Great Doctor Ling Ran

Ling Ran exited the operating theater at half past eight that night. He showed slight fatigue.

He had just performed another finger replantation, which brought the day’s total surgeries up to three, and he replanted a total of five fingers. He had basically achieved what Yun Hua Hospital’s Hand Surgery Department would consider a record number of surgeries.

Among those five fingers, Lu Wenbin was involved in four of them, and Ma Yanlin was involved in three. Both of them took turns being second assistants when their surgeries overlapped.

Surgeries performed using the M-Tang technique only required one assistant—mainly to retract the patient’s skin. It was completely different for finger replantations. A lot of things needed to be sutured, from the bones, the skin, the blood vessels, and the nerves. Since it was a slightly unconventional situation, a second assistant was needed to provide assistance in the surgeries.

Lu Wenbin had worked the most, and by now, he trembled as he walked. Su Jiafu, who fully participated in all three surgeries, did not even leave the operating theater. He just sat on the stool, paralyzed, and dozed off. Those who did not know better would think that he had anesthetized himself.

Ma Yanlin was not in a very good condition as well. He felt the urge to cry when he saw the spacious corridor outside the operating theater.

“We have too much on our hands.” Ma Yanlin trembled as he drank water, and only managed to swallow a mouthful after two attempts.

For him, the worst part about being the second assistant was that the position where he stood was not good. Chief surgeons get to sit comfortably in front of the microscope, while first assistants sat comfortably opposite the chief surgeons. As for second assistants, they had to move around throughout the surgery, and most importantly, they must not invade the chief surgeons and first assistants’ areas, or else they would be disturbing the surgery instead of assisting the surgeons.

But the size of a person’s finger was limited. Second assistants often had to adopt all sorts of strange positions and postures to make space. Ma Yanlin could manage one surgery courtesy of his youth, but after performing three surgeries, Ma Yanlin felt as though he was on the verge of becoming handicapped.

Ling Ran could see that as well. He said, rather regretfully, “Young Ma, go and take a rest. Just come to work earlier tomorrow.”

“Huh?”

“Huh?”

Both Ma Yanlin and Lu Wenbin cried out. There was way too much information in Ling Ran’s words.

Ma Yanlin asked carefully, “Are there surgeries scheduled for tomorrow morning, too? What time?”

Ling Ran said, “Just come after you wake up. Three o’clock or four o’clock will be fine.”

Ma Yanlin raised his head to glance at the clock in the corridor. It was almost nine o’clock. When he used his fingers to make some calculations, he found that there was only seven hours in total until four o’clock in the morning. If he were to include the time required to travel home…

“Forget about it, I’ll sleep in the hospital.” Ma Yanlin did not try to negotiate. He could, of course, not come to the hospital. It was not like senior doctors were slave masters. If senior doctors were to encounter doctors who object vehemently against coming to work early, there was not much that they could do about it.

Ma Yanlin was reluctant to let go of the opportunity at hand. If it were not for Ling Ran, he would probably only be able to participate in finger replantation surgeries after four or five years. For the unlucky ones, they might not even get to participate in the surgeries even after becoming attending physicians.

Finger replantation was one of the most high-end, Level 4 surgeries in the Hand Surgery Department. Even in the field of orthopedics, it was a top-tier surgery; even ordinary hip replacement surgeries were not harder than this. Most importantly, how many doctors could do finger replantations as well as Ling Ran?

The video of the finger replantation Ling Ran performed with the other surgeons some days ago where they replanted eight of a young child’s fingers had already gone viral in the hospital. Judging by the trend of how it went around, it even showed signs that it was about to spread outside the hospital. Anyone with slight medical knowledge could see that the level of Ling Ran’s skill was top-notch even in Yun Hua Hospital’s Hand Surgery Department. In other words, the level at which Ling Ran performed finger replantation surgery was top-notch in the Changxi Province.

Fatigue was inevitable when assisting such a doctor in performing surgery. However, it was even harder to get such an opportunity. Surgeons had always been like this.

Surgery maniacs who stay in the operating theater for fifteen or even twenty hours a day were not only found in Yun Hua Hospital, they were common in hospitals all over the country, and even all over the world.

Ma Yanlin quickly left and went to the first-string doctors’ on-call room. He fell asleep the moment he lay down on the bed.

Lu Wenbin watched Ma Yanlin leave. He had an extremely bad feeling. “I can come earlier tomorrow, too…”

“We’ll perform two more surgeries today, and you won’t need to come tomorrow.” Ling Ran turned to pour himself a glass of water. He emptied a bottle of Energy Serum while he was at it.

