Great Doctor Ling Ran

Li Tianhong stayed in the VIP patient building of Yun Hua Hospital and started going through all kinds of tests.

From biochemical tests to urine and feces test, from MRI scan to ultrasonography, and from electromyography to electrocardiography, Li Tianhong got so tired that his face was already pale.

“He has done many of them before. Can’t we use the results from earlier?” Li Tianhong’s manager accompanied him throughout the whole thing, and he immediately protested when she saw her cash cow’s expression.

The young nurse working in the VIP patient building was extremely used to this kind of conversation. She flashed a smile that can only be frequently seen in the VIP patient building and said, “We are just trying to ensure that the diagnosis is accurate. These tests are not harmful, and it’s nothing but beneficial for the patient to undergo more of them.”

“I don’t know about the other tests, but X-ray emits radiation, right?”

“He’s going to undergo Achilles tendon repair surgery, isn’t he? X-ray scans help the doctor determine the shape of the patient’s bones. Without them, the doctor might severe a few extra capillaries, and at the end of the day, it’ll just harm the patient.” Nurses working in the VIP building did not have to carry out difficult tasks, but they must be good with words, or else, they would not be able to keep their jobs.

Li Tianhong snorted a few times and said, “It’s not like there are no X-ray scans of my feet. Isn’t it the same if you guys use the scans from another hospital?”

“Let me relay a joke I saw on Zhihu [1] to you guys.” With a smile on her face, the young nurse said as she slowly pushed Li Tianhong’s wheelchair, “It’s about a group of medical students making ward rounds together with their professor. The professor took out an X-ray scan and asked the students whether they knew what the first detail they must pay attention to when reading an X-ray scan was.”

After she said that, the young nurse tapped Li Tianhong’s shoulder.

Li Tianhong felt his heart jump and asked, “What should they pay attention to?”

“The name of the patient.” The young nurse laughed and said, “You guys have not seen the way the doctors in the Medical Imaging Department read scans. There’s more than twenty of them in the office, and each has his own cubicle. All of them are just like pigeons, making tutting sounds as they read the films. Some of their mouths are so wide open that they look like retarded children. It wouldn’t be a surprise for them to give the results to the wrong patients every now and then.”

The manager was a person who was easily amused, and she laughed out loud.

As Li Tianhong listened to the young woman’s gentle voice, he became a lot more easily amused too. “Aren’t you afraid that they’ll give you trouble if you insult the doctors in the Medical Imaging Department?”

“What trouble can they give me?” The young nurse tilted her chin upwards. “Make me look fatter in my X-ray films?”

“Hahahahaha…”

Li Tianhong laughed maniacally as he slapped the armrest of his wheelchair.

Once they were no longer awkward with each other, things went relatively smoothly with the process of taking Li Tianhong’s scan.

The manager who was standing behind them fixed his gaze on the young nurse for a while. She then passed her his business card with a smile and said, “If you’re ever up for a change of job, you can try working in my studio.”

“As a manager?” The young nurse was astonished.

“A manager or a personal assistant. Our main task is to pacify celebrities. Since you’re able to pacify Li Tianhong, this job is definitely for you.” The manager smiled and winked. “Our manager’s pay is a lot higher than that of a nurse. Oh, by the way, how may I address you?”

“My name is Jin Shan,” the young nurse replied in a low voice.

“Jin Shan, let’s add each other on WeChat.” The manager took out her phone and asked, “You like to read the questions and answers on Zhihu? That’s quite a special hobby.”

Jin Shan nodded vigorously. “I like to read about relationship issues on Zhihu as I think that they’re super interesting.”

“Relationship issues… on Zhihu?”

“Yup. There are people grumbling about dowry, nobody wanting to marry them, and bad matchmaking experiences.” Jin Shan smiled and continued, “Many of them don’t even retort after they’re scolded. It’s a lot more interesting compared to Weibo.”

The manager went silent for a few seconds. “I think that we might not even be browsing the same part of Zhihu…”

…..

Ling Ran sat outside an operating theater in the VIP patient building. He was tapping nervously on the screen of his phone, and he was moving even faster than when he carried out surgeries.

The operating theaters in the VIP patient building served as a backup and were less often used. Hence, it took more time to prepare for surgery there. They were not like the operating theaters on the surgical floor. For those operating theaters, as long as the surgery that was to be carried out involved one of the main surgical methods, there would definitely be a suitable operating theater.

When certain kinds of surgeries had to be carried out in the operating theaters in the VIP patient building, the nurses would have to borrow equipment from elsewhere beforehand. Hence, they were not suitable for surgeries that were too intense, difficult, or complicated, as the machinery and facilities there might be lackluster.

However, there were advantages when it came to receiving surgeries in the VIP patient building. First of all, the patients would not need to queue up. More importantly, the operating theaters there were less contaminated. Considering that operating theaters were the most commonplace nosocomial infections to be contracted, there were certain advantages to receiving minor surgeries in the VIP patient building.

Li Tianhong’s mother pushed her son over to the operating theater.

