Great Doctor Ling Ran

“I’m watching doctors saving people in the street food alley.”

“A policeman and a young hoodlum were stabbed at the same time. So which one of them should be saved first?”

“We were thinking of having some supper before going to a nightclub. We would never have imagined that the show on the street could end up much more exciting than a nightclub.”

“We saw an incredibly good-looking hunk.”

The ones who recorded multiple videos and spammed their circle of friends were putting in a lot of effort to post their expressions, pictures, videos, and also their selfies.

From the surface, the front door of Oyster Sensation seemed absolutely peaceful.

Ling Ran’s attention was focused on Dong Jinwu, who was being carried onto the cart.

One of his hands was still in Zang Zhao’s stomach, while his other hand grabbed the bottle of iodophor and poured what remained of it on Dong Jinwu’s body. Ling Ran did not miss a spot including the chest. He only stopped when emptied the bottle.

Boss Shao felt his heart clench in pain as he witnessed how Ling Ran used up his entire bottle of iodophor. Regardless of how cheap iodophor was, he did have to use his own money to purchase it. If he wanted to sell ten skewers of beef tripe for twenty RMB, he would first need to spend two yuan and eighty cents for the raw materials. Him buying a bottle of 2.2 pounds iodophor was equivalent to him buying the raw materials for one hundred skewers of beef tripe. After selling that one hundred skewers, he could then use the money earned to purchase raw materials again and make more beef tripes and sell them all again. By repeating the process, it would not take long before he could settle the debt he owed the hospital the last time he was hospitalized…

Doctor Zhou was used to this. He only whispered, “I suspect that the liver has been injured, and he has lost quite a lot of blood. He’ll go into shock soon… And there’s no sign of the ambulance…”

Ling Ran listened in silence. He started palpating just like before. Then, he made a general judgment using his Specialist Level Physical Examination.

Doctor Zhou was not angry with Ling Ran ignoring him either.

Since the beginning of their training, surgeons were already constantly educated with such a notion: Do not trust anyone! Do no trust anyone!

There were far too many medical incidents that happened due to doctors trusting the judgments of other doctors.

Ling Ran was prepared to perform barehanded bleeding control. Naturally, he could not take Doctor Zhou’s judgment at face value.

“Help me rinse my hands.” Ling Ran completed the first step of the diagnosis as soon as he was able to. Then, he put out his right hand, which was free for the moment, and had Doctor Zhou pour iodophor and alcohol to disinfect the area from his hand to his elbow.

After everything was done, Ling Ran took the now disinfected kitchen knife. He held the handle of the knife with one hand and aimed the knife at the wound as how he would hold a violin bow.

“Hold him down.” Ling Ran sounded cold and calm. There was not even the slightest bit of emotion heard from his voice.

Doctor Zhou instinctively pushed the teenager down. He witnessed Ling Ran shoving the knife in before forcefully cutting open the teenager’s rectus abdominis muscle.

Ling Ran was no longer concerned about the suture work that would follow. After he drew the knife down two times, the wound was expanded. The moment he threw the knife away, he stretched out his hand and said, “Alcohol.”

The remaining half of the alcohol was emptied, and it washed away the blood stains on Ling Ran’s hand. Before the alcohol could volatilize, Ling Ran plunged his right hand into Dong Jinwu’s wound.

It was only at that instance that Doctor Zhou realized what Ling Ran was doing. As Dong Jinwu’s area of bleeding was deep inside and the surface area of the laceration was narrow, Ling Ran could not extend his hand into the wound, which was why he had to make it bigger.

“Argh… urgh….” Dong Jinwu was already dizzy with blood loss. After getting temporarily anesthetized by the alcohol for over ten seconds, the teenager began to struggle violently.

Doctor Zhou shouted for help. Half of his body was raised high into the air as he tried his best to keep the teenager down.

A few male onlookers took the initiative to move forward, and they pressed down Dong Jinwu’s shoulders and thighs.

Ling Ran’s elbow went forward a few more milimeters into Dong Jinwu’s body before he stopped. Then, he started groping around.

“The liver is ruptured.” Ling Ran only gave a brief statement. The blood that had been gushing out of the wound started slowing down.

Doctor Zhou rested his backside against the flatbed cart before he lifted his head up to look at Ling Ran. He was already overwhelmed with astonishment.

At that instant, Ling Ran’s left hand was inside Zang Zhao’s abdomen while his right hand was inside Dong Jinwu’s abdomen. Ling Ran appeared tense, but Doctor Zhou knew that Ling Ran was doing something impossible right now.

Chief surgeons who often stood beside the operation table had the experience of performing barehanded bleeding control. Sometimes, when the knife went off tangent by the slightest, the patient’s blood would gush out. At that time, they would not even have time to find gauze. Using the hand to stop the blood flow directly was their best option during those situations. After all, performing barehanded bleeding control without setting up a surgical field was something common.

Exploratory laparotomy was actually an act of slicing the stomach open and flipping through a patient’s internal organs one by one to locate the bleeding point, and it was the most basic method to search for bleeding points. Experienced doctors normally did not need to turn all internal organs upside down just to find the bleeding point. Once they saw the blood flow, they just needed to stretch out their hand, grope about a little, and they would usually be able to locate the bleeding point. Of course, there were occasionally times where they could not locate the bleeding point, but even then, it would still not be too late for them to perform exploratory laparotomy.

