Chapter 10

Thank yous to MCJohnston for the ko-fi ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ

“A reporter?” Ms. Pang, the head nurse, adjusted her black-rimmed reading glasses as she scrutinised Qi Jing with a suspicious look.

Qi Jing could only quietly maintain his professional smile.

“You’re not the kind of journalist that can turn black into white, writing nonsensical false accounts, are you?” Ms. Pang attitude improved slightly when she saw his reporter ID, plus the young man’s clean and crisp look also added points for him. However, she still had some qualms about him.

“I’m not.” Qi Jing gave her a wry smile.

It seemed that the reputation of his profession had been utterly soiled by his colleagues in the same industry.

Qi Jing gave a brief introduction about the relevant reports he had done regarding cat abuse incidents and even asked Ms. Zhu to help testify for him. Only then, did Ms. Pang let down her guard and agree to allow him to conduct an interview in the hospital.

“Reporter Comrade, our Dr. Shen is a good man, you really shouldn’t make up fictitious stories about him,” she didn’t forget to nag at him as she led him to the operating room.

The cats that had just been brought in were currently being treated. The ones with relatively minor injuries were treated by the nurses while the ones that were more severely injured had been sent to the operating room, anaesthetised and ready for surgery.

The operating room was about a dozen square metres in size and the side facing the corridor was made fully transparent, with glass, allowing for people to watch the operation. Right now, the cat that had its eye stabbed, and the one with severe fractures were inside the room; each lying on a small operating table. Several of the medical staff were busy rushing in and out, hence Qi Jing decided to wait outside, so as not to be a hindrance to them.

“Which one of the staff inside is Dr. Shen?” Qi Jing asked while leaning into the glass wall as best as he could to get a clearer look inside.

“The one looking at the X-ray,” Ms. Pang said, pointing in the direction of the man.

Following the direction she was pointing in, Qi Jing saw a young man, beyond the glass, standing next to the light panel with the X-ray film fixed on it, looking at the location of the kitten’s fractured bone. That man was dressed in a typical white coat with a light blue surgical gown over it. He was also wearing medical gloves and a mask so Qi Jing couldn’t make out how he looked like.

The only thing that Qi Jing could be seen clearly was the man’s eyes.

A pair of dark obsidian eyes—austere, calm, gentle.

Just looking at them felt comforting. When those eyes looked down in concentration and patience, it was a sight that would leave a deep impression on people.

“He turned out to be so young,” Qi Jing remarked, he had always thought that the skilled doctor that everyone was talking about must be very old.

“Hard to imagine, isn’t it?” Ms. Pang smiled with pride. “Although Dr. Shen is young, he has been in the industry for a long time and is very experienced. He’s very serious and rigorous in his work and the young nurses who intern at our hospital like him very much.”

“That’s understandable.” A man like that was indeed rare.

“But…”

“But what?” Qi Jing was very curious about what came after the twist.

“But, he’s a person who doesn’t usually talk much,” Ms. Pang sighed, “Anyone that doesn’t know him may think that he’s cold when he is in fact, a good-hearted person.”

Qi Jing was just about to respond to Ms. Pang’s words when a nurse poked her head out from another operating room and called out.

“Sister Pang! We need help matching the cat’s blood type!”

“Excuse me, Reporter Comrade, I’ll need to leave for a while. The operation is expected to take some time, so you can take a seat while you wait.” Then, Ms. Pang left in a hurry, leaving him to stand alone in front of the glass wall.

Journalists have the habit of carrying pens and little notepads on them to take down notes at any given moment and Qi Jing was no exception.

While he may not have much expertise in veterinary, he could still detail what he observed during the operation. Compared to the ordinary flat and straightforward type of news report that is not engaging, Qi Jing preferred a more humanistic style of narration.

In fact, news writing was similar to voice acting, the characters should feel like they are of flesh-and-blood in order to move the audience and listeners.

Qi Jing flipped open his notepad and rest the tip of his pen against the paper.

Generally speaking, he liked to start with keywords. He would note down words according to the first impressions that what he saw and heard gave him. And when he returned to the station, he would expand upon it into a full-fledged article.

His eyes kept following the young man’s every move, watching as he and another vet repeating tap on the X-ray film to confirm the most appropriate place to start the operation, marking on the film from time to time. Once they had finally determined the location, that man even got the assisting nurses to look over it one more time to ensure that everyone had taken note before beginning the operation proper.

“Cautious.” The first word was written on the paper.

When the nurse injected antibiotics into the cat prior to the surgery and the kitten on the operating table seemed to tremble, crying out weak meows in fear. That man would lean down and place his hand behind the cat’s ear, gently stroking his thumb lightly along the base of its ear until the cat no longer felt threatened and quietened down.

“Thoughtful.” With his eyes never leaving that figure, Qi Jing’s pen moved quickly to jot down the next word in his notepad.

After the anaesthesia was fully in effect, came a series of surgical procedures.

