Chapter 24

When Liang Xun got up the next day, he felt sore all over, as if all his bones were broken and then put together and connected again. Although he could move without any hindrance, it would take some time to adapt.

Although he didn't make it to the end with Lin Shengwen, it could be said that he had made the final move. Lin Shengwen pressed him against the bathroom glass and kissed his shoulders several times... After they were done, Liang Xun was so tired that he had no strength left. He didn't care whether it was appropriate or not, and he lay down on Lin Shengwen's bed in a daze and fell asleep.

Even when Lin Shengwen got up in the morning to go to work, he was still in a coma.

When he thought of the beauty of last night, he wanted to bury himself in his clothes and quilt. And he did so - he fell back into Lin Shengwen's bed.

There was a light, refreshing fragrance on the sheets and pillowcases, the scent of that perfume.

Lin Shengwen didn't spray it on himself, but instead filled his private space with the scent. Liang Xun couldn't help but bury his face in the soft fabric and took a deep breath.

Summer is too unbearable, and the temperature in Ting City has reached a new high.

Lin Shengwen is not particularly afraid of heat, but it is also true that he subjectively does not like abnormally high temperatures.

The air conditioning in the conference room was turned down very low. As soon as Lin Shengwen entered, he saw Li Ye making a gesture to him, indicating that Lin Shengwen should sit in the seat next to him in the same row. However, Lin Shengwen ignored him and walked to Tao Tao, who was some distance away from Li Ye, and asked him how his mid-year report was going.

The neurosurgery department holds a weekly meeting, where several doctors report on the conditions of upcoming patients and the surgical methods being considered. Patients with complex and difficult cases are also brought together for comprehensive discussion before deciding on a treatment plan. This practice was established when the neurosurgery department at the First Hospital of Tingda Hospital was first established, and it has remained consistent throughout their practice, making it a familiar routine.

Li Ye was the first to speak. His PPT was very concise, with basically only pictures and very little text. He briefly described the postoperative conditions of several patients last week and the two tumor resection operations to be performed this week. He also focused on an intravascular interventional surgery scheduled for Thursday in collaboration with the radiology department.

The second one is Zhou Xin. Zhou Xin was an intern at the previous department meeting, so this was actually his first time sitting in the department to make a report.

"Before I start, I'm sorry. I'm better at using English when it comes to professional terms, so I'll use English for the following slides." After he said this, he opened his PPT.

The PPT was very beautiful, with both pictures and texts, and the key points were marked. The English was not fast, but the amount of information was sufficient, and it was very much in the style of giving a speech.

Lin Shengwen listened for a while, and suddenly noticed that Li Ye, who was sitting in front of him, turned his head and lip-synched two words: "Pretend."

After Zhou Xin finished speaking, Li Ye asked a few questions without any surprise.

A large number of courses at the University of Tingyi's Medical School are taught in bilingual format. Although Li Ye has never studied abroad, his English level is not inferior at all. He even taught himself to speak with an Oxford accent.

Zhou Xin was obviously stunned for a moment, but fortunately he still gave a rigorous answer calmly.

Lin Shengwen was the last to speak. With his computer connected to the projector, he began to talk about the condition of the patient he was handling. He just briefly mentioned the simple operation. In the second half, Lin Shengwen said.

"This weekend, Vice President Yu and I will go to the Neurological Society of Country S. As for Hou Ying's surgery, I have decided to schedule it for next Tuesday." As he said this, he clicked on the next PPT and showed the condition of the patient Hou Ying.

Hou Ying had been admitted to the neurosurgery department of the First Hospital of Tingda University a month earlier. Initially, she had only a cough, but then the dizziness and neck discomfort became unbearable, and rest alone didn't alleviate the pain. At her family's suggestion, she came to the hospital and happened to get an appointment with Lin Shengwen.

After listening to her description of her condition, Lin Shengwen prescribed her an MRI scan. However, when the images came out, Lin Shengwen fell into a brief silence.

Although it is not a particularly rare disease, it is indeed found in a small number of cases during examinations.

Chiari malformation with syringomyelia, or CM-S for short. Simply put, it's a cerebellar tonsillar herniation malformation that leads to secondary syringomyelia. If left unchecked, critical nerve compression can lead to severe muscle weakness and sensory loss, even paralysis.

Lin Shengwen quickly arranged for Hou Ying to be admitted to the hospital. She worked alone in Ting City and her family was not around. Tao Tao would visit her from time to time, calling it humanitarian care.

Hou Ying's spinal cord cavity is getting bigger. Although Lin Shengwen also wants to perform surgery on her as soon as possible, the risk of surgery for this disease is very high. He needs to conduct a comprehensive assessment before deciding on the surgical procedure. Today, he has already finalized the plan and explained it to other doctors in the department at the meeting.

"My plan is to use posterior suboccipital decompression and perform dura mater expansion and shaping." Lin Shengwen said, and gave a brief overview of his surgical procedure.

After he finished speaking, Zhou Xin was the first to ask a question.

His question was clever, using an alternative approach to question Lin Shengwen's choice of surgical approach: "I think if we use EEO, a neuroendoscopic transoral approach, to remove the odontoid process, wouldn't that be more direct and reduce interference with neural structures...and the prognosis would be better."

Lin Shengwen had considered different approaches before, and the one Zhou Xin suggested was indeed his second choice, but...

