A little after three in the afternoon, Wang Chuan from the Plastic Surgery Center took some time out to see a mother and daughter in an examination room at a friend's request.
A lavishly dressed mother pushed her daughter, who looked to be in her twenties and was a bit embarrassed, in front of Wang Chuan.
"Mr. Wang, this is my daughter, Qiu Jue."
"She was in that pile-up at noon while driving and hit her head on the steering wheel."
"She got a cut on her brow bone, five or six centimeters long."
Wang Chuan studied Qiu Jue's pretty face and the surgical tape on her left brow bone, nodding slightly. "I heard about that pile-up at noon. A lot of people were injured."
"I also heard it was caused by a drunk driver speeding in a Cayenne?"
Qiu Jue's mother said indignantly, "Exactly!"
"They said he was going two hundred an hour. The car just plowed through everything, hitting several other cars before it finally stopped."
"My daughter couldn't brake or swerve in time and was hit by another car."
She pointed to the surgical tape on Qiu Jue's left brow bone and said with concern, "It was the first time she'd ever been in a situation like that. She was terrified."
"When she was taken to the hospital, she was in such a daze that she let some very young intern casually stitch up the wound."
"This is a wound on her face. If it leaves a scar..."
Qiu Jue's mother looked at Wang Chuan and pleaded, "Mr. Wang, you're a top expert in plastic surgery. Please, I must trouble you to treat her wound again."
"She doesn't even have a boyfriend yet."
"If her face is scarred, what will she do?"
Wang Chuan comforted her gently, "Don't worry. Plastic surgery is so advanced these days, we can turn the bell-ringer of Notre-Dame Cathedral into Prince Charming. A tiny scar is nothing."
"Let me take a look at the wound first."
He reached out and gently peeled the surgical tape off Qiu Jue's left brow bone.
A light red wound, closed with 4-0 sutures using a parallel stitch pattern, was revealed to Wang Chuan.
The moment he saw the suturing, he couldn't help but let out a surprised, "Hm?"
Seeing Wang Chuan's surprised expression, Qiu Jue's mother asked worriedly, "Mr. Wang, is it bad?"
Qiu Jue also looked at Wang Chuan nervously.
Wang Chuan, realizing he'd lost his composure, quickly explained, "Don't worry, it's not that the wound is difficult to treat. I'm just astonished at how superbly it was cleaned and sutured."
"Look..."
His professional interest piqued, Wang Chuan began to explain enthusiastically, "The spacing between the sutures is perfect, and each one is as precise and uniform as if measured with a ruler."
"The distance from each stitch entry point to the wound edge is also exactly the same."
"And look at the tension of the sutures..."
Wang Chuan continued, "I can tell that the doctor who did this applied the exact same amount of force with every single stitch."
Catching the mother's blank expression, Wang Chuan instantly lost his enthusiasm for explaining further.
He said simply, "It takes an expert to appreciate the finer points."
"Ms. Qiu, Miss Qiu, the details of this suturing show that the wound was treated like a work of art. It's practically perfect."
"I can guarantee you that once this heals, the scar will be virtually nonexistent. There's no need for me to do anything else."
Qiu Jue's mother asked doubtfully, "Mr. Wang, was the wound really treated that well?"
Wang Chuan replied, a hint of displeasure in his voice, "As the director of the Plastic Surgery Center, would I lie to you?"
"The wound was treated exceptionally well. If I were to re-do it, the resulting scar would actually be more noticeable."
"Hold on, I'll prescribe you a tube of scar repair cream."
"After the stitches are removed, apply it once in the morning and once at night. In another week, the scar should have faded completely."
Wang Chuan reapplied the surgical tape to Qiu Jue's wound, then asked, "Do you remember which attending physician from the Emergency Department treated you?"
Qiu Jue gently shook her head. "Mr. Wang, it wasn't an attending. It was a very young resident."
"I heard a young nurse call him Mr. Yan!"
"Mr. Yan?"
Wang Chuan repeated the name, muttering to himself, 'Doctors with the surname Yan are few and far between at this hospital...'
Yan Feifan easily fooled his sister by explaining that Yiyi was just a colleague he'd met online, someone with whom he discussed cases and engaged in friendly competition.
After sending his sister away, Yan Feifan returned to the emergency department to observe the resuscitation efforts up close.
Unfortunately, of the four emergency procedures, two patients were pronounced dead.
The other two who were temporarily stabilized were sent to the ICU for close observation.
Yan Feifan also learned that three other people had died at the scene of the accident.
This once again showed him the brutal reality of traffic accidents, and it made him feel he needed to reconsider his sister's plan to buy a car.
Yan Ziruo had gotten her driver's license three or four years ago, but she'd had very few opportunities to practice driving since then.
Yan Feifan was worried that with his sister's driving skills, she would most likely become a menace on the road.
'She'd be a danger to others and to herself...'
After the Emergency Department returned to its usual pace, everyone began the busy work of documenting the recent resuscitation efforts.
Because this documentation would be used for injury assessments, determining liability, and compensation claims, it had to be as detailed as possible.
Although the tablets had a voice-to-text function, it was full of errors when it came to specialized medical terminology, making corrections a pain.
So Yan Feifan stuck to the old-fashioned way, typing on the on-screen keyboard.
He worked on his tablet for over an hour, and it wasn't until four-thirty in the afternoon that he finished inputting the details of the patients he had treated.
The time it took far exceeded the time he had spent actually treating them.
Afterward, Yan Feifan took his tablet to find Mr. Wan, who needed to review his work.
Most importantly, his emergency treatment of the patient with the intracranial hemorrhage required Mr. Wan's signature of approval on the electronic medical record...
In the director's office, Wan Yuming was slumped unceremoniously in his chair, reviewing the electronic medical records Yan Feifan had submitted.
"Xiaoyan, I spot-checked one of the patients you treated."
"I originally thought that after a hiatus of nearly two years, your skills would have gotten rusty..."
Wan Yuming said with a gratified tone, "But instead, you've given me a huge, pleasant surprise."
"Xiaoyan, you haven't disappointed me."
Yan Feifan said softly, "Teacher, thank you for the praise."
"Honestly, it's like riding a bike. Even if you don't do it for years, you never forget the skill."
Wan Yuming chuckled. "That's not a very fitting analogy. Suturing is a skill that gets better with practice. There's no such thing as improving by not doing it."
"I know you've been putting in a lot of hard work on your own."
"Xiaoyan, your health comes first. It's not a race, so take it easy."
After adding a word of concern, Wan Yuming continued with satisfaction, "Xiaoyan, I've already received word from Neurosurgery."
"That cerebral hemorrhage patient you treated is no longer in life-threatening danger."
"However, we won't know if there's any brain damage until he wakes up and undergoes further examination."
"Dr. Lv also made a point of saying that your transnasal puncture to drain and reduce intracranial pressure was beautifully done—a perfect embodiment of 'stable, precise, and decisive'."
As he said this, Wan Yuming tapped the tablet screen with his finger, then signed his name with a flourish.
"He even asked me if I performed the puncture and drainage myself."
"When I told him it was you, he exclaimed that it was unbelievable."
"After all, a puncture like that requires an incredibly deep understanding of human and brain anatomy. It's difficult to pull off without at least ten years of clinical experience."
Yan Feifan said humbly, "Teacher, I just got lucky."
Wan Yuming's expression turned serious. "That puncture demonstrated skill, experience, and confidence—everything but luck."
"Xiaoyan, you're making me look forward to your future more and more..."