Chapter 125 - Stealing Patients?

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The exciting task of physical examinations continued for a day.

At dusk, the sanatorium specially arranged for a beach barbecue to raise the doctors’ morale.

The sea, beach, and soothing breeze were readily available. The organizing party just had to wash and cut up the ingredients before bringing them over to the barbecue. The staff of the sanatorium really wished that the senior citizens could eat all this, but they could not, so the doctors would have to do.

The doctors were thrilled.

For white-collar workers who had worked in the city for a long time; enjoying the sea breeze, drinking beer, having barbecued food, and chatting on the beach during peaceful dusk could be said to be both a great joy and reward. At least, it was worth uploading nine consecutively captured photographs of this escapade to their friends’ circle.

In fact, the first thing many of them did when they got to the beach was to take pictures and do just that. They did this to wash away their annoyance of having to constantly post about working overtime, complaints towards the hospital’s system, and their insults towards patients.

The young resident doctors, most of the attending physicians, and nurses ran around and yelled. They never stopped taking pictures with their mobile phones either.

In contrast, the associate chief physicians and chief physicians were much more reserved.

If an associate chief physician of Yun Hua Hospital were to be a doctoral graduate, there was still a probability that he was under forty years old. Basically, all of the associate chief physicians were over forty-five years old. Even if a doctoral graduate were to become an associate chief physician in his thirties, he would turn forty after holding that position for a few years.

Doctors over the age of forty were naturally too shy to hold up their mobile phones and walk around, taking pictures like the young. Even those who really wanted to take photographs did not want to do it in front of the young people.

This was why the crowd on the beach was soon clearly divided into two groups. One group had their phones flashing at dusk, while the other group hid in the darkness, watching them with sparkling eyes.

Ling Ran took a few chicken wings and a few slices of beef. He stood beside the grill to barbecue them. He neither took any pictures nor chatted with anyone.

“Do you want me to take a few pictures of you for you to upload to your friend circle?” When Doctor Zhou walked past Ling Ran, he saw the skewer in Ling Ran’s hand and wanted to provide labor in exchange for food.

Ling Ran shook his head, “I already have a lot of pictures.”

“I have never heard anyone complaining about having a lot of pictures.”

Doctor Zhou laughed out loud and continued, “I’m pretty skilled in taking pictures. You’d get at least a hundred likes if you were to upload a photograph your circle.”

Baffled, Ling Ran raised his head to look at Doctor Zhou.

A few seconds later, Doctor Zhou himself came to a realization and chuckled.

“What am I saying? You would probably get up to a hundred likes, even if you just upload a picture of your toenail.

Ling Ran flipped the chicken wing around and was deep in thought.

“Nevermind, forget that I said anything. I don’t want to know about how your friend circle is like, either.”

Doctor Zhou quickly gained his senses. As he smelled the aroma of the nearly cooked pork belly slices, he quickly left.

After Ling Ran sprinkled a little bit of cumin on the pork belly slices, the aroma became even thicker.

“Chief Physician Li, I’ll take a picture for you?” Doctor Zhou went to the group of people who were hiding in the darkness with sparkling eyes.

Chief Physician Li said in embarrassment with a smile, “I’m already so old, there’s no need to take pictures…”

“Look at you. Does age have anything to do with taking pictures? Come on, come forward a little, I’ll take a half-body shot for you… Even though I’m not as good as you guys when it comes to medical skills, I’m widely known for my photography skills. Come on, say cheese…” Doctor Zhou was a good talker. With a few clicks, he took a bunch of photographs.

After that, he asked Chief Physician Li to carry out all sorts of poses.

Chief Physician Li got used to it after a while, and was switching poses by himself soon after without much prompting.

After satisfying a chief physician, Doctor Zhou immediately went to another associate chief physician to provide them his services. He did not mind climbing up and down, hunkering, going forward and backwards, and tiring himself out to the satisfaction of the doctors.

Led by Doctor Zhou, the group of old chief physicians and associate chief physicians started fervently taking photographs. For a short period of time, all the people took off their scarves and hats, creating a picturesque sight. Everyone praised Doctor Zhou for being ‘thoughtful’ and ‘impressive.’ A few chief physicians who did not know Doctor Zhou very well also added him on WeChat to make it easier for him to send the photographs to their phone.

Ling Ran stayed at the corner from the beginning to the end and quietly barbecued the meat.

The ingredients provided by the sanatorium were quite good. Even though they did not offer western ingredients such as steak, the taste of rib fingers, beef, lamb chop, and pork chop were not inferior to steak at all.

This was especially true for the rib fingers, which had both lean meat and fat on them. If you were to lock the juice of the rib fingers with strong fire before roasting them slowly with weak fire, they would still be pretty tender, even if roasted sufficiently. This suited the appetite of the Chinese very much.

Thoroughly cleaned pig’s intestines were even more delicious. You just need to suppress the guilt of causing wastage and allow the oil to drip out freely from the bowels. Upon being cooked, they would be crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. You would be able to finish one large plate of it only after adding a little bit of salt.

And pork belly slices were always the most classic ingredient in Chinese cooking.

Before Korean dramas fell in trend, the Ling family had always stir-fried their vegetables with pork belly slices. If you fried the pork belly slices to extract the oil in them first, then use them to fry vegetables, they would be particularly fragrant. Mildly baked pork belly slices eaten with vegetables fried with lard were always very delicious.

