Great Doctor Ling Ran

Tears rolled down Damon’s closely-shut eyes.

When the nurse anesthetist noticed, she quickly yelled, “The fair Dalang is awake!”

“That’s pretty fast. Athletes do recover quickly. An anesthetist walked over with a smile and said in English, “Eldest [1], how do you feel?”

Damon froze for a moment and asked, “How did you know that I’m the eldest son? I’ve never told anyone about this before.”

Once he said that, Damon touched his waist with his hands and anxiously asked, “Did you guys run an investigation on me? What did you guys steal?”

While he spoke, he began to panic.

“I spoke too soon. This guy may be having postoperative delirium. His blood pressure and cardiac rhythm look all right though…” The anesthetist struggled to understand the teenager’s South African English and gestured at the nurse anesthetist.

Right then, Damon was already moving around and trying to pull off the tubes on his body.

“Oh sh*t, this guy’s an Erlang.” The moment the anesthetist saw that, he pounced on the patient and yelled, “Can someone else come and help me?!”

The nurse anesthetist whose arms and legs were thin also realized what was going on in an instant. She quickly went forward to help the anesthetist.

Another male nurse in the recovery room swiftly approached them and skillfully pressed Damon down. “Should we administer medication?” he asked.

“The scariest patients are the ones who go from Dalang to Erlang [2]. Others can’t even move properly after all the anesthetics, and he already wants to beat up a tiger. Do we look like tigers? Only Young Qu has the potential to be a tiger.”

Young Qu was the nurse anesthetist, and despite her tiny build, she was holding a very thick needle in her hands. She swung the needle around as she said, “Isn’t it a little too old fashion to call women ‘tigresses’ in this time and age?”

“Hey, why are you dissing me?”

“I’ve been hearing jokes like that from you ever since I entered the Department of Anesthesiology. You men are only interesting during the first few minutes. After that, it gets totally boring.” Young Qu refused to show any sign of weakness and retorted with a dirty joke. She then continued, “Doctor Pan, do you know why strong and healthy men easily become Erlangs whenever they’re anesthetized by you?”

“My surname isn’t Pan.”

“One of our patients kept calling you Doctor Pan last time. I was doubled over with laughter.”

“That’s because you guys go around casually spreading the rumor, right?” The veins on the forehead of the anesthetist, whose surname was not Pan, throbbed non-stop.

“Is the operation over?” Damon’s body suddenly relaxed. He inquired softly in South African English.

The anesthetist, Young Qu, and the male nurse relaxed.

The anesthetist whose surname was not Pan flashed a smile. “The surgery went smoothly. For now, stay here and inhale more oxygen. We’ll send you back to the ward after a while.” His English had a weird tone to it.

“Is my leg okay? My leg will be okay, right?” Damon widened his eyes and stared at the anesthetist.

The latter suddenly felt a little embarrassed. He said, “You’ll have to ask your chief surgeon for the exact details.”

“You told me the surgery was successful just now. Since it’s successful, it means that my leg’s okay, right?” Damon asked again.

The anesthetist whose surname was not Pan really wanted to administer a syringe of anesthetics into himself and go to sleep.

He glanced at the two nurses, who were watching the amusing scene next to him, and said in resignation, “The surgery was successful, and your leg will be okay.”

“Thank you, thank you…” Damon suddenly started to cry. Not only did he begin to weep, he also hugged the anesthetist as he cried out loud. He kept repeating, “I need to buy food for my family. I need to buy clothes for my younger sister. I need to buy a pair of shoes for my younger brother. I also need to bring my mother to the doctor and buy insurance for her… I can’t afford to have a broken leg. Doctor, thank you. I can’t afford to have a broken leg…”

*Sob*

“Give him a packet of tissues.” The anesthetist sighed.

Young Qu brought a packet of tissues over and curiously asked, “What did he say?”

“What else can a man who needs to support his family say?” The anesthetist whose surname was not Pan heaved a long sigh. But shortly after, he could not help but laugh and say, “He’s just afraid of the responsibilities that he wouldn’t be able to bear even if he were dead.”

Before Young Qu, the nurse realized what the anesthetist meant, the male nurse beside her immediately froze when he heard the anesthetist’s words.

“Doctor, I’m thankful for all of you,” Damon continued to mutter with tears in his eyes.

Just like alcohol, anesthetics had varying effects on different people. It caused some to cry, some to laugh, some to feel horny, some to become agitated and uneasy, and others to fall asleep immediately.

Damon had always been a crybaby. Hence, he cried even more miserably under the effects of anesthetics.

