Chapter 3

In the afternoon, there was a knock on the door. Knock knock knock.

Yang Ping opened the door to find Little Five, moving bag after bag into the house.

“Little Five, what are you doing?” Yang Ping looked at him blankly. Little Five usually lived in a hospital dormitory, sharing the room with several other people.

“I’ve been fired too–” Little Five said dejectedly.

Birds of a feather flock together!

“It’s alright, there are plenty of jobs out there.” Yang Ping said.

Yang Ping comforted Little Five, watching the armfuls of bags he was lugging around: “Why do you have so much stuff?”

“There’s just two boxes of instant noodles alone.” Little Five began to pull out instant noodles, a dumbbell, a laptop, and a bunch of other random items from his bags.

Once they had settled in, the two of them started to discuss their next steps for work.

“Big Bro, honestly, that surgery last night, it was amazing, who knew you had it in you?” Little Five questioned.

Yang Ping laughed, “I just don’t like to show off, when during normal times would we get a chance? We would get yelled at just for doing stitches, let alone surgeries. Now, if we do manage to do a surgery, it would be so exciting we wouldn’t sleep.”.

“I wonder, you’ve been at G City People’s Hospital since you graduated, you never left for further education, did you?” Little Five asked.

Yang Ping patted his shoulder: “Talent, you either have it or you don’t! Just like you with gaming.”

“I see.” Little Five seemed to have an epiphany.

They chatted all afternoon and completely forgot about lunch. Yang Ping slapped Little Five’s shoulder: “Today, we are going to treat ourselves.”

“A feast?”

“Hah, little brat! Moon Playing down on the river bar street.”

Moon Playing, the bar’s name. This was a hot-spot for internet celebrities, Little Five disregarded the shock from the slap on his shoulder: “let’s go!”

Truth be told, they hadn’t relaxed like this for a long time. Back at the hospital, it was almost always 24/7, all year round.

They found an outdoor table, had some beer, and chatted. Starting from when they first started working, they recalled each and every event, when things got exciting, they gave each other high-fives and cheered. One by one, empty beer bottles were placed to the side.

Not far off, on one side was the peaceful river with a slowly cruising boat; the other side was the bustling road with lots of cars and people. Even though it was already 9 pm, it was still so lively.

“What do people spend their whole life working hard for?” Little Five hiccuped from the alcohol.

“That’s too philosophical, it’s hurting my head!” Yang Ping lifted his glass.

“Bottoms up!”

“Bottoms up!”

Suddenly, it seemed like something was happening, a riot started. Everyone crowded around a nearby table. Yang Ping and Little Five also went over. A middle-aged man in his forties, overweight, was sitting on a chair, leaning on the backrest, his face as pale as a sheet.

The man’s companions were in a state of panic, running around yelling: “He’s not okay! He’s not okay! Help!”

Help! As a doctor, nothing else could be more eye-catching to Yang Ping. He pushed his way through the crowd.

The crowd surrounding them was filled with people who thought they knew what they were doing, shouting instructions:

“Pinch his Renzhong acupoint, his Renzhong acupoint!”

Where is the Renzhong acupoint? The man’s companion had no idea, and reached towards the man’s buttocks.

“That’s not where, the Renzhong’s up above!”

Good grief, if you’re so knowledgeable then why don’t you do it yourself? Yang Ping glanced at him with an irritated look, stumbling from the alcohol.

“Call 120, quickly!”

“Slap his back, hard!”

“Open his mouth and give him some water.”

There were quite a lot of self-proclaimed experts, no one really knew what they were basing their advice on.

A tall woman, her shoulder-length hair in a ponytail, was busy unbuttoning the man’s shirt. She revealed his chest, feeling his pulse, then listened to his breathing. Given her techniques, she must be a real doctor.

“Ding Dong, a beginner’s first task: Save one person in a street rescue. You will receive a beginner’s experience package.”

A female voice appeared, captions also appeared in the top right corner of his field of vision.

So this is what triggers the system task.

Yang Ping finally managed to squeeze his way through. He stumbled a little, the evening breeze blew, rejuvenating his spirit. Isn’t this an airway obstruction? It was a technique they had practiced so much in the system they could do it in their sleep.

If they didn’t perform a rescue soon, he would suffocate to death, so Yang Ping rushed in immediately, pulling that girl away forcefully, possibly hurting her in the process.

A little petulant, the girl shakes her sore hand, “What are you doing?”

Rescuing someone was more important than arguing with her. Yang Ping drags the patient up — he’s too heavy, so Little Five rushes over to help, together they prop up the patient. Yang Ping sits in a chair, lets Fatty sit on his lap, wraps his arms around Fatty from behind, Little Five assists from the side.

Yang Ping’s left hand makes a fist, his right hand tightly grips his left wrist, both arms form a ring around Fatty. The fist of his left hand is positioned at the middle of Fatty’s upper abdomen. Both arms push with a force which is centered at the upper abdomen, pushing upward and backward.

With a popping sound, Fatty spits something out onto the floor. Instantly, Fatty’s airway opens up, enabling him to gasp for air.

