In Operating Room No. 9, preparations for anesthesia for the first surgery of the day were underway.
After checking the anesthesia machine, Xu Qinghe was about to prepare the anesthetic drugs when her trainee, Zhang Xun, arrived.
Today was Zhang Xun’s second week of internship. He had thought he had arrived early enough, only to find that Xu Qinghe was there even earlier.
“Senior, why are you here so early?”
Xu Qinghe smiled. “I’m used to it.”
Zhang Xun offered, “Senior, should I draw up the medication?”
“Sure.”
Xu Qinghe stood beside him, carefully checking each step of his procedure.
“Propofol,” Zhang Xun announced as he drew up the drug.
He reminded himself to stay steady, but his fingers trembled, and he pulled the syringe a little too forcefully. Xu Qinghe noticed but said nothing.
Zhang Xun steadied himself before drawing up the analgesic.
Xu Qinghe said gently, “Don’t be nervous. Take your time. Be careful with the needle. Don’t prick yourself.”
Zhang Xun: “……”
Being watched by someone was more than enough to make him nervous. He had nearly forgotten how to draw up the medication.
Once the drugs were ready, Xu Qinghe began preparing the equipment for general anesthesia and intubation.
Just then, the automatic door to the operating room suddenly opened, and voices from the corridor drifted inside.
“Damn! I thought I was seeing things. When did you get back?”
It was Wu Xiaofeng, the deputy director of the Department of Orthopedics, sounding both surprised and excited.
The other man replied, “I got home last Friday night.”
His warm, gentle voice carried a hint of laughter.
Xu Qinghe froze for a moment.
Wasn’t that Shi Wenli’s voice?
He was back from his training abroad?
It was only December. Wasn’t he supposed to return next month?
She instinctively turned toward the operating room door, but the person who had opened it was the circulating nurse, so she couldn’t see the two people talking in the corridor.
The nurse walked in, and the automatic door slowly closed, cutting off all the voices outside. Xu Qinghe could no longer hear what they were saying.
She slowly turned her gaze away, but her thoughts remained outside the door.
The circulating nurse casually asked, “Why did Director Shi come back early?”
Xu Qinghe came back to herself and shook her head. “I don’t know. I just found out he was back.”
If he hadn’t happened to be standing in the corridor when the automatic door opened, she wouldn’t have known that he had already finished his training.
The nurse teased, “You two are so close. I thought you’d know.”
Actually, she and Shi Wenli weren’t as close as everyone thought.
They simply lived in the same residential complex. She had ridden to work with him a few times when he happened to be driving, and whenever they ran into each other in the cafeteria, they would sit together for a meal. He had once helped her translate some research papers, and she had treated him to a meal in return.
Most of their conversations were about work.
But in the eyes of outsiders, their relationship seemed unusual.
He had gone abroad for advanced training at the beginning of the year, and during that year, they had barely contacted each other.
Otherwise, there was no way he could have returned early and even performed surgery that day without her knowing anything about it.
Before he left for training, he was usually the one who contacted her whenever something came up.
After he went abroad, he was busy, there was also the time difference, and she had no particular reason to message him frequently. As a result, the two of them had essentially lost contact.
After such a long time without hearing from him, she knew nothing about his life overseas.
The circulating nurse joked, “Now that Director Shi is back, the neurosurgery department won’t be short of coffee and milk tea anymore.”
Xu Qinghe smiled in agreement.
Shi Wenli had many admirers. There were even several people at their own hospital who liked him, and people would often buy coffee for members of his team.
He was the youngest deputy chief physician in the field of neurosurgery in China.
Whether dealing with patients or colleagues, he had always been gentle, humble, patient, and considerate. Throughout his career, he had maintained a perfect record with zero complaints.
His medical skills were exceptional, he knew how to take care of people, and both his character and appearance were impeccable. It was only natural that people would be attracted to him.
Over the past few years, he had politely rejected every admirer and devoted himself entirely to his work, balancing research and clinical practice without neglecting either.
At that moment, the patient was wheeled into the operating room.
Everyone immediately became busy.
The circulating nurse verified the patient’s information and connected the monitoring equipment while Xu Qinghe prepared to induce anesthesia.
The patient was sixty-one years old and was scheduled for a thoracoscopic lobectomy.
After completing the preoperative checks, Xu Qinghe asked, “Uncle, did you take your blood pressure medicine this morning?”
The patient quickly replied, “Yes, yes. I got up a little after five and took it.”
He had carefully followed the doctor’s instructions from the previous night. He had fasted from both food and water, and when he took his medication that morning, he had only drunk half a mouthful of water.
“Doctor, intubation hurts a lot, right?” the patient asked again.
“Don’t worry. It won’t hurt. By then, you’ll already be unconscious. Your throat may feel a little uncomfortable after the tube is removed.”
Xu Qinghe noticed that the patient was excessively nervous and was worried that it might affect his blood pressure. She changed the subject to distract him.
