Great Doctor Ling Ran

Ling Ran woke up, then slept again. He repeated the process twice, sleeping until noon. By then, he could no longer sleep, so he finally decided to crawl out of his bed.

The soreness in his arms had mostly disappeared. He was much more clear-headed now. As Ling Ran recalled the incident from the day before, he felt that he should now be more capable of facing things with a cooler head.

He could open the Basic Treasure Chest that he acquired last night, though he did not know the exact time he acquired it. Ling Ran took his bath at a relaxing pace. Then, he dug out a white steamed bun he had stored for no more than two days, half a bottle of fermented bean curd he opened no more than one month ago, two bags of milk, one salted egg he had stored for over a questionable period of time, and a tomato suspected of falling out of a torn net, from the refrigerator. He put everything on the dining table first before he ate it all in one go. After that, Ling Ran sat in front of the window as he lazily said, “System, open the chest.”

The silver Basic Treasure Chest popped up in front of Ling Ran. It shone, as though it was calling out to him. “Open me, open me, open me…”

Ling Ran raised his chin a little, making his intention to open the chest obvious.

The treasure chest instantly opened, and a small, shining book appeared right before Ling Ran.

He did not seem to be affected by its appearance.

When he previously opened up ten Basic Treasure Chests consecutively, all the items given to him were Energy Serums. Considering the overall drop rate, it was about time some other item was given to him.

With a wave of his hand, he opened the Skill Book and was able to see a row of words, which acted as a reminder.

[Master Level MRI Analysis on Four Limbs obtained.]

Ling Ran raised his eyebrows. He had recently seen quite a number of MRI scans, especially scans on the hand. Each time before an operation, he was required to carefully read through them. However, he did not have the skill to read them. What then was the difference between him, a complete novice, and a Master Level in MRI Analysis?

While Ling Ran thought of that, a large amount of information gushed into his head.

Strategy for hand scanning…

Strategy for foot scanning…

MRI images on the sagittal plane[1], coronary anatomy graphs…

Metal-induced artifacts[2] in MRI, magnetic susceptibility artifacts[3], T2 shine-through[4], and T2 Washout[5]…

Ling Ran further recalled all the MRI scans he had seen before this. Then, he compared them with the information in his head and each situation he experienced during his operations. It only took a moment for his train of thought to become clear.

The Master Level MRI Analysis Technique clearly enabled him to acquire a tremendous amount of information from MRI scans, especially when he combined it with his understanding of upper limb anatomy. The effect was greater with the combination.

However, the skill was perhaps only at Novice Level or Specialist Level when it came to the reading of other parts of the body. Nonetheless, he had more information when it came to the reading of MRI scans concerning those four limbs.

That was the case for him when it came to reading scans related to the brachial plexus[6]. Actually, Ling Ran did not even need to read the scan to obtain a certain understanding of its magnetic field uniformity, contrast, and so on.

It could be said that Ling Ran now became capable of gaining much more information from an MRI image compared to his past self.

The “supplement” given to his mind about those four limbs was super powerful. MRI scans and dissection performed right under a person’s eyes provided two very different images.

MRI images allowed the reader to distinguish between different structural tissues through the means of looking at different densities of color on the film.

Most of the time, it was easy to distinguish the structural tissues. However, it would take a certain amount of practice in order to clearly distinguish each tissue structure in different scanning methods.

Such practice would entail reading thousands or tens of thousands of MRI scans, having profound knowledge of a human’s anatomy in the form of MRI scans, and also continuously comparing the MRI scans of the diseased with perfectly healthy people.

For normal doctors, it was perhaps a height they could never attain in their entire lives.

To be honest, there was no need to even hypothesize on whether or not such doctors would be able to master the reading of scans. If they could not do it, then they could not. It was as simple as that.

A doctor’s time was limited. Even if a doctor was willing to put his or her limited time into learning the endless medical techniques available, it remained impossible for that doctor to attain satisfactory heights in every aspect.

Normal doctors would probably be willing to spend their efforts on reading and understanding X-ray scans and CT scans.

Of course, they were merely willing to do it. In reality, it was very difficult for most surgeons to even attain Specialist Level in reading and understanding X-ray scans as well as CT scans. And it was much less common for them to obtain Specialist Level in reading MRI scans.

The surgeons in most hospitals never actually read through the scans seriously before they performed minor surgeries.

