Great Doctor Ling Ran

“Did you bring his scans?” Zhu Tongyi felt the need to filter patients out on behalf of Ling Ran to prevent Ling Ran from getting cheated.

“They’re available in Qu Yue’s laptop.” The moment Li Yuan finished speaking, Qu Yue immediately took out a laptop from her Louis Vuitton bag. She flipped the laptop open, and an MRI scan of Xu Jinyi’s liver was displayed on the screen.

Qu Yue went beside Ling Ran and adjusted the screen of the laptop. She then said with a smile, “This is my company laptop. You can take it with you to look at the scans. Just give it back to us when you’re free.”

Ling Ran did not fall into Qu Yue’s trap. Zhu Tongyi said, “Put all the scans into a USB flash drive with nothing else inside and label the USB flash drive. Make sure that your handwriting is clear.”

Zhu Tongyi sounded rather stern, and he had no intention of putting up a polite front.

Qu Yue felt her heart tremble in fear as she quickly agreed to Zhu Tongyi’s request. Even so, she remained unperturbed on the surface. This was because as a pharmaceutical sales representative, the one act they did the most was actually not giving gifts, but having their gifts rejected.

It was normal for Ling Ran to reject a laptop that was given to him all of a sudden.

Ling Ran ignored the conversation between Zhu Tongyi and Qu Yue as he read the scans.

“What do you think?” Department Director Li Yuan observed Ling Ran’s expression as he read the scans and glanced through the test reports available. He only popped the question when he was done.

“It’s a typical case of middle-stage liver cancer. Many doctors should be capable of treating him.” Ling Ran gave a very simple answer. From what he could see from Xu Jinyi’s MRI and CT scans, even though the location of the tumor was not very good, it was not a cause for alarm. It was actually a very normal thing, as the location of the tumors of most cancer patients could hardly be considered good, to the point that a well-located tumor was actually atypical.

“Jinyi watched one of Doctor Ling’s surgeries and felt that Doctor Ling works very meticulously. This is why he really hopes that Doctor Ling can operate on him.” Li Yuan glanced at Feng Zhixiang and continued, “Doctor Ling, Jinyi is not even sixty years old yet. If he gets to continue working until the normal retirement age, he can save the lives of a few hundred, or even a thousand more patients. Moreover, as a doctor himself, he knows precisely how dangerous liver cancer is and how there is a high chance of recurrence. So, he certainly won’t ask for the impossible.”

Ling Ran started giving it a thought.

At the end of the day, Ling Ran just did not want a patient he had operated on to be admitted to the hospital again because of the same illness.

In other words, Ling Ran inherently disliked illnesses like cancer which he did not have complete control over.

In this world, certain doctors had a great affinity with challenges. There were always people who liked to challenge themselves, the world, and knowledge as they knew it.

Hence, there was no lack of doctors who would courageously fight against illnesses that were impossible to cure. They would dedicate their entire life to fighting these illnesses. But most of the time, they would lose horribly.

Ling Ran, though, did not like this kind of challenge.

Many situations in his life were already out of his control. For example, back when he was young, he would happily return home to school, looking forward to eating a good meal and doing his homework, only to realize that his mother had gone on a trip with his father and could not come back in time to cook.

Ling Ran liked to be in control in the operating theater, and he preferred treating illnesses where doctors could have complete control over.

“There wouldn’t be much of a difference if another doctor were to operate on him instead of me. The biggest problem would be the possibility of recurrence. With Department Director Xu Jinyi’s age, recurrence is almost guaranteed, and his lifespan, as well as the quality of life, would be greatly affected by this. It will have nothing to do with the quality of my surgery…” Ling Ran continued trying to evade the job, but nothing could change the fact that he had already devoured a plate of braised sea cucumber with scallions, and the fact that it was delicious.

