"Thank you, Director. Thank you, Dean Jiang," Xu Qinghe said as she accepted the letter and picked up the flowers from the desk. The two boxes of pens were tucked beside the bouquet. The old man was so familiar with the process of expressing gratitude, thanks to his eldest son who was a doctor and knew what kind of praise carried weight.
After the handover, Fang Yu made her hold the flowers in one hand and the thank-you letter in the other, snapping photos furiously. "We have to commemorate this!" She didn't even have time to send the photos before they both rushed off to the operating room.
Xu Qinghe's first anesthesia case that morning was a laparoscopic cholecystectomy in general surgery. The patient reported no drug allergies.
Before inducing anesthesia, Xu Qinghe followed routine preoperative verification and asked the patient, "Are you allergic to any medications or foods?"
The patient shook his head. "No."
"Are you allergic to cephalosporins or penicillin?"
"No. Didn't you just ask me that?"
Xu Qinghe was used to confirming repeatedly. Once, a patient who had been instructed to fast before surgery ended up drinking soy milk, forcing the surgery to be postponed. So now she always asked in different ways several times.
She continued gently, "What about eggs, milk, or seafood?"
"Doctor, I'm really not allergic to anything."
Xu Qinghe proceeded with the standard anesthesia protocol.
A few minutes after induction, the monitor suddenly alarmed with a piercing sound. For everyone in the operating room, the most dreaded sound was the monitor's alarm. On the screen, blood oxygen plummeted, heart rate skyrocketed, and blood pressure dropped. Looking at the patient, his face was flushed, and large hives appeared on his neck.
It was an acute allergic reaction. Xu Qinghe immediately instructed Zhang Xun: "Stop the drugs!"
She quickly diluted epinephrine and injected it. The circulating nurse urgently established another IV line and increased fluid infusion. But the monitor's alarm didn't stop, and blood pressure continued to drop.
Zhang Xun, experiencing this for the first time since his internship, panicked. "Senior, systolic pressure is only 60!"
Within a few minutes, the patient's face turned pale, and his lips became cyanotic. Xu Qinghe calmly assessed it as severe anaphylactic shock and decisively administered another dose of epinephrine.
After continuous resuscitation, the patient's vital signs gradually stabilized. Zhang Xun glanced at the monitor—heart rate and blood pressure were finally up. He wiped the sweat from his forehead.
Xu Qinghe patted him on the shoulder.
Regaining his composure, Zhang Xun was still shaken. "Senior, why did he have an allergic reaction?"
"Either the patient concealed it, or even he didn't know."
The surgery was canceled, and the patient was transferred to the recovery room for further observation, with allergen testing to follow.
Xu Qinghe wrote an incident report and filed it. Zhao Mingde happened to be in the adjacent operating room and came over after hearing about it. He told Xu Qinghe: "Next week's case discussion, bring this case up. It's been a while since we've seen anaphylactic shock, and people tend to let their guard down."
Xu Qinghe nodded. "Okay."
After the director left, she immediately prepared for the next anesthesia case. Surgery followed surgery. Xu Qinghe was so busy that she forgot to ask Fang Yu for the photos and also forgot about Shi Wenli's scallion pancakes.
--
Time flew by, and it was the 14th.
During his leave, Shi Wenli hadn't been idle. He sold his old house and looked at more than ten properties in the same complex as his sister's wedding home, finally settling on one. The distance between his new home and his sister's building was just a few hundred meters.
His sister's wedding home was a top-floor duplex with high ceilings, over a thousand square meters, complete with a pool and a spacious terrace with a view. The first time he went there, he felt it was too empty. But his sister liked it—not because of the size, but because Min Ting had chosen it specifically for her, so she could watch the city's myriad lights from the terrace and have an easy commute.
The house he settled on was completely different in style from his sister's. It was a simple, single-story apartment with a horizontal living room and floor-to-ceiling windows, just the right size. The original owner had bought it, torn out the Italian-style decor, and remodeled it into a cozy, natural wood style. But before moving in, they decided to go abroad. The apartment was on the third floor. In spring and summer, the window would be shaded by lush goldenrain trees, offering a view of greenery from the living room. That was the main reason he finally decided to buy this house.
Yesterday, on his last day off, he completed the transfer with the seller. The exact moving date hadn't been set yet—probably around the New Year.
This morning he had surgery and didn't leave the operating table until nearly 1:00 p.m. The cafeteria had already passed the lunch rush. Zhao Mingde had also finished surgery not long ago and waved him over from afar. "Dr. Shi, sit over here."
Shi Wenli carried his tray over. Zhao Mingde was about the age of his parents. Apart from work, they rarely interacted privately.
Once Shi Wenli sat down, Zhao Mingde started a seemingly casual conversation, setting the stage for setting him up with Xu Qinghe. "Qinghe chose neurosurgery anesthesia as her first preference. She's so stubborn," he said with a sigh. "You neurosurgery folks will need to be patient with her."
Shi Wenli replied, "Director Zhao, you're too polite. Dr. Xu has a good temper." He changed the subject. "Wasn't she just praised by the entire hospital a few days ago?"
Besides praising the anesthesiology department at the regular head-of-department meeting, Dean Jiang had specifically posted on his Moments. Now, everyone in the hospital knew that Xu Qinghe had been praised by a patient's family. It was common for departments to be thanked or praised, but Xu Qinghe was the first to have the dean personally post about it. Maybe because she usually received too many complaints, the dean took this opportunity to boost her reputation.
As they were talking, Dean Jiang himself walked over with his lunch tray. Despite his many responsibilities as dean, he still maintained two surgery days per week.
"Dean Jiang."
Both Shi Wenli and Zhao Mingde greeted him.
Zhao Mingde slid his phone aside to make room for Dean Jiang's tray. Dean Jiang sat next to him. "What are you two talking about?"
Zhao Mingde replied, "About Qinghe's subspecialty assignment."
"So she chose neurosurgery as her first pick." Dean Jiang said.
"Yes. She's always been interested in neurosurgery anesthesia. I originally advised her to focus on cardiac surgery anesthesia because she has a talent for it."
Dean Jiang said, "Qinghe has been doing well lately. No complaints from orthopedics."
Zhao Mingde paused before replying, "She hasn't had any orthopedic cases recently. Starting next week, she will."
Dean Jiang: "..."
Shi Wenli: "..."
No wonder Wu Xiaofeng hadn't mentioned Xu Qinghe when he ran into him recently. Bringing up Xu Qinghe during meals was likely to cause indigestion.
Dean Jiang changed the subject, turning to Shi Wenli. "Your sister has taken care of the major events in her life, so you don't need to worry anymore. At the wedding, your aunt and uncle talked with me a lot. They're really worried about you."
Zhao Mingde thought, it's okay; he was about to set Shi Wenli up on a blind date soon.
Dean Jiang didn't avoid Zhao Mingde's presence and asked directly, "That Monday afternoon after you returned from abroad, you came to my office to drop off project materials. I had a friend there. Do you remember?"
Shi Wenli remembered the incident but had no recollection of what the dean's friend looked like.
Dean Jiang said it didn't matter. "As soon as you left, my friend eagerly asked if you were married. When he heard you were single, he was thrilled. His daughter is also single, two years younger than you. In the past few days, he's called me four times, urging me to set you two up."
Shi Wenli didn't react much, but Zhao Mingde became anxious. What should he do? He had been the one to sit down first, intending to introduce a girlfriend to Shi Wenli, but the dean had beaten him to it.