Chapter 69
Director Zhao is new to the job and there are still many things to figure out during the handover process.
He came to see Xie Xubai this time because Xie Xubai's reputation had recently soared and his future seemed limitless, so he came specifically to make a name for himself.
Not long after they started chatting, the HR department called Director Zhao, urging him to return to his workstation immediately.
Director Zhao had no choice but to take his leave.
As he left, his eyes were filled with reluctance as he bid a tearful farewell to Xie Xubai: "When I first received the job offer, my relatives and friends envied me for finding such a good job, but little did they know that this position was not secure at all!"
“Newly hired medical staff have a one-month probationary period during which their subordinates can impeach them at any time, and they will be held accountable and dismissed for the slightest mistake. If you ask me, it’s not as good as being a cleaner in the ward! At least they have a secure job and don’t have to face any performance evaluations.”
Director Zhao's brows were furrowed with worry, and his face looked much older.
He regarded Xie Xubai as a fellow new employee, his eyes growing even more eager: "Director Xie, tell me, isn't our situation difficult? The dean doesn't like us, and those old-school directors also see us as thorns in their side. It's really..."
Ring ring.
The phone rang, and Director Zhao answered it immediately.
It was the same head nurse who had urged him before, her tone clearly impatient: "Director Zhao, why aren't you back yet! Are you expecting me to treat all these patients?"
Director Zhao hurriedly replied, "Right away, right away."
He had to leave, and after taking only a few steps, he suddenly turned around.
"...By the way! Director Xie, are you free tonight? How about we go for a drink?"
Xie Xubai glanced at the few red veins in his eyes and the undisguised anxiety in his expression, paused, and then smiled and said, "You know we're in the probationary period, when do we have time to relax? Let alone drinking after get off work, I almost overslept and was late this morning."
"How about we add each other as friends first, and then make an appointment when we've successfully passed the probationary period and have more time?"
Director Zhao immediately realized what he had done and slapped his forehead in apparent annoyance: "Look at my brain! Come on, I'll add you."
After the two exchanged contact information, Director Zhao seemed finally at ease, earnestly instructing, "Let's keep in touch and visit each other often," before gently closing the door.
The footsteps outside the door faded away quickly. Xie Xubai turned his gaze away, found the doctor's assistant in his contacts, and asked him to help enter the diagnosis report.
He then opened Director Zhao's WeChat Moments.
A man in his thirties, using a work account, who generally doesn't post on WeChat Moments—as expected, I found nothing.
Xie Xubai pondered for a moment, then opened several popular online social media platforms.
He found Director Zhao's account on a well-known blog through the platform's self-promoted friend mutual follow function.
The latest signature caught my eye.
[Director Zhao (PhD graduate of XXX Medical University [verified]): Saving lives and healing the wounded, helping the world and bringing peace to the nation, worthy of heaven and earth. [Striving][Striving]]
Xie Xubai's gaze lingered on the signature for a long time, as if frozen in time.
He then continued scrolling down.
Medical students don't have much time to blog, but occasionally, when the mood strikes, they'll record some interesting or trivial things in their lives.
On Director Zhao's blog, there are landscape photos he casually took, as well as complaints about his mentor and the school cafeteria.
More often, it's a record of burning the midnight oil and relentlessly pursuing research papers.
Like countless students, their words express how exhausted they are, yet they are full of hope and love for the future, enduring pain and striving hard.
Xie Xubai recalled Director Zhao's fawning and ingratiating manner just now, and compared it with the personality presented in the blog, they were like two completely different people.
A conjecture flashed through my mind like lightning.
His heart clenched instantly, a dull ache gripping his chest. He felt enveloped in an indescribable chill, sending shivers down his spine.
At 6:30 p.m. that day, the sky was dark and the clouds were gathering, with the imminent arrival of a rainstorm.
The appointment with Director Li was at midnight, and there was still a surplus.
After finishing his meal, Xie Xubai called the driver and Jiang Kaile, explaining that he had something to do that night and wouldn't be going home, but would be staying in the hospital dormitory, and told them to get some rest.