“The person accompanying you is your daughter, right?”
“Yes, my daughter.”
The moment he mentioned his daughter, his voice was filled with pride and happiness.
“She has a PhD in engineering. She’s already graduated and has a pretty good job.”
Xu Qinghe smiled. “A PhD in engineering? That’s impressive.”
The patient laughed and complimented her in return. “Doctors are impressive too. Every one of you is either a PhD or a postdoc. It’s not easy for young people like you. Getting a doctorate is hard work.”
As they chatted, the patient visibly relaxed. He was still somewhat nervous, but his blood pressure remained relatively stable.
Xu Qinghe said, “Uncle, come on. Let’s give you some oxygen first.”
“Okay, okay.”
After the medication was administered, the patient gradually lost consciousness.
Zhang Xun helped secure the mask and provided positive-pressure oxygen.
Once the patient was sufficiently relaxed, Xu Qinghe began intubation.
The surgery was being performed by President Jiang.
Because of adhesions in the patient’s chest cavity, the entire operation lasted two hours and forty minutes.
When the surgery ended, President Jiang stepped away from the operating table and casually sent a voice message.
“Hey, Wenli. I have another surgery this afternoon. It should finish around four. Come over around four-thirty. I should still be here.”
“If I’m not here, just leave the materials at the hospital administration office.”
Xu Qinghe quietly listened when she heard him mention Shi Wenli.
President Jiang was personally handling the materials, so it was probably an application for an important project.
Whenever the president personally dealt with matters concerning her, it was usually because she had received a complaint or needed to write a self-criticism.
After replying to the message, President Jiang did not leave immediately. He turned to Xu Qinghe.
“Shi Wenli finally came back.”
Xu Qinghe: “……”
That remark didn’t sound like something he had said to her for no reason.
President Jiang was just about to say something when his phone rang again. A work call had come in.
He had originally intended to wait until she finished and chat with her for a while, but now he had no time. Holding his phone, he hurried out of the operating room.
Whenever President Jiang thought about Xu Qinghe, all he could do was sigh.
She had been complained about by the surgical department again today.
Anesthesiology and surgery were naturally at odds in their philosophies. Sometimes they were practically like fire and water, with disagreements and complaints almost every day.
And Xu Qinghe happened to have the strongest temper and the strictest principles in the entire anesthesiology department. As a result, she was constantly arguing with various surgical departments during work.
From time to time, complaints about her would land on President Jiang’s desk.
Yet she was also one of the hospital’s most promising multidisciplinary anesthesia specialists. Among the younger anesthesiologists, there were very few people as talented and hardworking as she was.
Her technical skills were excellent, so he couldn’t really scold or criticize her.
All those trivial conflicts within the hospital gave him a terrible headache.
Someone from the hospital administration had once told him, “Everything will be fine once Shi Wenli comes back. They have a good relationship, and Dr. Xu actually listens to him.”
From that point on, President Jiang became the person in the entire hospital most eagerly awaiting Shi Wenli’s return from his training.
Xu Qinghe had seven anesthesia cases that day in total. By the time the patient from her final case regained consciousness, it was already 6:10 p.m.
A heavy snowfall had occurred the previous Friday, and the snow had yet to melt. That afternoon, snowflakes began drifting down again.
She glanced out the window.
Fortunately, it had stopped.
After changing clothes, she came out of the locker room and found Zhang Xun still waiting for her.
Zhang Xun rubbed his hands together. He had gone downstairs to get something from his car and hadn’t put on his coat, so he was shivering from the cold.
As Xu Qinghe put on her white coat, she said, “It’s time to go home. You should hurry back.”
“Senior, it’s freezing outside. Let me walk you home.”
Xu Qinghe didn’t drive and normally walked to and from work.
She thanked him. “No need. Even if it’s minus ten degrees, I’ll still walk.”
Her home was close to the hospital, and she walked regardless of wind or rain. She had long been used to it.
Everyone at the hospital knew that she had gotten her driver’s license years ago but had never driven even a hundred meters.
She rarely encountered an opponent in anesthesia skills competitions, yet she couldn’t handle a steering wheel.
Others assumed she had some kind of psychological trauma related to driving. In reality, she was simply used to thinking through medical cases while walking and often became distracted.
If she brought that habit behind the wheel, it would be a safety hazard, so she simply stopped driving altogether.
That was also why, whenever Shi Wenli happened to see her on his way to or from work, he would give her a ride.
Seeing that Zhang Xun still had no intention of leaving, Xu Qinghe guessed what was on his mind.
“Are you still blaming yourself for what happened with the medication this morning?”
Zhang Xun finally had a chance to explain.
“Senior, I was a little nervous at the time. Please don’t think badly of me.”
His senior was always quick, precise, and steady when drawing up medication.
