Great Doctor Ling Ran

“Wow, business class! I actually get to sit in a business class seat in a bullet train!” As Guan Fei dragged her pastel-colored Hello Kitty bag into the business class cabin, she was as excited as a child with a bag of candy.

Xiang Xueming, who was walking behind her, was extremely embarrassed by her behavior. He said in a hushed tone, “Guan Fei, can you lower down your voice? Don’t disturb the other passengers.”

“There aren’t any other passengers here. We have the whole place to ourselves.” Guan Fei relied on her advantage of being young and energetic to jump up and down in the cabin like a happy squirrel.

“Still, you should mind your manners.” As Xiang Xueming spoke, he went to the last row and sat down obediently.

Zheng Jun, who was also an intern, walked into the cabin after the two of them. He was followed by Zuo Cidian, Zhang Anmin, and Ling Ran.

Six people were considered a lot for a freelance surgery team.

Zhang Anmin felt a little diffident as he looked around the cabin. He asked Zuo Cidian in a hushed tone, “Is the other party really paying for business class seats for all six of us?”

“It doesn’t cost much anyway.” Zuo Cidian was currently the manager of the group. He said, “One business class ticket only costs around 400 RMB, and six of them cost less than 3,000 RMB.”

“Isn’t that a lot?” Zhang Anmin was a poor junior attending physician who was useless and had never seen the world even though he graduated from a famous university. He wore a baffled expression as he stared at Zuo Cidian, a middle-aged resident doctor. He felt like they were not in the same world.

Zuo Cidian snorted a few times and said, “Doctor Ling is only charging 6,000 RMB per freelance surgery even though he’s extremely good in hepatectomy. He’s bringing them a lot of profit, okay? The patients will be staying there, and we aren’t getting a single cent out of the money they make from the drugs sold to the patients.”

“6,000 RMB is quite a large sum,” Zhang Anmin said emotionally, “Surgeons from the Cardiothoracic Department charge 6,000 RMB for the radical resection of lung cancer too, and that surgery takes four hours.”

“If everything is counted based on time, we would be out of business. Doctor Ling only takes a little more than an hour to carry out a hepatectomy.” Zuo Cidian started laughing out loud as he continued, “You know, all the patients who need hepatectomy in the First People’s Hospital of Wuxin City and Second People’s Hospital of Wuxin City are there because of Doctor Ling.”

“Why don’t they come to Yun Hua…?” Zhang Anmin suddenly went silent.

During their trip to Wuxin City this time, the chief surgeon will be paid 6,000 RMB for each surgery, while the assistants will be getting a few hundred RMB. However, in Yun Hua Hospital, it would be considered a lot already for the chief surgeon to be able to get 300 RMB out of the surgery fee paid to the hospital.

Zuo Cidian pursed his mouth and regarded Zhang Anmin’s act of caution disapprovingly. “Doctor Ling does carry out hepatectomy in Yun Hua Hospital too. But can the ICU in Yun Hua Hospital take in any more patients? If only the Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery allowed Doctor Ling to use their facilities and carry out hepatectomy in their department, we wouldn’t have needed to head to Wuxin City, don’t you think so? Travelling is such a tiring thing to do.”

As Zuo Cidian spoke, he skillfully reclined his seat to make it look like a mini bed. He then placed a blanket over himself and slid a pillow under his head. He looked more comfortable than he did when he was in the hospital.

And he was indeed currently more comfortable than he was when he was in the hospital.

The cabin swayed a little as the bullet train started moving forward, and very soon, Zuo Cidian started snoring.

Zhang Anmin carefully adjusted the blanket on Zuo Cidian’s body. He then stared at the coarse skin on Zuo Cidian’s face in a daze.

Yesterday night, Zuo Cidian brought him to a corner and gave him a wad of cash as “advance payment”. Zhang Anmin tried to say no but had no choice but to take the money in the end.

Truth be told, Zhang Anmin was very reluctant to part with the 2,460 RMB he used to treat the others to a meal. He took a long time to save up that sum of money.

Aside from that, Zuo Cidian even added an additional 540 RMB and gave him 3,000 RMB in total. Zuo Cidian said that the money was part of the profit they made from the drugs used in the surgeries they carried out throughout the past few days.

Even though 540 RMB was not a large sum, the action touched Zhang Anmin a lot.

Ever since the healthcare reform took place, doctors could no longer get a large sum of money out of the drugs they prescribe for patients. Zhang Anmin had only acted as Ling Ran’s assistant in a few surgeries. Even if he was indeed eligible to receive money made from the drugs used, it would not be such a large sum. Moreover, Ling Ran was the chief surgeon.