And after Korean dramas came into trend, the price of pork belly slices increased by the year, and the Ling family stir-fried their vegetables with pork shoulders instead. However, pork shoulders were rising in popularity, as influencers often posted lunch boxes with pork chop inside on social media. The era of cheap pork shoulders would be over soon…

“Doctor Ling, you work on the meat with such seriousness.”

A girl who was holding two glasses of beer put her left foot forward and revealed the relatively small right side profile. She then passed a glass of beer to Ling Ran.

“Thank you.”

Ling Ran took the glass of beer. He flipped a piece of meat and asked, “Do you have a plate?”

“There’s one here.” The young girl quickly took an empty plate.

Ling Ran put a piece of rib finger and a slice of pork belly on the empty plate. He then gave her a corn on the cob using a pair of forceps.

“Thank you, Doctor Ling.” The young girl was pleasantly surprised.

“You’re welcome.”

“Wow, it’s delicious,” the young girl said happily, “Doctor Ling, you are very good at barbecuing meat.”

“Hm, this happens after you operate the endotherm knife for a long time.”

Ling Ran’s reply was very honest.

The young girl was dumbstruck for a moment before suddenly realizing that Ling Ran was referring to how there would be a smell of barbecued meat when doctors scorched the patients with an endotherm knife in the operating theater. As both initiated the Maillard reaction, there would naturally be the same aromatic scent.

The young girl could not help but hold up the pork belly slice to scrutinize it before taking a small bite. She said with a smile, “No wonder. So, doctors have an accurate grasp of the temperature when barbecuing meat?”

“If what you said is true, orthopaedists would be good in cooking bones.”

Another girl came forward and refuted indignantly.

Bone allograft reconstruction was one of the main tactics used in the Orthopaedics Department for the treatment of bone cancer. There were various methods to go about bone allograft reconstruction, such as liquid nitrogen, radiation, or ethanol. But the most commonly used methods were still the boiling of the bones and the soaking of bones inside hot water. To put it simply, it was to put an induction cooker in the operating theater, boiling water, placing the bones with cancer tumors on them in the boiling water, and cooking them until all the cancer cells were dead before returning the bones to the patients’ bodies.

During this process, there would be a smell of bone broth that caused others to be puzzled by the aroma, and that aroma would not only fill the operating theater, but throughout the Orthopaedics Department’s corridor.

“Chief Physician Lan from the Orthopaedics Department likes to eat hot pot with the resident doctors, the type with bone broth.”

The second girl sighed when she recalled the past. She took a rib finger and started chewing it with force.

After the two girls took meat from Ling Ran, other people immediately followed.

Ling Ran held a pair of forceps in each hand. He barbecued and flipped the ingredients with one hand and took food for others with his other hand. It was an entirely new level of multi-tasking.

He was a young man who was good at learning from analogies and applying his knowledge in other places; he could naturally employ his experience with the endotherm knife in other fields.

Besides, Tao Ping went to great lengths to cultivate all sorts of hobbies in her son. Ever since young, the entire family traveled by bicycle for barbecues out in the open. Social media did not exist at that time, and she took photographs using film cameras. After the photographs were developed, she would bring them out for the neighbors to see.

The sizzling rib fingers had to be flipped once every twelve seconds.

Even though the pork belly slices had to be barbecued until they were golden, they must not be burned.

It was even more important for the pig’s intestines to be golden. However, they must not turn black.

When it came to barbecuing meat, Ling Ran was at least at the Specialist Level even without the help of the system.

The girls who were busy capturing nine continuous shots were now busy editing their photographs. Those who were taking food from Ling Ran also brought him food while they were at it. The exchange of food went both ways, and the beach immediately became even livelier.

Now that the doctors were in a good mood, all the strange things they encountered during the day became stories.

“Today, I met a patient who kept insisting that the dark spot on his skin was a skin tumor. Even though the hospital had already given him three biopsy reports, he still thinks that everyone is lying to him.”

“What’s so weird about that? I even encountered one who did not want to take his blood pressure pills in time despite a headache. He even kept the pills the nurses placed in his mouth and wanted to spit them out.”

“Sigh, I saw something epic today. I encountered an old man with especially beautiful tendons. They were magnificent, just like those on standard anatomy diagrams…”

“Now that you’re talking about it, there is an old lady with a very typical condition of bone hyperplasia. If used as teaching material, the effect would definitely be exemplary.”

“I met a few patients with bone hyperplasia today. This disease isn’t interesting. Even rheumatoid arthritis is more interesting.”

Ling Ran distributed food for the others and received food from them while listening to the doctors’ conversations. He was pretty relaxed.

It was getting late, but the clouds were still visible.

The evening sun reflected off the surface of the sea, emitting a gentle light.

But the sound of the waves beating against the shore was a little noisy.

*Ding!*

*Ding!*

*Ding, ding, ding!*

A succession of notifications from the system rang beside Ling Ran’s ears.

[Achievement: Praise x 12]

[Achievement Description: A colleague’s praise is the biggest reward to a doctor x 12]

[Reward: Basic Treasure Chest x 12]

Ling Ran raised his head to look at the sky. ‘It’s already so late. Don’t tell me that my colleagues are stealing my patients?’