Life is Like a Journey – Chapter 118
by Little PandaVolume 3: Transition
Revival
Slaughterhouse
Seven hours had passed, and people came and went in the conference room, no one noticing her quiet presence.
She entered through the back door, didn’t take a seat, just stood in the shadows with folded arms, coldly watching everything happening on the large screen.
The team from Operating Room Three brought over the excised liver, and the surgical team immediately began necessary trimming, using the da Vinci to place it in the abdominal cavity and reconstruct the blood vessels.
The liver being one of the body’s most vital organs required absolute precision. Viktor concentrated intensely while controlling the da Vinci, while those outside the screen watched with rapt attention.
She mentally reviewed the entire surgical procedure, identical to the ex vivo tumor resection [surgical removal of tumors outside the body] she had wanted to perform years ago – opening the chest, removing organs in sequence, each team separating tumors, returning organs to the abdominal cavity, vascular reconstruction, suturing and ligation, using artificial blood vessels when necessary…
The only variable was that liver.
Doctors whispered as they passed by her: “I heard Director Fu donated the liver. He’s not just a good doctor but also a good father. It’s unfortunate he can’t be on the operating table this time.”
“What’s there to worry about? We have the da Vinci, and Dr. Viktor is a world-class surgeon, plus Dr. Liu’s skills aren’t bad either…”
The other person laughed: “Everyone selected for this surgery team, even the interns, is exceptional. Who knows how far they’ll go in their careers?”
As the voices faded, Lu Qingshi raised her head from the darkness, watching the magnified face of the Russian doctor on the screen, her lips curling into an intrigued smile.
Viktor, huh…
Her thoughts drifted back to that island nation in the middle of the ocean.
Tokyo University Hospital.
“Time’s up!” As the dismissal bell rang, Viktor was still halfway through suturing his model when Lu Qingshi stood up and submitted her model to the lectern.
Viktor gritted his teeth and chased after her out of the classroom: “I heard you’re a genius from mainland China. Let’s see who can suture faster!”
Lu Qingshi turned around, the young woman’s casual gaze meeting his, her lips curving slightly.
Her Asian features were delicate, with refined eyes and brows, and that faint smile with its subtle elegance immediately made him blush. He stammered: “Don’t… don’t smile at me… smiling won’t work…”
Lu Qingshi walked toward him step by step, making Viktor’s heart tremble, until her slender fingers rested on his shoulder. Her flat shoes stepped over his expensive leather shoes as her cool voice sounded near his ear.
“Move aside, you’re blocking the way.”
In the ensuing silence, only the sound of a heart shattering could be heard.
Viktor clutched his chest and turned around to see a tall, handsome young man waiting for her at the end of the hallway.
Lu Qingshi linked her arm with his: “Have you been waiting long?”
The young man patted her head: “Not long, let’s go eat.”
After that, Viktor’s name frequently appeared alongside hers – sometimes tied for first in their year, sometimes following closely behind. They even received scholarships together. However, she was completely focused on her studies and Fu Lei back then and didn’t pay much attention. Who would have known he would appear here? Perhaps it was fate’s arrangement.
“Liver repositioning complete,” the da Vinci’s mechanical arms finished suturing the last blood vessel, and Viktor let out a sigh of relief as the nurse wiped his sweat.
The 3D imaging camera mounted on the mechanical arm moved to the heart. Just as he prepared to act, he suddenly froze – Liu Qingyun and Yu Gui were wearing magnifying glasses, having already separated more than half of the tumor, with only the final cleanup remaining. There was no room for his intervention.
He was slightly taken aback as other teams successively reported successful tumor separation.
“Gastric tumor separation successful.”
“Good, prepare for repositioning.”
The circulating nurse brought over the tray, and several doctors manually held the stomach in place within the abdominal cavity as the da Vinci’s mechanical arm moved into position.
Lu Qingshi stood up straight.
“Report: During tumor separation, we removed part of the inferior vena cava [major vein carrying blood to the heart] adhesion as well. There isn’t enough vessel margin, and it’s still bleeding.”
The anesthesiologist stood up to adjust the medication, looking worried, and remained standing.
Viktor had already seen everything in the 3D image: “No problem, bring the artificial blood vessel.”
The operating room door flew open as the nurse ran out.
Yu Gui glanced up, but Liu Qingyun continued separation with the electrocautery [surgical tool that cuts and coagulates tissue]: “Don’t get distracted, continue with our task.”
He was indeed the more composed one. Yu Gui nodded: “Understood.”
