68 – Accident

The ER remained as busy as usual, but all the new residents were beginning to get into the rhythm of things. The constant motion of nurses, doctors, and patients was consistent without much delay. Mi Xuan shadowed Doctor Hao as they pushed the gurney and checked a patient with potential multiple organ damage.

"How many fingers am I holding up!?" Mi Xuan spoke loudly to the half-conscious man.

"Ugh," the patient was in pain and was slightly irritated by her voice. "Just stop this damn pain!"

"I said, how many fingers!?" Mi Xuan didn't like the tone of the man's voice.

"It's f****** two!"

"Look you jerk! I'm just doing my job, you don't have to yell!" Mi Xuan yelled back.

"AH, the damn cat!"

"Who are you calling a cat!?"

"Not you, you idiot! The cat I almost drove over." He swerved out his motorbike at the last moment to avoid hitting a cat.

"Doctor Hao, we contacted his parents, they will be here shortly," said Nurse Yuen, ignoring Mi Xuan and the patient.

"Take him quickly for a CT, where's Gao and Li Yun?" asked Doctor Hao.

"Both are in the middle of an operation," she replied, instructing a male nurse to assist the new patient to the CT room.

Technician Wu chatted with the patient named Qi Sho, who simply ignored him. After ten minutes, the CT was completed. Doctor Hao examined the CTs with the radiologist and determined that it was a minor simple rib fracture and splenic rupture. The best treatment was to check him into the inpatient ward.

"Is my Little Sho going to be okay?" asked Ms. Qi, the patient's mother, upon arriving at the ward.

"We will have to monitor Mr. Qi for a few days," Doctor Hao explained to the parent. "He has some minor internal bleeding, and rather than surgery, it's better to let his body heal naturally."

"How long will he be here and is it going to be painful?" Ms. Qi asked, still a bit concerned.

"Doctor Mi Xuan will monitor the pain medications. It shouldn't be too painful. We will keep him here for a week, and possibly two weeks if we do not see any improvements."

In the meanwhile, Li Yun was in the OR operating on a patient with multiple organ failure with two other residents. Chief Gao would only allow Li Yun to perform surgery if he was 99% sure that the patient would survive. Although Li Yun was an attending, it was still risky for Li Yun to lead the surgery. Chief Gao wasn't concerned about Li Yun's ability, but the patient's family if they ever figured out that Li Yun technically hadn't completed his residency. Some people will do anything for money.

After operating on a patient, Li Yun returned to the resident's suite. Although he was the attending with more privileges and a private dorm, he preferred staying in the resident's area. It was closer to the ER, and he liked the residents better than the attending. The residents, who had finished the second shift, returned to the suite.

"Hey boss, you're back early," said Lui Jing. "You were pretty crazy this week. Tried?"

"A bit," Li Yun responded, but him being crazy was just him grinding out action points. "What happened to Mi Xuan?"

"Doctor Hao placed her in charge of monitoring a patient that came in after a motorcycle accident," Yang Kang said as he crashed onto the lower bunk bed.

"Is it a difficult patient?"

"A bit, he was yelling in pain, but it's normal. I think she's on her period. Not to mention, the guy is hot. He has this dragon tattoo on his chest."

"Ooh, is it a black dragon with red eyes?"

"Uh, I don't remember, but I think so. You know him?"

"Hm… Maybe."

It was getting late, so Li Yun wanted to use Zuowang before heading to bed. The following morning, he made a visit to the in-patient ward after his usual rounds. Before entering the room, he heard Mi Xuan's voice echoing into the hallway.

"Look you ass****, I don't care how tough you are, you're not allowed to take off your cast," Mi Xuan splatted out the order.

"It's restricting my movement."

"Like I care. If you dare take it out, I'll superglue another cast."

The other patients in the room ignored them, it seemed like they were used to it. They were annoyed, but they also understood that the hospital wasn't the best place to recuperate.

"I'm the f****** patient, don't I have a say in how I should be treated!?"

"I've said enough, if I see you again without a cast, I'll break your arm myself."

Mi Xuan walked out without hearing another word. Her eyes were bloodshot, and it didn't look like she had slept for hours. She also completely walked past Li Yun without noticing his presence. Ignoring her advice, Qi Sho tried to pry open the cast with his utility blade.

"Gee, why would you carry a blade around with you?" Li Yun asked as he walked into the room.

Qi Sho looked at the approaching doctor, but after a short while, his eyes opened wider as he recognized who it was.

"I'll be damn, Gong Dayun is a doctor now," Qi Sho responded.

"Please don't call me that," Li Yun really hated the name Gong. "I heard Boss Qi got in an accident avoiding a cat."

"Don't remind me, I avoided one cat only to be stuck with another wild cat."

"You know Mi Xuan?"

"Not really, our parents are both teachers." Qi Sho offered Li Yun the handle of his utility knife. "Help me out of this thing."

"Hold on a moment," Li Yun took the knife away and grabbed onto Qi Sho's wrist. "Other than the bleeding and slight fracture, you're healthier than a bull."

"Yeah, thanks for the info, it's already written on the chart." Qi Sho still had the same sarcastic tone from high school. Some things never changed.

"You better keep the cast on. She will really super glue the next one on if you take it out."

Qi Sho looked annoyed, but he gave up trying. "How have you been? I heard being a doctor is pretty rough these days."

"Probably for the general practitioners, but I'm doing okay."

"Not blackmailing anyone?" Qi Sho narrowed his eyes. He didn't cross path with Li Yun often, but there were still rumors amongst the delinquents within the region.

"I don't remember blackmailing you."

"If you don't hand over your territory peacefully, I'll expose your secret base that houses all the strays," Qi Sho tried his best to imitate Li Yun's voice.

Li Yun burst out laughing. "You have to admit that was a stupid secret. Why did you even care if your guys knew you were taking care of strays?"

"Oh come on, we were kids, I didn't want them to look at me like I'm some *****."

"Are you a vet now?"

"I shouldn't be surprised that you would know."

"It's not that difficult considering you have looked after them in high school." Li Yun had briefly thought about becoming a vet before. However, he needed to save twice as many animals as people to gain the same amount of action points. At the time, he thought the system was being discriminatory toward animals.

"I didn't know your high school is in Qinbei," Li Yun commented, and then thought about his high school days, "was our territory really that wide?"

"You f****** a******, don't pretend like you went around knocking down the different bosses. The only reason why Kaishi got so much territory was because I got them first. Kaishi was going to be my last conquest. Too bad it's run by you lunatics. How's Fatty?"

"He's a regular salaryman now and he's getting married this summer," Li Yun replied. He thought back to their high school days and remembered Fatty Fang being very aggressive during high school. He mellowed out a bit after the middle of college.

"Out of all my opponents, I could never beat him."

"You could never beat me either."

"I can f***** beat your ass if ya stayed still."

Li Yun laughed, but then his pager beeped before he could dispute that. "I'm going to run, but don't try to piss Mi Xuan off."

"Sure, whatever."

Li Yun rushed off to the ER. Doctor Hao needed him to take over handling some of the patients in a four-cars pileup.

Since coming back from Magic City, he had been grinding as many surgeries as possible, hoping to gain 100 in jing, qi, and shen. After finishing up the operations, Li Yun finally achieved his goal.

Secret mission achieved, accumulated 100 jin qi shen.

Special Reward: Spirit Detection.

Checking his dantian, it had expanded a bit, and there was a pentagonal prism, representing the five elements, protecting the triangular pyramid. It seemed like he would have to continue gathering action points to expand the pentagon he called the Five Elements.