Since the animals were of relatively small size, the surgical instruments were compact as well, demanding a high level of skill from the vet performing the surgery. Moreover, due to the fur coat on the cat’s body, it also took a heavy toll on the eyes while ensuring the blade was lowered at an appropriate force. If he were to lose focus even just for a bit, he could end up destroying the cat’s soft tissues, causing unnecessary damage.

The process of an entire operation was really not easy.

Qi Jing couldn’t see the details of the operation from his angle so he kept his eyes on the doctor himself.

It was in the middle of summer. In order to ensure normal temperatures of the small animals during the operation, the air-conditioning was not turned on. The fans weren’t turned on either to prevent airborne transmission of microorganisms.

The man wore a long-sleeved surgical gown, mask, and gloves. His eyebrows were tightly knitted together and he didn’t move a single muscle on his body save for his hands.

After such a long time, his hair was drenched in sweat, and beads of perspiration were forming on his forehead, dripping from the sides of his face.

The concentration in his eyes had not changed from beginning to end—

Qi Jing was so absorbed in watching that he didn’t even realise that his legs had gone slightly numb from standing.

“Sense of responsibility.” He wrote down the third phrase.

After the kitten with the severe fractures underwent more than an hour’s time of surgery, the three broken bones were fixed with intramedullary Kirschner wire, cancellous screws, and perforated plates. Then, the veins were decongested and gauze was wrapped over the incision site.

The operation for the kitten on the other operating table that was stabbed with a metal object had also concluded without a hitch and was put on IV and ready to be put to recuperation.

It was only when the nurses started cleaning and disinfecting the operating room that Qi Jing finally came out of his daze. When he looked down at his notepad, he found that he had written two to three pages worth of keywords.

And he was also perspiring a lot while standing outside the operating room. His shirt was completely drenched in sweat and it felt extremely uncomfortable.

However, he didn’t notice this at all when he was taking down notes, all his focus was placed on observing. Even he felt that it was incredulous. He laughed at himself and put his pen and paper away.

It looked like everything went smoothly in the other operating room as well as Ms. Pang led a group of nurses out, instructing them to take the equipment for disinfection. In addition, the cats were placed in cages separate from one another to reduce the risks of post-operative infections and outbreaks.

During the several times that she came out, she saw Qi Jing standing motionless to observe so she led him to take a seat in the rest area.

Not only did Qi Jing not rest, he also persisted on until the end of the operation. Seeing that, Ms. Pang couldn’t help but change her view about reporters.

“Reporter Comrade, you’re so patient! We’ve had others come to our hospital for interviews, but after waiting for about ten minutes, they all got restless and left after asking the nurses some questions.” Ms. Pang had a forthright personality and she didn’t hold herself back from expressing the appreciation she had for Qi Jing.

“Haha, that’s because I want to make a more detailed report this time,” Qi Jing chuckled.

“Is Dr. Shen still busy?” As soon as Ms. Pang’s voice fell, the glass door of the operating room opened and several nurses pushed out the cats with their drips to the hospital wards. And the last one to come of the room was that man.

He looked fatigued and his eyes were bloodshot. It was obvious that this wasn’t the only day that he was so busy, it was also caused by dealing with a heavy load for a long period.

“A lot of small animals have been sent to us recently and he’s been working consecutive overtimes for a long while,” Ms. Pang whispered.

“I see, it must be really hard on him.”

When Qi Jing saw him walk out of the operating room, he hurriedly took out his name card from his briefcase, adjusted reporter ID on his chest, and walked up to the man in big strides with Ms. Pang.

“Dr. Shen, someone is looking for you,” Ms. Pang called out to him with a smile.

That man heard the head nurse calling at him and subconsciously looked raised his head to the voice. When he did so, he suddenly found himself looking straight at Qi Jing’s eyes.

Qi Jing felt like the other party was stunned momentarily in that moment.

He was originally going to raise his right hand, but the moment their eyes met, his movement stopped in midair and didn’t continue.

Qi Jing thought that he was going to remove his mask, however, the other party ultimately didn’t do so and instead lightly placed his hand back down—he probably saw it wrongly.

That man looked at Qi Jing silently without making any further actions, so Qi Jing decided to take the initiative to get the conversation going. He started by beaming at the other party and giving his name card as he said, “Hi, I’m Qi Jing, a reporter from the provincial TV station. I’d like to do a follow-up on the latest case of cat abuse.”

Something seemed to have changed in the other party’s eyes, but he wasn’t able to catch it.

All Qi Jing saw was the man gently turning away the gaze that had been resting on his face onto his reporter ID, then to the name card in his hand. After staring at it for quite some time, that man silently raised his hand as if he was going to receive it but his movement suddenly stopped.

This time, it was Qi Jing’s turned to be stunned.

Could it be… that he’s unwilling to deal with reporters?

Just then, that man took off his medical gloves without saying a word.

It turned out that he hadn’t had the time to remove his gloves after the operation and it still had animal fur and bloodstains on it.

That man then put away the gloves in a special medical garbage bag before receiving the name card with clean hands.

