Great Doctor Ling Ran

“Sister Wang Jia, you’re really busy, huh?” Wang Zhuangyong took selfies everywhere in the Operating Area while he was in his scrubs. When he saw the staff including Wang Jia count the surgical instruments in the sterile storage, he smiled and greeted them.

Wang Jia was dressed in a dark green scrub. She instantly bristled with rage. “Who are you calling ‘sister’?”

The young intern, Wang Zhuangyong was stunned for a while. “Weren’t you the one who asked me to call you Sister Wang Jia?”

“Did I?” Wang Jia could not be certain of his words.

Wang Zhuangyong answered firmly, “The last time, you said little sister…”

“Is little sister the same as sister? Why don’t you just call me miss directly?” Wang Jia turned around angrily. Then, she said irritatedly, “The numbers are all wrong now, and I have to check all over again. Two, four, six, eight… Twelve…”

“Then I’ll leave you to your work and go now, Sister Wang Jia…”

Wang Jia turned her head one hundred and eighty degrees to glare at Wang Zhuangyong fiercely.

“Little Sister Wang Jia… Bye…” Wang Zhuangyong waved his hand stiffly.

“Good.” Then, Wang Jia put down a colonoscope before she turned around to recount the instruments. “Two, four, six, eight… Fourteen…”

“Excuse me…” Wang Zhuangyong stood at the entrance and asked, “Why are you cleaning up the place like you’re spring cleaning? And why do you need to clean the rehabilitation ward as well as the operating theaters as well?”

“Sixteen, eighteen, twenty.” Wang Jia resolutely finished counting before she replied, “Because Doctor Ling’s coming back.”

Wang Zhuangyong could obviously sense Wang Jia’s softer tone.

Naturally, as Ling Ran’s dormitory mate, Wang Zhuangyong did not find her attitude unfamiliar.

In the past, the contact list in Wang Zhuangyong’s WeChat was filled with girls from different years and majors. The main reason was because among Ling Ran’s other dormmates, Chen Wanhao was rich and rather good-looking, so the girls were worried that he would misunderstand. Hence, whoever that wanted to know more about Ling Ran would add Wang Zhuangyong’s Wechat.

Wang Zhuangyong’s orchid gestures also made the girls feel at ease with him.

His appearance was also very safe.

However, it was still very hard for Wang Zhuangyong to comprehend the atmosphere in the hospital.

Wang Zhuangyong could not understand and said, “Even if Ling Ran comes back, it’s not necessary to do spring cleaning, right? Even if the head nurse doesn’t comment on this, the directors would still make noise, right?”

“This is the instruction given by Department Director Huo.” Wang Jia proudly raised her chin.

“Why?” Wang Zhuangyong was completely shocked now. Was society truly more complicated than schools? Even Department Director Huo…

“Ling Ran will need to perform surgeries after he comes back, and he usually uses two to three operating theaters once he starts. By that time, the operating theaters will be occupied most of the time, and it’ll be too late for us to do any spring cleaning. Same goes to the rehabilitation room. There are fewer patients in your rehabilitation room right now, right? The patients who were just discharged are all Doctor Ling’s patients. When he comes back, the rehabilitation room will surely be occupied again.” Wang Jia spoke like she had a lot of experience. “Rest well while you still can. I heard that during peak hours, patients will begin using the rehabilitation room at five in the morning.”

“Five in the morning…” Wang Zhuangyong remembered that Ling Ran played with cadavers in the anatomy building on campus at four in the morning, so he instantly believed her words. Yet, he was still slightly confused and said, “The operating theaters belong to the Emergency Department whereas the rehabilitation rooms are lent by the Hand Surgery Department. Are they willing to open the door at five in the morning for Ling Ran?”

“Doctor Ling isn’t the only one who likes to use the rehabilitation room at five in the morning. The medical director of the Hand Surgery Department, Department Director Jin Xi also likes to use the rehabilitation room at five in the morning. He used to open a special rehabilitation class for people, which started at 5:30 am and ended at 6:30 am.” Wang Jia pursed her lips and said, “The Hand Surgery Department requires doctors to perform surgeries and take a look at their patients’ rehabilitation before they leave for any meeting. If the doctor has a meeting at nine in the morning, he will have to go to the rehabilitation room at five in the morning.”

When they talked about this topic, the nurses who were counting the instruments suddenly became interested. The eldest nurse, Nurse Niu, clapped her hands and laughed. “That chief physician with the surname Bao, the one who’s bald, used to do ward rounds at five in the early morning. One day, he even bumped into a married couple who were having sex on the hospital bed. He was completely stunned while he waited outside the room for ten minutes.”

“Yes, yes, yes, I remember. He loved to perform surgeries the entire night before he went for his ward rounds back then. He claimed that it was quite quiet and peaceful during that period of time. But he stopped doing that after some issues.”

Wang Zhuangyong was very excited when he listened to the gossip. He then asked, “Was it because he received a complaint for bumping into the married couple while they had sex?”

“No, I think it’s because he went bald. I heard that you get bald if you stay up late all the time,” Nurse Niu said and waved her hand in a dismissive gesture. She then added, “Well, he’s a rather ugly chief physician, and you can definitely recognize him when you meet him.”

Wang Zhuangyong touched his head, and he felt a chill creep down his spine.

…..

Ling Ran grabbed a car after he got down from the plane. He brought Lu Wenbin along.

“I have money, and we can save more time,” Ling Ran patted his bag and explained to Lu Wenbin, who was ready to take a bus home.

Lu Wenbin wanted to say something, but he hesitated. He only entered the car after he saw Ling Ran get in.

The taxi first sent Ling Ran home before Lu Wenbin.

Ling Ran paid the fare before he got down the car.

