Chapter 14 : Getting scolded, yet again

“He can’t even eat a meal or brush his teeth on his own. He went into heart failure on the night of his admission and is still in the ICU now. Even with continuous medication, his angina hasn’t stopped. What’s wrong with being eighty-three? Can’t you be treated just because you’re eighty-three? According to that Liu Renzong’s meaning, he should just go home and wait to die?!”

Zhao Qin threw the pen in her hand onto the desk, so angry she was speechless.

“Every other word is about the Second Hospital. If he likes the Second Hospital so much, why doesn’t he just write a report to the higher-ups and see if he can be transferred there! It would be best if the Second Hospital also awarded him an honorary medal. Then he can have his picture on the homepage of the Second Hospital’s website too, be an ambassador!”

The pen that was thrown onto the desk rolled a few times before stopping, then fell under the desk with a clatter.

After getting it all out, Zhao Qin finally managed to vent some of the frustration in her heart.
Her mood had calmed down a lot now.
She looked at Chi Yuqin and asked—

“What do you plan to do?”

Chi Yuqin bent down to pick up the pen that had fallen under the desk and handed it back to Zhao—

“Do what needs to be done. He’s just one Liu Renzong. He doesn’t have the ability to save lives, let alone make us lose our jobs.”

Seeing Chi Yuqin’s calm demeanor, the remaining bit of discomfort in Zhao Qin’s heart instantly vanished.

That was just her personality.
Ever since she entered the hospital, she had never seen her unable to hold it together.
No matter how urgent the matter, it could be solved smoothly and methodically when it came to her.

This personality of always being able to remain calm—

She was born to be a chief surgeon.

“Then let’s have a meeting?”

“Alright. Let’s discuss the surgical plan, then consult with the family. If it’s possible, let’s set the surgery time as soon as possible.”

“Okay, I’ll go now.”

With that, Zhao Qin put the pen in her pocket and walked to the door… then stopped again, turning to look back at Chi Yuqin.

“Something else?”

“I wasn’t just speaking up for you just now. I have my own selfish reasons too. I’ve disliked Liu Renzong for a long time.”

“For that sentence alone, if Director Wang ever steps down, I’ll definitely write a report and nominate you.”

“Forget it, I’m leaving.”

Before closing the door, Zhao Qin added—

“Yuqin, don’t put so much pressure on yourself.”

“Mm.”

As soon as Zhao Qin left, Chi Yuqin didn’t stay in the office for long.
She unscrewed the soda water that was half-finished, drank it, then stood up, put on her stethoscope, and went to the ward.

Things had been busy these past few days, and she hadn’t been able to do her rounds for two days.
Although nothing abnormal had happened, being in her position, Chi Yuqin still felt it was necessary to make a round.
One, to reassure the patients, and two, to reassure herself.

This morning, two of Tang Zhen’s patients were discharged, and three more were admitted.
By her calculations, she had one more than before.

Her shoulders, which had just started to relax, immediately straightened up again.
Clutching the small notebook in her hand, she hurried over to admit the patients.

She went one by one in order.
The first two were very smooth.
When it came to the last one, it was a bit troublesome.
It wasn’t that the person’s condition was particularly difficult, but from the moment Tang Zhen entered the ward, the person’s mouth hadn’t stopped moving.

“Doctor! Doctor, you’re finally here. Hurry up and take a look at me. I’m really sick!”

“Why are you so slow?! I’ve been waiting for half a day!”

“You don’t know how my heart is! It’s been beating like crazy!”

Tang Zhen flipped open her small notebook and verified the person’s identity—

“Name?”

“Wang Chuan.”

“Gender?”

“I say, are you alright? Can’t you tell if I’m a man or a woman? Isn’t this a beard on my chin?”

Tang Zhen’s hand paused.
She immediately realized her old habit of following the script had kicked in again.
It wasn’t that she hadn’t realized it.
It was just that this person was too anxious, and she, on the other hand, remembered Chi Yuqin’s words too well.
The first thing to do before any physical examination was to verify the patient’s identity.
She had asked it out of habit.

The other patients in the ward heard this and, seeing the young man pointing at the stubble on his chin and staring, they also laughed— “Dr. Tang, don’t be anxious. Take your time.”

