Chapter 452: Shadows in the Hospital: A Night of Crisis and Resolve

“Qian Qian, look, I have a letter for you!”

Before Zhou Can got home, he’d already made up his mind—this was something he couldn’t hide from her.

“Let me be clear first: I haven’t had any contact with Mu Qing since she went abroad. She only helped search for the medicinal herbs because she saw my post on social media.” With that, Zhou Can pulled the letter from his pocket and handed it to her.

Su Qianqian took the letter but didn’t rush to open it.

“This is a letter for you. I wouldn’t dare read it.”

“If you were really the jealous type, I wouldn’t even let you see it! Honestly, I’m thankful to Mu Qing for helping us with this. If we get the chance someday, let’s pay this favor back together.”

Hearing Zhou Can say that, she finally opened the letter.

Women always say one thing but mean another.

She was curious but pretended she didn’t want to look.

If Su Qianqian truly had no intention of reading it, she wouldn’t have accepted the letter at all.

After she finished reading, she stood there in silence for a long while.

Zhou Can didn’t interrupt, letting her adjust her emotions at her own pace.

“Oh, come on—why are you crying now?”

Catching sight of two silent tears gliding down Su Qianqian’s face in the living room light, he darted over to the coffee table for tissues and gently dabbed them away.

“At first, hearing that Mu Qing bought the herbs and even wrote you a letter, I was actually pretty upset. I blamed her for bothering you again. But after reading this, I feel ashamed of myself and moved by her selflessness and how deeply she feels. Can, I think she must really, truly love you. She knew you were searching for medicine to save me, yet still did everything she could to help us…”

Some feelings are impossible to unravel—no matter how you try.

What makes love and family bonds so addictive and enchanting is exactly this: giving selflessly, never expecting anything in return.

Some people keep giving, even when they know it comes at a cost to themselves, and do it willingly.

Emotions are the most complicated thing about being human.

Sure, adults put self-interest first, but true feelings can easily outweigh any personal gain.

When a loved one falls ill, most people would sell their car or house without hesitation, even go into crushing debt to save them. Compared to genuine love, family, or even friendship, benefits don’t measure up to much.

Su Qianqian had a tough background—a childhood far from happy.

It was only after meeting Zhou Can that she finally tasted true love and warmth.

Now, what Mu Qing had done gave her a deeper understanding of both romance and the greater goodness people are capable of.

With the two main herbs found, Zhou Can kept up with her herbal remedies as before, making the decoction for her day after day.

……

The following day, Zhou Can went to work at the hospital just like always.

Hope for Su Qianqian’s recovery put a spring in his step—inwardly, he felt joy and anticipation.

During his morning rounds, Director Xueyan called.

“Congratulations, little brother Zhou Can!”

He paused—could news about finding the two main herbs and Qianqian’s hopeful recovery have already reached her?

“Sis Yan, what’s the good news this time?”

The Rainbow Toad, one of the key ingredients, couldn’t be brought to light, so there was no way he could share that with others.

Otherwise, it would easily become a huge danger.

“That cardiothoracic surgery paper with you as lead author has passed the preliminary review. Looks like it’ll get published in SCI without a problem. I can’t predict what its impact factor will be, but as long as it meets SCI standards, you’ll finally have your first SCI paper. That’ll be a big plus for your future career.”

While Zhou Can’s name was listed as first author, Director Xueyan helped polish it up a lot, fixing things here and there.

Apart from the original ideas and key points, the rest was almost all written under her guidance. She even shared secret tips to improve their chances of passing.

“Really? That’s amazing! Sis Yan, if the paper gets accepted, you’re the one to thank. How about I treat your whole family to dinner?”

Truth was, Zhou Can didn’t know much about Xueyan’s family.

He just knew she had a son in high school and a daughter in college.

“Forget the dinner. If we kept score like that, I’d owe you a mountain of favors! If you’re free tonight, come help me with a surgery. We’ve got a tough aortic aneurysm operation, and with your help, I’ll feel at ease.”

Aortic aneurysms and dissections are frighteningly dangerous, often fatal.

Usually, aortic surgery includes using a covered stent, an artificial vessel graft, or endovascular exclusion procedures.

Another approach for an aneurysm is coiling—placing spring coils inside.

A lot of people get confused between heart stents and coiling. Some think they’re the same thing, but they’re totally different tools used for different purposes.