The artificial blood vessel replacement was nerve-wracking but successful. The da Vinci was fast and more agile than human hands, its mechanical arms able to rotate 360 degrees without blind spots for suturing and ligation. In just a few moves, the blood vessel was repaired and the bleeding stopped.
Everyone watched in amazement.
“Is the pancreas ready?” Viktor asked, tilting his head.
The doctor responsible for tumor separation had a thin sheen of sweat on his forehead: “Please wait a moment, the tumor situation is complicated.”
The anesthesiologist grew impatient: “Organs cannot be out for more than six hours after extraction. Please hurry.”
“Wipe,” the lead surgeon said without looking up, “Understood, I’ll be quick.”
“Senior…” Yu Gui’s movements faltered as she watched Liu Qingyun dripping with sweat: “Our side…”
“Ultrasonic scalpel,” Hao Renjie handed him a new one: “Don’t worry, we’re almost finished.”
Yu Gui nodded: “Mm.”
“This isn’t like you,” he teased her briefly, knowing Liu Qingyun’s technique was always more stable than hers. Yu Gui smiled.
“I don’t know why, but I have a bad feeling.”
Just as she finished speaking, the adjacent surgical team cried out: “Damn it, there’s a tumor in the pancreatic body and tail too, the blood vessels are too dense, we can’t stop the bleeding!”
The entire organ was soaked in blood. If they couldn’t stop the bleeding quickly, the extracted organ would lose viability and die, making it useless for transplantation.
The lead surgeon used electrocautery [surgical tool for stopping bleeding] for hemostasis, but the bleeding was faster than coagulation. Large drops of cold sweat instantly fell from his forehead.
Unfortunately, the fifth and sixth surgical teams began encountering complications one after another.
“I’m having the same problem! How is this happening!”
“This won’t work! Too many areas are encased by tumors! Cut another centimeter for pathology!”
“The adhesion between the large and small intestines is too severe, can’t separate them!”
Yu Gui whirled around. The operating room had descended into chaos – Chinese and English mixing together, the clashing of instruments, doctors’ anxious calls, and the beeping of the anesthesiologist’s equipment.
The previously quiet atmosphere shattered instantly, with an invisible tension hanging over the entire operating room.
Sweat dripped into her eyes, and Yu Gui squinted. After a moment’s blank, the tissue scissors in her hand deviated by a millimeter from the target. Liu Qingyun couldn’t stop her in time.
The monitor’s sharp alarm sounded as blood spray misted across the magnifying lens.
A warm sensation splattered across her face. Yu Gui stepped back, breathing heavily, cold sweat breaking out on her forehead.
Liu Qingyun was the first to regain composure: “Don’t panic! Don’t look at the others, we’ve practiced this in simulation. It’s just venous bleeding, we can stop it!”
Yu Gui steadied herself, grabbed a piece of gauze and pressed it down hard, shouting: “Senior, find the bleeding point!”
“Got it!” Liu Qingyun spoke decisively: “Hemostatic clamp!”
Hao Renjie swiftly thrust the instrument into his hand, and he quickly inserted it into the thoracic cavity, raising his hand: “Another one!”
Lu Qingshi pressed her lips together as many people in the conference room stood up.
Liu Changsheng picked up his teacup but set it down without drinking: “Go, get more people to help. This surgery must succeed no matter what!”
“F*ck!” As if proving things could always get worse, Viktor struggled to control the mechanical arms. His vision had already blurred when the blood spurted earlier, and the miniature camera on the mechanical arm was now soaked in blood – forget 3D imaging, even 6D wouldn’t be clear.
“Third assistant, wipe the mechanical arm with gauze, I can’t see anything!!!”
He shouted in frustration.
Lu Qingshi lowered her eyes: As expected.
Her hand touched the door handle, gently pushing it open. Liu Changsheng instinctively looked back, only to see a white shadow disappear into the darkness of the corridor.
“Qingshi…” she murmured softly, unconsciously reaching out to touch, but the bed was cold. Her eyes flew open, clear and alert, all sleep gone as she leaped from the bed.
The curtains swayed in the gentle breeze, a fresh bouquet of lilies sat at the bedside, and the ring she had personally removed from someone’s hand last night was gone.
Gu Yanzhi rubbed her head, gritting her teeth: Damn it, even someone as vigilant as her could miscalculate one day, not even knowing when she had left.
“Qingshi…” she whispered the name, her gaze soft yet sorrowful: “Actually… you had planned this all along, hadn’t you?”
“Report, can’t stop the cardiac bleeding!”
“Retroperitoneal bleeding as well!”
“Pancreatic tumor separation failed!”
“Slow progress on the splenic tumor!”
“Large and small intestine tumor separation needs at least four more hours!”
