Chapter 692: How to Not Follow the Rules in a Competition

Meng Qingfei took out the bill he had already prepared; the woman took one look at it and flew into a rage, stamping her feet and pointing at the burly man's nose as she unleashed another torrent of abuse.

The burly man just chuckled, not daring to let out so much as a fart.

However, the woman knew the rules well enough not to make too much of a scene in the hospital corridor; after cursing for a bit, she went to pay the bill.

"Meng Laoshi, have you ever encountered patients with alcoholism?" Ji Xiang asked.

"In the Emergency Department, encountering similar patients... to be honest, it's not very common." Meng Qingfei gave Ji Xiang an answer he hadn't expected.

"Huh?!" Ji Xiang had wanted to hear Meng Qingfei's description of alcoholism, but he hadn't expected Meng Qingfei to say it was rare.

"Most of the drunks in our Northeast die, so they don't make it to the Emergency Department." The Emergency Internal Medicine Doctor had been watching the spectacle, and now that the show was over and Ji Xiang still didn't understand, he added this remark.

"Die?" Ji Xiang was surprised.

"Alcoholism means drinking until you're unconscious year-round. If this were the South, you could just sleep it off on the side of the road or in the grass. But it's so cold here; every year, a few people drink too much and freeze to death."

"They aren't wearing any clothes when they die, as if they feel very hot, you know?" Meng Qingfei asked Ji Xiang.

Ji Xiang knew about this, so he nodded.

"Why drink so much," Meng Qingfei said. "We once had a doctor who was an alcoholic. Later, while on duty, he hid in an empty patient room to drink in the middle of the night, and ended up having a hypertensive cerebral hemorrhage in the second half of the night."

"..."

"Doctor! Doctor!!"

Just as Meng Qingfei was talking about past events regarding alcoholism, rapid footsteps suddenly echoed in the corridor.

What Emergency Department doctors fear most is the wailing sound of an Emergency Vehicle, followed by someone shouting for a doctor from far away.

Meng Qingfei and the Emergency Internal Medicine Doctor walked out side-by-side and stood at the edge of the corridor to look.

It was a man carrying a patient on his back, jogging over; the man's body was a bit weak, and one could already see his legs trembling.

"What's the illness!" Meng Qingfei asked loudly.

"Took medicine!"

Meng Qingfei smiled slightly, turned his head to look at the Emergency Internal Medicine Doctor, and raised his hand in a gesture of invitation.

The Emergency Internal Medicine Doctor looked somewhat distressed, sighed deeply, walked to the entrance of the Emergency Rescue Room, and beckoned, "Over here!"

Afterward, she had the Nurse prepare the gastric lavage machine.

The man carried the patient inside; Meng Qingfei had been about to leave in a relaxed manner, but he suddenly froze, as if he had seen something.

But Meng Qingfei seemed unsure; he frowned and pondered, standing like a statue.

Taking medicine, gastric lavage—the Emergency Department often encounters such patients.

Even patients within the hospital taking medicine are not uncommon.

"Meng Laoshi, are you interested in this too?" Ji Xiang asked.

Meng Qingfei hesitated for a moment, then shook his head. "Pfft, interested in what? It's just a moment of despair, nothing to be done."

"A moment?"

"A few years ago, we had a contracted nurse in our department. Both her parents died when she was young, and she grew up in her uncle's house, extremely starved for affection. She found a boyfriend, but when they were preparing to get married, the boyfriend's family looked down on her for being poor."

"This... that shouldn't be enough to drive someone to that," Ji Xiang said.

Meng Qingfei looked up and glanced at Ji Xiang. "You're still young; you'll understand in a few years."

"Alright, what happened next?"

"This girl was on shift with me. I saw her mental state wasn't right, so I asked around and probed for a long time."

"Old Meng, why do I feel like you're interested in Li Hui? Actually, I feel like Li Hui is pretty good to you too. If you weren't married..."

A passing Nurse said.

Meng Qingfei's expression changed slightly, and he immediately scolded, "Don't talk nonsense."

Ji Xiang chuckled and walked back to the Consultation Room with Meng Qingfei. As they walked, Ji Xiang asked, "What happened later? You didn't manage to talk her out of it?"

"I'm not a psychiatrist, and besides, she didn't have a mental illness; she just had a moment of despair and got stuck in a dead end. People, you know, all have similar situations. In today's terms, she just 'lost her head'." Meng Qingfei said, "Li Hui ended up taking all the medicine she could find at home, a real mess; she was truly aiming for death."

"I wasn't on duty the day she took the medicine. When I heard the news later, she had already been successfully resuscitated in the ICU. I went to see her, and she was groggy, holding my hand and saying, 'Brother Meng, I want to drink cola.'"

And she said it was nothing!

Ji Xiang didn't dare look at Meng Qingfei, instead lowering his head to mutter to himself.

"After that, Li Hui resigned and went to a physical examination clinic. The work was easy, and her mood gradually improved. It's just that she took so much medicine at the time, I don't know which one caused an Embolization of the lower limb arteries, so she was left with a permanent ailment."

"And now?"

"She got married long ago, has children, and her life should be happy," Meng Qingfei said. "But the vast majority of patients who take medicine don't really want to die. For example, nurses in our hospital who want to transfer positions—as long as they are thick-skinned enough, they get a bunch of Estazolam. Who knows if they took it? Anyway, once they arrive, we have to resuscitate them first."

"Transfer positions?" Ji Xiang mused. "Is it because they can't handle the shift rotations anymore?"

"Nurses on shift rotations, before 30, or at most 35, they completely can't handle it anymore. You can't just discard old nurses whenever you want, just like those big factories—it's shameless."

"But staying on also has problems; that is, there are fewer and fewer people doing the frontline work, and more and more people just coasting. Being shameless, actually, has its reasons, so many nurses take medicine to scare the Nursing Department."

"We have permanent staff positions, and the leaders are most afraid of these messy situations. Whether the clinical work can be done is one thing, but if someone actually dies, the leaders will definitely have to take the fall."

The logic here was very helpless; Ji Xiang thought about it and found it particularly dull.

Distributing resources based on who makes the most noise—that is roughly the logic.

Although Ji Xiang disdained this, it was one of the basic rules of society, and Ji Xiang was powerless to change it.

"As long as they are thick-skinned, nurses who can cause trouble all get good positions. Those who are thin-skinned and willing to work just keep dragging along on the front lines. Xiao Ji, have you felt it? Society is like this; it's not about who follows the rules, but who can reasonably not follow the rules."

Meng Qingfei looked at Ji Xiang, wanting to observe his micro-expressions.

The last part of the last sentence was Meng Qingfei's summary of life; he wanted to see if Ji Xiang understood.

A young person who has just stepped out of the ivory tower will inevitably disagree with this statement. Whoever can realize this from the friction of society first will have the first-mover advantage.

However, Ji Xiang didn't seem to need it; this guy was full of good fortune.

But Meng Qingfei always felt absent-minded, and that feeling of having missed something surfaced once again.

"Meng Laoshi, I think I understand," Ji Xiang smiled. "Don't worry, I really do understand."

Meng Qingfei nodded.

Seeing that Meng Qingfei's expression was somewhat strange, Ji Xiang asked in confusion, "Meng Laoshi, what is it?"

"I think I saw something just now, but I can't recall it all of a sudden," Meng Qingfei said with a troubled look. "Help me remember."

(End of chapter)