A stent is for widening vessels at places where there’s blockage or narrowing, keeping things open.

Spring coils are used in interventional surgery for vascular aneurysms—they get placed right in the aneurysm to seal it off.

Think of it this way: coils stop an aneurysm from bursting and bleeding, like plugging a leak; stents open up narrowed vessels.

After agreeing surgery would start around seven that evening, Zhou Can hung up.

When he arrived at the Emergency Department, he found a family member at it again—loudly berating the on-duty nurse.

This sort of scene played out nearly every day. He glanced over but didn’t get involved anyway—it wouldn’t do any good.

In fact, getting involved could just make him a target.

There was never any shortage of bizarre demands for help.

Not every troublesome family member was unreasonable, but most who made a scene were difficult to deal with.

When patients like these showed up, the Emergency Department did everything to persuade them to leave.

But most had come to Tuyu Hospital for its reputation, hoping for the best treatment. Convincing them to go wasn’t easy at all.

Zhou Can headed straight for the ward to continue his rounds.

Now there were several times as many inpatients as before, making every day’s rounds even tougher.

With skill comes responsibility.

Zhou Can also rounded on patients in Internal Medicine.

There was no getting out of it—Deputy Director Han made the request personally, Director Lou also spoke to him. In the end, he could only agree.

Thanks to his rounds every morning and night, the Emergency Department had gone a whole year without a single incident.

For now, short-handed as they were, he was basically being used as a chief physician.

Even the attending and associate chief doctors often took his opinions seriously.

He was halfway through when he suddenly heard a nurse scream outside.

“They’re attacking us! Help! Somebody help!”

Zhou Can’s heart skipped a beat. Without a second thought, he sprinted out of the ward.

Every time he saw his colleagues—doctors and nurses—getting attacked, he felt a gut-wrenching pain.

Everyone already worked themselves to exhaustion.

They devoted their whole hearts to saving lives, yet so often weren’t understood—sometimes they were even assaulted.

“He has a knife!”

Ye Tingting staggered forward, clutching her belly.

Spotting Zhou Can, she used the last ounce of her strength to warn him.

Blood oozed from between her fingers.

“Sis Ting, don’t be scared, lie down!”

When Zhou Can saw this, his eyes went wild with fury.

The family member wielding the knife had gone berserk, now stabbing another nurse over and over.

Two hospital security guards stood by, too scared to intervene—instead, they backed away, step by step.

“Stop right there!”

Zhou Can roared. He lunged in, locked down the attacker’s knife hand, and drove an elbow into the back of his head.

Most trained fighters would never strike the back of someone’s head—it’s dangerous.

But at that moment, Zhou Can couldn’t think about that.

The quickest way to subdue an attacker is a shot to the back of the head.

He had to save the others.

Both nurses lay in puddles of blood. One on-duty doctor was bleeding heavily from the right arm—it was clear just how vicious the attacker had been.

Assaults against medical staff weren’t rare in the Emergency Department, but attacks with a knife like this were still shocking.

With a muffled groan, the assailant convulsed and collapsed.

Zhou Can snatched away the knife and flung it aside.

“Quick, save them—now!”

His eyes blazing red, he yelled at the nearby staff.

Seeing the doctors and nurses cut down like this felt like watching his own brothers and sisters suffer—he was devastated and furious.

Ye Tingting had taken at least one stab to the abdomen, and the nurse he’d just managed to save was now lying in a bloody mess, her wounds impossible to judge at a glance.

“One of the male doctors, tie the attacker’s hands behind his back!”

Zhou Can worried the attacker might get up and attack again while they were trying to save lives.

After that elbow shot, the attacker shouldn’t be able to do anything for a while—but better safe than sorry.

“Dr. Zhou… I don’t want to die. My baby’s just over a year old…”

The nurse’s breathing was barely audible. Tears slipped from her eyes.

“I’ll do everything I can. Hang in there. What’s your blood type?”

“B…”

Before she could finish, she passed out.

Zhou Can scooped her up and raced for the resuscitation room.

“Request blood for Ye Tingting and He Juan from the blood bank—if you don’t know their blood types, check with Human Resources. He Juan should be B-type.”

With severe stab wounds like this, massive blood loss is the biggest risk.

There’s also the danger of the heart, lungs, or vital organs getting stabbed.

