Shi Wenli: "..."
When her hair was dry, Xu Qinghe turned off the hair dryer. Shi Wenli saw her yawning repeatedly and swallowed the questions he still wanted to ask. Xu Qinghe was both tired and sleepy. As soon as her head hit the pillow, she fell asleep. She was too exhausted to even turn over, and she dreamed that Fang Yu warned her to answer the emergency phone.
A phone ring sounded in the quiet room. Xu Qinghe was sleeping too soundly; it didn't wake her. Shi Wenli woke up first. He propped himself up on his elbow and reached for her phone on the pillow. "Qinghe? Qinghe, it's the emergency department calling." He gently nudged her. Xu Qinghe opened her eyes, dazed for a few seconds. So it wasn't a dream—there really was a call. She snapped awake. Shi Wenli had already swiped to answer and put it on speaker.
"Dr. Xu, we've just received a case of Type A aortic dissection. The patient's condition isn't good, but the family insists on surgery."
"Okay. I'll be right there."
Xu Qinghe hung up. Shi Wenli was already dressed, quickly walked to the wardrobe, and pulled out pants and a sweater for her.
"You don't need to drive me. I'll take a taxi."
"At two in the morning, you might not be able to get a taxi in time."
Xu Qinghe stopped worrying. If a colleague caught them, that was fate. The two grabbed their coats and rushed out the door.
At 2:10 AM, there were few cars on the road. The car sped through the night. Afraid of distracting him, Xu Qinghe didn't speak after getting in the car.
In the emergency resuscitation room, after resuscitation, the patient slowly regained heart rate and blood pressure. Sometimes days would pass without a dissection case; other times, several would arrive in one night. Xu Qinghe lived nearby. She had already informed the emergency department: two colleagues in her cardiac surgery team had given birth less than six months ago and weren't fully recovered. If the emergency surgery was short-staffed, they should call her first.
The patient's heart rate was barely stable. The ER night-shift nurse hadn't had a moment's rest since taking over the shift. The sirens of ambulances kept coming one after another. When Xu Qinghe appeared in the ER, the nurse looked surprised. "Dr. Xu, you're so fast?"
"Mm." Xu Qinghe played it down. "No traffic on the road. What's the patient's current status?"
The ER doctor said, "Cardiac tamponade. We just did a bedside puncture and drainage."
Xu Qinghe glanced at the monitor. Heart rate and blood pressure weren't ideal. She reviewed the patient's chart—a host of serious underlying conditions and the patient was 76 years old. This would be a tough battle.
She first went to talk to the patient's family for preoperative discussion and inform them of the anesthesia risks. The ER attending on duty tonight was Director Su, who was already speaking with the family of the Type A aortic dissection patient. Seeing Xu Qinghe, Director Su nodded in greeting and said to the patient's son, "This is Dr. Xu, the anesthesiologist." Then he said to Xu Qinghe, "You came just in time. I was just explaining to them that surgery isn't like they think—just because you do it, you can definitely save the person."
Director Su turned back to the patient's son. "Your mother's condition is truly not optimistic. Moreover, this surgery requires many high-cost consumables, which are expensive with low reimbursement rates. You must think it over carefully." He paused. "These words may be harsh, and your family surely won't like hearing them, but I have to say them. For such a dangerous surgery, often you end up with neither the person nor the money."
The patient's son said, "You can't say it's losing both the person and money. It's a mother-son bond." He repeated himself. "It's a mother-son bond. If I were the one sick, my mother wouldn't give up on me." He wiped his tears. "Give me all the documents that need signing. I'll sign now." As he signed, he didn't forget to thank Xu Qinghe. "Thank you, doctor, for coming in the middle of the night."
"It's nothing. It's our job."
After signing, Xu Qinghe asked in detail about any allergy history. Once she understood all the patient's conditions, she returned to the operating room to start preoperative anesthesia preparation.
Meanwhile, after dropping her off, Shi Wenli didn't linger. He turned the car around and went home.
The next morning, his alarm woke him. He made two portions of scallion pancakes: one for the people in his group and one for the Anesthesiology Department. At the hospital, he first delivered breakfast to the Anesthesiology office. Fang Yu had just opened her breakfast but hadn't started eating when she looked up and saw Shi Wenli walking in.
"Good morning, Chief Shi." She quickly stood up. "Congratulations, congratulations!" Seeing him carrying something, she asked, "Did you bring us wedding candy?"
Shi Wenli said, "I brought breakfast for Dr. Xu. I made extra, enough for you all."
"Thank you, thank you!" In her excitement, Fang Yu remembered, "Dr. Xu isn't working today."
Shi Wenli: "She got an emergency call in the middle of the night. She's still in surgery."
"Okay, I'll save her portion for her." Fang Yu really wanted to pull Shi Wenli aside and ask, who exactly is your partner? Is it someone from our hospital? She wasn't greedy—she just needed to know which department.
Shi Wenli put down the breakfast and said goodbye, saying he had to go do rounds.
Fang Yu: "Chief Shi, I'll see you out."
Shi Wenli smiled and said, "No need to be polite. Go ahead and eat."
