Chapter 213: 212: Keeping Up Appearances
Chapter 213: Chapter 212: Keeping Up Appearances
Saturday was another busy day for Yu Zhiming.
He rushed to the Qi Yue Medical Research Center just after eight in the morning to start the corporate wellness check-ups.
At noon, he once again cut his break short by half an hour.
Combined with a slight increase in his work efficiency, this allowed Yu Zhiming to complete the check-ups for all one hundred and twenty people by just after four-thirty in the afternoon.
During today’s check-ups, Yu Zhiming had newly diagnosed one patient with ovarian cancer and nine others with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, among other conditions.
Afterward, he took Qiao Lei and hurried to the general surgery department, where he met Dr. Cui Zhitan and the colon cancer patient he had found.
The patient’s name was Xiaolan. She was forty-five years old, a woman with long hair and distinguished features.
In Doctor Cui’s office, Yu Zhiming saw Xiaolan, dressed in a hospital gown, along with her husband.
Xiaolan also had a seventeen-year-old son and an eleven-year-old daughter, who were waiting outside the office with her mother.
Yu Zhiming got straight to the point. “Ms. Xiao, I must tell you that for this colon tumor surgery, having me determine the amount of intestine to resect carries a certain degree of risk.”
“I cannot guarantee a complete resection of the cancerous tissue.”
Xiaolan’s face was tense, but she nodded. “Dr. Yu, Director Cui has already explained the risks and everything to us in detail.”
“We trust Director Cui.”
“And Dr. Yu, we have even more faith in your abilities!”
Their forthrightness and absolute trust actually made Yu Zhiming a bit uncertain.
He turned to Doctor Cui and asked doubtfully, “Doctor Cui, you didn’t give them some kind of guarantee or promise, did you?”
Doctor Cui chuckled. “How could I do something so unreliable?”
“I just explained the surgical plan and its risks to them in full detail, without any sugarcoating or downplaying the serious parts.”
“As for you, Dr. Yu, I only gave a brief, two-sentence introduction, and they said they had complete faith in your medical skills and ethics.”
Yu Zhiming turned his gaze back to Xiaolan.
“Ms. Xiao, has someone mentioned me to you before?”
Xiaolan shook her head and said slowly, “Dr. Yu, last night after we learned that Director Cui and you would be performing my surgery, we looked up information about both of you online.”
“Director Cui is a renowned expert in general surgery.”
“As for you, Dr. Yu, there was even more information online. The most praised descriptions called you ’Fire-Eyed, Golden-Gazed’ and the ’killer of extremely early-stage cancers’.”
Xiaolan let out a soft breath and continued, “But the thing that moved me the most was…”
“You treated that guy who swallowed live loaches, without any hesitation and regardless of the risks.”
“That incident demonstrated your superb medical skills, but more importantly, it fully revealed your noble medical ethics.”
Xiaolan said with a solemn expression, “I’m certain that someone as highly respected as Director Cui, and someone with your exquisite skills and unparalleled ethics, Dr. Yu, wouldn’t casually use a patient like me for an experiment without being sufficiently confident.”
Hearing this, Yu Zhiming felt quite pleased.
Regardless of what Xiaolan truly thought, her words were certainly pleasant to hear.
Yu Zhiming smiled with satisfaction and said, “Ms. Xiao, since Doctor Cui and I have taken on your surgery, we will definitely do our utmost and be responsible for your future.”
“In that case…”
Yu Zhiming said thoughtfully, “After you’ve recovered from the surgery, come back for a follow-up with me every six months.”
“If a problem does arise, we’ll be able to detect and treat it early.”
“Let’s sign the agreement…”
Doctor Cui handed a few documents to Yu Zhiming. “They already signed all the relevant paperwork before you arrived…”
After some preparations, Xiaolan’s surgery began at 5:20 PM.
A minor task like opening the abdomen naturally fell to Yu Zhiming, who was serving as the surgical assistant.
Doctor Cui, who was supervising, said with a hint of schadenfreude, “A nurse told me that other patient regretted her decision after waking up.”
“Today she was crying her eyes out, saying she shouldn’t have been afraid to take a risk and reject our surgical plan.”
As he made the incision, Yu Zhiming replied softly, “People like her are overly cautious; they just think too much.”
“If she had accepted our surgical plan, she might be crying her eyes out right now, worrying about what to do if the cancer relapses.”
Doctor Cui scoffed, his tone dripping with disdain. “That whole family’s brains are rusted shut. Not a single one of them could see reason.”
“So what if it really did relapse?”
“With your abilities, Dr. Yu, a check-up every six months would let you nip any potential recurrence in the bud. It wouldn’t cause any major damage to her body…”
Amid their back-and-forth chatter, Yu Zhiming smoothly opened the abdominal cavity, used a retractor to spread the incision, and fully exposed the colon.
Yu Zhiming reached his right hand directly inside and first felt all the organs within reach in the abdominal cavity—the small intestine, duodenum, cecum, as well as the liver, kidneys, and uterus—giving each a once-over.
He called it, for lack of a better term, a complimentary internal organ check-up.
This made Doctor Cui want to roll his eyes. ’He’s just taking the opportunity to get some free practice and hone his sense of touch.’
After a moment, Doctor Cui saw Yu Zhiming finally begin to examine the colon, running his hands over it inch by inch.
“Yu…”
Doctor Cui had just uttered a single syllable when he stopped short.
