Chapter 195: Pressure

“Hey, do you know where Doctor Ling went?” Wang Jia appeared at the nurses’ station with a mysterious look on her face.

The nurses’ station consisted of two counters, which were about twenty-six feet long. Around ten young nurses were there, like warriors guarding the city. Every day, they needed to face the high influx of patients as well as their family members and hold the front line for the hospital.

The nurses could only take a short break when they went into the small room behind the nurses’ station to rest and change dressings. While they were there, they acted like the military reserve force, delivering mail while chattering with each other.

Wang Jia’s topic definitely stirred up the nurses’ interest. A few young nurses looked at her before someone asked, “Didn’t Doctor Ling leave for his home? Did he come back to perform surgeries again?”

“I have a feeling you won’t get it right even if you keep guessing.” Wang Jia lowered down her voice and said, “I saw Doctor Ling appear in the group I joined with my classmates from Yiyuan County Hospital.”

“Yiyuan County Hospital?” The place was so remote that the nurses did not have any idea what place it was.

“Doctor Ling went over as a freelance surgeon,” Wang Jia mouthed.

The words “freelance surgeon” used to be a code, which later became jargon among doctors. However, once more people knew of it, it became a simple noun.

Although nowadays there were highly-skilled doctors who worked as freelance surgeons throughout the year, the topic was still a taboo in the hospital.

A few young nurses gathered to read Wang Jia’s WeChat, and they really saw some photo posts of Ling Ran from all the angles: his front, side, back… There was also a group photo with the nurses at the front while Ling Ran was in the distance…

When they saw the last photo, the young nurses expressed their refusal to look anymore.

“So shameless.”

“What’s with that photo they took of themselves at the front and of Ling Ran way in the distance? If we want to take a picture with Ling Ran, we can just ask and take it with him.”

“Bah!”

Everyone criticized their common enemies before they started to study Ling Ran’s photos.

Somebody wanted Wang Jia to download some of the photos and send them to her phone. Once Wang Jia did it, she had to repeatedly download the photos and send them to her other phones.

While she was busy with all the requests from the nurses, she heard somebody say, “Does this mean that Doctor Ling has truly started to earn money?”

“A freelance surgeon, huh?”

“I heard freelance surgeons get paid up to 10,000 RMB every time.”

“It really depends. Most of the doctors in our hospital usually just earn a few thousand for every freelance surgery they perform.” Nurse Liu popped out of nowhere suddenly. Although she was older than the other nurses, she also viewed Ling Ran’s photos with them. “Tsk tsk,” she said,” no matter what, our Doctor Ling won’t be short of money in the future.”

“Well, Doctor Ling never lacked money in the first place,” Wang Jia refuted.

“Haha!” Nurse Liu chuckled. She wanted to tell the young girls about the impacts of materialism in marriage and the physical things that could be gained from marriage. She also wanted to explain their relationships with the construction of spiritual civilization, along with how it promoted universal social cognition and universal social awareness towards human social behavior.

Nurse Liu changed her mind after that. She pointed at one of the photos, which showed Wang Haiyang’s side, and said, “I guess Ling Ran followed Chief Physician Wang from the Hand Surgery Department there. Chief Physician Wang receives 10,000 RMB for each freelance surgery he performs.”

“How do you know this?”

“Chief Physician Wang loves to talk about this in private. ‘I earn at least 10,000 RMB for one freelance surgery…'” Nurse Liu imitated Wang Haiyang’s voice. She chuckled and said, “He’s actually just worth ten thousand.”

Wang Jia understood and nodded. “If he receives 10,000 RMB, Doctor Ling will also be paid 10,000 RMB, right? Wow! Doctor Ling’s amazing…”

Nurse Liu was very confused. “If they’ve gone together, they’ll definitely have to split the remuneration. It’s logical that they receive around ten thousand.”

“Doctor Ling will still get a lot of money if he takes 9,000 RMB while Chief Physician Wang takes 1,000 RMB.” All the excited nurses remotely allocated the money for the doctors. Their actions also made Nurse Liu laugh. At that moment, nobody really cared about how the money would be actually allocated.