Lu Wenbin’s entire body went stiff with shock. “Two more surgeries?”

“One finger replantation surgery, and one M-Tang technique surgery. Let’s rest for half an hour before getting started.” Even though Ling Ran gave some relatively good news after breaking the bad news first, it did not bring any positive effect. Lu Wenbin was so shocked that his whole body was now rigid.

From dawn until now, Ling Ran had already worked for around eighteen hours. Even though Lu Wenbin’s work hours were slightly shorter, he did not take any naps in between surgeries. Usually, Ling Ran got off work at about five or six o’clock in the evening. But today, not only did he extend his work time by three hours, his workload was also greater.

After drinking an Energy Serum, Ling Ran’s body and brain recovered in a totally logic-defying manner. He stretched his body and massaged his own neck and shoulders. He realized that his tensed up muscles had loosened a lot after that, and his brain was awake again. His muscles felt the same as when he consumed a large amount of amino acids, and his brain felt as if the ammonia had been removed from it after he took a nap. However, his stomach still growled, and he became even hungrier than before.

“The braised eggs should be ready,” Ling Ran said as he headed for the on-call room.

Lu Wenbin perked up when he heard the word ‘braised’ and chuckled a few times. “How would we even have time to braise eggs?”

“That’s true…” Ling Ran thought about it for a bit, he then whipped out his mobile phone and began to order takeout.

Lu Wenbin quickly said, “There are still pork trotters.”

“I don’t want pork trotters today.” Ling Ran paused for a moment and said, “I’ll have them two days later.”

Lu Wenbin froze again.

Thirty minutes later, Ling Ran woke Su Jiafu on time and watched as Su Jiafu performed the general laryngeal mask airway anesthesia on the patient. At the same time, the nurses who just came for their shift also completed basic preoperative preparations.

“Persevere for a bit longer. After this surgery, you’ll get to sleep for an hour,” said Ling Ran, who had consumed an Energy Serum, energetically to Su Jiafu.

With his head lowered, Su Jiafu said feebly, “What do you mean by ‘sleep for an hour’?”

“I’ll let another anesthetist participate in the M-Tang technique surgery later. You can take the opportunity to sleep,” Ling Ran said.

“You’re still performing an M-Tang technique surgery later?” Su Jiafu asked in disbelief.

“I have to operate on this patient because a lower-tier hospital took the initiative to transfer that patient here. Besides, I’ll get to energize my brain,” Ling Ran said, as though this was completely natural.

Lu Wenbin just took a cold shower. He asked dumbfoundedly, “How is performing surgery using the M-Tang technique considered energizing the brain?”

Ling Ran thought for a moment and said, “It’s just like when you were in school. After you get tired of math, you can study physics for a while. This is what I meant by energizing the brain. It’ll prevent you from restricting yourself to only one single thought process.”

“Doing physics after you’re sick of math absolutely does not energize your brain. It’s pure brainlessness.” Lu Wenbin sneered and said, “After you’re sick of math, you should study languages. If you still study physics after that, you might even mix up the symbols.”

Su Jiafu raised his head a little and said, “It doesn’t work to go straight to languages from math. After physics, I usually go for chemistry, and then biology, before studying languages. If you make a major leap, your brain won’t be able to react to it.”

“That’s you—”

“I got more than six hundred marks in my college entrance examination. Do you know how I did it?”

“Who cares about how you flunked?” Lu Wenbin looked down on Su Jiafu, just like how a clinician did when they oppressed an anesthetist.

Su Jiafu was enraged. He said in an extremely clear-headed manner, “Come, come, come, I do want to listen to the highly valuable opinion of a BARBER…”

“Needle holder,” Ling Ran said softly, afraid of disturbing Lu Wenbin and Su Jiafu. After all, arguments would cause blood to rush to the brain, and they would no longer be sleepy.

After Ling Ran finished the finger replantation, he did not ask Lu Wenbin to act as his assistant anymore. He simply called a resident doctor from among those who were on-call, and started his M-Tang surgery. He then took a brief rest before waking Ma Yanlin. A wonderful cycle then ended.

Of course, this was only Ling Ran’s assumption.

Lu Wenbin and Ma Yanlin only persisted until the third day before they begged for mercy in unison, “Doctor Ling, please find another b*tch friend… We mean, please find another assistant.”