Great Doctor Ling Ran

“Miss Zou, please take a look. Yun Hua Hospital’s rehabilitation ward can be said to be the best in the province. Our Hand Surgery Department is the pioneer of specialist departments building their own rehabilitation wards.” While Wang Haiyang walked, he introduced the place to Zou Yawen.

The rehabilitation ward in the Hand Surgery Department was wide and bright, the area was also large. There were many rehabilitation rooms in the ward itself, and it had always served as the promotional front for the Hand Surgery Department and Yun Hua Hospital.

In a show of great cooperation, Zou Yawen posed a few times for Wang Haiyang to take pictures.

Wang Haiyang happily continued to introduce the place. “The ratio of the rooms in our rehabilitation ward, to the beds in our hospital is very high. This ratio is one of the best in the country, not just the Changxi Province…”

Zou Yawen smiled. She walked with him through a few rooms and listened to Wang Haiyang make all kinds of descriptions about the rooms, but she was soon bored of it.

She did not want to gain in-depth knowledge about the differences of the rooms there, so she asked, “Doctor Ling, do you have any of your patients in the rehabilitation ward?”

It was clear that the awkwardness Zou Yawen experienced from making a fool of herself earlier had disappeared.

Ling Ran was once more pushed to the front of the team. He said, “Yes.”

“May I see your patients?” Zou Yawen said in a gentle and soft-spoken manner, giving off a feeling as though she was a female host of an entertainment show who was easily bullied. It would cause men to have the urge to protect her.

However, the female doctors and nurses in the area simply looked askance at Zou Yawen without saying a single word, because they knew that Zou Yawen was just acting.

“Just look at the patients’ bracelets and you’ll know which department the patients belong to. The ones with ‘Emergency Department’ written on them belong to me.” Ling Ran’s answer showed his lack of interest in the subject.

Zou Yawen pursed her lips gently. At that moment, they entered another room, and so, she went to look at the patients’ bracelet. The charm brought by her small act of pursing her lips and the way she spoke—which caused others to feel protective of her—immediately made a few young doctors feel anger towards Ling Ran.

However, none of them could feel a common hatred towards him. What were they supposed to do? Were they supposed to have Ling Ran comfort the female reporter? Would that not mean that they were pushing this delicate and graceful female reporter to Ling Ran?

The group of doctors watched Zou Yawen bend down and stick her bum out. They could not help but sink into deep thought.

“So these are your patients, Doctor Ling? Ah, this one is also your patient… and this one, too… All of them are your patients…” Zou Yawen looked through them one by one and let out a faint cry of surprise.

Ling Ran looked indifferent. “This rehabilitation room is given to the Emergency Department.”

“Why didn’t you say so earlier? And you even asked me to look at their bracelets.” Zou Yawen patted Ling Ran’s arm lightly, and she marveled internally at how hard his arm was. Then, a feeling of bliss came to her heart.

Ling Ran thought, ‘I taught you a normal way to find out how to tell which department a patient belongs to, and you want the answer straight from me?’

Ling Ran would never be nice to those who demanded answers without intending to work for it. Naturally, he did not even intend to provide any explanation.

Zou Yawen was used to weighing her words based on another person’s expression. When she saw that Ling Ran seemed unhappy, she immediately began reflecting on her actions. ‘Could it be that Doctor Ling doesn’t like people touching him? That’s impossible. Perhaps he doesn’t like girls who are taking the initiative…? That’s possible. But how is a girl supposed to attract Doctor Ling’s attention if she doesn’t take the initiative? Hmm… maybe Doctor Ling is the type of man who likes to conquer his women, like the guy from Fifty Shades of Gray… Ah, that’s so embarrassing.’

And so, after putting up a beautiful pose, Zou Yawen concentrated on doing her work.

If anyone were to judge Zou Yawen based on her work alone, they would come to the conclusion that she was indeed a very good reporter.

She was a top graduate from PBC School of Finance, and because of her pretty face and professional communication skills, she joined a business and finance TV program in a province as a host, but since she could not deal with the harassment from average-looking, middle-aged men who were considerably older than her and were married, she resigned from her post and joined ‘Yun Hua Daily.’

Zou Yawen had her own techniques when it came to interviews, and she was confident of them.

She looked for an average-looking middle-aged man who was a lot older than she was, taught him the steps on how to properly peel a prawn, gave him a box of red swamp crayfish she just bought, and the man started peeling the shell off the crayfish while huffing and puffing, and without caring about the pain in his fingers.

“Wow, you did it so well!” Zou Yawen praised him, then picked up another box of red swamp crayfish in search for another patient.

The people worked together with her.

Forget whether they were facing a beautiful woman or not, anyone would act slightly more obedient than usual when the camera was trained on them.

The group of doctors watched Zou Yawen make various poses while she conducted her interview, and they found themselves speechless.

To them, the act of determining whether a finger has recovered by asking the patient to peel red swamp crayfish was truly the act of an amateur, but they could say nothing about it, because Zou Yawen was indeed an outsider in this matter.

“Wow, Doctor Ling also did your surgery?”

“Whoa, you recovered in just a few days?”

“Wow, your recovery has been especially quick the past few days, huh?”

Zou Yawen moved about the rehabilation room gracefully. The words she chose made conversation interesting, and she repeatedly boosted the value of the Hand Surgery Department and the doctors, making the doctors feel as if they were on cloud nine.

“Wow, did Doctor Ling help you with your finger replantation?” Zou Yawen asked when she arrived in front of another patient.

“I’m here to change my dressing.” Mao Penghai, thirty-one years old, broke out into a cold sweat when the nurse broke through his skin to inject him with heparin. He took it because he did not want to be killed by thrombi.

