Chapter 9 (1/2)
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The surgical scissors, which had been hanging on Zheng Ren’s little finger, was magically flipped into his hand as he cut the size-seven thread.
“Doctor Zheng, your hand movement is so smooth.” Xie Yiren, who had nothing to do at the moment, praised Zheng Ren as she witnessed his skill.
“I’m used to not having an a.s.sistant when I’m closing an abdominal incision. It’s faster that way,” Zheng Ren explained himself.
“Are you afraid? That’s how it is in the emergency department.”
Zheng Ren tried to comfort Xie Yiren but as soon as he finished his sentence, they heard an uproar and the sound of a heavy, blunt weapon hitting a body in the hallway.
‘Well, the emergency department isn’t the right place for a sound mind,’ thought Zheng Ren.
Someone kicked the door open again after a few seconds and this time, a few brawny brutes appeared at the doorstep with baseball bats in their hands.
“Not bad. You escaped and even came to the hospital.” A brute sneered with a hideous grin while patting his left palm repeatedly with the baseball bat in his right hand.
He was clearly threatening everyone on the scene that his bat would end up on someone’s head, potentially causing bloodshed.
Ignoring the wound on his back, the patient jumped off the operating table like a scared rabbit and curled up at a corner of the room like a frightened little girl.
Well, at least his posture—covering his head with two arms and protecting every vital point on his body—was on point as if he was fully prepared to take a huge beating.
“Both of you, get out,” instructed the brute coldly after seeing Zheng Ren and Xia Yiren.
Normally, these self-righteous Jianghu martial artists would not harm healthcare workers in their skirmishes.
Injuries were almost inevitable in their chaotic world.
If karma truly existed, they could not blame G.o.d for unfairness had they got injured but left with no one to treat them—because they had harmed medical staff in the past.
Zheng Ren had never encountered such a vicious manhunt where the hunters even pursued their prey to the hospital.
However, he had heard it once on the grapevine about a patient, who arm fractured by blunt force trauma, receiving treatment in the emergency orthopedic department. Unfortunately, his enemies tracked him down to the hospital’s operating theater which frightened him into breaking the window and jumped down from the sixth floor in an escape attempt.
In the end, that patient suffered from extensively comminuted fractures of his bilateral lower limbs, and he was transferred from the orthopedic department directly to the intensive care unit.
Zheng Ren heard of this incident, which happened more than a decade ago, through a few senior doctors gossiping in a bar.
He had not expected to meet such an annoying and problematic issue on his first day of work in the emergency department.
What should he do?
Should he leave? What about the unfinished procedure?
Those brutes would beat him alongside the patient terribly if he stayed…
It was a difficult choice.
Zheng Ren was not a saint, but every doctor had their own moral standard.
He made up his mind instantly and nudged Xie Yiren. “You, leave.”
Startled and nervous, Xie Yiren obeyed Zheng Ren subconsciously and left the procedure room by squeezing through the wall of muscles.
The brutes gave way without attempting to stop her.
“I’m a doctor with an unfinished surgery. Please leave this room immediately,” said Zheng Ren.
As Zheng Ren was unable to express his determination through a surgical mask, he s.h.i.+fted his gaze to the patient instead and said, “Come here. Just a few sutures left and you’re done.”
“Yo, you’re dauntlessly brave, aren’t you?” mocked the lead brute with the ugly grin. The knife scar on his face added intensity to his ferocity like a budding chrysanthemum. “I’ve shown you respect, right?”
Zheng Ren stood firm in his faith even though his legs had turned to jelly.
How would he face others in the future if he fled in fear right now? He valued his dignity and reputation, so he had no choice but to hang in there.
Self-defense with a scalpel? Despite the fact that the scalpel was basically a toy to these brutes with their Herculean builds, his actions would be punishable by law even if he succeeded in the end.
Zheng Ren had heard of so many similar cases throughout his career, so much so that it formed callus in his ear ca.n.a.ls.
It was absurd, but it was the truth.
There was no way Zheng Ren would abandon a patient with an unfinished surgery. Thus, he tried his best to remain calm and put all his hope in the almighty System.