He looked up and noticed that the man, Yu Zhiming, had his eyes slightly closed, the corners of his brows tilted up.
Although the surgical mask obscured the lower half of his face, Doctor Cui could effortlessly deduce from the expression in Yu Zhiming’s eyes and brows that…
Yu Zhiming was wearing an expression of pure enjoyment.
Pure enjoyment?!!!
Doctor Cui couldn’t help but grind his teeth and feel a chill run down his spine.
’This is seriously twisted.’
’How can a grown man have an expression of enjoyment while touching an internal organ like the intestines?’
’Is this what they mean by “no madness, no mastery”?’
’Is it this extreme obsession and complete devotion that allowed Yu Zhiming to master a skill for detecting visceral diseases unparalleled in the medical world at such a young age?’
Thinking of this, Doctor Cui couldn’t help but feel a surge of emotion.
There’s an inevitability to anyone’s success.
With this extraordinary level of dedication, Yu Zhiming had left many medical professionals, including himself, far behind, unable even to hope to catch up…
As Doctor Cui’s thoughts drifted, he saw Yu Zhiming finish his examination. He reached for a marker and deftly made circular cutting marks on both ends of the colon tumor.
The upper mark was about three to four centimeters from the tumor.
The lower mark was about two to three centimeters from the tumor.
This resection was a full thirteen to fourteen centimeters shorter than the extended resection of a conservative surgery.
Doctor Cui now had one hundred percent faith in Yu Zhiming, so he didn’t voice any doubts about the markings.
He reached out, took the scalpel from the scrub nurse, and took over the operation.
Yu Zhiming spoke up, “Doctor Cui, I have other plans this evening, so I’ll be leaving first.”
Doctor Cui nodded…
When Yu Zhiming had cleaned up and left the operating area, Xiaolan’s family immediately surrounded him, their faces etched with worry.
“The surgery is going smoothly, but it’s not over yet!”
Yu Zhiming quickly explained, adding, “My part in the operation is finished. Doctor Cui is in charge of the rest.”
“The surgery should be over in about another hour.”
Yu Zhiming reassured them, “It’s not a difficult operation. It’s well within Doctor Cui’s capabilities, so you don’t need to worry.”
As he spoke, Yu Zhiming caught a glimpse of a familiar figure gracefully approaching from the corner of his eye.
Yu Zhiming couldn’t help but turn his head to look…
Long, voluminous, curly hair; a loose-fitting, irregularly striped top that revealed her alluring collarbones; slim-fit capri pants that showcased her long legs; and a pair of open-toed leather shoes with six- or seven-centimeter heels.
Paired with delicate, light makeup, dangling hoop earrings that peeked out as she walked, and a red jadeite pendant necklace around her neck…
This transformed Gu Qingning from the youthful beauty Yu Zhiming was familiar with into a seductive, glamorous, and radiant woman.
Yu Zhiming walked over to meet her.
“Qingning, aren’t we just going to see your siblings and cousins? They’re all people you know. Is it necessary to dress up so formally?”
“Did you even get your hair specially done?”
“And you put on makeup!”
Gu Qingning didn’t answer. Instead, holding her handbag in one hand, she first spun around gracefully, struck a beautiful pose, and asked with a raised eyebrow,
“Do I look good?”
“Good! Very good!” Yu Zhiming was always honest; he couldn’t bring himself to lie against his conscience.
“Do you like it?”
Yu Zhiming nodded again.
Gu Qingning beamed, stepped forward to link her arm with Yu Zhiming’s, and said in a sweet voice, “Zhiming, besides my siblings and cousins, their girlfriends and boyfriends will be there too.”
“Of course I have to dress up and look my best.”
“Zhiming, when girls get together, there’s always some secret comparing going on—boyfriends, outfits, handbags, makeup… everything gets compared.”
Just then, Qiao Lei came over.
“Miss Gu, you look so beautiful today, so dazzling I can barely open my eyes.”
He started with a compliment, and just as he was about to ask about the next arrangements, Yu Zhiming cut in.
“Qiao Lei, you can head back.”
“Qingning and I are going to a party, so you don’t need to stay with us anymore…”
Driving his Mercedes, Yu Zhiming slowly left the General Surgery Building with Gu Qingning.
“My third sister…”
Gu Qingning chattered, “My third sister left Binhai at noon with their convoy of buses.”
“This time, some of the discharged patients and their families went back with them.”
“Fourth Sister went to look for properties again.”
After a brief pause, Gu Qingning changed the subject. “For this get-together, I know a bunch of my cousins will be there. Let’s see… four older male cousins, two older female cousins, and two younger female cousins.”
“With us, plus their boyfriends and girlfriends, it’ll be close to twenty people.”
Yu Zhiming commented, “You have a big family.”
Gu Qingning chuckled. “Our family’s always been pretty fertile.”
“Starting from the older generation, having three or four kids per family was considered a small number.”
Yu Zhiming made a sound of understanding and then asked, “Qingning, what’s your birth order? I mean, your actual siblings?”
Gu Qingning said, a bit sheepishly, “My immediate family is small. I just have one older brother.”
“He’s really busy with work, and he’s more than ten years older than me, so he doesn’t usually hang out with us.”
Yu Zhiming acknowledged this and then emphasized, “Qingning, like we said before, I’m just here to be your backup. I’m not getting involved in anything else.”
“Don’t you go pulling any last-minute stunts.”
Gu Qingning’s eyes crinkled with a smile. “I know, I know. You just have to act all cool and aloof…”