Chapter 5: Skill Passed Down Through Generations in the Family

When a surgeon got to work on the table with undeniably legitimate skill, one could no longer stand in a corner and call him a quack.

Anyone related to the field—in any capacity whatsoever—would be able to gauge the proficiency of any surgeon after sitting through one surgery with said person.

Anastomosis may be the twig at the end of the branch when it came to the surgery tree, but it was where all the foundations lay when it came to hand surgery.

The most commonly performed surgeries in the field of hand surgery would be the reattachment of amputated fingers, hand laceration suturing, and many more. Once the surface work was done, the real work started in the pursuit of full circulatory anastomosis.

Kang Jiuliang had performed over hundreds of surgeries in Yun Hua Hospital, and had seen no fewer than a hundred surgeries. But never had he witnessed a surgeon who sutured so efficiently while maintaining a perfect, uniform rhythm, taking everything into consideration despite the beeping of the medical apparatus.

Ling Ran was one such individual, living and breathing right before him as his hands worked with mechanical precision. Kang Jiuliang found himself staring at Ling Ran in astonishment for a long time.

“There’s a saying about certain individuals born with God-given elegance and poise. Ah, judging by his face, he has to be a fresh grad from medical school.”

Kang Jiuliang could not come up with any other plausible explanation for Ling Ran’s skill. There was no simplicity in the single-minded pursuit of perfection in the simplest actions like suturing.

It was true that achieving circulatory anastomosis was not much of a feat. It only required the very basic of all suturing skills: simple interrupted sutures. Even just by the sound of the technique, a layman could tell that it did not require much. As long as one listened carefully in class and practiced it, they would be able to use this skill. Taking it a step up with a microscope only took a brief period of adjustment. The skill itself remained the same.

Then again, how difficult would mastering this skill become?

Kang Jiuliang had practiced tying so many knots that he could practically make a curtain from it. Imagine this: How much time and energy would be needed to knit a sweater with nylon? And how long would it take to make a sweater that resembled a curtain? Mastering the art of suturing and then subsequently tying knots would take an even longer time than simply tying knots.

That being said, Kang Jiuliang did not become the chief surgeon in the Hand Surgery Department overnight. Hundreds of successful hand surgeries had driven him to such standards. With that said, the feat of procuring amputated hands every single day to perform surgery so that he could practice his skills was not an easy thing in itself.

Throughout the entire country, hospitals that had the resources to form their own Hand Surgery Departments were only found in large-scale industrial cities.

Industrial machines were the largest culprits when it came to the unintentional amputation of human hands. While those machines continuously generated economic value, privately-owned factories in Yun Hua City generated their share of industrial accidents. The workers who got their fingers or even hands amputated by the ruthless machines would be taken to the nearest major hospitals at the fastest speed their coworkers could muster.

Yun Hua Hospital had not intended to establish a Hand Surgery Department at the beginning, but as the industrial sector continued to expand and the number of industrial incidents grew in kind, Yun Hua Hospital was forced to build their Hand Surgery Department, regardless of what the Board thought.

The 35-year-old Kang Jiuliang was a hand surgeon born out of necessity by the development of Yun Hua’s private sector. Many of his patients had successfully returned to working at full capacity with the industrial machines to date. This was in no small part due to his expertise.

With skill and seniority came self-confidence. He was all too aware that his talent may have played a role in his accomplishments, but talent was nothing without hard work. He also had some great tutors, sufficient practice, and an ample number of surgeries.

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The medical student Ling Ran right in front of him might have the first two qualities, but Kang Jiuliang was still unable to find the final jigsaw puzzle piece. How did this fresh graduate actually reach this level with sheer practice and no actual experience?

“Doctor Kang, it’s done.” Ling Ran put down the surgical tools and moved his wrist around for a bit, seemingly unaccustomed to the amount of work he had to do.

The Master Level Appositional Suturing Technique in the Newbie Gift Package had far exceeded his expectations.

As he worked on the bananas to hone his skills, he had only felt that the system-assisted suturing technique was pretty good, but had no idea that it was this good.

The test he did a moment ago on the tail gave Ling Ran a more accurate evaluation of his newfound abilities.

Judging by his knowledge about sutures which he had acquired from the system, the Master Level Appositional Suturing Technique was clearly greater than Kang Jiuliang’s suturing skills.

Kang Jiuliang was most definitely a first-class surgeon in the Hand Surgery Department, and the Hand Surgery Department in Yun Hua Hospital was the leading department for suturing—which was their specialty—in Yun Hua Hospital itself.

By the looks of it, the Master Level Appositional Suturing Technique truly lived up to its name as the skill of a master.

“You stitch very well.” Kang Jiuliang’s voice interrupted the thoughts in Ling Ran’s mind.

“Thank you.” Ling Ran smiled calmly. He did perform admirably.

“In which hospitals have you done your internship?” Kang Jiuliang was well-aware that over a hundred students outside could hear the conversation between the two of them, but he could no longer hold his silence.

It was the only possible explanation. Many medical students were willing to intern in other hospitals during their semester breaks. Even though most of the work they did was merely procedural tasks such as writing down a few medical reports or running some errands, they would still be able to pick up something.

If one was talented, diligent and hardworking, able to capture the big picture, be amazingly efficient, and perform dozens or even hundreds of surgeries, it was possible for one to become this good prior to one’s debut.

Even so, Ling Ran only shook his head slightly and said, “I just help around in my family’s clinic from time to time.”

Once he said that, Kang Jiuliang developed profound respect for Ling Ran’s small clinic and asked, “What is the name of your family’s clinic?”

A long list of names of famous private hospitals and high-end private clinics were already running through Kang Jiuliang’s mind: Chang Gung Hospital, Hua Bo Private Clinic, Beautiful Life—

Ling Ran said, “Lower Groove Clinic.”

Kang Jiuliang looked down at his own hands. He was suddenly filled with self-doubt; all the things he had come to know, accumulated over years of hard work, might have been for naught.