physician, and you’re just an intern. If there’s a choice, the patients will definitely choose an associate chief physician instead of an intern, right?”

“Our current pool of patients is huge. When Department Associate Director Pan can’t complete all of the surgeries, he will pass the remaining ones to me. Even so, we’re incapable of completing all of them. Some of the patients are even referred to the other provinces or sent for amputation.” Ling Ran spoke a little more than usual, this being a topic of interest. He also said, “Currently, some patients require amputation every day. So it should be a good thing that Department Associate Director Pan is returning from his in-service training.”

He had not known about this before, but ever since Ling Ran had acquired the surgical method called perineurium anastomosis, a great number of patients had swarmed towards him, wanting him to attend to them, and it was one of the few times he actually found himself overwhelmed.

However, Hao Bei had sought advice from others before that. She knew what exactly would catch Ling Ran’s attention. So she asked again, “How about having another Japanese PhD holder coming along? He is definitely performing the M-Tang technique as well, right?”

And so, Ling Ran began calculating quietly in his mind.

The Japanese PhD holder should not be as formidable as Shiro Hashimoto. However, he should still have the efficiency to operate on one finger, in every one hour on average. If that was the case, a mere Japanese PhD holder should only be capable of causing Ling Ran and the others to lose eighteen operable fingers every day on average…

No, it was more than that.

The Japanese have always been known to be workaholics. Anyone would know just by watching Japanese Dramas. They were running around, even when they were not working. Based from that, an additional Japanese Professor could possibly cost Ling Ran and the others twenty operable fingers every day…

No, it was even more than that.

Since this was a PhD holder, and he was also a PhD holder of the famous Keio University Hospital, that man could possibly operate at an efficiency that surpassed the standard rate of one finger per hour. Perhaps he only needed forty-five minutes or even forty minutes to complete an operation on one finger. It was not entirely impossible for him to complete operating on one finger under thirty minutes.

Based on that, one Japanese Professor PhD holder could potentially cause Ling Ran and the others to lose forty operable fingers every day…

If Department Associate Director Pan brought in another team to perform surgeries for more than ten hours, he could complete twenty or even thirty cases of finger suturing which involved flexor tendon injuries with ease…

Regardless of how vast the pool of patients was for Yun Hua Hospital, there would never be sixty to seventy fingers suffering from flexor tendon injuries every single day.

In other words, if Department Associate Director Pan got in Ling Ran’s way, Ling Ran would end up operating on nothing for one or two days of each week. The remaining four to five days would hardly be much of an improvement.

“I understand now. It’s too late right now. From tomorrow onwards, I’ll increase the number of surgeries. We shall perform surgeries on as many people as we can.”

Ling Ran was speaking to Lu Wenbin through the phone as he added on, “Call Ma Yanlin as well. We’ll start performing surgeries at three in the morning. We will also add another one to two hours to our shifts. We shall make those decisions based on the conditions of the patients on the day itself. Also, I might have to let you handle the suturing the wounds.”

When Lu Wenbin heard the first half, he was initially filled with such despair that he could not breathe, but when he heard the second half, he could suddenly breathe again.