Once, during an emergency resuscitation, she had drawn up the medication so quickly that he hadn’t even been able to see the steps clearly before she had already prepared the syringe for injection.
And what about him?
He couldn’t even keep his hand steady while drawing up propofol.
Xu Qinghe had gone through that stage herself.
“The first time I drew up medication, I even got scolded by the director. It’s fine. Just practice more.”
Zhang Xun was grateful.
He knew that she only said she had been scolded by the director to make him feel better.
Everyone in the department knew that she had naturally steady hands.
Xu Qinghe still had to visit the patients scheduled for surgery the next day. Zhang Xun felt embarrassed about leaving work before her and planned to accompany her.
But Xu Qinghe could tell he was already exhausted. She told him to go home and get some proper rest instead of letting his confidence collapse over one mistake.
The two of them headed toward the elevators.
Once inside, Xu Qinghe pressed the button for the neurosurgery ward.
Her first anesthesia case the next day was a craniotomy in neurosurgery.
The moment Zhang Xun saw that they were going to the neurosurgery ward, he naturally thought of Shi Wenli.
“By the way, Senior, are you close to Director Shi from neurosurgery?”
“We’re pretty close.”
“Has Director Shi finished his postdoctoral training?”
“He had already completed it before he went abroad for further training.” Xu Qinghe looked at him curiously. “Do you know him?”
“Sort of. I did a rotation in neurosurgery during my second year.”
At that time, Shi Wenli hadn’t even completed his postdoctoral training. Zhang Xun hadn’t expected him to finish so quickly.
He couldn’t help wondering how Shi Wenli had managed to keep up with research while performing so many surgeries.
The elevator stopped at the neurosurgery ward.
Xu Qinghe stepped out.
She had finished surgery late that day and had missed the neurosurgery department’s preoperative discussion. Before visiting her patient, she planned to speak with Ding Qihang, the doctor in charge of the patient, to learn more about the case.
Ding Qihang happened to be coming out of the office when they met.
“Dr. Xu, you’re here.”
He pointed toward the office.
“Our director is inside.”
For a complicated Level IV surgery, the surgeon and the chief anesthesiologist needed to discuss and determine the anesthesia plan together.
The surgeon for tomorrow’s operation was none other than Shi Wenli.
Xu Qinghe asked, “Has he finished surgery?”
“Yes. He’s waiting for you to come over and discuss the anesthesia plan.”
Xu Qinghe was very familiar with Shi Wenli’s office. She had been there many times.
The office door was open.
At the computer, Shi Wenli was examining the patient’s imaging.
He was wearing a white coat over a light-gray shirt, looking as gentle and refined as ever.
They hadn’t seen each other for a year, and they had barely been in contact during that time. Naturally, there was some unfamiliarity between them.
Xu Qinghe knocked lightly on the door.
Shi Wenli had been concentrating on the computer screen. Only when he heard the knock did he look up.
She held a folder in one hand while the other was tucked into the pocket of her white coat, her hair neatly tied back.
A year ago, when she encountered complicated neurosurgical operations like this, she had only been the assistant anesthesiologist, working under the anesthesiology department director or the team leader.
In just one year, she had already become capable of independently handling Level IV high-risk anesthesia cases and working alongside him as the chief anesthesiologist.
He had been abroad and didn’t know the specifics of her situation, but he could imagine that during the past year she must have focused intensely on neurosurgical anesthesia, following surgeries day after day at an exhausting pace, probably with barely any time to rest.
Shi Wenli smiled gently.
“Just finished surgery?”
“Mm.”
Xu Qinghe walked in, pretending not to know.
“When did you get back?”
Shi Wenli put down the mouse.
“Last Friday.”
Xu Qinghe smiled.
“What kind of fate is that? It snowed heavily when you left for your training, and it’s snowing heavily again now that you’re back.”
Only after saying it did she realize that there was something slightly inappropriate about her words.
She remembered exactly when he had left—and even what the weather had been like that day.
Shi Wenli smiled without reading too much into it. He assumed she was jokingly complaining that it had started snowing the moment he came back.
He said, “It suddenly dropped to minus seven or eight degrees. You anesthesiologists must have been exhausted these past few days.”
The temperature had recently plummeted, causing a sharp increase in emergency surgeries at night. The anesthesiology department was short-staffed, and even doctors who weren’t on call were being summoned from home in the middle of the night to assist with surgeries.
He had completely misunderstood what she meant, so Xu Qinghe simply went along with it.
“Exactly. I didn’t finish surgery until 2:30 this morning, and I still had to work the day shift as usual today.”
“That’s basically two day shifts and a night shift combined. Aren’t you tired?”
Xu Qinghe replied, “I’m okay.”
During the year he had been away, she had worked overtime every day. In addition to providing anesthesia for other surgeries, she had completed anesthesia for more than three hundred neurosurgical operations.
Shi Wenli pulled out the chair beside him and gestured toward it.
“Sit.”