Chapter 339: Life

The sun at Yun Hua City rose right at 6:24:28 a.m.

The bougainvilleas, Virginia creepers, and maple trees swayed in the wind as if they welcomed the new rise of the sun.

Zuo Cidian carried a bag of stuffed buns, a bag of small steamed buns, and a bag of pickled vegetables. He skillfully opened Lower Groove Clinic’s small door, got in the kitchen, and started to get busy.

Since he first reported himself to the Ling family’s Lower Groove Clinic, Zuo Cidian would bring something over once every few days. The food did not cost too much money, just dozens of RMB to a hundred at most, or else the Ling family will have to pay him.

Of course, Zuo Cidian had also been rather free as of late. Ling Ran had once again filled up the hospital beds in the Emergency Department of Yun Hua Hospital. Although three or four patients were discharged a day, such a small number, coupled with the consideration of reducing the pressure on medical care workers, the number of surgical cases that could be increased per day was significantly reduced.

The bed turnover rate was a comprehensive indicator. Many hospitals failed to reach the indicators, and they could only force patients to leave the hospital and be rehospitalized later, or transfer them to other hospitals.

Ling Ran was reluctant to bend circumstances into triggering the red line of the indicator. He always asked patients and at least one of their family members to meet the discharge criteria and pass the test in order to be discharged. The test questions were very simple; they were only “yes” and “no” questions. If the patients could not answer such questions correctly, it meant that they did not understand what to do after their discharge. Their prognosis would most definitely be very poor. It was better for them to stay in the hospital.

In fact, ever since Peking Union Medical College Hospital adopted the examination system, statistics took a promising turn, but most hospitals simply did not dare to delay their patients’ discharges.

Technically, Ling Ran violated the hospital’s rules and regulations by doing this. But Department Director Huo Congjun acquiesced, so no one dared to talk about it.

Like any other unit, employees always carried out upper-level policies selectively. Soldiers carried mobile phones; police officers created their own form of side income; teachers treated students differently; doctors violated the labor law by working overtime and operating on patients while they were tired, violations were abound.

Take Zuo Cidian as an example. He did not need to even bother commiserating over the requests from the hospital committee or health care committee, because they were existences of a separate plane.

He was quite satisfied with today’s steamed, mutton-filled buns.

The mutton was from a goat he chose on his own. The stuffing was made from two of its ribs. Once the bone was skinned off, there was not much meat left. He then added minced chicken leg meat, some onions, and seasonings. Then, the stuffing for the bun was formed.

All the buns Zuo Cidian made were small steamed buns, just enough for one breakfast. It could be said that the time set aside for making them was more valuable than the ingredients. In other words, the intention carried greater weight than the food itself.

Zuo Cidian habitually lit up the fire, boiled water, steamed the buns, and cooked a pot of porridge.

The steamed mutton buns could only be eaten while they were warm. If the buns had to be reheated, they would lose a great deal of the original freshness, but they would still be edible. Under the circumstances, and Zuo Cidian could only do his best.

The aroma of the tasty steamed mutton buns floated in the air. The taste of the ingredients in the porridge had also seeped into the porridge now.

The residents of Lower Groove Clinic gradually woke up.

“Doctor Zuo…” Dong Sheng was the first to get up. He dressed himself and greeted Zuo Cidian. Then, he picked up the watering can, filled it with water, and went to sprinkle water all over the courtyard. He then praised Zuo Cidian. “The smell is so good. What are we eating today?”

“Steamed mutton buns…” Zuo Cidian felt awkward for one moment. Then, he touched Dong Sheng’s head and said, “I brought you Nanshan’s radish.”

“Oh, that’s fine too.” Dong Sheng smiled and his disposition quickly rose.

“Radish strips should be tastier with fried dough sticks.”

Huang Maoshi leaned against the wall at the door with a bag of food in his hands. He stared at Zuo Cidian and Dong Sheng quietly.

Dong Sheng cast a tentative look at Zuo Cidian before he smiled at Huang Maoshi and took the food he brought from his hands.

Huang Maoshi sighed deeply. He wanted to serve Doctor Ling Ran. But for some inexplicable reason, he entertained the young novice monk… What in the world was this?

Huang Maoshi subconsciously touched Dong Sheng’s head; it felt better than the ginger-colored cat’s butt downstairs.

“Doctor Zuo, you usually work very hard, right? Let us do these tasks that aim to serve.” Huang Maoshi was not a very talkative person. He just expressed his dissatisfaction.

As a pharmaceutical sales representative, making a doctor’s breakfast, inviting the doctor to a karaoke session, visiting strange places with the doctor were all normal tasks.

However, Ling Ran belonged to the category of doctors who neither went to sing nor went to strange places. Delivering breakfast was already the most efficient service work that Huang Maoshi could do. Who would have thought that he would have to fight against another doctor for the chance to flatter Ling Ran just because he woke up a little later?