“Sigh! It’s easy for you to say, standing there. Take my time? It’s not you who’s uncomfortable. What are you meddling for… get out of the way~”

Tang Zhen was already a little nervous because of this person’s fussing.
Being teased by everyone made her even more nervous.
She nodded awkwardly—

“I’m sorry.”

After asking his age and confirming it was correct, Tang Zhen began the physical examination.

“Unbutton your shirt, take off your undershirt, and then lie down.”

“Ah? I have to take everything off?”

“Just the top.”

“Alright, alright.”
The man reluctantly took off his clothes, wadded them up, and placed them by his legs.
He glanced at Tang Zhen again and muttered, “I’m telling you, you’re the second woman to see me bare-chested. The first was my mom.”

The man was quite fat.
The roll of flesh on his stomach looked like the hem of a skirt.
When he said this, he had a slightly shy look, as if Tang Zhen had taken some great advantage of him.

They say you should treat patients with the warmth of spring, but Tang Zhen felt that if she even blinked now, it would be considered “gawking” at him.

Tang Zhen bent down, her line of sight level with the man’s chest.

“What are you doing?”

“Examining you.”

“You’re staring at my chest! You call that examining me?!”

“I’m not staring at your chest. I’m examining your precordial area.”

“Really?”

“Why would I lie to you?”

“Who knows.”

Tang Zhen couldn’t answer him, so she simply didn’t say anything more.
She had just raised her arm when she immediately lowered it again, sighing inwardly… forget it.

She skipped the palpation and percussion parts and went straight to listening to his heart sounds with her stethoscope.

After she finished listening, the man quickly asked, “Can I put my clothes on now?”

“Yes.”

After putting his clothes on, the man clutched his chest and gasped for breath—

“You don’t know. For over a month now, whenever I move my arms or legs a little, I get chest tightness and shortness of breath. And every now and then… right here… my heart pounds like crazy. People say it’s called… called… what’s it called—”

“Palpitations.”

“Right, right! Palpitations! What do you think is wrong with me?”

Tang Zhen lowered her head and quickly wrote in her notebook— Chief complaint: chest tightness, shortness of breath, palpitations for over a month after activity.

“Does your chest hurt?”

“I think so.”

“What kind of pain is it? Is it intermittent or continuous? Is it a sharp pain like a small knife cutting you, or a stabbing pain like a needle?”

“It doesn’t seem to be any of those… it’s a twisting pain.”

“A twisting pain… is it a wringing pain?”

“Right, right, that’s it! A wringing pain!”

Tang Zhen made another note in her notebook.

“Does it hurt when you’re not active?”

“No, I just feel stuffy when I’m not active.”

“Have you had any check-ups? Have you taken any medication?”

“Do digestive tablets count? I take them after every meal.”

“Uh… that doesn’t count. Do you have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or high blood sugar?”

“I don’t know, probably not. Don’t look at me being fat. I’m very healthy.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he started gasping for breath again.

Tang Zhen looked at his condition and thought for a moment, then said, “How about this? Let’s check your blood pressure and blood sugar first, then do an ECG and see how things are.”

“That’s it?”

“For now, that’s it.”

“But I haven’t finished!”
The man’s eyes went wide.

“Then go on.”

Tang Zhen thought he had something else to say, but she didn’t expect that with her nod, she had completely opened the man’s floodgates, the kind that couldn’t be closed.

He talked about everything, from near to far, from small to big, in great detail.

He had broken his collarbone falling from the monkey bars when he was four.
He had argued with his blind date yesterday and gotten so angry that his face turned red and his lips turned purple.
His stool this morning was loose and dark.
He had coughed while taking the elevator up to be admitted just now.

In short… it was all such trivial matters, he said whatever came to mind.

And after saying it, he insisted that Tang Zhen respond to him.
If she didn’t, he would shout that she didn’t know how to see a doctor and demand to see someone who did.

Tang Zhen had never encountered such a patient before.
You could say he was causing a scene, but he just kept talking about his condition.
You could say he wasn’t, but he wouldn’t let her leave.

For a moment, Tang Zhen had no solution and could only listen to him, then keep responding to him, explaining over and over again that his collarbone fracture from when he was four had already healed and would not affect his current condition.
That his loose, dark stool was likely due to improper diet and not necessarily cholecystitis or cirrhosis.
That his red face and purple lips from anger and shortness of breath in the elevator could also be caused by excessive emotional fluctuations and an overly confined space.
As for whether it was a heart problem, further examination was needed to know.