"Hou Ying's skull and neck may be unstable, and it will be difficult for the EEO to solve this problem." His words were light. Even though he knew that Zhou Xin was deliberately making things difficult for him, his doubts were not unreasonable, so Lin Shengwen did not show any emotion when responding to him.

"It's just a problem that can be solved with purely surgical techniques," Zhou Xin said with a somewhat exaggerated smile. "With Dr. Lin's skills, do we still need to worry about this?"

Lin Shengwen raised his eyes and glanced at Zhou Xin.

"Correctly understanding risks is also a dimension of medical technology."

Zhou Xin stared at him intently. After a while, he shrugged his shoulders, smiled indifferently, and stopped asking questions.

The sailing club's main structure was nearly complete, and Liang Xun stayed at the construction site until nearly nine o'clock. Work was generally halted after nine to avoid disturbing residents. After work, Liang Xun ate a bowl of plain noodles at a roadside shop. When he returned home, the clock had already struck ten.

Lin Shengwen was neither in the living room nor in the study. Liang Xun walked into his bedroom and found that Lin Shengwen's suitcase was open and lying across the bedroom floor. Lin Shengwen was in the bathroom. The sound of water was so loud that Lin Shengwen did not notice his return.

Liang Xun waited for him to come out before asking him, "What time is your flight tomorrow?"

Lin Shengwen told him that he was going on a business trip to Country S, so he was not surprised that Lin Shengwen suddenly started packing his luggage.

"Shall I see you off?" Liang Xun asked, "I don't have work tomorrow."

The absorbent towel used to dry hair was still covering Lin Shengwen's head, and water droplets flowed down the back of his neck and wet the collar of Lin Shengwen's pajamas. Liang Xun turned his head and saw this scene.

Lin Shengwen's eyes are very beautiful. Perhaps because he has been working hard recently and getting less sleep than before, there are some red bloodshot under his eyes. The whites of Lin Shengwen's eyes are very white, and there is no place to hide any fatigue. However, he does not have many dark circles.

He was initially captivated by Lin Shengwen's beautiful eyes and fell in love with him ever since.

"It's too much trouble for you." Lin Shengwen said.

Liang Xun heard this as a polite refusal, and he felt a little aggrieved. But actually, given Lin Shengwen's usual style, he could easily guess his considerations: for example, Liang Xun couldn't drive. If he drove there, Liang Xun wouldn't be able to drive back. If he took a taxi, Liang Xun would have to go back home by himself, wasting half a day's rest time. No matter how you look at it, Lin Shengwen's polite refusal was all for his own good.

But Liang Xun still insisted: "Just let me take you off. Didn't you come to pick me up when I came back from a business trip last time?"

"Okay," Lin Shengwen was stunned, his eyes curved, and he stretched out a hand to help Liang Xun get up from the ground. "The flight is at 9 o'clock tomorrow morning, so we have to leave early."

His flight was from Tingdong Airport. The airport was very large, but in the same terminal, it took at least half an hour to walk from the security checkpoint to the farthest boarding gate. If he arrived late, there was a very high possibility that he would miss the flight.

Liang Xun cried out, tugged at Lin Shengwen's arm, and stood up: "Then I'll go take a shower and go to bed now."

Lin Shengwen stopped him and kissed him on the lips.

"Welcome home," he said.

Liang Xun was stunned for a long time before he finally added shyly, "...I'm back."

When the alarm rang, Liang Xun turned off his phone like a zombie, rolled over twice on the bed in the second bedroom, and finally rolled out. Groggily, he walked out of the bedroom only to find that Lin Shengwen had already gotten up and made a simple sandwich.

"Good morning," Lin Shengwen said, "If you're sleepy, why don't you go back to sleep?"

"I don't." He half-closed his eyes and took a look, then turned around to wash up. He splashed cold water on his face and became a little more awake. He glanced at the time and found that it was time for Lin Shengwen to go to the airport.

"I'm fine, let's go."

"Take it with you and eat it on the way."

Liang Xun was suddenly handed something in his hand. He lowered his head and saw that Lin Shengwen had wrapped the sandwich in tin foil, which was still warm.

His heart warmed and he followed Lin Shengwen downstairs.

Lin Shengwen had already booked a taxi. He put the suitcase in the trunk and let Liang Xun get in first. After a while, he squeezed in and fastened Liang Xun's seat belt.

"There's no need to sit in the back seat." Liang Xun didn't have this habit and muttered.

"Yes."

The number of cars on the road in the early morning was not small. Liang Xun had just woken up and had no appetite, but he still ate the sandwich bit by bit under Lin Shengwen's gaze. Lin Shengwen put smoked beef slices in it, but it didn't have that dry texture. It was surprisingly tender. Only a little black pepper and sea salt were sprinkled on it, but the flavor was very rich.

Lin Shengwen and he waited at the airport check-in counter for a while before they saw Yu Minjun also coming over dragging a small suitcase. He came alone and greeted Liang Xun when he saw him. He seemed to want to say something, but he swallowed it back.

Liang Xun shook hands with Lin Shengwen and said goodbye to them at the security checkpoint.

Lin Shengwen made some mouth shapes, and Liang Xun tried to figure out what he was saying for a long time, but he didn't understand.

It was not until I got on the subway back that I received any news from Lin Shengwen.

Lin Shengwen: "Wait for me to come back."