Young Qu, the nurse found him a little annoying. Even “thank yous” sounded like rants when they were repeated. The male nurse was the one who felt touched instead. He took the initiative to take on the responsibility of watching over Damon.

The male nurse took care of Damon until Damon was sent out of the recovery room.

Once a nurse in the ward took over the responsibility of taking care of Damon, the male nurse turned around and proceeded to the operating theater. He then stripped off his clothes and entered the shower cubicle before he cried his heart out.

…..

Ling Ran and Doctor Morris agreed on a time and went to Damon’s ward.

The Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Center gave Damon a luxurious suite, which was, in other words, a VIP ward. Even though it was not as lavish as the presidential suite Liu Weichen asked for, it had a small living room and a bedroom. The small living room even had a floor-to-ceiling window, filling the space with sunlight.

Damon’s hospital bed was in the middle of the large bedroom. There were sockets for devices such as the oxygen support machine behind the bed, while a complete set of emergency medical equipment was divided between both sides of the bed.

The biggest difference between luxurious suites in hospitals and luxurious suites in hotels was that it was harder to die in the hospital suites.

When Doctor Morris reached the door, he deliberately rubbed his face to ensure that the smile on his face seemed natural.

“Hahahaha… Damon, congratulations! The surgery went very smoothly…” Morris immediately announced the good news the moment he opened the door.

As expected, Damon turned around happily.

Ling Ran was very sure because the moment Damon turned, he heard a notification from the system.

[Achievement: A patient’s sincere gratitude.]

[Achievement Description: A patient’s sincere gratitude is the biggest reward to a doctor.]

[Reward: Basic Treasure Chest]

Even Ling Ran had to sing Damon’s praises.

He was giving Ling Ran so many Basic Treasure Chests!

If ordinary patients were comparable to dairy cows, Damon would be a purebred Holstein Friesian cattle. [3]

Ling Ran did not know what Damon usually ate, but he definitely produced a lot of treasure chests.

He had already given Ling Ran three Basic Treasure Chests, and that had never happened before.

Ling Ran could not help but think about how many more Basic Treasure Chests Damon could give him if Damon were to stay in the hospital for a longer period of time.

‘He gave me three Basic Treasure Chests after I operated on him once. If I perform finger replantation surgery, M-Tang surgery, and also heavy reinforcing suture on him, I should be able to get at least nine more Basic Treasure Chests.

‘If I also perform things like the vertical mattress suture and massages on him, I should at least get one thousand Basic Treasure Chests from him in total.’

The more Ling Ran thought about it, the more high-spirited he became. His gaze was friendly and sincere as he looked at Damon.

“Doctor Ling, is my Achilles tendon okay now?” Damon asked for confirmation in a soft voice, “Can I participate in training and competitions?”

“We still can’t tell now. We’ll only be able to determine your Achilles tendon’s exact condition when you start doing rehabilitation exercises. But…” Ling Ran thought for a moment and said, “From my perspective, your Achilles tendon was sutured pretty well. If you carry out all the necessary rehabilitation exercises, it will be possible for you to compete again and even return to the condition you were in prior to the injury.”

*Ding.*

Another Treasure Chest courtesy of Sincere Gratitude fell before Ling Ran with a thump.

Ling Ran suddenly felt as if he was being showered with red packets by his patient.

“I’ll perform a physical examination for you.” What else could Ling Ran do? He could not just take the treasure chests courtesy of Damon’s sincere gratitude and give nothing in return, right?

Ling Ran earnestly performed a physical examination on Damon from head to toe and found four hidden problems. He then left with his mind at peace.

Damon, who was no longer that worried about his Achilles tendon, watched as Ling Ran left. Tears rolled out of his eyes again.

Translator’s note:

[1] Eldest and Dalang: Dalang also means the eldest son in a family. Over here, the anesthetist uses this meaning instead of the Dalang he usually uses when he “feeds his patients medication”, as though he was Pan Jinlian. Also, later on, the nurse anesthetist called the anesthetist Doctor Pan even though his surname was not Pan, right? Because she also knows that he refers to himself as Pan Jinlian whenever he feeds his patients medication.

[2] The scariest patients are the ones who go from Dalang to Erlang. Wu Dalang is poisoned to death in Water Margin (one of the Four Classic Novels of Chinese literature), and in this context, it means that the person was anesthetized. Meanwhile, Wu Erlang killed a tiger with his bare hands when he was drunk. In this context, it means that a person is agitated even under the effects of anesthetics.

[3] A breed of dairy cattle originating from the Dutch provinces of North Holland and Friesland, and Schleswig-Holstein in Northern Germany and Jutland. They are known as the world’s highest-production dairy animals. (Source: Wikipedia)