It was because they were only able to obtain very little information from the scans. The information they could extract by reading a scan for ten minutes could be less than setting up a surgical field and looking into the patient’s body for ten seconds. As such, many doctors gave up on interpreting the scans in detail. If they did not detect an obvious problem, they would just perform the operation.

The most typical surgery for a scenario like that was appendectomies, because appendixes would often move out of their pouches. If there was a film that could accurately identify the position of the appendix, it would naturally be easy to complete its resection. However, whenever there was surgery, many people would choose to open the patient’s abdomen before locating the appendix.

It was common for a surgeon to spend twenty to thirty minutes searching for the patient’s appendix in an appendectomy.

Hence, Ling Ran was also quite satisfied with the new skill.

Any skill was satisfying for a medical intern who had a poor medical foundation.

The only thing he was dissatisfied about was the difficulty in explaining the origins of the skill. Lower Groove Clinic did not possess an MRI machine. He could no longer say that the clinic was where he learned how to read MRI scans.

Nevertheless, Ling Ran instantly cast that issue to the back of his head.

Explanation? There was no need for an explanation.

There were countless types of young doctors. Those who were considerate, those who were good in learning, those who were obedient, those who were pretty, those who were ugly, those who followed rules and regulations closely, as well as those who continuously got themselves into trouble…

However, there were only two kinds of doctors. One was capable of curing diseases while the other kind was incapable of curing diseases.

“Son.”

“Son!”

Ling Jiezhou and Tao Ping’s voices rang one after the other from downstairs.

Ling Ran responded and wore his slippers before he went downstairs. He nodded at the old patients who were receiving their intravenous transfusion before he looked at his parents who just came back from shopping.

Madam Tao Ping had probably bought new clothes. She held her head high and puffed her chest to show off her new clothes to the people in the neighborhood. Ling Jiezhou held his wife’s hand with one hand while he pressed down on his wallet with the other. His wallet was suffering from the excruciating pain of being empty. But he had a smile on his face.

“Son, we witnessed you saving people yesterday.” Tao Ping waved her hand as she called Ling Ran over and said, “It was broadcast on the television. Your father even shouted at the people of the neighborhood, calling them to come over and watch it. Everyone praised you.”

“My son has become capable of saving people now.” Ling Jiezhou sighed, and a well of emotions gathered in his heart as he spoke. It showed that he was not a man of many words. He wiped the corner of his eyes a little. It remained unclear if he was touched by Ling Ran’s skills or actually crying for his empty wallet.

“When I came home, both of you had fallen asleep…”

“You must have returned home too late.”

“It wasn’t that late…” Ling Ran furrowed his eyebrows. He decided not to discuss the matter further.

Ling Jiezhou cleared his throat twice and grabbed his son’s arm. He pulled his son through the yard and chuckled twice before he said, “Your mother and I woke up early this morning, and we made a big decision.”

“A big decision?” Ling Ran was a little puzzled.

Ling Jiezhou nodded seriously and said, “You see, our business has also bloomed a bit recently so we’ve earned some money. You’ve also been doing quite well as a doctor. You even saved two people last night. One of them is a policeman. Your mother and I were so happy that we didn’t sleep most of last night… Anyway, we thought of rewarding you. Come with me…”

Ling Jiezhou pulled Ling Ran out of the courtyard while he talked and held Tao Ping’s hand with his other hand.

The whole family circumnavigated their courtyard in a semi-circle and arrived at the back alley.

The back alley was narrow. There were also illegal structures built by various households, such as storage rooms used to burn coal and wood, as well as warehouses where old things were stored. Occasionally, youngsters who left their families once they reached adulthood would temporarily stay in those buildings.

The Ling Family followed the trend too and built two sheds in their backyard. They had locked the sheds up with shutter gates. Ling Jiezhou reached out and lifted one of the shutter gates. He smiled at Ling Ran and said, “Considering how inconvenient it is for you to go back and forth to Yun Hua Hospital every day, your mother and I thought about this carefully…”

“Are you talking about this morning?” Ling Ran tried to confirm.

“After your mother and I thought about this carefully…” Ling Jiezhou continued to say what he wanted to say, “…we decided to take most of our family savings to purchase a car!”

Ling Ran looked at what was behind the shutter gate. There was an object in the shape of a car covered in a brand-new plastic sheet. He was a little surprised and taken aback.