Department Director Li Yuan, though, laughed out loud and revealed a speechless expression. “Do you really think that there wouldn’t be much of a difference? In my opinion, you operating on him would make a world of difference. Doctor Ling, if the hepatectomy performed by you isn’t much different from the hepatectomy performed by other doctors, why do you think other hospitals are willing to pay for you to carry out freelance surgery?”

Ling Ran thought about it for a moment and said, “All right, I guess it makes quite a difference.”

“I was right, aren’t I? Doctor Ling, so, do you agree to operate on Jinyi?” Li Yuan was pretty good with words.

Ling Ran asked, “Which hospital does Department Director Xu want to get operated in?”

“The Second Affiliated Hospital of Beijing Medical University. He’s in our department right now.” Li Yuan paused for a moment and said, “He had started receiving hepatoprotective fluid transfusion two days ago, and will be ready for surgery tomorrow.”

“All right, then. I don’t have any freelance surgery scheduled for tomorrow.” Ling Ran nodded in agreement. Xu Jinyi was a very obedient patient, anyway. It was quite rare for patients to take the initiative to receive hepatoprotective treatment.

“Great! I’ll inform Jinyi, then. You’re operating on him tomorrow, right? What would be the best time for you?” Li Yuan was extremely elated.

“I need to see Department Director Xu first. After that, it would be best if I get to coordinate things with the surgery group of your hospital.” Before this, whenever Ling Ran carried out freelance surgery, he would bring multiple assistants as well as his own scrub nurse and anesthetist with him.

However, since Ling Ran did not bring many people along with him to Beijing, he was not very satisfied with what Donghuang Regional Hospital had to offer in terms of staff members.

Li Yuan became even happier. “It’s great that you want to meet the surgery group beforehand. Is there any kind of surgery you feel like performing? I’ll arrange one for you.”

“Finger replantation surgery, then. The surgery takes longer…” Ling Ran answered without even thinking. He then added, “It would be best if more than two of the patient’s fingers are severed.”

Nowadays, it only took a short time for him to operate on patients with one severed finger. He would be done before he even got into the zone, and this was no fun at all.

Li Yuan was speechless. What could he say now that the surgeon who was extremely excellent at hepatectomy wanted to perform finger replantation surgery? He had no choice but to ask for help from the Orthopedics Department.

“I’ll make a call.” Li Yuan whipped out his phone and left the private lounge.

The population of Beijing was three or four times more than Yun Hua City, and people from many other areas sought treatment in hospitals in Beijing. Hence, the number of patients with severed fingers every day in Beijing was a lot more compared to Yun Hua City. Since there were more than fifteen million families, the number of times when people chopped vegetables or used the knife for other purposes must be more than three billion. Even if the probability of them accidentally severing their fingers was only one out of a million, there would be three hundred patients with severed fingers in Beijing every day…

Of course, there were more hospitals in Beijing, and the patients would be spread out over various hospitals. However, no one in the medical field would scramble for patients with Li Yuan. Aside from this, most patients with severed fingers would not even seek treatment in tertiary Grade A hospitals.

But when someone was at Li Yuan’s position, all he needed to do was think of a plan, and it was extremely easy for him to invite a patient or two with severed fingers over to his hospital.

As expected, ten minutes later, Li Yuan returned and said, “I’ve contacted the relevant parties. They will probably send some suitable patients over by the time we’re back in the hospital later.”

“There’s no need to wait. We can wait at the hospital’s emergency room.” Ling Ran put down his chopsticks. He was pretty much full right now and was very excited to be performing a surgery.

The meal took less than an hour. After they exited the private lounge, they made their way back to the hospital. Li Yuan was amused and exasperated as he gazed at Ling Ran who was walking in front of everyone else. He said to Zhu Tongyi and Feng Zhixiang, “Ling Ran is a very efficient person indeed.”

“He’s also full of fighting spirit and energy.” Feng Zhixiang smiled. “The world belongs to the youths now.”

“Indeed, the world belongs to the youths now,” Li Yuan said in a sentimental manner.

Ling Ran stood tall beneath the sunset, his long shadow trailing behind him.