Chapter 221: It's All Fate

"What? Story background?"

"There's actually more? The patient's ghost wouldn't leave after they passed away? Wang Daxiao, in broad daylight, under the clear blue sky, don't talk nonsense."

Tang Yan was brimming with interest, but the Circulating Nurse warned her.

"Haha, you don't get it, there are all sorts of strange things in clinical practice." Wang Daxiao was very smug, "That's why the young nurses in our department envy you all."

"What's there to envy? I'm only 23 and I have varicose veins in both lower limbs, it's so ugly." Tang Yan said, "I have to wear compression stockings now whenever I go into surgery."

"Black ones?"

"Pah! You lecher."

"I didn't say I wanted to look. Wearing stockings into surgery... is very normal. Don't talk about a young girl like you, plenty of old doctors wear stockings into surgery."

"Don't change the subject, you continue." The Circulating Nurse pulled the topic back from the black stockings to the 'courting death' incident Wang Daxiao was talking about; her mouth said no, but her body was very honest.

"Ahem." Wang Daxiao kept them in suspense again.

However, he controlled the pacing quite well, only slowly getting to the serious business before everyone's patience ran out.

"The patient died, didn't they? We were also very sorry, but we had already repeatedly explained the evolution of the condition and the resulting consequences to the Family Member, and there was a recording from the Medical Affairs Department."

"But the patient was a bit paranoid, and the Family Member was the same. She started making a scene, not for money, just to get an explanation."

"Geez, then just apologize." The Circulating Nurse said.

"We did apologize. If an apology could solve things when encountering this kind of matter, everyone would be happy to do it. But the problem was that the Family Member's mind was also a mess; she didn't even know what she wanted herself."

As he spoke, Wang Daxiao sighed.

"People, the scariest thing is when they don't know what they want. If they wanted money, the Medical Affairs Department said the professor leading me wasn't at fault, but they could give her three thousand yuan from the perspective of humanitarian aid. At the time, three thousand was not a small sum."

"If they wanted an explanation, as long as they didn't make the professor admit that the Esophageal Cancer was a metastasis from Renal Cancer, anything else was fine." Wang Daxiao recalled the green days of his past, "Back then, the professor would take me to the Family Member every day to apologize with a hunched back, like a damn grandson. At the time, I felt being a doctor was pointless; how is this curing diseases and saving people?"

"Lu Xun said, studying medicine cannot save the people of the country." Tang Yan interjected.

"And then, Wang Daxiao?" The Circulating Nurse asked.

"The Family Member was even more bizarre. She didn't know what she wanted herself. People were simple back then, so she thought of a way—she said, 'My husband died on this hospital bed; if you don't give me an explanation, I won't get off this hospital bed.'"

"!!!"

"!!!"

Ji Xiang felt very helpless listening to Wang Daxiao tell the story from the past.

Since he was a child, he had heard his grandfather say that there are many people in the crowd with varying degrees of antisocial personality, and the things they do are unimaginable.

"And then, Wang Daxiao?"

"The Family Member just lay on the hospital bed, and the professor leading me had no choice." Wang Daxiao said, "Losing one hospital bed meant admitting fewer patients, it was very frustrating. The Family Member ate and drank on the bed, and when she needed to use the restroom, she would dash over in a flash and run back."

"Just like that, everyone knew about the Family Member lying on our team's hospital bed, and even doctors from other departments came to watch the spectacle. Gradually, I got used to it."

"At the time, the advanced training period was half a year. When I arrived, her husband had just died. By the time I finished my training and was about to return to the Second Affiliated Hospital, something happened."

"What happened!"

"The day before I left, the Family Member died suddenly on the hospital bed." Seeing Tang Yan about to speak, Wang Daxiao immediately interrupted her nonsense with the fastest speed possible, "Called the police, autopsy, it was long-term bed rest, Lower Extremity Deep Vein Thrombosis formed, and finally the Thrombosis detached, leading to Pulmonary Embolism."

"My god!"

"The couple really died on the same hospital bed?"

"Mm." Wang Daxiao nodded, "Actually, I had those superstitious thoughts at the time. If you ask me, people just shouldn't court death."

"Wang Daxiao, you're really right." Tang Yan felt a lingering fear.

Wang Daxiao checked for active bleeding, began to close the abdomen, and looked at Tang Yan with a smile.

"Yan'er, in the future when you're off duty, don't be lazy in bed. Being lazy in bed too much makes it easy to die suddenly."

"!!!"

"Wang Daxiao, that's going too far!" Tang Yan never expected the topic to return to her, and it was about her biggest hobby. Most importantly, this guy Wang Daxiao seemed to have a damn point.

"Hahaha." Wang Daxiao was smug.

It is normal to 'drive' (make suggestive jokes) in the operating room, but this kind of unique casual chat was rare.

The surgery ended, they sent the patient back to the ward, and Ji Xiang went to the locker room to change clothes.

Wang Daxiao was sitting in the locker room smoking, taking a deep drag, and the smoke didn't come out for a long time.

Ji Xiang felt that this way of smoking was also courting death.

"Ji Yisheng, don't be in a hurry to change clothes, come sit and rest for a while."

"Hehe, I'm afraid of getting Thrombosis." Ji Xiang joked.

"I was just joking with the young nurse. Whether you get Thrombosis or not is all fate. Usually, it takes a few months, but we have patients who get Thrombosis after 24 hours of immobilization following surgery." Wang Daxiao said, "Don't think too much."

"Teacher Wang, there is something I would like to ask for your opinion on." Ji Xiang did not sit down, but bowed slightly and said politely.

Wang Daxiao's eyelids twitched; he had a bad premonition.

"Speak, don't be so polite."

"Teacher Wang, I see the Total Penectomy patient in our ward is in the early stage. Do you think we could perform a Partial Resection?" Ji Xiang asked respectfully.

"..." A ray of light flashed across Wang Daxiao's shiny bald head.

"Partial Resection + Lengthening Surgery, it seems it could alleviate the patient's psychological anxiety."

Wang Daxiao looked at Ji Xiang deeply, like his mother seeing him smoke, and said in a low voice—why did you come back so early.

That posture was similar to being possessed by a ghost.

Ji Xiang didn't understand either. Although he felt Wang Daxiao would likely refuse, and although he didn't know how to persuade him, Ji Xiang just wanted to talk about it more.

However, Wang Daxiao looked at him as if he had seen a ghost, and Ji Xiang couldn't figure out why.

After a long time, Wang Daxiao said in a deep voice, "Ji Yisheng, who did you hear that from?"

"It's in the literature. It says that for early-stage penectomy, doing a Partial Resection + Lengthening Surgery has similar surgical results to a total resection, and the patient's psychological tolerance level increases linearly after surgery."

Wang Daxiao remained silent, took a deep drag of his cigarette, and a long time passed without a single wisp of smoke coming out.

One minute later, Wang Daxiao sighed.

There was no curling green smoke; the puff of smoke from just a moment ago had vanished without a trace.

……

……

Note: The matter of occupying a hospital bed occurred at Peking Union Medical College Hospital. I first heard the story from a teacher, later saw it mentioned on the Weibo of Liu Buyan, and then verified it once more. That person has passed away; I silently mark it here, with regret.

(End of this chapter)