Chapter 11: with translation of chapter title

Zheng Ren began relentless practice of appendectomy.

Zheng Ren employed all kinds of appendicitis cases and innovative techniques, using every method he had learned, seen, or heard of, and even made his own improvements.

Zheng Ren was eager to learn and subscribed to various medical literature.

Zheng Ren had a vivid imagination and countless ideas.

In the system space, Zheng Ren felt as if he had entered paradise, forgetting the prophecy of unknown death that loomed over him like a blade at his throat.

He devoted himself to improving his appendectomy skills, constantly putting even his wildest ideas into practice.

He even turned simple appendicitis cases into something fancy.

From initially taking 15 minutes per simple appendicitis case to finally handling a complex suppurative appendicitis in just 5 minutes, Zheng Ren forgot everything and became utterly absorbed.

The system's evaluation of his surgery improved from good to excellent.

With two days left, he was already able to reach the system's recognized perfect state.

But Zheng Ren dared not relax, continuing to optimize every step, for this was a matter of life and death, which he could not take lightly.

When the final second counted down to zero, the operating room around Zheng Ren vanished without any communication, and he was directly expelled from the system space.

Zheng Ren felt the system space grow dim, as if a thick layer of dark clouds pressed overhead, foretelling a violent storm. The air lost its freshness, filled with a bloody smell.

"Splash splash splash..." the sound of water reached his ears, and Zheng Ren snapped back to awareness.

Outside, time had not actually passed, yet Zheng Ren felt as if he had aged twenty years.

In that instant, he had performed over 2,300 appendectomies, completing a lifetime's worth of such surgeries.

He quickly rinsed the surgical instruments, placed the opened package into the disinfectant bucket, and then opened the operating room door.

Hello, Doctor Zheng.

The voice was resonant and powerful, neat and uniform.

The gang of thugs had disappeared, while Third Master leisurely stood at the doorway, and a dozen or so men in black suits on either side of the corridor simultaneously bowed in salute.

"Cool!" the crowd watching the excitement not far away erupted.

"Doctor Zheng, sorry, the lady has some temporary mundane matters to attend to." Third Master said politely, "Doctor Zheng, do you have time tonight?"

"Time?" He realized exactly what he lacked was time.

Zheng Ren replied without thinking, "No."

「……」 -> no.

The air was filled with an awkward atmosphere.

Third Master paused briefly, then smiled faintly, maintaining his composure, saying, "Then let's visit Doctor Zheng another day."

"You... you're too polite." Zheng Ren immediately realized he had misspoken, but under the system's "threat," he had no time for socializing; missing an appendectomy over this might mean the difference between life and death.

He steeled himself and apologetically said, "I really have been busy these days; after this period..."

Third Master didn't linger on pleasantries, summoned the previously fierce Xiao Liuzi, had him apologize to Zheng Ren, and then left.

As Third Master and his group departed, doctors and nurses from the emergency department gathered around, asking Zheng Ren what had happened to cause such a commotion.

"Zheng Ren, come to my office for a moment." Just as Zheng Ren felt helpless, a voice called out.

It was Director Pan returning; Zheng Ren quickly parted the crowd, saying, "Director Pan, you're back."

"Hmm, come to my office to talk."

The two entered the office; Director Pan, without ceremony, sat straight in the chair and said, "Your surgery yesterday was excellent."

Zheng Ren stared, surprised: "Director Pan, you know?"

Seeing Zheng Ren's expression, Director Pan guessed something and smiled, saying, "I'm an old friend of Mr. Bu; Professor Senyu declared the surgery a failure, yet the tumor was ultimately removed. And it was you who said you'd performed the surgery."

As he spoke, Director Pan laughed.

"Young man, do you still know how to hide your clumsiness?"

Zheng Ren was at a loss for words.

"You can do it, you're capable, even better than Professor Senyu—this is a good thing!" Director Pan said, "I'm not Liu Tianxing; I won't stifle your growth. I'm handing this platform to you—use whatever talent you have to shine on the emergency department stage."

A surge of passion rose in Zheng Ren's mind.

But he remained silent, his naturally somewhat blunt nature leaving him unsure how to express his feelings.

Director Pan asked, "Do you know what I've been up to?"