Besides, as Ling Ran and the others were carrying out surgeries in the operating theaters of the Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, they could only profit from the drugs used during the surgery themselves. The Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery got to profit from the drugs administered on the patients after the surgery. This was also the reason why Ling Ran could carry out so many surgeries in their operating theaters. If Ling Ran merely took up their hospital beds without bringing them any profit, the doctors and nurses in charge would have staged a protest a long time ago.

Most importantly, Zhang Anmin was not even a member of Ling Ran’s treatment group. It would be the norm for him not to be able to receive any money from them.

Zhang Anmin did not even need to rack his brains to know that Ling Ran was definitely the one who suggested this and that Zuo Cidian did not object to it.

*Vroom…*

The bullet train entered the tunnel.

Zhang Anmin saw Ling Ran’s reflection on the window, and he could not help but think. ‘Doctor Ling probably thinks that I’m penniless now.’

Zhang Anmin laughed self-deprecatingly. He slipped his hand into his pocket and fell into a blissful sleep as he held his wallet.

The bullet train arrived at Wuxin City two hours later.

The Second People’s Hospital of Wuxin City had sent three cars to fetch Ling Ran and his team to the hospital.

Ling Ran did not bother to exchange greetings and make small talk with the people at the hospital. He asked for the scans and sent the patients for ultrasonography. Once he was sure that there was no major problem, he entered the operating theater.

“Doctor Zhang, go ahead and act as the first assistant. Guan Fei, you’ll be the second assistant of the first surgery.” Zuo Cidian started making arrangements according to what Ling Ran told him earlier.

Ling Ran was already washing his hands. A little embarrassed, Zhang Anmin tried to modestly decline the offer. “Doctor Zuo, why don’t you go ahead and assist in the first surgery?”

“There’s no need for that. I’ll let you go ahead first.” Zuo Cidian grinned. His heart was filled with pity as he gazed at Zhang Anmin. “So that you get to save up some money.”

“I…” Zhang Anmin was about to say something, but he ended up swallowing those words. He sighed. “Thank you so much.”

“You’re welcome.” Zuo Cidian turned and said to Guan Fei and Xiang Xueming, “You guys will be taking turns as the second assistant. Chances to observe hepatectomy at close quarters are hard to come by. Doctor Ling decided to reward you guys a little since your internship period is almost over. Do treasure this opportunity.”

“Of course,” the medical interns answered in unison.

They were truly excited. Even though second assistants do nothing but retract the patient’s skin and aspirate fluids most of the time, like what Zuo Cidian said, the chance to observe hepatectomy at close quarters would be their best internship experience.

Ling Ran never cared about this kind of miscellaneous matters that had nothing to do with the surgeries themselves.

After he made sure that his hands were clean, he changed into a new pair of underwear and entered the operating theater. When he saw that the anesthetist was done with his job, he asked for a scalpel and started operating on the patient.

He was already extremely skilled in hepatectomy by now, and the only thing he could do even better was finger replantation surgery.

This was mainly because there were always patients with severed fingers, and more often than not, more than one of their fingers were severed. There were way fewer livers available for him to operate on.

As Ling Ran carried out the surgery, he kind of missed the times he used to travel to perform finger replantations.

At that time, every time he made a trip with Chief Physician Wang to carry out freelance surgeries, there would be at least three or four surgeries available to them. On average, each patient would be able to supply two and a half severed fingers, and they got to operate on ten fingers a day. When they were lucky, there were even times where they got to operate on twelve or fourteen fingers a day.

Now that he was carrying out hepatectomy, he no longer got to enjoy this kind of privilege. He could only operate on ten patients in two days.

Of course, this was what the Second People’s Hospital of Wuxin City said. Ling Ran did not plan to listen to them.

Ling Ran spent around three hours operating on two patients before resting for half an hour. He repeated the same thing thrice until midnight.

By this time, Zhang Anmin had already participated in four surgeries, and he was feeling a little tired. Meanwhile, Zuo Cidian who had only participated in two surgeries and cleverly took a six-hour nap was super alert.

Zuo Cidian did not need to be instructed. He washed his hands and waited for Ling Ran in another operating theater.

As Zhang Anmin was not familiar with Ling Ran’s way of doing things, he wasted his three-hour breakaway. After he performed abdominal closure on the patient at hand, he quickly headed to the on-call room of the Second People’s Hospital of Wuxin City to sleep.

The facilities of the Second People’s Hospital of Wuxin City were slightly inferior to those of Yun Hua Hospital’s. There were three bunk beds in each on-call room, and these rooms were where all the doctors working at the surgical floor rested. Most of the time, each on-call room had two or three doctors who were sleeping, playing cards, making small talk, or watching television.

