The Surgeon's Studio

It was dinner time when they visited the bubble tea shop, which explained the minimal crowd.

Zheng Ren was grateful for that.

As he held Xie Yiren’s hand, time passed by in a blur.

A few minutes later, a waitress walked toward their table with two cups of bubble tea.

“Here are your drinks.” The waitress placed the drinks on the table and stood behind Zheng Ren, curious as to how Zheng Ren would react.

Zheng Ren removed the cup’s cover and looked down. A confused look crossed his face.

His bubble tea looked as if it had all the toppings in the world. It reminded him of an eight treasure porridge.

Half the cup was filled with all sorts of topping. The liquid was so viscous that it did not resemble bubble tea. Zheng Ren tried to taste the beverage with the wide-bore bubble tea straw but his attempts were futile.

The waitress asked awkwardly with a smile, “Sir, d-do you need anything else?”

“Uh… How about another straw?” Zheng Ren sighed.

A smile lit up on Xie Yiren’s face. Her fingers stroked Zheng Ren’s palm as she chuckled.

The waitress quickly came back with another bubble tea straw and handed it to Zheng Ren. She retreated quietly to the side while keeping an eye on Zheng Ren.

She did not understand why the man had ordered such a concoction.

Even with two straws, there was no way he could drink the cup of eight treasure porridge. There were far too much solids in the milk tea.

Zheng Ren held the two straws like a pair of chopsticks and started to eat the toppings.

The waitress was surprised by his actions.

Seeing the shock on the waitress’s face, Xie Yiren pinched Zheng Ren’s hand and smiled. “I’ll get the bill.”

“I’ll pay for this.”

“You focus on your eight treasure porridge but remember, we still have dinner. What do you want to eat?”

As Xie Yiren scanned the code to make the payment, Zheng Ren’s phone started ringing.

The call did not worry Zheng Ren. His heart remained calm.

Su Yun was a dependable doctor. It was unlikely that Zheng Ren would have to rush back to the hospital.

He checked his phone and it was Su Yun calling.

Zheng Ren wondered if he had jinxed himself.

Everything was going well until the mafia had shown up.

“Hello?” Zheng Ren answered the call.

“Boss, sorry for calling.” An apologetic Su Yun was a rare creature to behold.

“What’s wrong?” Zheng Ren was confused. If there was a mass emergency, Su Yun would get straight to the point without apologizing.

Odd.

“There’s an emergency patient ready to be sent to the cardiothoracic department. Multiple rib fractures and trauma-induced pulmonary edema but there’s something about the case that I can’t quite put my finger on,” Su Yun said.

“What’s that?”

“The cardiothoracic department’s diagnosis is not wrong but I suspect there’s something wrong with the patient and an emergency exploratory thoracotomy is required.” It was rare to hear Su Yun having doubts.

Was this a case beyond his expertise? He would say so if it was.

Even during the diagnosis of Yang Lili’s rare vitamin B1 deficiency, Su Yun sounded much more confident than now.

Zheng Ren remembered how Su Yun was back in the ICU. He could argue all day long about the biochemistry and pathology of a disease, to the point of shutting everyone up.

Where did he turn soft?

“Alright, I’ll go back and have a look,” Zheng Ren said as he shot Xie Yiren an apologetic look. Her fingers rubbed against his palm gently.

What a shame, another beautiful night was interrupted.

Any night with Xie Yiren without interruption was a beautiful night.

Although he was reluctant for their date to end, Zheng Ren would not abandon his responsibilities.

They held hands while walking to the car.

Zheng Ren’s mind was in a daze as he followed Xie Yiren to the driver’s side.

Xie YIren chuckled at him. She shook her hand free and pushed him to the passenger’s side.

They got into the car and headed for Sea City General Hospital.

…

Along the way, Zheng Ren’s mind got to thinking.

Something did not add up.

Su Yun would never call him unless it was a last resort.

The last call for help he made to Zheng Ren had been the Amigo Veterinary Hospital case. Zheng Ren knew Su Yun had just been pulling his leg about not being able to operate on an old dog.

‘What’s the catch?’ Zheng Ren wondered.

Zheng Ren called Su Yun to ask about the case.

The patient had been walking home when a vase fell from a few floors up. The patient was lucky to avoid the falling vase but unfortunately, it did not save him entirely.

The vase fell onto a rebar behind him.

This caused the rebar to bounce upward and hit him in the back.

It resulted in fractures on ribs 2 to 9 and signs of pulmonary edema.

From the CT scan, the patient did not show signs of hemopneumothorax.

The patient’s blood pressure was low but there were no signs of bleeding. This was what confused Su Yun.

The diagnosis from the cardiothoracic department was not wrong but Su Yun had his doubts.

He had gone through the scans multiple times to identify the cause for concern.

However, despite his reputation as the rising star of the cardiothoracic department in Imperial Capital, he could not produce sufficient evidence to refute the diagnosis.

His instincts warned him there was something unusual about the patient but the specifics eluded him.

Su Yun could only wait for Zheng Ren’s return.

Somewhere along the line, just like everyone else, Su Yun had developed unwavering confidence in Zheng Ren’s ability to solve all medical problems. Although cardiology was his strong suit, Su Yun could put aside his pride and ask Zheng Ren for help.

Zheng Ren appreciated the gesture.

Despite being the occasional narcissist, Su Yun had the sense to not let his ego interfere with his professionalism.

Su Yun’s instincts that had been honed from his many years of bedside care were tingling but up to this point, the test results yielded no clues. It was an odd case and Su Yun was sure of that!

Soon, Xie Yiren’s Volvo arrived at Sea City General Hospital.

Xie Yiren would go to the operating room to standby when Zheng Ren would give her a heads up if surgery was about to proceed. If there was nothing urgent, they would meet back in the basement car park.

Meanwhile, Zheng Ren, who did not bother to grab his white coat from the emergency wards, heading straight to the emergency response room.

Su Yun kept the cardiothoracic department at bay. He was adamant about having Zheng Ren assess the patient before deciding the next steps.

Relinquishing the patient to the cardiothoracic department would take responsibility off the emergency department. Based on the diagnosis, it was unlikely the doctors would perform a night-time emergency surgery.

In this scenario, Su Yun suggested performing an exploratory thoracotomy to have a clearer picture.

He would not be able to have a good night’s sleep otherwise.

Zheng Ren arrived in the emergency response room in a hurry. The patient was a man in his mid-twenties. His face was pale and his body was contorted from the pain radiating from his broken ribs.

In the System display at the right corner of his vision, the diagnosis listed: multiple fractures on the right rib cage, trauma-induced pulmonary edema, pleural effusion, and a laceration on the right lung.

The diagnosis was similar to the one given by the cardiothoracic department. Trauma to the lung depended on the size of the laceration. A small injury could heal without surgical intervention.

‘Can’t you tell me the degree of severity?’ Zheng Ren cursed the System in his mind.

Su Yun quickly pulled Zheng Ren to the viewer and pointed at the scan. “Boss, I think there’s something wrong.”