In the clean and tidy ward, an intern nurse is changing a patient's dressing.
She caught a glimpse of the sharp mouthpiece so close to her out of the corner of her eye, and couldn't help but feel uneasy, swallowing hard.
In her nervousness, her hand slipped, and the cotton swab soaked in medicine smeared across the patient's wound. The patient shuddered in pain and flew into a rage, grabbing her hair and yelling, "What are you doing? Are you trying to kill me, huh?!"
The mouthparts, which were originally only semi-alienated, suddenly grew larger as the patient became agitated.
The sharp point reflected a cold, menacing light, almost touching the nurse's cheek and piercing her skin.
The intern nurse screamed in panic, "I didn't! Please calm down! Let go of me, help—"
"Oh no, the patients are rioting! Come quick, help!"
Hearing the commotion, the other medical staff felt their hearts skip a beat and rushed over in a panic.
But before they could make a move, golden spiritual energy rushed into the ward, gripping the patient's mouth like a hard noose.
Xie Xubai quickly arrived at the two people's side, used his mental power to pull on the patient's elbows, and decisively pried open the iron-like hands, pulling the intern nurse out of the other party's grip.
"Huff, huff... Thank you!"
The intern nurse was still shaken, her eyes filled with misty tears, and she was breathing heavily.
Seeing this, her companions quickly pulled her over to comfort her, only to discover that there was still a wisp of golden spiritual energy resting on her shoulder.
With the comfort of Xie Xubai's spirit, the intern nurse's panic quickly subsided. She wiped away her tears and looked at him along with the others.
Under the incandescent light, his thin skin was slightly taut, and gold-rimmed glasses perched on his nose. He had a gentle and refined demeanor, and his calm and composed gaze inexplicably put people at ease.
The special needs department and the trauma department are some distance apart, and most of the medical staff here have never seen Xie Xubai's true face.
It wasn't until the sharp-eyed group spotted the young man's name tag that they exclaimed with delight, "Director Xie, what brings you to the trauma department?"
“I happened to be passing by when I heard a commotion, so I rushed over.”
Xie Xubai's gaze swept over them.
Large and small wounds covered his body, crisscrossing his body. There were lacerations, knife wounds, bites, and even burns and scalds.
The grotesque scars contrasted sharply with the intact, fair skin surrounding them.
Seeing the patient being easily subdued by several nurses, Xie Xubai asked, "Does this kind of thing happen often?"
Seemingly noticing Xie Xubai's gaze, the group looked at their scars and hid behind their backs, slightly embarrassed.
The teacher had scolded them before; these were signs of poor skills.
Only one person, who was a little bolder, looked Xie Xubai in the eye without missing him, discerning the worry in his expression, and said frankly, "It's nothing serious, just some minor injuries, they'll be fine in no time."
Xie Xubai knew that the monster patients were easily irritable and angry, and that their disruptive behavior would only escalate if it was not restrained by order and law.
Perhaps in order to cope with such a predicament, the alienated medical staff have become much more resistant to injury and have a higher self-healing ability. In just a few words, some of their wounds have already healed.
But this also means that all the wounds Xie Xubai saw were caused in a short period of time, at most within a day.
—Within a single day, he was covered in wounds.
Xie Xubai went outside the corridor but did not see any security guards coming to maintain order.
People seemed to have gotten used to it, and as the riots subsided, they dispersed on their own.
Even after the nurses saw that the patient had calmed down, they simply let go of his hand without even mentioning putting on a restraint belt.
Her fellow intern nurses whispered to her, "It's good that you have Director Xie."
"Yes, otherwise if the teacher finds out, I'll get a good scolding."
Several nurses came over and scolded, "We told you that this patient has highly sensitive pain receptors, and we told you to be careful. Why are you still so reckless?"
A nurse rudely pulled the intern over, staring sharply at the girl's neck where there was a bleeding spot from the injection, and rubbed her fingers hard against it: "And how many times have I told you to grow your carapace quickly? Why don't you listen?"
