Great Doctor Ling Ran

In the waiting room at four-forty in the morning.

Nurse Wang Jia, Chief Resident Yu Yuan, and Houseman Ma Yanlin who just ended his marriage leave, all sat around an alcohol stove and stared at the savory pork glutinous rice dumpling cooked with salted fish from Zhousand Island.

Ma Yanlin stared because he was tired.

Marriage was a tiring task, and a married life… was even more tiring.

Ma Yanlin looked at the savory pork glutinous rice dumpling with unfocused eyes. His mind was completely blank. Only when he twitched would he subconsciously scratch his body.

Meanwhile, Yu Yuan and Wang Jia stared because of the savory pork glutinous rice dumplings cooked with salted fish.

This was especially the case for Yu Yuan, who had starved for an entire night. She said indignantly, “I think savory pork glutinous rice dumplings are considered edible as well, so what’s the purpose of cooking the salted fish? Are you afraid that the soup will be too delicious?”

“At least it’s salty. It will taste better than salty glutinous rice dumplings in sweet soup.” Wang Jia looked at the glutinous rice dumplings immersed in the soup, and her appetite increased. She sniffed in the aroma of salted fish in the soup, and her appetite continued decreasing.

“We can eat it now,” Ma Yanlin suddenly said, and he looked as if he was shining. He also encouraged himself. “We will become energetic again after we eat to our fill. If we eat ten bowls of rice, we can replenish one drop of blood!”

As he spoke, Ma Yanlin picked a salted fish and chewed on it.

“You eat slowly. Shouldn’t you be eating at home or something after you get married?” As Yu Yuan watched Ma Yanlin eat, she suddenly felt that she was not that hungry anymore.

Ma Yanlin muttered, “I don’t have free time to eat a proper meal. I ate either cold steamed bun or overly soaked noodles.”

“Why is your life so bad? What have you been doing in your marriage life?” Yu Yuan felt extremely shocked.

Ma Yanlin swallowed the crispy yet soft fish bone in his mouth. Then, he stared at Yu Yuan and said, “What do you think?”

Yu Yuan thought with her head for a while before she realized. “And here I was wondering…”

“Correct.”

“We just removed a testicle for a patient yesterday.” Yu Yuan switched the topic happily. “The reason was… Can you guess what the reason is?”

Ma Yanlin felt his body tense. He then quietly put down his chopsticks.

“Because his wife knows how to dance… Hahaha…” Yu Yuan chuckled.

Hahahaha…

Laughter could also be heard from the end of the corridor.

After going through layers of sound absorption, the laughter became soft and gentle, yet stiff and distant.

Wang Jia shrugged in a very prominent manner and said, “It’s echoes, right? Do echoes reach so far?”

“How could echoes be so slow?” Yu Yuan’s face became stern. She lowered her head and looked at the time before she said, “It’s four-forty in the morning.”

“Four… forty?” Wang Jia repeated.

Ma Yanlin smiled as he stood. He wiped his mouth and said, “Let’s go and see. There are still people in the ward, so even if…”

“Hahahaha…” A woman’s laughter drifted into their ears from the air.

Haha…

Hahaha…

Ma Yanlin’s expression changed slightly, and he stopped moving forward.

“What’s wrong?” Yu Yuan asked.

“People staying by the sea like us are quite particular sometimes. When we encounter this kind of thing, it’s not suitable for a newly married man like me to appear.” Ma Yanlin chuckled before he turned around and sat by the alcohol stove. He filled another bowl of soup and drank it to warm his body.

Wang Jia asked, “Why? Is it because you don’t have enough Yang aura?”

“Because it’s too cruel for me to die right after getting married.” Ma Yanlin raised his head and said before he drank the soup again.

Yu Yuan also became quiet. After a while, she said, ” It’s too bad that we don’t have the manure of black donkeys.”

Ma Yanlin was drinking soup when he heard this. He could not help but put down the bowl from his hand. “Normal people will use the hooves of black donkeys.”

“It’s a rumor. Just because the black donkey’s hoof was stained with manure, people said their hooves could chase away evil spirits,” Yu Yuan said seriously, “I’ve studied the history behind this story. I think the people during the earliest stages of civilization used black donkeys’ manure.”

“I don’t believe it. If black donkey’s manure was useful, who would still use black donkey’s hooves? Aren’t they scare of spending more money?”

“The people who are invited to perform the ritual will obviously not feel scared. If they want to use black donkeys’ hooves, then you must kill a donkey. After killing the donkey, will you actually not be embarrassed for not treating them the meat?” Yu Yuan looked at the depths of the corridor as if she knew everything. She then continued, “It’s the same theory for black dogs’ blood.”

Ma Yanlin was stunned when he heard this. “You really studied about it.”

“Yes.”

“Then, what’s the best strategy to tackle this kind of thing?”

“Oh… hide from it.” Yu Yuan sat back by the stove and said, “In horror movies, the ones who die the most are the ones who are curious.”