Dashing into the resuscitation room, Zhou Can had only one thing on his mind—that pleading look in He Juan’s eyes before she blacked out. She wanted to live; she couldn’t let her one-year-old grow up without a mom.

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“That monster deserves to be shot a million times over!”

Cursing the attacker’s cruelty and heartlessness, Zhou Can swiftly got He Juan onto the emergency table.

The room was fully stocked with the defibrillator, respirator, and all the lifesaving equipment they needed.

But for surgery, they’d have to move her to the operating room.

He lifted her shirt—there were seven or eight knife wounds, all gushing blood.

In this situation, none of the usual ways to stop bleeding would work.

“How’s she doing?”

Associate Director He, along with Dr. Xu who had just rushed in, were first to arrive in the resuscitation room.

“She needs to get to the OR stat. Judging by all this bleeding, one of the big chest or abdominal vessels must’ve been punctured. That attacker was savage—utterly crazed.”

Zhou Can’s voice shook with rage.

“Move her to the OR. Notify the blood bank to send over more blood immediately.”

Dr. Xu didn’t hesitate for a second.

By now, Ye Tingting had also been wheeled into the resuscitation room.

“Ye Tingting’s been stabbed in the abdomen too. She’ll probably need surgery at the same time.”

Zhou Can noticed Ye Tingting hadn’t lost consciousness—just looked pale and her lips were trembling.

With both nurses in critical condition, there was no time to wait for the families to sign consent.

They could only get approval from the Medical Department and keep moving.

First, save lives; paperwork could be filled out as they went.

Thankfully, Xin Wanshan in the Medical Department was a fair man—he’d never stall on urgent cases like this.

“Zhou, your general surgery skills are now every bit as good as mine. He Juan’s wounds are severe and complicated—I’m guessing her intestines might be perforated. You’ve got more rescue experience and faster hands than me, so you take her. I’ll handle Ye Tingting.”

Dr. Xu never wasted a moment with patients.

“Alright!”

Zhou Can immediately wheeled He Juan into the main OR.

“What happened?”

Qiao Yu was prepping the instruments, everything neat and ready.

Ma Xiaolan had finished draping the surgical table.

“Family member stabbed her. Cut her shirt—let me disinfect and prep the wound for surgery. We need to open up and stop the bleeding, now.” Zhou Can calmly directed the two surgical nurses.

It was barely half past seven, so medical assistant Yang Zhi hadn’t arrived yet.

Normally, Yang Zhi would show up about twenty minutes early—he’d be there any minute now.

He Juan’s blood type was confirmed as B, and the blood products had already arrived.

The anesthesiologist rushed in at a run.

There was no time for fancy prep—just get her on the monitors and knock her out fast.

Watching her blood pressure plummet and vitals fade, Zhou Can’s anxiety soared.

She was already getting fluids and transfusions.

But with internal injuries, if you don’t open up to find the source and stop the bleeding right away, all the blood in the world would just flow right out again.

“Dr. Zhou, I know you’re worried, but the more anxious you are, the calmer you have to be. Go scrub up—join us for the full anesthesia.” The anesthesiologist reminded him.

Zhou Can’s hands were covered in blood—his whole state a mess of nerves.

That just wouldn’t do.

As they say, the more you care, the more you get rattled.

……

A few minutes later, anesthesia was in, and Zhou Can’s mind started to clear.

Still, He Juan’s pleading eyes kept flashing through his head.

He clung to a single belief: he had to do everything in his power to pull her through.

When he made the incision, he sucked in a deep breath and cut down in one swift motion.

He’d never been faster.

[Rapid Surgical Technique experience +1. Bonus: 1000 XP.]

It was unreal—he’d just earned a thousand points of experience at once.

He raised the scalpel for a second cut, just as swift and precise as the first.

[Rapid Surgical Technique experience +1. Bonus: 1000 XP.]

Same incredible reward.

Whether the system was bugged or he was having a breakthrough, Zhou Can had certainly entered a whole new state of focus. In his mind, in his eyes, in his heart, there was only one thought: save lives.

His speed in opening up the abdomen was record-breaking—just over ten seconds.

He’d avoided every nerve and major blood vessel with perfect precision.

The incision was clean and straight as could be.

“Ma Xiaolan, help retract for me, quickly.”

Fortunately, Yang Zhi arrived right then. With two people on the retractors, the view inside the abdomen was crystal clear.

“Suction!”

Zhou Can drained the blood pooled inside the abdominal cavity.