"Do you have to get hurt and feel pain to learn? Everyone's so busy, who do you expect to come and collect your corpse when it's too late?"
The sharp fingernails left red marks on her neck, but the intern nurse dared not dodge, biting her lip to endure it.
Xie Xubai frowned, about to raise his hand to stop him, but then he saw that the red marks left by the nurse were starting to ooze out dark brown lumps one after another.
That was exactly the shell the nurse was referring to.
They sprouted like bamboo shoots after a spring rain, growing extremely fast. After the first patch emerged, they quickly and densely covered the necks of the trainee nurses, forming a hard protective shield.
During this process, the trainee nurse's temples were bulging with veins, as if she was enduring pain, and her teeth almost drew blood from biting her lower lip.
The edges of the hard lump were dripping with blood, which gushed down along the cracks, as if a well-healed bone had been brutally pulled out of the body, causing excruciating pain.
Finally, she couldn't help but cry out in pain: "Ah...!"
The nurse snapped, "Bear with it! If you can't even handle this little bit of pain, how are you going to work here in the future?"
"But it hurts so much, ahhhhh!"
"That's reality," the nurse said coldly, her heart as hard as stone. "It's the same wherever you go."
As they spoke, the rapidly spreading carapace finally covered the entire neck. The nurse tapped it with her finger, seemingly somewhat dissatisfied, and said, "Too brittle, not hard enough. Be careful."
The intern nurse, sobbing softly, agreed, "Okay, I understand, thank you..."
Several nurses came to the door, greeted Xie Xubai respectfully, and then hurried back to their assigned wards with heavy footsteps.
Xie Xubai vaguely heard cursing, which seemed to be the nurses' patients cursing them for abandoning their posts, and soon an argument broke out.
But the sounds of fighting were fleeting, and before Xie Xubai could even take a step, they were suppressed.
"..." He shifted his gaze to the intern nurse.
The other person's companion pulled out a fruit knife from somewhere and stabbed it straight into the person's neck.
The sharp blade was perfectly blocked by the carapace, and it did not hurt the person at all.
Several classmates immediately congratulated her happily, wishing her success, and she herself burst into laughter through her tears.
The patient, who had regained his composure, became impatient again, his wound still exposed: "How long are you planning to leave me hanging?"
The intern nurse, who had just breathed a sigh of relief, immediately felt her heart leap into her throat again, and reflexively reached for her throat.
It was at this moment that Xie Xubai spoke up, asking, "Do you need any help?"
He added, "I can calm the patient down."
The intern nurse was flattered that Xie Xubai, as the head of the special needs department, would be willing to stay and continue helping her. She waved her hand, feeling incredibly grateful: "No, that's too much trouble—"
Before she could finish speaking, her companion quickly and quietly tugged at her, giving her a knowing look of disappointment. Only then did she awkwardly and flusteredly change her words: "Well, thank you so much!"
Xie Xubai smiled and said it was nothing, while simultaneously circulating his mental energy.
Having just experienced Xie Xubai's power, the patient muttered to himself but didn't dare say anything more.
Bathed in the gentle golden spiritual energy, the pain, which felt like being gnawed by thousands of ants, gradually subsided.
The patient was surprised that this person had the ability to relieve pain. The irritability and frustration on his face disappeared like smoke, and he looked much more relaxed.
He couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief, then, remembering the pain he had endured before, he couldn't help but complain, "Why didn't you just find him sooner? Why did you have to find an intern who doesn't know anything? I came to the hospital to treat patients, not to be your practice subject! If your skills aren't up to par, can't you practice before coming here?"
The interns looked embarrassed; their skills were not up to par, and they felt ashamed.
Put yourself in their shoes. Who would be in a good mood when they are injured or sick? And if you encounter someone who is not familiar with the operation, how can you bear to suffer more injuries on top of that?
Xie Xubai walked up to the patient and continued to soothe the patient's emotions with his mental energy. His eyes were smiling and gentle as he reasoned with the patient: "You are right. But you should think about it. I have also been through this stage. After the old doctors and nurses retire, they will need to take on the responsibility. Your children and grandchildren will also be treated and cared for by them."
