Chapter 57: Trials Under Pressure

I finally understood why every intern at Tuyu is like they’ve been given a cheat code! Hard work really does pay off. You can see it from you alone—Tuyu interns are relentlessly driven! No wonder it took me six grueling years just to secure a residency at Tuyu. My rivals aren’t just seasoned doctors; they’re a bunch of insanely talented interns!

After witnessing Zhou Can’s advanced surgical training setup, Jin Mingxi gained a deeper appreciation for Tuyu Hospital.

Even interns can be this formidable.

The skill levels of the attending physicians and chief doctors are downright terrifying.

In an environment teeming with experts, it’s the perfect setting for his progress.

As long as he survives, he’s bound to rapidly boost every facet of his surgical skills.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, the two went their separate ways.

Jin Mingxi continued writing his surgical summary while Zhou Can merely jotted down key issues from the surgery—like the vascular anastomosis error and spots that could use improvement.

Then, he briefly recorded the invisible suturing technique taught by Dr. Xu in his own words, complete with sketches.

At this stage, he had only grasped the method.

To truly master suturing, he still had a long road ahead.

He’d have to wait until his suturing skills advanced to the level of an attending physician to really practice.

After finishing the essential surgical summary, he grabbed some yellow soybeans he’d bought, set up the mold, and began practicing the placement technique.

This bionic mold was designed specifically for doctors to refine their device implantation skills.

The path to the placement points was riddled with almost inhumane obstacles.

Moreover, the mold featured nearly forty placement points, each with its own difficulty rating.

For the two most challenging points, even with level three placement technique, Zhou Can trembled in apprehension.

He estimated that only a level four in placement technique could even begin to tackle them.

He picked up the long-arm forceps used in surgery.

The challenge of placement lay in the necessity for long-arm manipulation. Sometimes, barely guided by a single guidewire, the difficulty was immense.

When first practicing placement, doctors typically used tweezers or toothpicks.

At the hospital cafeteria, you’d often spot doctors eating with two toothpicks in hand.

They were sharpening the basic surgical skills.

Zhou Can’s placement technique had now reached the resident level, eliminating the need for toothpicks or short forceps.

Instead, he opted to challenge himself with the more demanding long-arm forceps.

Mastering these would lay a solid foundation for future minimally invasive surgeries.

Tools such as bone-biting forceps, rotary cutters, needle holders, and spatulas—all require long-arm manipulation in minimally invasive surgery.

He grasped the long-arm forceps and picked a soybean from the bowl.

These were, after all, dry soybeans.

Hard in texture with a slippery skin.

It was extremely tricky to get a good grip.

After more than ten attempts, he finally managed to secure a single bean.

The forceps, nearly thirty centimeters long, were notoriously hard to control. Coupled with the bean’s smooth, round surface, it led to multiple failed attempts.

With a toothpick or short tweezers, Zhou Can was sure he could clinch one on the first try.

【Congratulations! You’ve acquired Grasping Technique! An advanced surgical skill that allows you to use forceps and tweezers to grip and extract objects or tissues.】

Zhou Can beamed with excitement at his brand-new skill.

Another advanced technique added to his repertoire—this was his fifth.

【Grasping Technique Level 3. Current XP: 0/1000. Resident-level proficiency.】

Not bad at all—starting at level three right off the bat.

This skill has broad applications; nearly every high-level surgery requires it.

It’s a must-have for advanced procedures.

He steadied the soybean in the forceps and carefully placed it into the first practice slot on the bionic mold.

Bullseye on the first try!

【Gained XP: 0.001】

Zhou Can’s forehead burned with frustration at the meager XP gain.

By now, he had completely figured out the XP system’s tricks.

If the practice was too simple, it only dispensed this paltry amount to correct his ‘laziness’.

The first five placement points on the mold were indeed very easy.

Perfect for novices like interns.

Now that he was at a resident level, practicing intern-level placement was almost laughably easy. No wonder the system penalized him with minimal XP.

He tried grasping again.

This time, he improved—succeeding in grasping a soybean in just eight tries.

【Grasping Technique XP +0.1】. He then opted to place it in a medium-difficulty slot.

After considerable effort, he managed to implant it into the target groove.

【Placement Technique XP +0.1】

He sighed—earning an extra 0.1 XP in placement was no small feat.

Every beginning is rough.

He hoped that with more practice, his efficiency would improve.

Every placement point on the mold simulated a real human anatomical structure. For instance, the seventh mirrored a key path in gastroscopy, while the fourteenth resembled the left coronary branch.

In future surgeries, he’d likely encounter these patterns.

Actual operations would be even tougher than these simulations.

That’s why relentless practice was vital—so that on the operating table, everything would come naturally.

He repeated his grasping and implantation exercises over and over.

Practice makes perfect.

Gradually, his movements became smoother and his efficiency steadily increased.

His failure rate when grasping dry soybeans with the long-arm forceps dropped from around eight attempts to six, and his implantation success rate climbed to nearly 80%.

After nearly two hours, his grasping XP had increased by 7.8 points and his placement XP by 6 points.

Compared to real surgeries, these XP gains were slow.

But for skills that rarely get a chance to be honed in practice, slow, steady improvement was the best strategy.

Glancing at the time, he stopped both his grasping and placement drills.

Next to him were ten white mice.

At 200 yuan each—a total of 2000 yuan—they couldn’t be wasted.

These white mice were primarily used to practice hemostasis, incision, and tissue separation.

As for suturing and ligature, the operating room offered plenty of opportunities, so there was no need to invest five times as much time on the mice.

After administering group anesthesia to the ten white mice, he casually grabbed one.

Placing it on a wax tray and securing its limbs, he began practicing the three core surgical skills.

Dissection!

【Incision XP +0.2】

Once he made the incision, blood immediately gushed out from multiple wound edges.

His electrocautery knife was fired up in an instant.

【Hemostasis XP +0.2 +0.2 +0.2…】

The XP gain from hemostasis was unmatched; no other skill could boast the same rate.

After cutting a surgical window in its abdomen, he used a hook to pull the wound edges apart, exposing a clear view of the cavity. Then he targeted the tangled intestines to practice tissue separation.

Under his careful control, the scalpel deftly separated the cecum from the colon.

【Tissue Separation XP +0.2】

But a slip caused him to accidentally nick the intestine.

Intestinal contents burst out.

Startled, he scrambled to apply a ligature.

Despite his efforts, the spill contaminated the mouse’s abdominal cavity.

Fortunately, it was just a white mouse; if it were a patient undergoing an appendectomy, the consequences would have been disastrous—a severe medical blunder.

Contamination of the abdominal cavity by intestinal matter had extremely dire implications.

With the high irritability of those contents, patients could suffer dehydration, fever, and even toxic shock, potentially resulting in death. Moreover, the ensuing peritonitis and other complications could be fatal.

After ligating the severed intestinal ends, he managed to regain control of the situation.

【Ligature XP +0.2】

Deciding that the damaged section, already nicked and ligated, was best dealt with by severing the end connected to the rectum,

he made a swift, decisive cut.

He successfully severed the mouse’s intestine.

This allowed for easier extraction of most of the intestines from the abdominal cavity for surgery.

【Incision XP +0.2】

Zhou Can was left a bit dazed.

Could this really net an additional 0.2 XP for incision?

It almost felt like he’d stumbled upon a bug in the XP system.