Chapter 21: Suture ‘Production Line’

The mission continued.

Ling Ran hid the newly acquired Energy Serum in the third layer of his lunch box before returning to the treatment room.

By then, Doctor Zhou had completed debriding another patient. He looked up and saw Ling Ran return. With a smile on his face, he immediately stepped aside and said, “Well now, I finished your chores—the stitching is all yours now.”

Once he finished speaking, Doctor Zhou quickly comforted the patient. “Ling Ran is the young expert stitcher of our Emergency Department. He’s better at it than I am. You can take it easy now. Just lean back and enjoy it.”

Patients no longer felt pain after local anaesthesia was administered. But then again, the sight of a long needle with a curved tip burying itself in your skin would still cause anybody to flinch. “Can I enjoy something else?”

As his eyes ran over Ling Ran’s youthful face, the patient who appeared to be nearing his middle-age seemed a little disgruntled. He said, “Young man, are you sure you’re up to the task?”

Ling Ran could not care less about the patient’s attitude. He replied honestly, “I can perform appositional suturing technique and interrupted vertical mattress suturing technique well.”

The techniques he had mastered were Master Level Appositional Suturing Technique and Specialist Level Interrupted Vertical Mattress Suturing Technique. By the words ‘Master Level’ alone, Ling Ran assumed that the skill he acquired was most probably something extremely high-end. His interrupted vertical mattress suturing technique may only be Specialist Level and was one tier lower than Master Level, but it should still be better than most doctors in Yun Hua Hospital.

The patient did not understand what he said. Ignorantly, he asked, “They all sound like two fancy names for stitching, what’s the difference?”

Ling Ran was actually rather willing to answer questions if the patients were curious about their own conditions. So, he thought hard for a few seconds and formulated an answer for the layman. “If you come in with a cleaver embedded in your head, we will use the appositional suturing technique. If your balls have been slit open by a blade, we will use the interrupted vertical mattress suturing technique.”

“Balls?” The middle-aged patient squeezed his legs together and looked at Doctor Zhou for comfort.

Doctor Zhou seemed to have thought of something, and he smiled mysteriously.

“Come to the Emergency Department a few more times, and you’ll understand that anything can happen here.”

“Why would I come to the Emergency Department again if I’m alright… You… just get on with it already.” The patient suddenly seemed to be afflicted with a severe case of blue balls and was more than eager to leave as soon as possible.

Ling Ran was as quick as ever.

Missions must always be treated like newborn children.

Experienced gamers knew all too well how shameless game developers would deliberately set limits and caps to missions and the rewards to the missions to control the players’ progression speed, thereby allowing them to maintain the so-called balance in the game.

That was why every mission was a blessing that must not be taken for granted. One must not even hesitate when an event presented itself to them, or else they would only end up regretting a missed opportunity.

Ling Ran had no idea if such limits existed in his current situation, but he had a feeling that he should not waste the chance he was given on this day.

Treating ten patients got him one chest. No matter how he looked at it, it was a terrific deal. Anyone would want to capitalize on such an opportunity.

The system’s actions could not be controlled. Ling Ran was also very willing to rely on himself and work hard to accomplish his missions.

Besides, the mission had come at an opportune moment. The geographical and social conditions for the completion of the mission were favorable as well.

The Emergency Department was not this busy every single day.

The huge Yun Hua City would bear witness to countless accidents every single day, but factories did not blow up so easily.

If it was any other day, the Emergency Department would not even come close to giving Ling Ran sufficient stitching practice.

One would be able to know that by looking at the eager looks on the faces of the resident doctors every day. They were only qualified to pick up the forceps only when the Emergency Department was at its busiest moments, though they still could not touch scalpels. That qualification exclusively belonged to the higher authorities.

Whenever a large influx of wounded patients rolled in, the other tertiary Grade A hospitals in all of Yun Hua City would have their hands full, including Yun Hua Hospital.

After all, receiving five ambulances was already the limit with Yun Hua Hospital’s standards. Even smaller hospitals would have all their work cut out for them if two patients in critical condition turned up at their doorstep.