The anesthesiologist stood from his chair: “Administer medication through IV, hang mannitol [osmotic diuretic], quickly! Bring the pulmonary artery catheter. I can only try to buy you a little more time. If all organs aren’t repositioned within two hours, I’m sorry, but we’ve failed.”
The night they decided on the liver transplant, Viktor had talked with Fu Lei, asking him: “Why do you Chinese people always do this, trying to accomplish impossible things?”
He had heard about when Lu Qingshi decided to perform the multi-organ ex vivo tumor resection that year, which had shocked the medical community.
He thought she must have been crazy. Some media had maliciously speculated that Lu Qingshi was fame-hungry and power-mad, using her own son as a test subject.
Fu Lei, then fresh from losing his son, had grabbed his collar and shouted: “How could anyone be crazy enough to experiment on their own child? She’s not that kind of person!!!”
Now facing the same situation she had, the middle-aged Fu Lei was much calmer: “For hope.”
Many children worldwide suffer from this disease, and they weren’t the only ones brave enough to attempt this surgery. Generation after generation would step forward, just like with smallpox and tuberculosis, until humans eventually conquered it.
What he and Lu Qingshi could do now was leave a faint light of hope in the long river of medical progress for future generations.
“So,” he looked at Viktor, his old classmate, and smiled: “It’s okay if we fail, Vi. I won’t blame you.”
“No!!!” Viktor’s eyes reddened as he controlled the mechanical arms with both hands, but the blood pressure on the monitor kept dropping until it fell below the critical threshold.
After a moment of deathly silence, Yu Gui’s hemostatic clamp dropped into the tray. She stumbled back two steps, catching sight of Peipei’s face, pale from excessive blood loss.
Tears immediately welled up.
Everyone stopped moving, watching in disbelief at the scene before them. It was like a real slaughterhouse – the open incision not yet closed, blood splattered on the floor, organs emitting a metallic smell in the trays, and every doctor’s blood-stained gloves and panicked faces…
Medicine isn’t just gentle and sacred; it also comes with blood and death…
An intern ran out supporting themselves against the wall. The air-sealed door opened wide, letting in a rush of cool air.
A doctor wearing a surgical mask and green scrubs, with prominent collarbones showing through pale skin, long hair neatly tucked into a surgical cap. Her gaze was sharp as lightning, her lips curled in a slight smirk.
“Viktor, you’re still making grand promises.”
The dejected Viktor whirled around, gritting his teeth. Seeing her, his expression froze, then quickly calmed, even managing a slight smile.
“My dear Doctor Lu, did you come specially to save my reputation?”
“No,” she raised her head, looking straight ahead with complete openness, no longer bearing that cold, obscure light.
“I came for that child.”
“Teacher Lu…” Yu Gui was about to cry. She never expected her to appear here, having so much to say to her and wanting to properly apologize.
But this wasn’t the time for reunions. Lu Qingshi ignored everyone and directly called to the anesthesiologist: “Bring morphine injection.”
The anesthesia team froze. Morphine was a third-tier medication in the “Three-Step Cancer Pain Treatment Protocol” [cancer pain management guidelines], the primary choice for severe cancer pain and occasionally used in medical anesthesia. What did Dr. Lu want it for?
“Lu…” Before the chief anesthesiologist could speak, Chen Yi ran out from the crowd, frantically opening the medicine cabinet, bringing a tray and syringe to her side.
“Sister Lu…” she hesitated reluctantly. Lu Qingshi pulled her short sleeve up to her shoulder, revealing her lotus-root-like arm: “It’s fine, go ahead.”
Watching the clear liquid gradually enter her body, Yu Gui seemed to understand what she planned to do and moved to step down from the operating table.
Lu Qingshi looked up, her gaze calm yet powerful: “Nobody move. If you want to save her, Viktor continue controlling the da Vinci to clean up the retroperitoneal tumor. Yu Gui…”
She finally looked at her, her gaze slightly cold. Yu Gui feared the next words would be: you’re useless.
However, the doctor’s lips curved upward: “Well done. The damaged vessel is the pulmonary vein next to the left atrium. Turn the heart over and you’ll find it. Quick ligation to stop the bleeding!”
“Other surgical teams continue tumor separation. Don’t panic. The pancreatic tumor isn’t serious, directly resect the body and tail, use electrocautery for hemostasis, remember to preserve part of the abdominal aorta for later reconstruction with the common hepatic artery!”
“If complete separation of large and small intestines is impossible, partial resection is fine. Just maintain normal digestive function!”
“I’ll handle the spleen surgery. Interns help too, we must move quickly!”