Qi Jing suddenly had to urge to pull out his notepad again to write down the word “attentive”, though he believed he definitely wrote it down subconsciously.

“Dr. Shen, this reporter comrade was brought here by Miss Zhu and the others from the rescue association. I’ve seen all the documents and stuff, so he should be very reliable. He said he wants to do a more comprehensive feature news report.” Fearing that the atmosphere might become awkward due to the other party’s silence, Ms. Pang quickly interjected with a smile.

“Ah yes,” Qi Jing said with a smile, using his the most sincere tone he could muster to share his plans, “Actually, I just learnt from Ms. Zhu that these little guys have a hard time getting adopted after the fact so I plan on increasing the media exposure. It will be publicised through the TV station to attract citizens with the ability to adopt to come here and hopefully help in your efforts to find them a home.”

“This is a good thing, Dr. Shen.” Ms. Pang was very pleased with Qi Jing’s proposal.

When he was talking about his plan, Qi Jing noticed something move in that man’s eyes. It was something had brightened up—seems like that man was attracted by his proposal.

After all, the ratings of provincial TV stations are guaranteed, and they will be able to find owners for these poor little guys even faster.

As a rescuer, he has no reason to disagree.

“I understand. So, what do you want me to do?”

That was the first time that man had spoken.

Perhaps it was because he was wearing a mask, he sounded muffled.

It sounded familiar, yet at the same time, unfamiliar.

Qi Jing couldn’t figure it out in the moment and he subconsciously narrowed his eyes at the man. The other party appeared to have noticed his reaction and lowered his head slightly, never facing or looking at Qi Jing directly again.

However, he really couldn’t think of it.

Qi Jing shook his head and thought to himself, perhaps he was just being overly sensitive.

“Well, I can contact the film crew to come down to get some shots, but because of the limited time we have on our daily newscasts, it is not realistic to make repeated reports. I was hoping to document the animals’ recovery like a diary, with pictures and written descriptions to enhance the storytelling and make it more engaging. Then, we’ll put them on our news forum and other related forums, and release information, such as when they will recover, when they can be adopted, how to handle procedures, and so on. I believe there will surely be responses from kind-hearted people.”

Qi Jing was very confident about writing articles, and if it was serialised in several forums at the same time, the overage of news will increase accordingly.

“Writing a diary? Won’t that be a lot of work?” Ms. Pang was a little worried that it may eat into Dr. Shen’s rest times.

“Though I say it’s a diary, it really depends on the particular state of recovery of the animals. It doesn’t really matter if the intervals turn into weekly entries, the main purpose is to evoke the love and compassion in people,” Qi Jing explained immediately.

“Oh… in that case, it should be okay. Sometimes, our hospital also informs owners. who are too busy to come down to check on their pet, about their pet’s conditions by sending them photos so we are equipped to do so.”

After clearing her doubts, Ms. Pang turned to that man and asked, “What do you think, Dr. Shen?”

The man who had been listening quietly all this while, lowered his eyes and nodded his head.

This guy, really didn’t like talking.

Qi Jing observed the other party for a long while. Taking into account the time he needed to rest, Qi Jing added kindly, “If Dr. Shen is too busy normally, you can just provide one or two lines of description and photos. I can take charge of the writing. And when it’s posted on the forum, I will state the source of the information.”

This time, the man shook his head lightly and said in a soft voice, “It doesn’t need to be in my name, just in the hospital’s name.”

And low key—that thought subconsciously flashed through Qi Jing’s mind.

“Alright.” He respected the other party’s wishes and reached over to point out the email address on his name card. “This is my work email. Dr. Shen can send relevant information to it. If nothing comes up, I should reply within 24 hours.”

“Qi Jing,” that man suddenly called his name after looking at the name card.

Qi Jing was taken aback by the sudden move a while.

“Thank you for helping to look for owners for these little guys,” was what that man said.

Ah, so he wanted to give his thanks. Qi Jing politely returned with a warm smile and offered a handshake. “You’re welcome, I hope we have a pleasant time working together.”

That other party gently accepted the handshake. His hands were almost just as Qi Jing had imagined, a doctor’s hands, long and slender fingers and was warm with a strength to them.

After successfully completing his task, Qi Jing raised his hand to look at his watch. It was getting late and he still had other work at the TV station so he left with a brief goodbye.

Ms. Pang had offered to give him a ride. The two of them chatted while they walked and gradually disappeared into the end of the corridor.

That man quietly stared at their backs intently.

It was only when he could no longer see their figures that he wordlessly reached out to take off his mask. The little nurse from the pharmacy got the receipt and specially brought it over for him to sign. She was extremely curious to find him standing rooted to the ground outside the operating room and she had to call him a few times before she got him to turn around.

“Dr. Shen, please sign here,” the little nurse said as she passed him the pen and paper.

He broke out of his thoughts and released a sigh, almost without a trace, and turned his attention back onto his work. At the place where the doctor’s signature was needed, he lifted the pen and signed two words: Shen Yan.

Lilies: Medicine or vet school people please have mercy on me lol