Great Doctor Ling Ran

*Wee woo… wee woo…*

The ambulance of Cangping District Hospital parked itself steadily at the entrance of Lower Groove Clinic. Two young adults got out of the ambulance, limping and putting on strong fronts. They then stood at the door. Together, they stared at the words “Lower Groove Clinic” and sank into deep thought.

“The antler mark on my brother’s arm was stitched by the doctor in this clinic. All of you have seen how the mark looks like now.” Lu Jinling moved past them with brisk steps and greeted Ling Jiezhou, who was at the door before she went straight into the clinic.

The two young adults then watched the red and yellow lights flashing on both sides of the door and continued to ponder.

“Going to a clinic is cheaper than going to the hospital. We’re doing this for your own good.” Stinky Two got down from the driver’s seat.

“Fine. If you’ve brought us to a clinic, then so be it. I used to have my stitches done in unlicensed clinics, and it was alright.” The young man spread his arms, then grimaced in pain.

When they entered the clinic, they saw a doctor laying under a tree while playing with his mobile phone. Lu Jinling moved towards Ling Ran and spoke to him while smiling.

“The patients are here, stop playing already.” To Ling Jiezhou, customers were gods, hence, he called out to Ling Ran while he moved towards the two young people courteously.

This was the difference between small clinics and large hospitals. Small clinics would have repeat customers. In fact, most of the patients in small clinics were repeat customers. The frail residents of a community would practically visit these clinics almost every year. Patients with chronic diseases would also always drop by to buy medication like Amlodipine [1] or Mayinglong Musk Hemorrhoids Ointment Cream [2].

Large hospitals were different, especially when it came to the surgical departments. If a guest returned about two or three times, then it would mean that he or she was about to return to the embrace of the earth.

The background music of a game chimed from Ling Ran’s mobile phone.

Lu Jinling smiled and said, “There’s no need to rush. They drove all the way here without any problems. They’ll be fine waiting for a few more minutes.”

Injured A: (⊙ˍ⊙)

Injured B: (⊙ˍ⊙)

“I’ll stop playing now,” Ling Ran handed his phone to Lu Jinling and said, “You play.”

“Umm… I don’t know how to…” Lu Jinling suddenly regretted not learning how to play games.

Ling Ran put on his white coat and began to wash his hands before he said, “It’s alright. I often lose too.”

“Oh… okay.” Lu Jinling looked down and began to study the game. After half a minute, she suddenly realized that she was holding Ling Ran’s mobile phone! ‘Ling Ran’s mobile phone is in my hands! I just have to exit this game…’

“Come and sit in front of me.” Carrying out debridement and suturing was now a breeze for Ling Ran. It was almost as easy as breathing, and it was especially so for common body parts such as the arm. Not only was he now extremely familiar with patients with regular anatomical structures, even if he ran into those with strange anatomical structures, he would not find them too bizarre to handle anymore.

As far as clinical medicine was concerned, those with different anatomy posed the greatest challenge to doctors. The most typical irregular type of anatomy were those with situs inversus. Individuals with this condition had their major organs positioned in reverse from that of a normal person. In conventional open-heart surgery, one would find the heart on the left side. However, when carrying out surgery for those with situs inversus, one would need to look for the heart on the right side. For a surgeon who had performed hundreds of identical or similar operations, this troublesome situation was similar to a basketball player suddenly playing on a wooden floor after getting accustomed to playing on concrete. They would only be able to get accustomed it after obtaining some experience by operating on several people with the condition. Also, they should not hope to be able to perform brilliantly just by having some experience.

Ling Ran was now looking forward to encountering more irregular anatomical structures, but unfortunately, the young man with the injured arm was just a normal human being. Even his muscles and out-turned skin tissue looked plain and normal.

“Doctor Xiong, please help the patient with the bruise.” After Ling Ran finished speaking, he concentrated on the patient before him.

No matter what, even if the person before him was a regular person and even if this was just a simple wound debridement and suturing, it was still surgery.

Ling Ran carefully cleaned up the patient’s wound, injected local anesthesia, and mentioned that he was going to start suturing the wound before he inserted the needle.

At that moment, the young man, who was usually as confident and fierce as a tiger, could only pretend to be very tough while he gazed into the distance.

Even if the scenery before him in the distance was beautiful enough to be written into a poem, he could not even come up with a single line.

Even if there was a needle near him, he did not want to look at it.

The needle was inserted.

The needle was withdrawn.

“Young Ran… The boy seems to be doing very well.”

“His actions appear to be a bit stiff. It makes him look like he’s not a doctor.”

“If he doesn’t look like a doctor, then what does he look like?”

“In my opinion, he looks like someone… you see selling cantaloupes on the streets. He just needs to pick up a rotten cantaloupe, cut off the rotten parts, get rid of the core, put some toothpicks in it, and voila.”

Several elderly patients were standing in front of the window of the clinic, chatting. The young man with the broken arm stared at them, but there was thread in his arm, so he could not do anything to the old men and old ladies.

“Do you want a huge scar or a small scar?” Ling enquired after sewing two stitches.

The patient bared his teeth. “There’s an option for having a huge scar?”

“Of course. I’ve run into some patients who asked for suture scars that are prominent, and the more ferocious they are, the better,” Ling recounted his personal experience.

The patient was stunned for a while and asked with uncertainty, “How big would the huge scar be, and how small would the small scar be?”

Ling Ran explained it seriously, “If you want a small scar, then I’ll use the surgical catgut. If you heal well, you can only see a slightly darkened suture mark, and you wouldn’t need to remove the thread, but the cost is higher. If you choose to have a huge scar, your wound could be done up to the breadth of four fingers wide, and it’ll be half the length of a palm. You could also use thread of a different color to bring out the incision, which makes the scar seem as if the cut had been deep enough to see the bone…”

“I choose the huge scar!” The injured young man came to a sudden realization. What Ling Ran was basically saying was that he could customize the scar to his own liking. Only a fool would not want to choose a huge scar. That was basically the same as being cut for nothing.

If Ling Ran said he could do something, then he would definitely be able to do it. In just a short moment, he completed the suture, and the hideous scar was reflected in the mirror for the patient before he bandaged it.

[New Achievement Unlocked: Patient’s sincere gratitude]

[Achievement Description: A patient’s sincere gratitude is the biggest reward to a doctor]

[Reward: Basic Treasure Chest]

A golden flash appeared before Ling Ran’s eyes. Behind the light was a young man holding his arm and smiling in a boyish manner.

Translator’s Note:

Amlodipine: A medication used to treat high blood pressure and coronary artery disease.
Mayinglong Musk Hemorrhoids Ointment Cream: A rose-colored cooling cream product to relieve hemorrhoid pain.