Great Doctor Ling Ran

Two white bamboo rats laid obediently in the cage.

The cage was tied up with thin wire, and it looked a little crude. This was the popular trend among craftsmen right now. At first glance, it was easy for people to feel nostalgic about the era when the industrial field was not flourishing, and it would make people be willing to fork out a few weeks of income to buy it.

The cage was quietly placed next to the kitchen stove. The young employee in the Shao family’s restaurant was sharpening his knife. It sounded like a rat who was grinding its teeth.

The two bamboo rats had their heads placed against each other. They were still chewing on bamboo pieces, like two street office cadres at a food stall discussing the new Five-Year Plan [1].

“Just these two? Those are the ones you selected, right?” After the young man sharpened the knife, he went to get the bamboo rats. He spoke at lightning speed and asked Lu Wenbin and Ma Yanlin, “Do you want to kill them via exsanguination or electrocution?”

“You can now choose the method of death for the bamboo rats?” Lu Wenbin nodded in amazement and looked around with his eyes. He said, “You’ve made some progress in your restaurant. I guess this is considered a customer experience.”

“There was an old man who shouted that it was animal cruelty. So, our boss bought a set of power grids. If the bamboo rat is thrown into the power grid, it will immediately die when the grid is turned on, and we can even kill multiple rats in one go. It’s also convenient.” The young man had a knife in one hand and picked up the tail of a little white bamboo rat with the other. He asked, “Do you want them to be electrocuted?”

“Which method would people usually choose?” Lu Wenbin asked curiously.

The employee who was holding the knife flicked it and said, “Exsanguination.”

“Why?”

“Because those that died through exsanguination are more delicious.” The young man weighed the bamboo rat and said, “Actually, there’s not much difference…”

“Exsanguination.”

“Let’s go with exsanguination.”

Lu Wenbin and Ma Yanlin both answered at the same time.

The young employee pouted and muttered, “I heard that doctors are high-level intellectuals. I thought everyone these days talks about environmental protection.? The electric cages were only used a few times.”

“Didn’t you say that people keep on talking about animal cruelty?” Lu Wenbin cast a glance at the employee.

“They did say it was animal cruelty, but then after that, they still bargained with us and ate anyway. And when we said that exsanguination made the rats more delicious, they stayed away from the kitchen because they couldn’t bear the cruelty but wanted to eat the food, anyway. To be honest, it’s pretty troublesome to kill bamboo rats. I would rather you choose to electrocute them…” The young employee blabbered.

Lu Wenbin listened and nodded. “Make the kills clean.”

When he was out of the kitchen, Lu Wenbin gasped in admiration and said, “When I think back on the years I was studying, I was also skilled in killing rats. If someone were to really give me a bamboo rat, I could kill it in minutes.”

“Did you shave its hair?” Ma Yanlin glanced at Lu Wenbin.

“Shave… did you shave lab rats? It’s not as if I have a screw loose in my head.”

“Then, you want to eat bamboo rats with hair?” Ma Yanlin’s questions were all interrelated.

Lu Wenbin could not help but look at Ma Yanlin. “Sure. You can now think of problems in such a comprehensive manner?”

“This is the benefit of having a wife.” Ma Yanlin smiled and said, “When two people work together, you could save time, and you can use the time you saved to think.”

Lu Wenbin stared at Ma Yanlin with an expression that said he thought Ma Yanlin was lying to him, and he said, “You’re talking about Kenja Time, right[2]?”

Ma Yanlin sighed. “If you think of something bloody, you can cool down quickly.”

“Just by listening to you, you sound pretty miserable yourself.” Lu Wenbin did not feel that life was unfair anymore.

“Yeah, miserable as hell.” Ma Yanlin drawled.

As Lu Wenbin listened to Ma Yanlin speak with a drawl, he thought about it long and hard. After that, he did not have interest in chatting anymore.

The two of them walked back to the Shao family’s restaurant silently, and they saw a crowd surrounding the front of the restaurant.

It was now time to have meals. Shao family’s restaurant constantly had people coming and going. Almost 70% to 80% of the tables were full.

At this time, most of the regular customers were eating barbequed meat calmly, and those new customers would be yelling because they were unfamiliar with the situation. They craned their heads to look around.

“Are they doctors from Yun Hua Hospital?”

“Are the doctors so handsome?”

“When my wife went to the hospital last time to see a doctor, it was not the case.”

Lu Wenbin was accustomed to listening to the opinions of the people around him. He habitually used his huge arm to open a path and asked as he always did, “What’s wrong?”

The people who were watching by the side said, “Boss Shao was bitten by a lamb.”

“What?” Lu Wenbin’s original plan was not to be surprised by anything. He did not expect that the news would still shock him so much that he widened his eyes. “A lamb can bite someone?”