All the large hospitals were already fully occupied. Regardless, they would have to make room for even more patients. Even the most menial of tasks had to be attended by any available hand. At times, these hands would belong to much younger people.

As it neared the end of working hours, Ling Ran completed twenty treatments, and he smoothly acquired his second Basic Treasure Chest and his third green Energy Serum.

After seeing the patient out of the cubicle, Ling Ran stretched his stiffened joints. As he took a break, a thought took hold of his mind. ‘I must get even faster.’

The Emergency Department was already clogged up. The chief physicians and the associate chief physicians were busy with the critical patients, leaving a large number of patients behind for the younger doctors.

Even so, they still had to deal with the amount of traffic in the Emergency Department.

As far as time was concerned, the chief physicians, the associate chief physicians, a large number of senior attending physicians, and the supporting resident doctors would be coming out one after another of the resuscitation room in less than a few hours, provided that no new critical cases came in. If those cases still could not be stabilized and transferred to other departments, these patients might die.

“Doctor Zhou, can I get someone over to assist me?” Ling Ran requested as an idea occurred upon him.

“Asist? Whatever for?” Doctor Zhou sipped on some plain water. These early middle-aged doctors probably grew up watching Japanese medical dramas. Drinking boiled water was the standard norm for them, but his slightly unsightly face made the entire process look rather awkward.

Ling Ran took the mug of lukewarm, fresh water adorned with a slice of lemon cut into the shape of a star from Nurse Wang Jia. He took a sip, and then took a larger gulp before he emptied half of the mug. Finally, he let out a long sigh and said, “I need two guys to work and cooperate with me. One person will perform debridements while another will dress the wounds. Meanwhile, I will be suturing. We’ll be able to work fast this way, just like what we did just now.”

He had immediately gone over to the patient that Doctor Zhou had performed debridement on just now. It only took him a few minutes to finish the stitch, apply medicine and bandages, and other miscellaneous things. If someone else had been there to take his place and start dressing the wound… well, to put it simply, at that time, no matter how many patients were admitted into Yun Hua Hospital’s Emergency Department, they would still not be enough for Ling Ran to work with until his shift was over.

‘Hmm, what do I do if I run out of patients…?’

Ling Ran was once again lost in his thoughts.

On the other hand, Doctor Zhou’s face darkened.

“You’re thinking of having me assist you with the debridement, aren’t you?”

The normal and ugly resident doctor had only managed to stitch up four patients during the course of a full day. He raised his head up in surprise. ‘This young intern actually wants the attending physician to act as his assistant…’

“Wait, you’re actually willing to help me? That would be pretty amazing.”

Ling Ran stroked his chin in surprise.

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Doctor Zhou was equally surprised.

“Didn’t you mean that?”

“I was thinking of asking a few interns to come over and assist me.” Ling Rin was not very keen on using this lazy Doctor Zhou who would not hesitate to work less should the opportunity present itself.

Debridement and dressing were all meticulous, physical work. It required hard work and effort. As for Doctor Zhou, he was the petty bourgeoisie[1] among the doctors, he would not do this sort of work if he could help it.

Doctor Zhou was momentarily stunned. Then, he said, “You’re thinking of giving the other students a chance, right? So, are you looking for a male, or a female student?”

As the words were spoken, Nurse Wang Jia anxiously eyed Ling Ran.

“It doesn’t matter.”

Ling Ran lingered on the word ‘chance’ for a moment. Then, he said, “Just my dormmates, then.”

The moment she heard that Ling Ran wanted male students, Nurse Wang Jia let out a breath of relief. Then, she spoke for Ling Ran, “The number of patients who showed up today are far more than what we usually receive. The doctors waiting outside for a chance to work are also interns.”

Doctor Zhou’s good-hearted side kicked in as he muttered, “It is alright to call them in as well, but you must explain it to the doctor in-charge of their respective departments…”

Whenever the Emergency Department got busy, doctors and interns from the other departments would often scurry over to assist them. Every one of them had an equal opportunity to work.

Chen Wanhao and Wang Zhuangyong were delighted when they heard the news.

