Chapter 691: Need to Charge More!

"How much did you drink?" Ji Xiang sighed.

"Little brother, you don't understand. Alcohol might not be a good thing for the body, but for the spirit, wine is the flesh of the gods."

Ji Xiang found what the burly man said interesting, and not vulgar, but rather somewhat literary, which was in stark contrast to the dragon on his back, so he smiled and asked, "Your wife has a heavy hand; is she your real one?"

"That woman!" the burly man said bitterly.

Ji Xiang wanted to ask why he didn't get a divorce, but the words were swallowed back before they reached his lips.

Persuade to reconcile, not to divorce; Ji Xiang knew this much about the weight of things.

"Little brother, do you have something to say?" The burly man looked like a rough person, but his mind was extremely delicate; he turned his head to look at Ji Xiang.

"Don't move, the scales I just aligned will be crooked again if you move," Ji Xiang said hurriedly.

"Oh, oh, oh, I know, I won't move, I won't move," the burly man said. "Little brother, were you going to ask me why I don't get a divorce?"

"Heh." Ji Xiang didn't admit it, but he didn't deny it either.

"Let me tell you, I don't have much self-control. I didn't drink much when I was a kid, but when I went abroad to study, I suddenly became depressed in a strange environment."

Depression!

Ji Xiang immediately thought of his own recent experience with Empathy.

The inner world of a patient with Mental Illness is terrifying; they look normal, but no one knows what kind of torment they go through every day.

"Do you think I don't look like the type of person who would study abroad?" The burly man laughed, quite proud of himself.

"Uh, it's alright."

"When I was studying abroad, there were very few diploma mills, and degrees were worth something. It's not like now, where families have a few pennies and go out to get a diploma. But recently, it seems diplomas don't work anymore. Think about it, how could it still work when this stuff is everywhere?"

The burly man was very talkative and easygoing.

"That's true. Where did you study abroad?"

"United Kingdom, I got in on my own. Don't look at me like I was a rebellious youth with tattoos; I was actually a top student."

"Impressive." Ji Xiang aligned the scales on the burly man's back and began Suturing.

"When I went abroad, I felt extremely oppressed inside, I guess it was culture shock. Later, a classmate threw a party, and I tried drinking a few bottles of beer. I felt dizzy, and that feeling of depression suddenly disappeared!"

"How should I put it? Relaxing my emotions, enjoying the state of drinking, the whole person went from one extreme to another."

Ji Xiang listened to the burly man tell him about his study abroad experience, his eyes already blurring under the bright white lights.

Suturing is indeed a small job, but the burly man's requirement to perform cosmetic Suturing while aligning all the scales was simply too excessive!

Even for Ji Xiang, even for Ji Xiang who could see the finest details, this was a big job.

It was mainly because the tattoo had been there for a long time; from his youth to his prime, the burly man had developed a lot of adipose tissue under his skin, which had long since squeezed the scales to the point of deformation.

Wanting to align every piece perfectly and sew it up was extremely difficult, both in theory and in practice.

Ji Xiang even felt it was harder than performing surgery on Neymar.

Furthermore, the burly man was rambling on about his drinking experience, from drinking to resist depression while studying abroad, to drinking more and more, almost to the point of alcoholism, and then to getting married.

After marriage, his wife wouldn't let him drink so much, but he had many social engagements and couldn't avoid it.

He recounted all kinds of experiences as if he were talking about his own family treasures; Ji Xiang felt like a priest listening to someone's confession.

This is two jobs; I need to charge more!

Ji Xiang thought to himself.

Stitch by stitch, and it was cosmetic Suturing, so Ji Xiang did it quite perfectly.

After more than two hours, he finally restored the broken dragon from the middle completely, and overcame the interference of the deformation.

Looking at the sutured back, Ji Xiang was quite satisfied.

"Alright, go pay the bill in a while and get a Tetanus shot."

"My woman is also doing it for my own good. If it weren't for her, I would have frozen to death from alcoholism by now," the burly man concluded at the end.

He stood up and turned his head several times to look at his back, but couldn't see it.

Ji Xiang took a photo with his phone.

The burly man looked at the photo and was quite satisfied.

"Little brother, your skills are really high! Awesome! I didn't even think it would be sutured this well."

"It's alright."

The burly man put on his clothes and went out. At the door, a woman in her forties glared at him fiercely, grabbed his ear, and dragged him into the corner to lecture him as if he were her son.

Ji Xiang watched the bickering between the couple and smiled slightly.

"Xiao Ji, thank you for your hard work today," Meng Laoshi said, feeling a bit guilty and embarrassed.

"My eyes are a bit blurry; the foot lamp in our Treatment Room is too bright," Ji Xiang complained kindly.

"Usually, larger sutures are sent to the inpatient department, and the three or five stitches done in the emergency room are finished quickly, so I didn't notice the brightness of the foot lamp."

"Meng Laoshi, that couple is quite interesting."

Ji Xiang said, glancing at the burly man being lectured by his ear in the corner.

"Heh." Meng Laoshi smiled.

Ji Xiang briefly told him about the life experience the burly man had described.

"Is that so?" Meng Laoshi said. "Speaking of tattoos, I know a girl, twenty-three or twenty-four years old, who has a tattoo on her arm. Her parents entrusted me to introduce a boyfriend to her."

"I chatted with the girl for a while and asked her what kind of person she was looking for. She said someone normal would do. Because she has a tattoo, it's hard to find a boyfriend. She also complained, saying that everyone discriminates against tattoos, and that she is a good girl."

"I asked her at the time, why don't you look for one in your tattoo circle?"

Ji Xiang grinned.

It seemed that Meng Laoshi was also unwilling to indulge that girl.

Meng Laoshi shrugged, "She never looked for me again after that. However, if you have a tattoo, just wash it off; who hasn't had a reckless youth?"

As he spoke, Meng Laoshi looked at Ji Xiang.

It seemed that the person before them truly had never had one.

"Tattoos have their places; there are quite a few theories about tattoos on the lower abdomen. A Chief Resident mentioned it once while chatting during a consultation," Meng Qingfei sighed, "I really don't understand what young people are thinking these days."

"The lower abdomen, huh? That seems to be a habit in certain circles. Just keep your distance if you encounter it," Ji Xiang said.

"I heard from the Chief Residents that they are always very careful when they encounter people with tattoos on their lower abdomen or lower back. Especially with emergency Patients, they check for AIDS and syphilis immediately. The probability of a positive result is high, so it's best to be cautious."

Ji Xiang did not have much specific knowledge about this; he only knew that a certain circle would tattoo strange patterns on the lower abdomen or lower back, as if it were some kind of ritual.

The couple in the corner had finished their "discussion," and the woman returned with the dejected man.

"Doctor, I'm sorry to have troubled you," the woman said politely, "Please write up the bill for me, I'll go pay now."

After speaking, she turned back and glared at the man.

The man was well-behaved, like a little lamb.

(End of chapter)