Chapter 270 - The Clock is Ticking (Part 4 of 5) (2/2)

Zheng Ren took the opportunity to get to know his patients. Chang Yue was very familiar with each one, smiling and chatting away with them enthusiastically.

At 9.16 a.m., the emergency department paged him for an acute appendicitis patient.

As usual, Zheng Ren gathered his energy and accepted.

There was nothing special about the patient; everything was standard except for their lack of fasting, which resulted in the surgery being scheduled at 12 p.m.

It was no big deal, though. He could just wait for it.

Zheng Ren was already at the operating table at 12 and noticed Xie Yiren’s absence. The matron arranged for another scrub nurse to a.s.sist him.

“Where’s Xie Yiren?” he asked.

“Having lunch with a cla.s.smate of hers from the South, apparently,” the matron answered.

With the level of staffing in the emergency department, it was considered a huge request for one to take some time off, even for a few hours.

The matron had to take over an incredible workload due to Xie Yiren’s absence.

However, that was not Zheng Ren’s main concern. He had feared that he had so badly embarra.s.sed Xie Yiren yesterday night with his unreturned gesture that she had resigned, but a visiting cla.s.smate was much more relieving.

Love did make people blind.

Even though they had made their feelings clear, he still overthought every tiny detail.

…

….

In one of the top restaurants in Sea City, Xie Yiren was happily chatting with her female cla.s.smate beside her.

Sitting opposite them was a gentle, polite and refined middle-aged man—Li Xiaochen.

He had used all of his connections and resources to finally get a hold of Zheng Ren’s “team”.

Initially, he had been skeptical of Su Yun’s words. A young doctor at Zheng Ren’s age, even with exemplary skill, could not possibly overcome the rigid hierarchy of older department chiefs.

Skill came from natural apt.i.tude and hard work.

Actually climbing the ladder required years of networking and string-pulling.

Trying to defy his higher-ups at his level would end in him having to leave Sea City to start over.

Team? What department chief would allow their chief resident to operate with an entire team? It needed a clout that rivalled that of a chief’s own.

However, after investigating, he had been surprised to find out that Mr. Zheng indeed had a whole team. He already met and shared a meal with his a.s.sistant, Su Yun, earlier in Imperial Capital and his first impression was that the man’s looks were gorgeous, akin to a beautiful woman, plus… Su Yun could really hold his liquor, effortlessly finis.h.i.+ng a pint of Maotai.

Besides Su Yun, there was also a scrub nurse and two anesthesiologists.

With such a combination… Li Xiaochen was left speechless.

The American professors working in Straits Hospital did not even have personal scrub nurses. How had a chief resident in Sea City managed to get one?

After some further digging, all he learned was that the scrub nurse was from a rather wealthy family. The two anesthesiologists were still house officers; despite being postgraduates, they had yet to complete their residency training to become fully trained physicians.

In the end, Li Xiaochen decided to target Xie Yiren.

He found a cla.s.smate of hers from the south to visit and persuade her to join him.

Were he trying to recruit a normal chief resident, he would have needed to pay such a hefty price.

However, Li Xiaochen had heard about Professor Rudolf Wagner rus.h.i.+ng back to Imperial Capital after the award ceremony and being unable to find Zheng Ren. The German was negotiating with Department Chief Kong right now and Zheng Ren was most likely returning to the city. It was just a matter of time.

The clock was ticking, and he had to strike while the iron was hot.

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