Zou Yawen stared at his rather black finger and said fearfully, “It looks quite bad.”

“Bullsh*t, of course it does.” Cold sweat dripped down Mao Penghai’s body, and he was incredibly rude to her.

A doctor in the rehabilitation room quickly went towards them and stood in between Zou Yawen and Mao Penghai. He spoke quietly to her, “The patient is suffering from withdrawal symptoms right now, and is quite restless. Why don’t you interview another person?”

Zou Yawen was shocked. “Withdrawal symptoms? He’s… um… an addict?”

The doctor in charge of the rehabilitation room answered, “A smoker. This patient has smoked for fifteen years. We originally refused to perform finger replantation surgery for him, but because of the demands from the patient and his family members, we decided to help him. Also, the patient has a rather strong desire to quit smoking, and that’s another reason why we decided to help him. He’s currently suffering from withdrawal symptoms, and he’s aching all over his body, is short of breath, has not been sleeping well, and is tired during the daytime; these are all clear signs of a lack of nicotine…”

“He’s thinking about quitting smoking since he received finger replantation, right? That shows great determination.” Zou Yawen praised him. “Now I really want to interview him.”

The doctor in charge of the rehabilitation room could not help but laugh. He said, “It’s impossible for him to smoke anymore.”

Chief Physician Wang Haiyang walked forward from the side, smiled, and pointed at his own finger. He drew a few lines to show the blood vessels in the finger, and said, “The blood vessels in the fingers are very thin. Nicotine will make the blood vessels in the finger experience vascular spasms, leading to a thrombus. In other words, smoking after receiving finger replantation surgery is not allowed.”

“Then how long am I prohibited to smoke?” Zou Yawen did not ask that question. Instead, it came from Mao Penghai, who walked towards them slowly.

The doctor in charge of the rehabilitation room sighed and said, “Mister Mao, I told you before that smoking will do you no good. Why don’t you use this period of time to completely quit smoking?”

“I want to quit smoking, too, but I just feel horrible, and my heart is urging me to smoke.” Mao Penghai covered his chest with a helpless look. As of right then, he felt pain even as he took deep breaths, and that feeling was even worse than the pain in his finger.

Wang Haiyang shook his head and said, “Mister Mao, from the perspective of the Hand Surgery Department, there are risks no matter when you smoke, and the risks are especially high during the first few months. If you quit smoking, there are endless benefits for you, but it will be incredibly dangerous for you if you smoke.”

“It’ll be dangerous even if I smoke just one cigarette?” Mao Penghai asked.

Wang Haiyang said sternly, “Very dangerous. There’s no need for even one cigarette stick, all the nicotine contained in just half a cigarette stick will already largely surpass the limit of nicotine you can have.”

“There are filter tips.”

“It’s the same even if there are filter tips!” Wang Haiyang already noticed the danger of the situation. He said even more sternly, “If you smoke, you will cause your replanted finger to die again. You absolutely must not smoke ever again.”

“I know, I was just saying…” Mao Penghai was already a man past his thirties. He only smiled and directed his gaze to Ling Ran. He nodded and said, “Doctor Ling, thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” Ling Ran paused for a moment, and said, “Don’t smoke. Persist in quitting.”

“I won’t, I won’t.” Mao Penghai chuckled in embarrassment and walked away.

A Basic Treasure Chest given to him by a Sincere Gratitude landed in front of Ling Ran. Ling Ran cast a surprised glance at Mao Penghai. With a wave of his arm, he opened the chest.

A silver-gray book appeared. Written clearly on the title page were the words, [Lembert Suturing Technique (Specialist Level)]

Ling Ran, who was used to receiving Energy Serums, could not help but be stunned.

The Lembert suturing technique was one of the inverted sutures. It was different from the interrupted vertical mattress suture Ling Ran mastered earlier—an appositional suturing technique. As for the Lembert suturing technique, it was used to suture the stomach and intestines. It was a technique often used by the General Surgery Department. For the time being, Ling Ran did not need to use this skill. However, abdominal surgeries were what surgeons encountered the most often. Mastering an inverted suture allowed Ling Ran to largely expand his arsenal of skills.

But it was a pity that the Specialist Level was not high-leveled enough. However, this was still a skill that an experienced attending physician could only obtain after years of practice and research. Ling Ran still felt quite pleased that he managed to obtain the skill so easily.

Meanwhile, Zou Yawen was incredibly interested in Mao Penghai’s situation. She asked Wang Haiyang with a look as if she was deep in thought, “So, your rehabilitation room has to consider your patients’ recovery and their other conditions as well?”

“Yes.” Wang Haiyang nodded with great sentiment.

Zou Yawen said with a smile. “It’s very rare for me to be able to obtain such good material, Chief Physician Wang. Why don’t you lend Ling Ran to me and I’ll do a series of in-depth interviews with him?”

In-depth interviews were very rare. Zou Yawen’s conditions made Wang Haiyang’s thoughts come to a halt.

He turned his head around to look at the others before he hesitantly said, “Um… Strictly speaking, Ling Ran is still part of the Emergency Department.”

“Then I’ll have to go and interview the Emergency Department?” Zou Yawen said that sentence as if she just asked a question.

Wang Haiyang pulled a face. “I’ll think of something. Just let me think of something…”

“Then let’s end things here today. Once you think of a way, please do remember to contact me.” Zou Yawen left the rehabilitation room with her head up and chest puffed out.

The other doctors dispersed slowly.

From his bed, Mao Penghai stared at the door leading to the ward. Once all the people had left, he quickly pulled out a flattened, Soft Chunghwa[1] from beneath the mattress, hid it in his palm, and snuck into the toilet. He lit it with his lighter like he was treating a treasure, and then sucked in a mouthful in moderation…