Jessica’s brain showed incredible adaptability under extreme pressure; every turn and every hand-off was executed without the slightest error.
No superfluous words, no useless comfort.
This dilapidated underground clinic had turned into a set of precision-meshing gears.
The lead surgeon and the rookie assistant, who had been pulled in on a whim, completed their first collaboration—one devoid of rapport yet perfectly seamless—before the God of Death’s scythe could fall.
William took the Lidocaine and flicked off the glass cap of the ampoule with one hand.
As the syringe drew the medication, the needle tip was aimed at the second intercostal space on the mid-clavicular line of the old man’s right side.
This was the golden spot for a thoracentesis.
He injected the fluid and withdrew the needle.
Anesthesia takes time to take effect, but the old man was out of time.
William discarded the syringe and gripped the thick puncture needle with his right hand.
The needle glinted coldly under the shadowless lamp.
Jessica stood to the side, her breathing very shallow.
She watched William’s latex-gloved fingers steadily pinch the needle’s handle without the slightest tremor.
The man’s profile appeared extremely cold under the light.
The dark circles under his eyes did not diminish his professionalism; instead, they added a sense of composure gained from long-term wandering on the edge of life and death.
William used the index and middle fingers of his left hand to stabilize the skin at the puncture site.
He applied force with his right hand.
The needle tip pierced the epidermis, the subcutaneous fat, and the pectoralis major.
Avoiding the nerves and blood vessels at the lower edge of the rib, it precisely hugged the upper edge of the next rib and pierced vertically into the pleural cavity.
The moment the sensation of resistance gave way…
“Ssssh—” An extremely sharp sound of rushing air echoed throughout the clinic.
High-pressure gas surged wildly from the end of the puncture needle, carrying with it a large amount of dark red blood foam.
The old man’s chest cavity visibly deflated.
Without a pause, William quickly connected a sterile drainage tube with a one-way valve to the end of the needle, while the other end was connected to the negative pressure drainage bottle by the bed.
The blood and exudate that had accumulated in the chest cavity flowed continuously into the glass bottle through the transparent silicone tube.
The liquid level rose rapidly.
Three hundred milliliters.
Five hundred milliliters.
Eight hundred milliliters.
As the pressure in the chest cavity was released, the compressed lungs regained space to expand.
The sound of air being sucked in like a broken bellows in the old man’s throat stopped.
He greedily took a large breath of air smelling of disinfectant, and his chest began to rise and fall rhythmically.
The cyanotic complexion faded at a visible rate, restoring the pale hue a human should have.
The shifted trachea slowly returned to the midline.
The veins in his neck that were about to burst finally flattened out.
He was back from the dead.
When the two burly Russian men saw this, their legs went weak, and they almost knelt directly on the ground.
The way they looked at William had changed from initial contempt to a god-like fanaticism.
The bald burly man wiped the cold sweat off his face haphazardly, so excited he even started speaking in Cyrillic.
He frantically searched the inner pocket of his leather jacket and pulled out two thick stacks of blood-stained Franklin bills, holding them with both hands and respectfully placing them next to the worn-out job application form on the triage desk.
“Dr. Get faster updates on g.com.
William…
this is the medical fee!
If it’s not enough, we’ll get more!
Boss Ivan’s life is all thanks to you!”
William pulled out the puncture needle, covered the wound with sterile gauze, and applied medical tape.
He tore off the blood-stained latex gloves and tossed them casually into the yellow medical waste bin by his feet.
“He won’t die now.” William walked to the sink and turned on the faucet again.
“Bring him here every day to change the dressing; the drainage tube must stay in for at least three days.
Tell him not to smoke cigars, drink alcohol, or get into fights during this time.
If he doesn’t listen, send him straight to the crematorium next time; don’t come back and dirty my place.”
“Yes, yes, yes!
We’ll definitely do that!” The bald man bowed repeatedly, then carefully signaled his companion to push the wheeled surgical bed and transport the semi-conscious old man out of the clinic.
The rolling shutter was pulled down again.
Dead silence returned to the clinic.
Only the sound of occasional bubbles rising in the drainage bottle remained.
Water washed over the stainless steel sink.
William looked up, his gaze falling on the line of ghostly blue characters at the edge of his retina that only he could see.
[Long-term Teaching Mission: The Healer’s Legacy.]
[Current Progress: 5%]
The progress bar moved forward a tiny bit, extremely stingily.
The emergency treatment just now, though thrilling, in the system’s judging criteria, Jessica had merely acted as a mechanical arm for delivery, still a hundred thousand miles away from “possessing the ability to independently complete pre-operative processing for routine surgery.”