Zuo Cidian looked at Huang Maoshi. He did not take his words seriously and said, “It’s the least I can do.”

“This is called ‘the least’ you can do? All I did was buy fried dough sticks with soy milk, and here you are, making steamed mutton buns.” Huang Maoshi took a deep breath, and he felt his stomach growl even more.

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“Doctor Ling likes to eat meat with a little more fat on them. So I deliberately made steamed mutton buns.” Zuo Cidian was even prouder of himself. He said, “I am good at making steamed buns at home. The people from the town hospital liked to eat steamed buns in the morning to cure their hangovers.”

Huang Maoshi chuckled three times. “You have to go to Zhucheng People’s Hospital for surgery at noon, and you are still working so hard this early in the morning?”

“No, it was almost done last night.” Zuo Cidian did not care about what Huang Maoshi thought. He said, “I’ll be fine once I sleep on the plane. As for you, why do you only follow Doctor Ling around every day?”

“The number of surgeries he does in half a month is the number of surgeries other people do in a year.” Huang Maoshi paused for a moment before he said, “I have prepared a car. I’ll send you to the airport later.”

“Sounds good.” Zuo Cidian now found Huang Maoshi a little pleasing to the eye. He was just about to praise him with a few words before he saw Ling Ran come out of the door.

“Doctor Ling!” Zuo Cidian immediately stood up and shouted, “I made some steamed mutton buns. The meat is fat, but not greasy, and it doesn’t smell foul.”

Huang Maoshi had his chance to speak to Ling Ran snatched out of his hands completely, and he thought sullenly before he said, “The fried dough sticks I bought was from the corner of the street. It’s yellowish, oily, and unhygienic too.”

“Doctor Ling, which one do you want to eat?” Zuo Cidian asked Ling Ran.

Ling Ran gave him a strange look and said, “One fried dough stick and two or three steamed buns.”

Zuo Cidian and Huang Maoshi were stunned, but they said, “Okay.”

In the afternoon, Ling Ran did one ward round and collected Sincere Gratitude Treasure Chests. Then, he used the transportation by Changxi Medical Company to go to the airport.

This was the first time Zuo Cidian became a freelance surgeon, and he was very excited.

He walked side by side with Yu Yuan. Once in a while, he would speed up, but after a while, he would look around and fall behind the group. It was as if he had just gained the curiosity of a cat.

Yu Yuan could not stand it. She gave the bag she held to Zuo Cidian and said, “Since you’re are so energetic, take it.”

“What is this?” Zuo Cidian felt the weight of the bag even though he just held it.

Yu Yuan said, “It’s Doctor Ling’s tracheotomy pack, which the director gave him. We have everything there except the blades.”

Zuo Cidian immediately focused his attention. “The department director gave Ling Ran a tracheotomy pack? Is the department director that nice to Doctor Ling?”

Yu Yuan cast a glance at Zuo Cidian. She felt resigned as she said, “Shouldn’t you be asking something else instead of this?

“What?”

“Your turn,” Yu Yuan gave Zuo Cidian a push.

Zuo Cidian quickly stepped forward and smiled at the female ground staff at the front desk for his check-in. “Hello, I am a little airsick, can you arrange a seat that is nearer to the cockpit for me?”

“A lot of our seats have been booked online, and there is no place at the front,” the female ground staff replied professionally, “Is the fourteenth row okay?”

“Okay… the one with window seat, please.”

“Only the seat in the middle is available. A window seat is available at the eighteenth row.”

“How about the seat that is right in front of the emergency exit?”

The female ground staff cast Zuo Cidian a profound look and said, “We generally request young people to sit near the emergency exit. May I arrange the seat at the eighteenth row for you?”

At this time, the female ground staff in charge of the row beside theirs picked up a phone and whispered into it a few times before she said with a slightly quivering voice, “Mister Ling, I just made an application with the manager. We still have extra spots in our first-class seats at our front cabin. They can be used for an upgrade. Would you like to accept it?”

“Oh, okay. Thank you.” Ling Ran nodded to show his gratitude.

The female ground staff quickly handled his ticket. While no one else paid any attention to her, she stuffed her own business card under Ling Ran’s identity card before she handed both to him.

This was the first time that Zuo Cidian saw an upgrade in seats in reality. Out of curiosity, he followed Ling Ran. At this time, he could hear several female ground staff talking behind him. “He is really so handsome.”

“Fortunately, there are a few seats left at the second-class compartment. Otherwise, I don’t know what to do. I can’t bear to let such a handsome man get sandwiched by a group of stinky men in the economy class cabin.”

“The unsold first-class cabin seat is lucky to have such a handsome man sit on it.”

“Yes, that’s right. The b*tches in charge of flying this time lucked out.”