But the more you responded to him, the more he went on.
It was a complete vicious cycle.

Finally, at her wit’s end, Tang Zhen said, “How about I write you an order for some tests, and you can get them checked out.”

“How many tests will I have to do?”

“X-ray, ultrasound, CT, gastroscopy, liver function… and—”

“Doctor, are you kidding me?!”

Before the man could finish speaking.

A knock suddenly sounded on the ward door.
Chi Yuqin stood there with her arms crossed—

“Tang Zhen, come out for a moment.”

Tang Zhen followed Chi Yuqin all the way to the main office.

In the empty main office, the two of them stood by the window.
The midday sun was so bright that Tang Zhen couldn’t open her eyes.

“What were you doing just now?” Chi Yuqin asked.

“A physical examination.”

“Is that how you do a physical examination?”

Chi Yuqin had been outside the ward for a while.
If she hadn’t been at the end of her rope, she wouldn’t have called her out—

“Then tell me what you examined.”

“I…”

Before Tang Zhen could speak, Chi Yuqin interrupted her again—

“A collarbone fracture at four? The condition of his stool this morning? Or should we ask him why he argued with his blind date? Should you help him analyze the reason for the argument? And you want to write him an order for tests, X-ray, ultrasound, CT, gastroscopy, liver function… since when did I know you were so good at ordering tests?”

“I’m sorry, Director Chi.”

“Besides saying you’re sorry, what else can you say?”

Chi Yuqin glanced at the small notebook in Tang Zhen’s hand, which she had crumpled at the edges. “Right, you can also write case histories.”

Tang Zhen’s face instantly flushed red.
The sun outside shone directly on her upper body.
At this moment, Tang Zhen couldn’t open her eyes, but she couldn’t lift her head either.

Red face, lowered head, pursed lips, clenched fingers.

Compared to being led by the nose by the patient just now, these were Chi Yuqin’s real taboos.

“Lift your head.”
Chi Yuqin’s voice had a commanding tone.

Tang Zhen forced herself to lift her head.

That flushed red face, those eyes that, even when looking at her, were still flickering, all fell into Chi Yuqin’s eyes.

She was like a red tomato about to burst.
She didn’t even need someone else to put pressure on her.
She could explode on her own, exposing all her shortcomings without a single one left.

Lack of experience can be accumulated, lack of skill can be learned.
But if there was no pride in her, if she was overly humble and passive from head to toe, then how could she grow?

Confidence was something you gave yourself, not something someone could force into your head.

“Does it make you uncomfortable when I look at you like this?”

“No.”

“Then why can’t you look at me? And your face is so red? Do you want to listen to how fast your breathing is?”

Outside the door, nurses pushing treatment carts would pass by from time to time.
The rattling of the wheels sounded like they were rolling over Tang Zhen’s heart.

Tang Zhen was uncomfortable.
She was already trying her best to restrain herself.

But in Chi Yuqin’s eyes, this bit of restraint was better than no restraint at all.

“Tang Zhen, how are you going to get on the operating table like this? Just being looked at by someone can make you breathe so rapidly. In the future, if a scalpel is placed in your hands, what will you do? When a patient entrusts their life to you, will you blush like this? When the patient’s family looks at you like this, are you planning to respond with a red face, a lowered head, and rapid breathing?”

“Think about what I said. Clinical work is inherently difficult. Even if you quit, it’s not shameful.”

With that, Chi Yuqin turned sideways and walked past her.

Tang Zhen’s heart clenched fiercely.

When Liu Sisi came over, Tang Zhen was the only one in the main office, standing in the harsh midday sun.

“What are you doing?”
Liu Sisi pulled her away from the window.
“Standing in the sun, aren’t you hot?”

“What’s wrong with you? Let go of your hand, relax.”
With that, she pried open Tang Zhen’s clenched fist, finger by finger.

“The blood isn’t circulating, it’s all white. Are you okay?”

“Sisi—”

“Hmm?”

“Do you have any coffee? I’m out. Can I borrow two packets? I’ll buy you some tomorrow and return them.”

“Sigh~ what’s there to return for two packets of instant coffee! They’re in my drawer. Just go get them yourself.”

“Thank you.”

Liu Sisi took her things and was about to leave, but after two steps, she stopped and looked at Tang Zhen again, asking—

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“Really fine?”

“What could be wrong with me?”