There were streaks of tears on his mother’s face. As Li Tianhong had his back against her and could not see her, she alternated between hands to wipe the tears off her face. They had just gone through a press conference, and Li Tianhong’s manager had spoken some very emotional words. This was why Li Tianhong’s mother was crying non-stop.

Meanwhile, Li Tianhong looked rather glum.

During the press conference, even though he was feeling agitated, he patiently put on a show in front of the press. However, the moment he exited the elevator and reached the floor where the operating theaters were located, his mood suddenly plummeted.

This was a very strange phenomenon.

It was as if the human thought process would undergo a huge change the moment they stepped into the hospital.

Even though Li Tianhong was worried about the surgery, he was always able to find a lot of reasons to console himself.

However, as he sat in the wheelchair and was pushed out of the elevator toward the operating theater, all kinds of negative emotions such as worry and fear rushed into his mind.

For a moment, Li Tianhong even thought about fleeing the scene.

“Doctor Ling, the patient is here.” Jin Shan, who was walking in front of Li Tianhong and his mother, reminded Ling Ran.

“Oh, he’s finally here.” As Ling Ran spoke, he was still staring at the screen of his phone. He only put it down and stretched a few seconds later.

There was another advantage to the fact that the operating theaters in the VIP building were less often used. Doctors would be waiting there for patients instead of operating on patient after patient as if the patients were part of an assembly line. Even though the procedures in the operating theater remained the same, it gave the patients a different feeling. It would be as if they were receiving surgery in a private hospital.

“Doctor Ling, we are sorry. The reporters in the press conference were asking a lot of questions, and it wouldn’t be nice for us to leave just like that.” Li Tianhong’s mother was a retired accountant who used to work in a state-owned enterprise, and she was quite good with words. However, she was wiping her tears off her face nonstop, and it gave Ling Ran a strange feeling.

As Ling Ran watched Li Tianhong’s mother, he said to the nurse beside him in a hushed tone, “Later, do disinfect the patient’s shoulders, neck, and ears.”

“Okay,” the nurse replied.

“Doctor Ling, are you playing a game on your phone?” Li Tianhong decided to foster his relationship with Ling Ran. This would have been impossible before yesterday.

Ling Ran hummed in acknowledgment and said, “Kings of Glory.”

“Why don’t you finish the game first before going in?” Li Tianhong decided to make things easier for Ling Ran.

Ling Ran smiled and said, “It’s okay. Do enter the operating theater now so that the nurses can disinfect you.”

“You can still carry on with your game while I’m being disinfected, can’t you?” Li Tianhong joked.

Ling Ran shook his head. “There’s no need for that. My score is the highest among the five people in my team. I’ll definitely die.”

Li Tianhong froze for a moment. He only understood Ling Ran’s logic after a long while. He could not help but ask anxiously. “Doctor Ling, do you lose often when playing Kings of Glory?”

“Of course not. There’s a thirty to forty percent chance that I would win,” Ling Ran said. Thirty percent was quite a high chance, let alone forty percent.

Li Tianhong suddenly panicked. Any ordinary people who played Kings of Glory had a fifty percent chance of winning. What sort of person only had a thirty percent chance of winning? Can this sort of person become a chief surgeon?

“Hang in there, son. I’ll make you Dongpo pork knuckles after the surgery!” Li Tianhong’s mother, who was barred from entering the operating theater, yelled.

Tears were brimming in Li Tianhong’s eyes, and he was trying his best not to cry.

A burly man who was almost six feet three inches tall and weighed in at 240 pounds holding back tears was definitely an awkward sight. The fact that he was so large that he almost could not fit into the gurney made it even more awkward.

Ling Ran decided that it was time to console the patient, as he did not want the patient’s blood pressure to shoot up by 20 mm Hg.

After thinking long and hard, Ling Ran said, “Dongpo pork knuckles are pretty delicious. Your mother seems like a good cook.”

The nurses looked at one another and lowered their heads.

Li Tianhong burst into tears. “I’ll definitely make it through the surgery. I want to participate in Serie A, I want to participate in the Premier League, I want… I want to participate in the World Cup.”

Ling Ran, who was about to wash his hands, froze. He then said slowly, “Right now, medical technology only allows us to carry out Achilles tendon repair surgery. Achilles tendon modification surgery is impossible.

The operating theater fell into silence for a few seconds.

“Hahahaha…”

Everyone laughed out loud. Even Li Tianhong himself was smiling through the tears.

“Even Achilles tendon modification surgery wouldn’t work. You’ll need to undergo a full-body modification surgery.”

“There’s no use in modifying the body alone. You probably need a new brain too.”

“But it wouldn’t be the same person anymore.”

“It wouldn’t do even if you become a robot. You would need a new team of coaches and a brand new Chinese Football Association. If you replace all the personnel in the Chinese Football Association and buy a good luck charm, your team might have a higher likelihood of winning.

As the nurses and the doctors excitedly carried out a professional analysis, Li Tianhong’s smile slowly faded. ‘Wait till I…’

“Count backward from ten.” Su Jiafu, the anesthetist, put on a laryngeal mask for Li Tianhong.

Before Li Tianhong’s smile even faded completely, he fell unconscious. His face was tilted to one side as if he had been hit by a football.