“I am as shocked as you are.” Boss Shao was reclining against the table. On the table was a Zaisu chair that allowed him to recline. At the same time, he had a chair under his leg and a clean drape and disinfectant to take care of the exposed wound.

Boss Shao was in a good state. He chuckled and greeted Lu Wenbin before he said, “If it were a horse, I will definitely be careful. I’ve seen too few live lambs. I didn’t pay attention, and it bit me.”

“So this is how a wound of a lamb bite looks like.” Ma Yanlin studied Boss Shao’s wounds with interest and looked at Ling Ran, who was sitting on the small stool next to him while he skillfully performed debridement. He said, “Fortunately, we have Doctor Ling with us. Right, you’ll need to give you rabies vaccine.”

“No, I have the injection regularly.” Boss Shao snorted and said to his employees in the store, “Hurry up with the barbeque, don’t let the guests wait and get impatient. Um, Doctor Ling, just stitch it casually and get it done. If the lamb were smaller, there’s no need for you to perform a suture on me at all.”

“An animal bite must be treated, and it’s easy to get infected,” Ling Ran said.

Boss Shao nodded. “I know, but to be honest, if you compare a lamb to a camel, a lamb is much smaller. When we return, I’ll treat you to lamb chop, ouch…”

“It’s done. Take antibiotics for three days to prevent infection. You are in poor health, so it’s best for you to take antibiotics for five days.” Ling Ran completed the suture and gave away his position.

Lu Wenbin and Ma Yanlin immediately stepped forward to help with dressing.

“What antibiotics should I use?” Boss Shao asked.

“You can go to the community clinic and ask the doctor to prescribe them for you.”

Boss Shao smiled, “We are in China, not in the United States. Does one need to go to the clinic to buy antibiotics? Doctor Ling, please give me a prescription. I will go and take the medicine. I don’t have vancomycin here but I am usually well stocked up with the second and third generation of antibiotics. Young Liu, go get my infusion equipment.”

“Okay.” Young Liu who was barbequing meat, clapped his hands and handed the work to the new employee beside him. He then went to the shelf in Boss Shao’s storage room to take things.

“If every family stocks up their emergency medicine supply like you, the community hospital would be pretty useless.” Lu Wenbin watched the infusion stand made entirely with aluminum alloys as it was pushed over, and he could not help but said, “This equipment of yours is very valuable.”

“I use it often, so it’s better if I buy a set that is good. Men have to treat themselves well, right?” Boss Shao said as he started laughing and panting.

Lu Wenbin and Ma Yanlin quickly helped Boss Shao with the dressing.

When the onlookers saw that there was no excitement to see anymore, they rushed back to their tables and ordered food and drinks again before they started happily eating and drinking. They looked as if they just watched a performance in a bar.

The regular customers who remained seated and did not move at all chewed on barbequed meat with disdainful looks.

Boss Shao limped back and returned to his wheelchair.

He made sure that there would be no obstructions in his way when he renovated his restaurant. When using a wheelchair, Boss Shao did not seem to find himself not being able to adapt at all.

In a short while, a few barbequed dishes were served in an endless stream.

Zuo Cidian got up as usual, poured beer for the crowd, toasted them, and drank.

Ling Ran only took a few small sips and focused his energy on the barbequed meat.

Energy Serums can restore his spirit, but it could not provide energy.

This led Ling Ran having a sharp increase in his recent food intake. There were also some cases where he would become hungry halfway through an operation.

When this kind of situation occurred a few times, it became normal for doctors to eat when there was an opportunity for them to eat.

“Please give us one more bowl of cooked entrails and liver, please.” Zuo Cidian ate until his forehead began to sweat.

When the entrail soup was served, Zuo Cidian deliberately picked lamb liver and ate it first before he exhaled and said, “Doctor Ling, I contacted two hospitals that need freelance surgery during the weekend. The schedule will be a bit tight, so there would only be two hepatectomies. Would you want to go?”

“Let’s go.” Ling Ran was not picky at all.

“Then I will make confirmations with the other party.” Zuo Cidian drank his soup once he finished speaking with a relaxed tone.

Zhang Anmin listened and sighed endlessly.

In truth, the two hepatectomies would cost quite a lot for a hospital that needed a freelance surgeon.

Preoperative preparation and postoperative care for major surgeries such as hepatectomy were indispensable.

This was especially so for postoperative care. If the hospital had no ICU, it was necessary for the doctors at the level of an attending physician to take care of the patient until he or she woke up. Doing two of this kind of surgery in one go would be very tiring.

Then, Zhang Anmin remembered the only attending physician in Ling Ran’s treatment group who had nursing experience for major surgeries was him alone…

“Give me a bowl of entrails with more liver, as well as two kidney skewers.” Zhang Anmin drank the beer in the glass in one go, he felt his liver qi circulate in him.