However, in comparison to the barehanded bleeding control which Doctor Zhou was familiar with, Ling Ran’s skill clearly belonged in another realm.

When he remembered the knowledge Ling Ran gained from his family, he looked at Boss Shao, who was not too far away from them. Then, Doctor Zhou suddenly had a thought raise in his mind. ‘I wonder what the patients at Lower Groove Clinic experienced.’

“Where is the ambulance?” Ling Ran had both his arms spread outwards with each arm pressing down on one patient. He was exhausted to the point of collapse.

Many onlookers had jogged to the cart jubilantly. They were taking shots from his left and right.

Doctor Zhou took out his mobile phone and started urging the medics to hurry up to the spot. A while later, he said, “The entire street has been occupied by roadside stalls. It’s not easy for the ambulance to make its way through, but it should be arriving soon.”

Doctor Zhou hesitated for a moment and said, “We could get a car and go to the hospital by ourselves.”

As he spoke, Doctor Zhou’s gaze was fixed on Boss Xue’s face.

“Boss Xue, may we use your car for a bit?”

“It’s a sportscar.” Boss Xue patted his tummy, which was covered by his black shirt and his string of Star Moon Bodhi beads. He was happy to be given the opportunity to brag about it. “Audi TT. The back seats cannot fit more than two people.”

Boss Xue shook his bodhi beads for a bit as he swept his gaze past the crowd.

“Boss Shao, is your car here?” The only other person Doctor Zhou knew in this area was Shao Jian.

Boss Shao quietly stowed away his empty bottle of iodophor. While everyone was distracted, he had taken the opportunity and put away his two bottles of Luzhou Laojiao as well. Then, he said, “I lent my Volkswagen Santana to someone else. My Corolla has yet to return from picking up goods.”

“Come on, you’re an owner of a restaurant, at least get yourself a Wuling.” Doctor Zhou had been utterly drained mentally and physically for the day. His body reeked of sweat, he was anxious, but he could not complain about it. All he could do was grumble a little before he talked to the people around him again.

“Everyone, who has a vehicle? A vehicle that can fit three people and send the patient to the hospital? If this goes on, they won’t be able to make it.”

Regardless of how perfect Ling Ran’s barehanded bleeding control was, he was only capable of slowing down the bleeding. They still needed to perform the necessary treatments on the patients.

No one in the area responded to Doctor Zhou.

Doctor Zhou shouted for help again. But the situation remained the same. This time, a few even turned around and walked away.

Doctor Zhou smiled bitterly and said, “Fine. Let’s push the flatbed cart outside and meet up with the ambulance on the way. At least, by doing so, we can let the patients reach the ambulance earlier. We might have a large group of people here, but none are willing to help. What a rotten world we live in.”

Ling Ran only responded with a hum in agreement. He moved to kneel down on one knee, cleared his throat, and said, “Everyone, we need to send two patients to Yun Hua Hospital for emergency treatment now. If we get there even a minute sooner, their odds of survival will be much higher. I hope that those who have cars can help. We will bear the cleaning costs.”

Ling Ran had completed one hundred surgeries using the M-Tang technique in the previous month. The average cost for performing one operation was around four to five hundred RMB. Since Ling Ran spent all his time to perform surgeries, he had barely spent any cash that month. Hence, at that moment, Ling Ran felt incredibly wealthy just based on the money in his bank account. The trivial amount that will cost from cleaning a car would not really bother him.

The sounds of people taking photos rose again in the area. At that moment, a lady spoke up boldly while there was a faint flush on her cheeks, “I can lend you my car.”

Ling Ran immediately moved to take up her offer, but before he could even speak, a woman in her middle ages shouted across him, “My car is parked up front. We can move now.”

“My SUV’s back seat row is spacious. It’s perfect for you!”

That came from another small-sized, middle-aged woman.

“Mine is a Mercedes-Benz G-Class.” An elderly lady stepped out. She held on to the hand of a shy girl and said, “My daughter will send you there. The back seat can be folded over. It won’t even be a problem for four people to lie down there.”

With the might of the Mercedes-Benz G-Class, the old lady was able to buy herself a few precious seconds. She pointed towards a direction and had someone push the cart towards it.

Just a moment later, the two patients and two doctors were loaded on the back row of the Mercedes-Benz G-Class. The shy girl gently stepped on the gas pedal and slowly drove out of the night market. After that, they rushed to the hospital.

Ling Ran was relieved. Then, he smiled at Doctor Zhou and said, “There are still good Samaritans around.”

His motives were simple. He merely wanted to express his gratitude for Doctor Zhou’s guidance for him on this day.

Doctor Zhou chuckled dryly…

No one knew if Dong Jinwu was woken up by the pain or whether he was woken up by the shaking of the speeding car. He opened his eyes and looked at his surroundings before he asked, “Where am I?”

Doctor Zhou explained in detail, “We’re heading towards the hospital. Everything will be alright after we arrive.”

Dong Jinwu forced a smile. Then, he said, “I knew it. I’ve said this before. A single stab is a small matter. Two stitches are all it takes to make everything okay again.”

Doctor Zhou’s face instantly darkened.

Translation Notes:

1. Wuling: a brand of vehicle produced and sold by Wuling Motors. Here in the context it just means a large vehicle with the capacity to fit more goods and people. That company produces engines, special purpose vehicles, namely mini electric cars, people movers, trucks and buses, and other auto parts.