Chapter 2423: 2339 Since You've Come, You Might as Well (Alliance Leader Feng Xiaoxiao y Extra Chapter 3)

A man was dragged in by two family members.

He wore a bright red system panel, the color so alarming that Zheng Ren, without even checking the system diagnosis, knew he at least needed hospitalization.

As for how serious it is, Zheng Ren estimates that even one or two surgeries wouldn't resolve it.

The boss is just a minor ailment, yet he worries to death; but this person in front of him is already seriously ill and refuses to come to the hospital no matter what.

One kind of rice feeds a hundred kinds of people — that saying is truly true.

"Doctor, doctor!" a younger family member shouted loudly, even though Zheng Ren and the others were right in the hallway, but he acted as if he couldn't see them.

The voice was extremely loud, echoing, giving off a smell of adrenaline and corticosteroids.

Such loud shouting at people is all too common in the emergency department, so doctors and nurses alike have grown accustomed to it.

"What's going on?" Zhou Litao asked, frowning.

The four people who came forward didn't look like patients at all — their steps were firm, their movements swift, and even the way they pushed and pulled each other didn't seem sickly.

This surely means someone at home is sick, but they don't care; the relatives are anxious and just drag them to the hospital.

"Hello, doctor." The younger family member, seeing Zhou Litao open up, hurried over and politely said, "My second uncle has rheumatoid arthritis, but the problematic wrist has started oozing pus these past two days; we're worried, so we brought him in for a look."

"It's just a boil; why come to the hospital to look?" the slightly older person behind him, presumably the patient, said unhappily.

"It hurts with any movement, and I have to change the gauze seven or eight times a day — this isn't serious, do we really have to wait until the wrist rots completely?" his partner's woman shouted directly.

Zhou Litao has seen this situation many times and isn't particularly concerned. The patient themselves is the disease's carrier; if they felt any discomfort, they'd have couldn't stand it long ago, and few are urged to come see a doctor.

Of course, except for some cancer treatments. Some patients, as long as they don't come to the hospital, pretend the cancer doesn't exist.

This, too, is human nature.

The patient didn't move, still arguing with his lover.

He didn't move, so Zhou Litao had to go over himself. Zheng Ren narrowed his eyes and followed silently behind Zhou Litao, like a snow leopard on the hunt, to see the patient's wound that is redressed seven or eight times daily.

"Brother, since we've come, just let the doctor have a look. If it's nothing, we'll go back," another middle-aged person urged.

No amount of big reasoning beats the four words "since we've come"; the patient, too, is a bit impatient, thinking that since we've come, we might as well just take a look.

He extended his left arm, which had been hanging at his side, with a piece of gauze stuck to the inner wrist, the gauze faintly soaked with liquid.

"There's nothing wrong, it's just rheumatoid arthritis — what's there to see?" the patient said disdainfully.

Seeing Zhou Litao about to open the patient's gauze, Zheng Ren reminded him from behind.

Manager Zhou surely didn't take this patient seriously — a patient who walks in fine, can talk and argue, how could there be anything wrong?

Zhou Litao hesitated slightly, thinking it unnecessary, but still took the patient to the treatment room.

He opened a sterile dressing pack, then lifted the patient's gauze.

The patient's entire left hand was swollen, centered on the thumb and index finger. On the inner side of the left wrist joint there was a break about 0.5 by 0.4 cm.

Yellow-green pus oozed from the break, and the moment the gauze was opened, Zheng Ren smelled a strange odor.

He's surprisingly tolerant — even in this state he still won't come to the hospital, and Zheng Ren feels quite helpless about it.

"It's just a burst boil; what's the big deal? Take a few days of antibiotics and it'll be fine," the patient kept saying.

"How many days of antibiotics have you taken!" the patient's lover snapped, then turned to Zhou Litao and said, "Doctor, what do you think is going on?"

Zhou Litao didn't speak; instead, he repeatedly disinfected with iodine and applied pressure to the patient's wrist, trying to squeeze out the pus inside.

"It hurts..." As soon as he applied pressure, the patient jerked his hand back as if shocked.

"Have you had any external trauma? How did the boil break?" Zhou Litao asked.

"Doctor, I haven't had any external trauma. The boil... I didn't see it, but it feels like a boil." The patient tried to pull his hand back, but barely steadied himself, trembling as he answered Zhou Litao's question.

"Feel..." — that word leaves one speechless.

"Do you keep fish at home? Ornamental fish?" Zheng Ren asked.

"No..." the family member replied instinctively.

"No external trauma? Have you... gone out to play in the past month before getting sick?" Zheng Ren suddenly asked.

"Play?" several family members exclaimed in unison, "This doctor looks steady, but his questions are so unreliable."

"Well, this is part of the medical history, we have to ask." Su Yun added from the side.

Although he didn't know why his boss asked that, he habitually went along with it.

"I'm asking you, hurry up." Zhou Litao waved his hand, signaling the patient to extend his hand so he could disinfect it.

That just now really hurt; the patient, feeling the pain, instinctively ignored Zhou Litao's action and started to change the subject.

"We went out to play — last month we went to the Maldives," the patient quickly said.

"You played in the water, right?" Zheng Ren asked.

The patient and his family looked at Zheng Ren as if he were an idiot. "You go on vacation, and you go to a place like the Maldives — what else would you do there but play in the water!"

Zheng Ren got the answer he wanted from the family's looks, then said, "Get a CT of the wrist and admit him. Manager Zhou, tell the hand surgery doctor…"

"What hospital, what admission? There's nothing wrong — why admit me?" the patient shouted.

"Noise is prohibited in the hospital, you don't know that." Su Yun said disdainfully, "Whether you want to be admitted or not, ward 912 is missing a patient? Nonsense."

The family member got scolded and was a bit dazed.

"How many patients waiting for admission are staying in cheap hotels outside? Free up a bed for them," Su Yun continued.

"Don't make a fuss," Zheng Ren said solemnly, "First get a CT to see; I suspect you were stabbed by a marine creature while out playing…"

"Impossible — if I were injured, I'd know."

"A needle‑point puncture could easily go unnoticed; the skin heals quickly on the surface, but bacteria remain inside."

"What bacteria?" the family member asked anxiously.

"Let's do the test first and talk after seeing the results." Zheng Ren didn't answer directly; even if the Big Pig Trotter gave a diagnosis, he wouldn't readily jump to a conclusion.

Let's look at the images first and then talk.