Zheng Ren was still unaccustomed to Director Pan's way of speaking and shook his head.

"I went to the institute to request personnel, preparing to launch emergency surgery." Director Pan's gaze was sharp, like a general before battle, fixing Zheng Ren with a stare: "Do you have confidence?"

No pleasantries, no preamble—just straight to the point.

In that instant, Zheng Ren took a liking to Director Pan's demeanor.

Hearing Director Pan say that, Zheng Ren almost burst into tears, feeling the resolve to die for a true confidant rise in his heart.

What troubled Zheng Ren most? Completing ten perfect-grade appendectomies within three days; after system training, the difficulty lay not in his skill.

In the system space, he had performed thousands of various appendectomies, feeling his single technique had reached master level or higher. Perfect-grade appendectomy still carried a small chance of error, but it was minimal.

The problem was where to get acute appendicitis patients for him to operate on, how to manage the operating room—at minimum needing a surgical team, plus an anesthesiologist, ward doctors, etc., and postoperative nursing staff as well.

In other words, appendectomy is one of the smallest procedures in general surgery, but to carry it out in the emergency department requires adding at least twenty staff positions.

Aside from the emergency department, Zheng Ren had nowhere else to perform appendectomies; returning to general surgery would offer no opportunity, and with time pressing, he couldn't switch jobs.

Just now Zheng Ren had even considered going to an underground black clinic to practice flying knives.

Seeing Zheng Ren's strange expression, Director Pan's brows furrowed, two black dragons seeming to emanate a stern aura.

Zheng Ren suddenly snapped to attention and replied, "Please rest assured, Director Pan; as soon as the staff are in place, we can launch the surgery immediately."

Hearing Zheng Ren say that, Director Pan's expression eased somewhat.

"Any ideas?"

"For the purpose of training the team, speeding up the integration, I plan to first do all the appendicitis Shou Bing." Zheng Ren said righteously.

"Bang!" Director Pan slapped the table, startling Zheng Ren.

"Your thoughts are the same as mine." Director Pan said: "Do you know what I've been doing all day?"

"I went around the hospital asking for people—from the director, the Nursing Department, the Anesthesiology Department." Director Pan said energetically: "Doctor Zheng Ren, I demand you show your hardworking fighting spirit and quickly assemble a team."

Normally, hearing such words would surely make Zheng Ren feel fatigued.

But today these words sounded especially pleasant to the ear, like a beautiful melody.

He truly seemed like his own savior; Zheng Ren even wanted to hug Director Pan and burst into tears.

With a knife at his throat, he still had to perform a perfect‑level surgery; the system's pressure on him was enormous, and Zheng Ren really wanted to vent.

"Please urge Director Pan again; if conditions allow, I'm ready to perform the surgery right away." Zheng Ren declared.

Director Pan was taken aback by Zheng Ren's words.

On the way back he kept thinking how to convince Zheng Ren, knowing that the Emergency Department now had only Zheng Ren as the lead surgeon; he himself was old, could only plug gaps, but if they really had to do five or six surgeries a day, he'd collapse in a few days.

He never expected things to go so smoothly; they had already slipped beyond control.

Director Pan fell silent, pointed to the chair opposite, and said: "Sit down and speak."

Only then did Zheng Ren realize he had been standing before Director Pan like a raw recruit.

"Little Zheng, I know you're a talent that's been buried." Director Pan changed tone, speaking earnestly: "Working in the Emergency Department may involve some hardship, but it will help you grow."

"Please rest assured, Director Pan, I don't mind hardship." Zheng Ren said firmly.

Director Pan hadn't expected Zheng Ren to be so eager; he had originally planned to come back and do ideological work on Zheng Ren, but didn't anticipate that Zheng Ren would be even more urgent than himself.

Youth is truly great—full of drive and energy.

"But nothing should be rushed; staff reassignments take time. Moreover, at first we can only put together a makeshift team, then gradually improve and fill it in."

But nothing can be rushed; personnel adjustments take time. Moreover, at the outset we could only set up a makeshift team first, and later gradually improve and supplement it.

……

In the dark unseen, everything follows heavenly decree.

Zheng Ren left Director Pan's office feeling dejected, his mind full of three days and ten surgeries.