The shabby condition was not a deterrent to Zhang Anmin. Back when he was still a resident doctor, the new building of Yun Hua Hospital was still under construction, and the facilities of the old building were even more inferior compared to those of the Second People’s Hospital of Wuxin City. Right now, Zhang Anmin who had participated in four surgeries throughout the day had already reached his limit. He fell asleep the moment he plopped onto the bed, and he immediately started snoring so loudly that the doctors who were playing cards and watching the television in the on-call room could no longer enjoy themselves.

By the time he was woken up by Zuo Cidian, it was already four in the morning.

Zhang Anmin was starting to become familiar with this kind of routine. As of late, he had been assisting Ling Ran in surgeries, so he often had to wake up at three in the morning. Four was basically the standard time they started carrying out surgeries.

Zhang Anmin who had slept for four hours felt extremely energetic. However, he was a little worried as he asked Zuo Cidian, “How’s Doctor Ling feeling?”

“Doctor Ling? He using this polyphasic sleep schedule or whatever it’s called. It’s not something ordinary people can pull off.” Zuo Cidian shook his head. “Anyway, his stamina is super good. There’s no need for you to worry about him.”

“He’s young, after all.” Zhang Anmin smiled and quickly entered the operating theater.

Back when he was young, he often stayed up through the night and operated on patients for thirty continuous hours too. Of course, at that time, he was only qualified to act as the second assistant or the first assistant. As for now… he was still basically doing the same thing.

It was only nine in the morning when all ten patients had been operated on.

Everyone did not need Ling Ran’s persuasion to reschedule their bullet train tickets. They arrived at Yun Hua Hospital before noon. Ling Ran then looked at the surgery schedule plastered on the wall and slotted two patients in from four in the afternoon onwards. He could be said to have wasted no time at all, and everything was in good order.

Ling Ran told the rest of the doctors to get some rest before entering the emergency room for some fun.

Zuo Cidian waved and asked everyone to follow him into a meeting room. The moment the door was closed, he started handing out envelopes.

Even though Zhang Anmin had already expected this, he felt this was surreal as he held the thick envelope that was full of cash.

“All right, you guys can go back and rest first. I’ll go and make ward rounds.” Since Zuo Cidian was a resident doctor, he naturally was in charge of hospital beds. Fortunately, as the surgeries he participated in before this were freelance surgeries, there was no need for him to write medical records.

The rooms in the ward area were always bustling with activity.

The patients, patients’ family members, spider plants, and money plants filled up the room.

Zuo Cidian was in charge of twenty hospital beds, and that was considered an average number in Ling Treatment Group.

It did not take long for a resident doctor to make ward rounds. He mainly just needed to monitor the patients’ recovery progress and see if there were any unexpected changes. Besides, he had to instruct patients who were about to go under the knife to abstain from food and water as well as repeating the Standard Precaution for Patients.

Zuo Cidian’s cash-filled envelope was in his breast pocket, and he was also in quite a good mood. He was all smiles as he made ward rounds. But before he was halfway through, a family member of a patient stopped him.

“Hi, Doctor Zuo. I heard that you can hire freelance surgeons to operate on patients in the hospital, as in, get doctors from other places to come over and carry out surgeries.” The family member held Zuo Cidian and inquired in a hushed tone.

Zuo Cidian, who had just returned from carrying out freelance surgeries immediately had his guard up. “Yes, there’s such a thing.”

“Then, if we were to hire a doctor from Beijing for surgery, the patient can still stay in this hospital and make health insurance claims, right?” The family member had obviously done his research and just wanted to confirm things.

Zuo Cidian nodded slowly and asked, “Which patient is your family member?”

“Ding Fan, as in, F-A-N. He’s my father. He’s suffering from hepatolithiasis and needs hepatectomy. As his children, the few of us would prefer to have a doctor from Beijing over to operate on our father if the hospital allows it…”

“Didn’t you guys get your father admitted here because of Doctor Ling?” Zuo Cidian cut him off.

The patient’s family member giggled for a bit before continuing in a hushed tone. “About this… We know that Doctor Ling is pretty famous, so we sought treatment here. However, Doctor Ling is still young, after all. A hepatectomy is a major surgery, and as children, we are truly worried about our father. Truth be told, we are pretty well off financially, and we are willing to fork out money for the sake of our father’s health. Hence, we’ve contacted a surgeon…”

Zuo Cidian froze when he heard this. “You guys have already contacted a surgeon.”

“My second brother contacted the surgeon. He’s a businessman, so he’s pretty well connected. But I was thinking about discussing it with Doctor Ling first.” The family member sounded extremely reasonable and logical, but he was not abiding by the hospital’s rules at all.

However, there was basically no organization that upheld the rules regarding freelance surgeries.

Zuo Cidian furrowed his eyebrows and gave a few offhand comments. He then immediately exited the ward and gave Huo Congjun a call.