Yang Ping and Little Five slowly guide him back to the chair. After Fatty takes a few quick breaths, he regains his composure, his breathing slowly steadies and his face gradually becomes flush. The ponytailed girl watching from the side was stunned.

“Ding! Task successfully completed, Reward: One Experience Pack.”

The surrounding crowd discussed amongst themselves. Some praised the young man for his medical skill; some sighed about the patient’s condition; some people made the heart-felt comment: If the man hadn’t been saved, this young man would be facing a lawsuit.

Slowly, the crowd began to break up, each person returning to their tables.

Yang Ping pointed to Fatty’s flushed face: “Tracheal obstruction. Heimlich manoeuvre, if you don’t rescue him right away, he’ll die. What were you doing checking his carotid? Were you practising to be a doctor?”

“Who are you calling a trainee doctor, you–” The ponytailed girl was obviously furious, but she noticed that Fatty seemed to be fine, she realized that Yang Ping must be right, and her tone softened.

Blushing, she said: “I thought it was acute coronary syndrome, how did you know?”

“Want to know? Buy us a drink?” Little Five leans in and says.

“Sure!” The girl agrees forthrightly.

Little Five gives Yang Ping a look, leans into his ear and whispers: “The beauty wants to treat us, let’s go with it. Times are tough without a job, we should save some money.”

Makes sense! This guy is thoughtful.

The ponytailed girl goes over and does a simple check on Fatty, confirms that there are no problems, she tells his friends several instructions before she leaves. Fatty’s friends hurriedly bow and shake hands, expressing their gratitude for the assistance.

The ponytailed girl has a few girlfriends; along with Yang Ping and Little Five, they all sit around the table.

The ponytailed girl doesn’t drink alcohol, she has a cup of milk tea in front of her. Yang Ping takes an extra moment to look: She has beautiful features. No, they’re more than beautiful, they are exquisite, she has a pair of clear, black eyes, long eyelashes, the skin on her face is white, with a flush, smooth as egg white, with dimples, that are very charming when she smiles. She is tall and slim, with clear curves, probably due to regular exercise. Her demeanor is extremely elegant, even her sitting posture seems like it has been deliberately trained. Beneath her coat, it seems like she’s wearing a tennis shirt. There’s a large bag next to her, likely contains a tennis racquet, they probably just finished playing tennis and are here for a drink.

She clearly wants to get to the bottom of Yang Ping’s trick: “We have treated you guys to a drink, now it’s your turn, how did you know it was a tracheal obstruction?”

This question is a bit tricky.

If the system hadn’t trained him countless times, how could he have identified it so easily? So he hastily lied, “Didn’t you see the chicken bones on the plate on the table? That man was touching his throat, explicitly telling you that this — the chicken bone — was stuck here, preventing him from breathing. Seems like you didn’t learn medical body language.”

After considering, the girl agreed that she had been too mechanical, rigidly following the textbook, neglecting these details. Had another doctor not been present, she would probably have delayed the rescue.

Medical body language? The girl murmured to herself, she had never heard of this subject before.

Yang Ping shook his head, found it amusing, he had made this up on the spot, and she believed it.

“Which hospital are you guys from?” The ponytailed girl continued to ask.

“G City People’s Hospital–” Yang Ping says.

“Temporary workers, just been laid off, currently both jobless and seeking employment–” Little Five adds, triggering laughter from the other girls.

The girl says, “My name is Su Yixuan, I work at Sanbo Hospital. Our hospital is hiring, you can try to send in your resumes.”

“Thank you!” Little Five quickly responds, “The Sanbo Hospital, also called the Overseas Chinese Hospital, right? The one with a helipad on the rooftop? My name is Lu Xiaowu, and this is Yang Ping.”

Not long after chatting, Su Yixuan stood up, her expression uncomfortable, saying: ‘It’s getting late, sorry, but we must leave. You two continue drinking, I’ll pay extra for the drinks, so drink without worry.”

Su Yixuan went to the counter, probably to pay for the drinks, came back, packed her things and did not forget to wave at Yang Ping: “Goodbye!”

Then she left with her girlfriends, carrying her bag.

—

Yang Ping did not hold his liquor well, couldn’t even be considered as a Bronze drinker, he drank a bit too much yesterday, his head hurts.

Little Five, this guy, blabbered the whole night, about treasures and Xiao Qing or whatever, went to bed and slept.

Yang Ping could only lean against the wall and sleep on the floor. He woke up to find Little Five was gone. This guy always disappears mysteriously.

Yang Ping rubs his temples, looks at the time on his phone, it’s past eleven in the morning. Crap! He rushes for the door without even brushing his teeth.

When he reached the staircase, it hit him: Wasn’t I fired yesterday? I don’t have work today, why the rush?

Returns to the room, freshens up, goes downstairs to buy a few mutton buns. Opens his laptop, surfs the web, after searching for a while, he finds a doctor’s resume template. He fills it out diligently, checking it repeatedly. Then he reads all the recruitment guidelines for all the hospitals in G City. He bets on everything, casts a wide net, applying to all the major and minor hospitals, even community health stations, there has to be at least one hit right.

If he can’t find a job, he’ll have to leave G City.

Leave G City? It’s impossible to leave G City!