*Bang.*

Right after Yu Yuan finished speaking, somebody knocked on the door loudly.

A young nurse was so excited that she rushed into the room. “The patient regained his conscious.”

“What?” Ma Yanlin raised his head, and his face was completely pale.

The young nurse despised his expression, so she looked away and said, “I’m talking about the surgery that Doctor Ling performed yesterday for the married couple from University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Now, the husband has awakened. Oh yes… hasn’t Doctor Ling come yet?”

“Doctor Ling will be here soon.” Yu Yuan explained before she asked again, “So, the patient has woken up. But, why is it so noisy?”

“It’s probably because the patient’s family members are all doctors, and they felt surprised and delighted.” The young nurse recalled what she saw, and she felt really excited as she said, “Listening to their conversation made me feel depressed. Their conversation is filled with phrases like they thought he was going to die, that he was not going to wake up, that the sequelae will be too severe,and that they didn’t expect him to wake up within twenty-four hours. And his figures are extraordinarily good… The doctor from ICU said he can be transferred to the general ward after two more days.”

Yu Yuan sighed in relief, “Where is the patient’s family laughing from?”

“They are in the meeting room,” the young nurse whispered, “Chief Physician Tao opened the door.”

Yu Yuan was surprised. “Chief Physician Tao hasn’t gone back and rest?”

“He just arrived too. I heard that Chief Physician Tao always sleeps on the sofa. He will buy his wife breakfast before sunrise. Sometimes, he goes to sleep right after watching the news so that he could sleep on the bed. Then, on the next day, he will wake up the next day at around three or four in the morning and came to the hospital…” The young nurse casually began to gossip.

Wang Jia’s eyes brightened up. “Chief Physician Tao actually has this kind of dark history?”

“What do you mean by dark history? This is still happening everyday. So, it’s not something new to see Chief Physician Tao here so early to work.”

“So, Chief Physician Tao actually wakes up about the same time as us.” Ma Yanlin felt happy when he thought about it.

Yu Yuan was the one who had been working in the medical field the longest among them in the room. She started chuckling after she heard that. “Don’t spread rumors. Chief Physician goes back home at night by bicycle. When the news is on air, he’s still on his way back home.”

“So… He doesn’t buy breakfast for his wife as well?”

Yu Yuan said confidently, “That’s definitely impossible. Breakfast shops usually won’t open that early. He usually makes breakfast for his wife during three to four in the morning. He makes steamed buns, cooks tofu pudding, and so on…”

“He makes his own tofu pudding?”

“Yes. Chief Physician Tao is very skillful. Our hospital had a lot of cases of people coming to us for appendectomies during the time Chief Physician Tao is young. When he performed emergency appendectomies at that time, Chief Physician Tao could finish one case within 15 minutes.”

Ma Yanlin was enraptured when he heard it. He sighed and said, “I wonder when I can reach Chief Physician Tao’s level.”

“You’re almost there.” Yu Yuan smiled. Then, her smile turned genuine, and she said, “Doctor Ling.”

“Doctor Ling?” The young nurse had her back to the door. She practically jumped.

Wang Jia also lowered her head and tidied her cap before she showed the best smile toward the door.

Ling Ran nodded to the group and asked, “Did anything happen?”

“The patient is awake.” The young nurse grabbed the chance to repeat the information she told just now.

“It’s great if the patient woke up.” Ling Ran smiled and said, “Then, we’ll go for a ward round.”

“Doctor Ling.” Yu Yuan immediately called him and said, “Let’s go to the meeting room first.”

Yu Yuan felt a great sense of responsibility at the moment.

This was a rumor passed around in society: There were three types of patients’ family that were the most difficult to deal with, and the order of it was teachers, medical related staff, and junior leaders.

And this patient and his family members were all three of them in one package. Hence, the difficulty level in dealing with them was three times harder.

Even if it was four in the morning, Yu Yuan dared not be negligent.

Ling Ran did not mind. He said, “Then, let’s go to the meeting room first.”

As he said, he took a new white coat and left the room first.

The laughter in the corridor became more terrifying.

This was especially so since the laughter was not continuous. It could only be heard from time to time.

There was already more than twenty people in the small meeting room.

The patient’s family and friends chatted happily.

“Chief Physician Tao.”Yu Yuan greeted and gave Ling Ran a space to stand.

“Ling Ran?” Chief Physician Tao showed a surprised smile and laughed with even more confidence. “Everyone, this is our chief surgeon, Doctor Ling Ran. Doctor Ling Ran will go for ward rounds every morning. It’s tiring for him.”

The family members and friends in the meeting room stared at Ling Ran with a judgmental look.

Among them were people wearing formal suits, jackets, Chinese tunic suits, and white coats. There was practically a few words written on their faces. [I am not to be provoked!]

Yu Yuan held her breath and stared at them.

Ma Yanlin’s face was pale.

Finally, a middle-aged lady who stood in the middle and was dressed head to toe in Amass coughed. She then said slowly, “Doctor Ling, are you married? Do you have a girlfriend?”