“But your eyes… are very red…”

“The sun is too bright.”

Most of the time, Tang Zhen was full of energy, like she had been injected with chicken blood.
It was rare to see her so listless.
Liu Sisi felt that something was not right, but she didn’t know what was wrong.

“Hey—if your eyes are uncomfortable, I have eye drops in my drawer too. You can get them yourself.”

“Okay.”

After Liu Sisi left, Tang Zhen chewed two packets of instant coffee and then went to wash her face.

She was wiping her hands with a tissue from the desk when Old Man Tang’s WeChat message came in.
He had taken a few pictures of the park in their residential area and sent a string of sixty-second voice messages.

Old Tang said the park had been renovated… they had added a badminton court and a basketball court, and even an artificial lake.
At night, there was a musical fountain.
He and her mom were planning to take a walk there again in the evening and would send her more pictures then.

Old Tang’s voice was cheerful.
Hearing it, the tears Tang Zhen had just held back immediately welled up again.

Tang Zhen missed home, and she wanted to cry.
But she couldn’t tell Old Tang, otherwise, with his protective nature, he would probably call her right away and tell her to come home.

To strive, to be proactive, but it was always too late…

The hexagonal warrior Tang Zhen had just built up was shattered again.

Sigh…

Meanwhile, Chi Yuqin was studying the surgical plan.

She heard Zhao Qin, who was making tea next to her, say—

“Director Liu’s annual treat-everyone-to-a-meal day is here again.”

Liu Renzong was good at sucking up to his superiors and managing his subordinates.
He would do this every now and then, especially when new people came in.

Under the guise of rewarding everyone, after a few glasses of yellow wine, all he would talk about were vulgar and tasteless off-color jokes.

Of course, Liu Renzong wouldn’t dare to do anything to Chi Yuqin.
Even if he didn’t care about Director Wang’s face, he wouldn’t dare to be presumptuous just based on Chi Yuqin’s family background.

Back then, Chi Yuqin had given him no face at all.
Seeing that the atmosphere at the table was not right, she stood up and left.

From then on, Liu Renzong had been targeting Chi Yuqin, both openly and secretly.

“That time, it was lucky you were there. Otherwise, with my little tolerance, I would have been drunk under the table by them.”
Zhao Qin was disgusted just thinking about it.
“Sometimes I really don’t understand. He’s a capable person, but the things he does are so unbefitting of a person.”

“What’s there not to understand? It’s just a man’s nature.”

“Just wait and see. I have a feeling that Liu Renzong will trip up on this matter sooner or later.”

For some reason, after Zhao Qin said this—

Tang Zhen’s flushed red face suddenly flashed in Chi Yuqin’s mind.

Zhao Qin took a sip of water and looked at Chi Yuqin, then suddenly thought of something—

“Hey—”

“Hmm?”

“Are you on your period?”

Chi Yuqin’s hand, which was drawing a vascular diagram, suddenly paused— “Hmm?”

“Women, slaves to hormones. Can’t control your temper, can you? I saw you scolding little Tang in the main office.”

“She’s fresh out of school, with zero clinical experience. Of course, she’s going to be at a loss when she encounters some difficult patients. And she’s only been here for a few days. The little girl is doing great. Her case histories have never had any mistakes, and she hasn’t made any mistakes when admitting patients. Compared to Ge Weiwei and the others, little Tang is lacking in practical experience. I’m telling you, if she had a few more years of clinical experience, little Tang might not necessarily lose to you or me.”

“Although a strict teacher produces a good student, don’t keep telling her to quit. It hurts her self-esteem. Girls these days are thin-skinned. We know you’re doing it for her own good, but if she had written any of those orders today, a complaint would have been certain.”

Zhao Qin raised her water cup and pointed her finger in the air—

“You, you…”

As soon as she left, Chi Yuqin threw down the pen in her hand.

She had been going on and on for so long, and she hadn’t been able to get a word in edgewise.

‘I’m not on my period. She did deserve to be scolded. But… so I was wrong to scold her?’

‘Making a mistake and still wanting to have dignity, what kind of world is this?’

She pulled open a drawer.
Inside was a glass jar… filled with candy.
She stuffed two pieces into her mouth.
Not enough.
She poured out another handful and stuffed them into her mouth, her back teeth grinding with a crunching sound.

After holding them for only a few seconds, she bit them all into pieces.