Academician Zhu Tongyi was so generous that he paid Ling Ran the full surgery fee, which was 31,550 RMB. He paid Ling Ran in cash, enough to be arranged in three stacks. It looked very awe-inspiring. In contrast, Lu Wenbin only received 5,000 RMB in surgical fees, which was paid according to the minimum standard.

Ling Ran did not correct the pay ratio. He spoke to Lu Wenbin before he got out of the car. “If you have time, perform more surgeries. Rack up the number of surgeries you perform.”

Unlike other senior doctors, Ling Ran seldom made such hollow comments. He said these words because he had experienced the effects of performing more surgeries greatly over the past few days.

This time around in Shanghai, Zhu Tongyi’s Plan A proved to be very difficult. When he performed the surgery for Liu Weichen, Ling Ran tried to use the best skills in his disposal to perform the surgery. But when Ling Ran operated on He Xiufang, his skills were obviously much better.

The reason behind it was simply because Ling Ran had accumulated experience from Liu Weichen’s surgery.

Liu Weichen’s surgery had pretty much improved Ling Ran’s skill a lot. If it were not for Liu Weichen, Academician Zhu Tongyi would not have tried his best to design Plan A and even carry out comprehensive analyses.

Without the analyses and the real operation, Ling Ran would not have been able to think of the new skill he needed when he operated on He Xiufang.

The three surgeries Ling Ran performed using Plan A also further strengthened his skills.

It could also be said that after performing five surgeries, if there was another Liu Weichen, Ling Ran could probably increase the patient’s recovery by one to two percent.

This was due to Plan A’s complicated nature. It was enough to make Ling Ran feel obvious improvements in his skill. If it were just a normal Achilles tendon rupture surgery, Ling Ran would probably not be able to gain so much experience.

Nonetheless, in general, surgeries on their own were already experience points. The higher the level of skill required for the surgery, the greater the number of surgeries needed to be accumulated before qualitative changes in the surgeon’s skills could develop. Hence, it was necessary for surgeons to accumulate experience.

For a resident doctor like Lu Wenbin, if he became the assistant for one to two hundred surgeries, the quality of his skills might change.

Lu Wenbin remembered that he had worked with Ling Ran in so many surgeries, and when heard Ling Ran tell him to accumulate his number of surgeries, he suddenly felt a warmth rise in his heart. He could not help but say, “Time is the most important thing when learning from you. Hmm… I’m going to grab a car to the hospital every day in the future.”

“That’s good, too. If you’re not rich, then you should perform more surgeries.” Ling Ran stood in front of an alley at the lively Lower Groove, and he thought about things in Lu Wenbin’s shoes.

Lu Wenbin gripped his phone tightly. He forced himself to resist the urge to show Ling Ran the figures on his phone screen.

The next day…

Ling Ran slept until seven o’clock. He woke up, watered the plants, and went to the market to buy some seafood and other ingredients. He cooked a pot of seafood porridge before he woke his parents up.

Ling Jiezhou stretched his back, which was a motion he was not entirely familiar with. Then, he shouted in surprise in his room, “Son, you’re back?”

“I sent you a message yesterday,” Ling Ran answered through the door.

Then Ling Jiezhou replied, “Oh, I totally forgot. I slept quite early yesterday.”

“I made you breakfast,” Ling Ran said.

“Ah, I still want to sleep more.” Ling Jiezhou paused for a moment before he asked, “What did you make for breakfast?”

“Seafood porridge. I also bought some fried pancakes from the street corner as well as some beef seasoned with soy sauce.”

“I see… What seafood did you put in the seafood porridge?”

“Clams, prawns, pork ribs, snapper fillets, shiitake mushroom, and celery…”

“Three minutes,” Ling Jiezhou answered affirmatively.

Ling Ran went back to the ground floor and turned up the heat for the seafood porridge. When it was about to boil, he saw his dad, Ling Jiezhou.

“Didn’t you manage to get any flower crabs?” Ling Jiezhou had his slippers on. He opened the lid above the pot of seafood porridge. He smelled it, nodded, and said, “This smells really good. You’ve finally mastered how to make seafood porridge. You won’t starve in the future.”

Ling Ran served two bowls of the porridge and said, “There weren’t any flower crabs this morning.”

“Seafood porridge without flower crabs can only be rated five stars. It’s not a luxurious dish…”Ling Jiezhou sounded very lackadaisical. He raised his head and saw Tao Ping walk down the stairs. He immediately served her a bowl of seafood porridge and shouted, “My dear, the seafood porridge is ready. Come and eat it, quick.”

Ling Jiezhou turned around and patted his own head. He said, “I almost forgot, Young Ran, is the massage appointment that I arranged for the neighborhood in the morning or at night?”

“In the morning, I think.” Ling Ran ate the porridge he cooked quietly.

“You’re not in a hurry to go to the hospital?”

“I’ll go in the afternoon.” After he answered his father, Ling Ran said to Tao Ping, who was approaching him, “Mom, I want to eat steamed salted pork in wine.”

“Sure.” Tao Ping gathered her skirt and sat down. She smiled gently. “Let your dad buy some meat in the market later.”

Ling Jiezhou’s eyebrows twitched. “It’ll take two days to cook the steamed salted pork in wine, so you can’t have it tomorrow.”

“I’ll be working overtime in the hospital tomorrow. I’ll eat it the day after tomorrow,” Ling Ran said.

“Then, we’ll set the date on which we want to eat the dish first—the day after tomorrow. Outside food can never be as good as homemade food,” Madam Tao Ping gave the final word.

“It can never be as good as homemade food indeed,” answered Ling Ran. Then, he lowered his head to eat the seafood porridge.

*Slurp, slurp…*