If that's impossible, go to the villages around Hai Cheng and do bedside appendectomies.

But performing appendectomies on a kang bed makes it hard to achieve a perfect‑level result, given the sanitation conditions.

Zheng Ren worried, Zheng Ren felt gloomy, Zheng Ren didn't know what the system's inexplicable threat was.

Zheng Ren was troubled, Zheng Ren was depressed, Zheng Ren did not know what the system's inexplicable threat actually was.

……

Director Pan was like a catfish, stirring ripples on the otherwise calm water.

City First Hospital hadn't seen such a big move in years; soon the whole hospital knew the Emergency Department was about to launch surgical services.

The first to feel the impact were the General Surgery and Orthopedics Departments, because their minor procedures were exactly what the Emergency Department saw most often.

When they learned the Emergency Department had chosen acute appendicitis as its breakthrough point, the two directors of General Surgery Departments One and Two could not sit still.

They simply consulted briefly, then brought their junior doctors to the Emergency Department to confront them.

More than a dozen doctors in white coats appeared at one end of the hallway, with the two department heads as the arrowhead, deputy chief, responsible attending physician, inpatient chief, and clinical doctors arranged in a triangle, like a sharp arrow.

This scene was shocking—it was humanity's innate reverence for life.

Unfortunately, neither Zheng Ren nor Director Pan was immune to that awe.

"Old Pan, I heard you're going to start emergency surgery?" said the director of General Surgery One, Liu, unable to hold back, inwardly resenting Zheng Ren as a two‑faced trainee; he came to the Emergency Department without pleasantries and immediately picked a fight.

"Are you doctors transferred from the hospital to the Emergency Department?" Director Pan asked Liu with a sideways glance, feigning ignorance.

"Who would even want to work in the Emergency Department? I've never heard of such a thing." Liu didn't mince words and shot back immediately.

"Has General Surgery run out of work, leaving you so idle?" Director Pan, nicknamed "Big Cannon," spoke with biting sarcasm at a certain level: "You lot, acting like delicate young ladies, your chiefs are old and muddle‑headed, you don't understand anything—who gave you the guts to cause trouble in the Emergency Department?"

Director Pan pointed at the crowd of doctors; his aura was overwhelming—whoever he looked at lowered their heads, daring not to meet his gaze.

Director Pan pointed at the doctors, his aura invincible; no matter who he looked at, they would lower their heads, not daring to meet Director Pan's gaze.

Director Liu and Director Sun of General Surgery Department II both felt something was off; the two departments represented the province's top General Surgery technique strength, they had come to the Emergency Department to cause trouble, not to accept Director Pan's reprimand.

"Lao Pan, I respect your contributions back then at the military district hospital." Director Liu, having regained his composure, said in a gloomy tone: "In your Emergency Department, does anyone know how to perform surgery? If we really delay the emergency patients, who will be responsible?"

"Huh?" Director Pan, not at all prepared to indulge Director Liu, said: "Who taught you surgery? Do you even remember? Tell me who is responsible? I, Lao Pan, standing here, am naturally the one responsible!"

Director Liu's teacher was Director Pan's student; this not-so-obvious teacher-student relationship is known by few in the whole hospital.

Hearing Director Pan play the old-timer, Director Liu's face looked awful. He knew he couldn't out-argue Director Pan on this; after all, once the matter blew up, the hospital leadership would finally slap a big hat of "disrespecting elderly comrades" on him, and even if he was right, it would become wrong.

He would definitely shift the blame to Zheng Ren.

"Zheng Ren, your surgery was taught by me; you come to the Emergency Department just wanting to shoulder the main responsibility? I'm telling you, you're not up to it!"

Zheng Ren has a mild temperament; he never argues, talks back, or contradicts people.

But a cold light flashed at his neck; he only had three days.

Even a cornered rabbit will bite; Zheng Ren just couldn't be bothered to argue, it's not that he's timid.

Zheng Ren did not retreat; his eyes met Director Liu's, sparks flying everywhere.

"Director Liu, Director Pan, how about this?" Later, Zheng Ren said: "I will perform ten appendectomies; you two both come to watch. If any one surgery is unsatisfactory, has a problem, just say it directly—I, Zheng Ren, will resign immediately."