Fang Yu insisted, "You've brought us breakfast twice. It's only right that I see you to the elevator." Unable to refuse her kindness, Shi Wenli had to let her. He could tell Fang Yu wanted to gossip about his relationship status.
"Chief Shi, congratulations," Fang Yu started dryly. "I really didn't expect you to find someone so quickly. You're usually so busy that we feel bad bothering you. If there's any progress, remember to post on Moments so we can all share in your happiness." Her intent was obvious.
Shi Wenli smiled and said, "Okay."
Fang Yu escorted him all the way to the elevator. She didn't return to the office until the elevator doors closed. In the office, a few early arrivals had already started dividing the scallion pancakes.
"How did Chief Shi know that Dr. Xu got an emergency surgery in the middle of the night?" someone finally realized.
Fang Yu guessed, "Maybe Dr. Xu was privately chatting with Chief Shi at the time, asking him about his blind date." If Shi Wenli were her friend, she would definitely ask him directly too.
At 10:05 AM, in Operating Room 12, the patient's heart restarted successfully. Xu Qinghe began slowly injecting protamine to neutralize heparin. She kept thinking about the patient's son's words: "You can't say it's losing both the person and money. It's a mother-son bond." Heart rate and blood pressure were stable. The cardiac surgery team began hemostasis and chest closure. The surgery lasted over nine hours. At noon, the operation was successfully completed. The patient was sent to the ICU, with stable vital signs for the moment.
The scallion pancakes had gone from breakfast to her lunch. Xu Qinghe returned to the office, first microwaved the pancakes, and brewed a cup of coffee. She couldn't last without coffee. Fang Yu came back around that time. She had just finished an emergency orthopedic surgery that took two hours. When she heard that Xu Qinghe had received the emergency call at two in the morning, her mouth fell open. "Huh? Two o'clock?"
Xu Qinghe, seeing her overreaction, said, "Don't aortic dissections usually strike in the middle of the night?"
Fang Yu took a sip of warm water and swallowed. "Chief Shi said he knew you got an emergency call in the middle of the night." Eleven or twelve was one thing, but two o'clock! Two o'clock! Who in their right mind is awake at that hour? Even if Xu Qinghe had told Chief Shi in the morning about the emergency call—no, at that time Xu Qinghe was busy. How could she have taken the time to message a colleague who was just a good friend saying, 'I got an emergency call at two in the morning'? Absolutely impossible! She knew Xu Qinghe. There was no way she would be chatting on her phone during an aortic dissection surgery. This morning, she had been too focused on eating scallion pancakes to realize one thing: Shi Wenli, a man with such a sense of boundaries, had just publicly announced he was in a relationship. How could he the very next day lose all boundaries and deliver breakfast to a female colleague? And it was homemade!
Then she suddenly remembered: last night, in the comments, Chief Shi had replied to Section Chief Wu, saying that in the future, if he couldn't reach Dr. Xu, he should contact him directly. Even her husband of two years had never made such a promise to others.
Suddenly, all the gossip drums in Fang Yu's mind started beating urgently. "Dr. Xu," she said with a sly smile, deliberately repeating, "Two o'clock in the morning."
Xu Qinghe hadn't slept all night; her mind was foggy. She didn't have the energy to come up with a quick excuse. She gave up on finding a reason, silently bowed her head, and ate her scallion pancakes, not making a sound.
Fang Yu was so excited, even more thrilled than when her husband proposed. She glanced around the office. There was only one male colleague at a computer, smiling and looking at his phone, not paying attention to their conversation. She put down her water cup, darted over to Xu Qinghe in two or three steps, elbowed her hard, and lowered her voice. "Spill!"
Xu Qinghe laughed but kept quiet.
"Not talking, huh?" Fang Yu reached out to tickle her. Xu Qinghe laughed out loud and surrendered. "It's what you think."
After the playful scuffle, Fang Yu went somewhere to calm down. Carrying such a big secret, she wanted to show off everywhere, but she couldn't.
Xu Qinghe was eating her scallion pancakes when a message from Shi Wenli came in: [Are you out of surgery?] She typed with one hand while eating. [Just finished.]
Shi Wenli: [I'm in the cafeteria. Come over.]
Xu Qinghe typed: [I'm already eating. I won't go.]
Shi Wenli: [Eating with Song Xintan?]
Xu Qinghe: [No.] She picked up her phone and took a photo of the scallion pancakes on her desk and sent it to him. [Better than the cafeteria food.]
Just as she replied to Shi Wenli, Song Xintan called. Xu Qinghe answered. "How's your headache?"
Song Xintan: "Still hurts. I can't rely on medicine forever. Are you up?"
"What time is it? Of course I'm up."
"On your days off, when have you ever been up before noon?"
Xu Qinghe said, "I got an emergency call in the middle of the night. Just finished surgery. I'm having lunch."
Song Xintan: "Then I'll go to the hospital now. Shi Wenli shouldn't be too busy at this time, right?"
Xu Qinghe: "He has no surgeries today. He's not busy at noon. So you did make an appointment with him yesterday?" Last night at dinner, he specifically insisted she take him to see Shi Wenli.
"Yeah." Song Xintan rubbed his head. The pain had kept him from sleeping well all night. "That consultation cost a few hundred bucks. I definitely need him to cure me."
Xu Qinghe: "..."