William turned off the faucet and grabbed a towel to dry his hands.
He turned around and looked at Jessica, who was still standing in a daze in front of the equipment cabinet.
The girl’s breathing hadn’t fully settled yet, and her chest was rising and falling much more than usual.
Her gaze shifted back and forth between the blood-stained gauze, the drainage bottle filled with dark red liquid, and the two stacks of cash on the triage desk.
Five thousand dollars.
She had just followed instructions to fetch a few tools, and this dilapidated clinic had just pulled in twenty thousand dollars?
And that old man, who had one foot in the grave, was actually saved just like that by a few tubes and a needle?
Jessica’s worldview was slightly shaken.
Her previous understanding of Doctors was limited to those in white coats at public hospitals who prescribed high-priced aspirin and told you to drink more hot water.
These few minutes of actual combat today had completely overturned her perception.
“Passing grade for the first lesson,” William’s voice interrupted her thoughts.
He walked to the triage desk, picked up the two stacks of blood-stained cash, casually pulled out a hundred-dollar bill, and threw it on the table in front of Jessica.
“Go to the convenience store on the corner and buy two cups of black coffee.
The rest is your errand fee.
After you get back, wipe the blood off the floor and pack the medical waste to put in the designated bin in the back alley.”
William opened the drawer, threw the rest of the money inside, and locked it.
“Once that’s done, we’ll start learning human anatomy.”
Jessica looked at the Franklin on the table, then at the bloodstains on the floor.
She didn’t complain or haggle.
She grabbed the bill, stuffed it into her jeans pocket, turned, pulled up the rolling shutter, and walked out.
She placed one on William’s desk, then found a mop and disinfectant in the storage room and began cleaning up the mess on the floor.
Her movements were brisk; she was clearly used to this kind of manual labor.
The bloodstains were diluted by the disinfectant, and the mop made a rustling sound against the concrete floor.
William picked up the coffee and took a sip; the burnt bitterness of low-quality beans spread in his mouth.
He leaned back in his swivel chair, watching Jessica’s busy back.
This girl’s strength was indeed terrifying.
William had seen clearly when she grabbed the bald Russian’s wrist earlier.
If she hadn’t intentionally held back, that man’s radius would have definitely been crushed into a comminuted fracture on the spot.
Having such a bodyguard and assistant in the clinic would indeed save a lot of trouble when dealing with unreasonable gang members or overdosing addicts in the future.
But the premise was that she had to catch up on basic medical knowledge.
“Go wash your hands after you’re done mopping.” William put down the coffee cup and took a heavy hardcover book from the drawer.
“Come here.”
Jessica washed the mop, put it back, scrubbed her hands hard with soap, and walked to the triage desk.
William pushed the book toward her.
netters atlas of human anatomy.
The cover was somewhat worn from being flipped through, and the corners were frayed.
“You relied on color labels to find the instruments just now.” William’s finger tapped on the book cover.
“That’s a fool-proof design for idiots.
From today on, you must carve the location of every organ, every blood vessel, and every muscle in this atlas into your brain.”
Jessica looked at the book, which was thicker than a brick, and her brow furrowed into a tight knot.
She had basically slept through high school biology or skipped class to work at a bar.
Making her tackle this professional medical textbook now was more torturous than making her carry sandbags at the docks.
“Do I really need to look that closely?” Jessica tried to struggle.
“Isn’t it enough if I just know how to hand over the scalpel and hemostats?”
“No,” William rejected her suggestion categorically.
He opened the atlas to the page on thoracic anatomy.
“That old man just now had a tension pneumothorax.
If the puncture needle had been half an inch lower, it would have pierced the intercostal artery, causing massive bleeding; if it had been an inch to the left, it would have gone straight into the heart.”
William pointed to the dense network of blood vessels and nerves in the atlas.
“Surgery isn’t like fixing a car; a hair’s breadth of difference is a human life.
As an assistant, you must know where the surgeon’s blade is going next.
Only if you anticipate the bleeding point can you hand me the hemostats before the blood sprays out.”
Jessica looked at the red and blue interlaced lines in the atlas and felt a wave of dizziness.
But she didn’t argue further.
A base salary of five thousand dollars, plus daily errand tips—this job was too tempting for her.
Moreover, the skill the man in front of her had just demonstrated was indeed worth learning.
“First, memorize the skeletal system.” William pushed the book toward her.
“The two hundred and six bones of the human body, in Latin and English names.”
“I’ll quiz you tomorrow morning.”
Jessica resignedly picked up the heavy atlas, walked to an empty table in the corner, sat down, and began rote memorization.