It was truly difficult for interns to get a chance to practice their skills. The past few days had told them all that they needed to know about this fact.

The two of them had remained cooped up in their own departments, doing nothing but brew tea and write medical reports every day. They could only dream of touching a patient for a brief moment by the end of their rotation in that particular department. Now that they had the chance to practice, their elation could only be compared to the resident of a windowless hotel room having his room upgraded into the presidential suite of a luxury hotel.

“Spill it already, you haven’t been giving the doctor gifts, have you? I’ll cover whatever you spent.”

The moment Chen Wanhua caught sight of Ling Ran, he pulled him to a corner and whispered those words.

A 3M red stethoscope remained hanging before Chen Wanhao’s chest.

Naturally, that stethoscope was useless. However, he had acquired the nickname ‘Red Stethoscope’ in the department now. Chen Wanhao did not mind. He would rather be the laughing stock so that he could remain standing out among the other interns.

Ling Ran said, “Not a single penny spent. No gifts either.”

“None?”

“Would it have worked if I sent any gifts?” Ling Ran retorted.

Chen Wanhao was caught off guard by the question.

He finally laughed sheepishly, saying, “I thought of giving them something, but I was afraid that it might backfire on me.”

He fingered the red packet in his pocket and began hesitating.

When Ling Ran saw that he no longer had any questions, he said once again, “I need someone to perform debridements, and another to dress wounds, your choice…”

Wang Zhuangyong hurriedly spoke, “Dressing here. Debridement is just too gross.”

“You have been prodding feces in the laboratory for so long, and you still think that debridement is disgusting?” Chen Wanhao had no preferences. He merely made a jab at Wang Zhuangyong out of habit.

Wang Zhuangyong sank into a pensive mode, then adopted the typical thought-provoking tone you often heard in documentaries before he said, “When you have seen enough filth, when you encounter them again, you will not be able to help yourself but to link that filth to a great many other things. The more you grow to understand filth, the greater the disgust you will have towards them, do you understand?”

“You…” Chen Wanhao was amazed by Wang Zhuangyong’s solemn tone.

“When it is your turn to get transferred to the laboratory, you will know what I meant.”

Wang Zhuangyong’s voice made him sound like a sage who was thinking out loud. He muttered, “Just imagine being the intern in the laboratory. We are the lowest ranking personnel there. If none of the doctors are willing to touch the samples, who would be forced to?”

“You’re not exactly imagining it, are you?”

Chen Wanhao felt a little chill creeping up his spine as he grabbed on to his big red stethoscope.

“The patient is coming.” Nurse Wang Jia stepped in and cut them off.

Following closely behind the nurse was a young man who had fallen when he was harvesting bird nests. There were pine needles and sludge over his wounds. However, he did not seem to be bleeding much. If anything, he was only grinning sheepishly, embarrassed at himself.

Doctor Zhou immediately sat up straight with a serious look on his face. First, he confirmed that the young man had not injured his head. Relieved when it was not the case, he went out for a stroll.

If you get an idiotic intern to attempt suturing thirty times, you would have a proficient idiotic intern on your hands. However, giving that idiotic intern his first or second chance to do that was difficult enough as it was.

With Ling Ran’s help, Chen Wanhao nervously started performing the debridement. Even his eyes were filled with tears of happiness.

A patient who had had his head smashed in by a stone, a patient whose arm had been lacerated by a tree branch, and a patient whose thigh was punctured by a pen…

Those who had never been a doctor or stayed in the Emergency Department would find it extremely difficult to imagine the variety of injuries that a human being could have. Some were even bizarre…

Chen Wanhao and Wang Zhuangyong grew more proficient with their tasks. On the other hand, Ling Ran maintained his lightning-speed pace.

A ‘production line’ for sutures was quickly established between the three of them.

It only took more than two hours for Ling Ran’s mission progress to jump from [20/20] to [30/30].

“Keep it up!” Ling Ran obtained another Energy Serum and pushed the pace.

He intended to clear out half of the patients while everyone else was occupied with the heavily wounded.

Translator’s Note:

1. Petite bourgeoisie: also petty bourgeoisie, it is a French term referring to the lower middle class.