"If no one gives you the experience and opportunities to practice, will anyone else be able to treat patients?" Xie Xubai looked at the patient's slightly moved expression and continued to gently persuade him, "If you are really angry, I can also call other nurses for you, depending on your wishes."
“…Alright, alright! Let her come,” the patient said. “Be careful.”
Xie Xubai gave the intern nurse a look, indicating that she shouldn't be afraid and that someone should handle the situation directly.
The intern nurse bowed gratefully and ran over quickly.
This time, she dared not make any mistakes and was extremely careful throughout the process, finally managing to change the patient's wound dressing.
Normally, a dressing change can be done by an intern, but this patient's sensitive pain nerves made it particularly challenging.
As Xie Xubai left, several interns thanked him repeatedly and escorted him to the entrance of the trauma department.
He seemed to glance back casually.
The intern nurse's neck had hardened.
The same dark brown tinge also appeared faintly on the skin of the other people, as if something was brewing.
For a moment, the interns' eyes were somewhat dazed. When their pupils regained their luster, the color of their pupils was no longer pure black. Countless lines intersected among them, weaving into the shape of a bee's eyelid.
After a moment of stunned silence, they got busy again.
Those covered eyes with countless hexagonal eyes looked in all directions and seemed to work much better than the original eyes.
So their steps became lighter and lighter, from clumsy to skillful, until they were completely adapted.
Xie Xubai withdrew his gaze, pursed his lips, and left silently.
At the First Hospital, working overtime is the norm.
Around 9 p.m., the doctors and nurses began to change shifts.
Xie Xubai used this time to explore the entire hospital and gain a general understanding of the situation in each department.
As midnight approached, layers of dark clouds covered the sky, obscuring the moonlight, and deafening thunder could be heard intermittently.
Wisps of moisture floated in the air, chilling to the bone.
Not long after, Xie Xubai met with Director Li.
A huge shadow loomed over Xie Xubai's head, and a terrifying sense of oppression emanated from behind him.
He turned around, looked at the menacing figure behind Director Li, and calmly handed him the hot water bottle: "It's going to rain heavily tonight, and the weather is getting colder. Why don't you hold this to warm your hands? It'll be good for your health."
Director Li, who was thinking about the former dean, had a gloomy face. When he heard these words, he suddenly froze, and even the tall and ferocious shadow behind him froze for a moment.
After a while, his withered hands took the hot water bottle. The scalding heat dispelled the chill in the drizzle and warmed his icy hands.
As people get older, their bones become brittle, making them more susceptible to rheumatism and colds, and they are very sensitive to the cold.
Director Li looked at him suspiciously: "You still carry a hot water bottle with you?"
"It looks like it's going to rain tonight, so let's prepare in advance. After all, I can't let our hospital's veteran staff get cold, otherwise who will take the lead in the future?" Xie Xubai opened the umbrella and smiled.
Director Li's lips twitched.
He held the hot water bottle in his hands without changing his expression: "Young people always have so many problems. Let's go."
Xie Xubai followed behind him, about to lift his foot, when he keenly noticed that the rain had suddenly stopped within two meters ahead.
He paused for a moment, then took off his umbrella and looked up. He saw Director Li's large shadow overhead, completely blocking out the rain.
Director Li walked ahead without turning his head, then suddenly asked, "Do you know how this hospital was established?"
Xie Xubai followed up: "I've heard that this place was originally a clinic, and later it was expanded and turned into a field hospital. I don't know anything more."
Actually, no, Lu Xiangcai's records contain the complete history of the First Hospital's construction.
But it was precisely his attitude of having only a superficial understanding and humbly asking questions that inspired Director Li's desire to explain.
Sure enough, Director Li scoffed, saying without any attempt to hide his disdain, "Those things written down on the surface are just to fool you. Ha... what field hospital? A field hospital that specializes in studying monsters?"
“Speaking of which,” Director Li suddenly turned around, looking Xie Xubai up and down with suspicion and uncertainty, “you look a bit like someone I used to know.”
Author's Note:
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com