The next day…

Ling Ran was surrounded by a group of young nurses right the second he stepped into the department.

Naturally, Ling Ran was very familiar with being surrounded by young girls. He stood still and waited for them to speak.

“Doctor Ling, let’s take a photo together.” The young nurse standing at the front of the group made her request and immediately took out her phone to take a photo with Ling Ran.

Ling Ran stood still without saying anything. He did not move as well. He looked exactly like a background plate, just like the time he had to hang a signboard over his chest at the entrance to a mall.

Ling Ran continued on his path after all the nurses finished taking photos and started uploading them in their Circle of Friends. He asked, “Are there any patients with severed fingers today?”

He received a surgery notification in his phone, but the message did not mention the details of the situation.

Wang Jia immediately replied, “There’s a renovation worker who severed his fingers when he was cutting ceramic tiles. Two of his fingers are severed. He’s on the way to our hospital and will be arriving in about an hour.”

“He’s so far away?”

“Yes, he’s being sent from the suburbs. His family members are here,” Wang Jia said, and she gestured with her chin to show where the family members were.

Ling Ran looked over at the direction she had pointed in. He saw a mother sitting on a chair in the waiting hall with her daughter, and she was crying.

When he saw them, they noticed him too.

The woman reacted differently from how patient family members usually reacted when they saw doctors. The woman who noticed Ling Ran immediately let go of her daughter and ran towards him. “Are you the doctor? Is my husband here yet?”

“The ambulance is still on its way,” Wang Jia explained immediately.

“Are you the doctor who’s going to operate on my husband?” The woman did not insist on getting an answer to her question. Instead, she asked the next logical question.

Ling Ran seldom communicated with the families of patients. This stunned him for a while.

“You must be Doctor Ling! I’ve seen you on the internet. They said there’s no one else who performs finger replantations in Yun Hua Hospital’s Emergency Department. The only one who does is a young and handsome doctor,” the woman said. She wiped her face and tried to force a smile. “I’m He Jinxiu, the patient’s family. I sell agricultural products.”

“Hi,” Ling Ran greeted her and said, “I haven’t seen the patient yet, so I don’t quite know his situation now.”

He Jinxiu took a piece of tissue paper out and blew her nose with all her strength. Then, she said, “I know. I just want to tell you about the situation of our family—”

“Excuse me… Doctor Ling has to perform his ward rounds now…” Wang Jia intentionally interrupted her.

He Jinxiu stared at Ling Ran and said, “I’ll be done in just a few minutes.”

“Sure, please go on.” Ling Ran did not leave immediately.

“My husband Yuan Wei has been working very hard for our family,” He Jinxiu said. “My father passed away two years ago because of cancer. He left a huge debt before he died. Yuan Wei’s father, who is my father-in-law, also died last year due to cancer. Unfortunately, he also left behind a great debt for us. Therefore, Yuan Wei has to work day and night in order to pay back the debts. He helps me sell agricultural products during the growing season. Whenever he’s free, he enters the city and work’s as a renovation worker. He isn’t afraid of hard work. He… He… Why we are so unlucky…”

He Jinxiu started to cry as she spoke. Her shy daughter, who was standing behind her, started to cry as well.

Ling Ran took a deep breath before he exhaled.

He Jinxiu only described her family background. She did not request anything, much less cause a ruckus. However, such a family background put a lot of pressure on Ling Ran.

“Ask the Medical Imaging Department to get ready. Let them conduct an MRI scan on the patient once the ambulance arrives.” Right then, Ling Ran could only give that instruction.

*Sniff.*

He Jinxiu blew her nose again on another piece of tissue paper and continued to cry. The pressures from her life had caused her to cry to her heart’s content when she was in the hospital.

[Mission: Perfect Suture]

[Mission Details: Use the Perfect Level Finger Replantation Skill and perfectly suture patient Yuan Wei’s finger.]

[Reward: Intermediate Treasure Chest]