“Are you feeling extra happy?” Ling Jiezhou chuckled. Soon after, he put on a serious expression and said, “The car’s for you but I have to make a few things clear. First of all, you must drive safely. I won’t talk about things like buckling your seatbelt, but you’ve got to practice good driving habits… Secondly… Thirdly…”

Ling Jiezhou continued to talk even after three minutes had passed. “Last but not least, even though our family business has improved a little, we’re still an ordinary family. This is also your first car. Therefore, you shouldn’t expect to get a great car. I’ve always had this thought in mind when I buy things: if I buy something, it has to be practical, and it has to last. That applies even more to cars. A car is for you to drive, not for you to build and modify. This time, as your father, I asked someone for a favor before I managed to purchase such a car. Although this is a secondhand car, it’s still fairly new. It’s a Jetta, which was only released two years ago. It has yet to undergo any huge modifications.”

The Volkswagen Jetta was a car that could rival the Volkswagen Santana in terms of durability. While it was a secondhand car, which only cost tens of thousands of RMB, the vehicle was still capable of fulfilling its purpose as a means of transport.

Ling Ran nodded, showing his understanding. He also had a tiny bit of expectation when it came to his first car.

“All right, get ready for the reveal.” Ling Jiezhou added some sound effects on his own. He exerted strength into both of his arms and pulled off the hard plastic sheet that covered the car. He threw it high up in the air and asked Ling Ran loudly, “How is it? Black’s quite cool, right? Let me tell you, this secondhand car’s been washed clean. It’s just as easy to drive―”

Ling Ran cleared his throat and said, “Dad, this is a Volkswagen; a red one.”

“Huh? I must have placed it in the wrong garage.” Ling Jiezhou’s old face became a little red. He turned around and looked at his wife. He tried to curry favor from her and said, “This car is for your mother. She goes out for her tea sessions often. It’s not convenient for her if she doesn’t have a car.”

Ling Jiezhou threw away the hard plastic sheet, which had been blocking his eyes, and he told Ling Ran, “Never mind. Go inside the shed and take a look at it yourself. Here’s your key.”

Ling Jiezhou threw the key for the black Jetta to Ling Ran. Then, he took out a beautiful red key and passed it to Tao Ping. He smiled and said, “Shall we get in the car and test it out? Shall we go for a ride?”

“Yes, yes!” Tao Ping squeezed herself into the driver’s seat.

Ling Jiezhou sat in the passenger seat and fastened the seat belt. After that, he said, “Start slow. It’s a new car so it hasn’t passed its adjustment period yet. You shouldn’t drive recklessly.”

“Yes, yes.” Tao Ping placed both of her hands on the steering wheel. She looked very serious as she slowly drove the Volkswagen out from the shed. She did so in an exemplary manner.

Ling Ran remained quiet as he pulled off the plastic sheet on his Volkswagen Jetta. It was a black secondhand Jetta. It appeared steady and plain, just as his father had described.

*Beep, beep.*

Clear whistling sounds could be heard from the Volkswagen Jetta. Sunlight shone on the bright and clean body of the car; it was extremely shiny.

He could vaguely hear Ling Jiezhou and Tao Ping’s laughter…

Translation Notes:

1. Sagittal plane(longitudinal plane): an anatomical plane which divides the body into right and left parts. The plane may be in the center of the body and split it into two halves or away from the midline and split it into unequal parts. Most elements of Irish dancing occur in the sagittal plane.

2. Artifacts: An artifact, or in some cases, known as metal artifact, is a visual artifact in magnetic resonance imaging. It is a feature appearing in an image that is not present in the original object. Many different artifacts can occur during MRI, some affecting the diagnostic quality, while others may be confused with pathology.

3. Magnetic susceptibility artifacts (or just susceptibility artifact): refer to a variety of MRI artifacts that share distortions or local signal change due to local magnetic field inhomogeneities from a variety of compounds.

4. T2 shine-through: refers to high signal on DWI images that is not due to restricted diffusion, but rather to high T2 signal which ‘shines through’ to the DWI image. T2 shine through occurs because of long T2 decay time in some normal tissue.

5. T2 Washout: is a phenomenon encountered on diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) which results in DWI images (e.g. B = 1000) appearing normal despite abnormal ADC maps.

6. Brachial plexus: a network of nerves formed by the ventral rami of the lower four cervical nerves and first thoracic nerve (C5, C6, C7, C8, and T1). This plexus extends from the spinal cord, through the cervicoaxillary canal in the neck, over the first rib, and into the armpit.