Her brief words mobilized everyone in the operating room. At this moment, she was not just a doctor but a leader.
Lu Qingshi lowered her sleeve and closed her eyes briefly. She knew starting surgery immediately after pain medication wasn’t protocol, but there was no choice now. She just needed to hold on for six hours – maintain mental clarity and consciousness for six hours.
She was Lele’s hero, a superhero in his eyes. She couldn’t lose.
Absolutely couldn’t.
When she opened her eyes again, her pupils were black and bright, clear as water, sharp as a sword.
Lu Qingshi stepped onto the operating table: “Scalpel.”
The lead surgeon stepped aside, letting her take over the pancreatic tumor separation. Some say the sharpest thing in the world is a surgeon’s scalpel – for her, this was certainly true.
The thin blade glided through tissue like flowing water. Before bleeding could start, her other hand had already applied electrocautery, quickly cauterizing blood drops with high temperature. The assisting surgeons watched in amazement.
“4.0 absorbable suture”
“Y-yes!” The nurse, still mesmerized by her fluid movements, snapped back to attention and quickly handed her the needle holder threaded with suture.
Her presence here was like a reassurance pill for everyone, especially after her earlier words. Yu Gui’s eyes instantly filled with tears, but she tilted her head back to force them away.
“Senior, let’s continue too.”
“Yes.”
The operating room fell quiet again, with only the beeping sounds of electrocautery or ultrasonic scalpel breaking the silence as time ticked by minute by minute.
In the low-temperature operating room, everyone’s backs were soaked with sweat – drying and rewetting in endless cycles.
“Damn it…” Extended standing and intense concentration left some doctors exhausted. One’s vision blurred, but someone caught their hemostatic clamp.
Lu Qingshi pushed past him, taking over the spleen surgery: “Go rest.”
“The pancreatic tumor…”
Without looking up, she placed the hemostatic clamp in the tray: “It’s done.”
The digital clock showed only thirty-five minutes had passed. A Japanese doctor exclaimed: “This must be the hand of god!”
She didn’t even raise an eyebrow. Her time was limited; she had to hurry.
The anesthesiologist started the stopwatch: “Thirty minutes until all organs must be replaced.”
The team working on the large and small intestines broke into a cold sweat. They had to admit, the anesthesiologist was both the most likeable and most annoying presence in the operating room.
“Do your best. I’ll come over as soon as I finish here.”
Another cool voice cut in. She remained calm regardless of the situation, always appearing completely in control to others.
But only Lu Qingshi knew what emotions she carried while operating.
The more she forced herself not to think about Lele, the more those images churned in her mind. In the end, she couldn’t distinguish who she was operating on – Lele or Peipei…
Until Yu Gui’s voice rang out: “The bleeding is stopped, why isn’t the patient’s blood pressure rising?!”
Patient, patient…
Lu Qingshi momentarily envied how simple her world was – no right or wrong, only patients and healthy people.
She quickened her movements: “Spleen separation complete.”
Simultaneously, the large and small intestine tumor separation was also completed, just within the final five minutes. The anesthesiologist sighed in relief.
Two trays were placed on the operating table beside the da Vinci. Lu Qingshi changed her gloves and glanced at the heart’s condition, her expression grave: “Anesthesiologist, prepare cardiopulmonary bypass.”
The machine started working as the heart stopped beating, the artificial heart-lung machine taking over its function.
“Cardiopulmonary bypass, beginning.”
Yu Gui and Liu Qingyun stepped aside as Lu Qingshi took the scalpel, immediately searching for the bleeding point in the bloody mess.
“Magnifying lens,” the nurse lowered it for her.
“Teacher Lu…” Yu Gui looked at her with emotion: “Why did you…”
Lu Qingshi didn’t look up, extending her hand: “Hemostatic clamp.”
“You’re not the only one who took the medical student’s oath.”
The events of that night were still vivid. Yu Gui felt ashamed: “I’m sorry, I…”
“Instead of chatting here, better come help me.”
“…”
Their Teacher Lu was still the same Teacher Lu – familiar tone, familiar pattern.
“See it? Atrial septal injury,” Lu Qingshi cut open the pericardium [heart covering membrane], pressing down with two fingers: “This is why the blood pressure won’t rise.”
“Anesthesiologist, inject heparin, lower body temperature to 32° through blood cooling.”
“Yu Gui, isolate the superior and inferior vena cava.”
“Liu Qingyun, block aortic blood flow, and inject cold cardioplegia solution and cold saline at the root.”
Lu Qingshi picked up gauze and catheter: “I’ll suction the blood from the right atrium.”
Viktor interjected while repositioning other organs: “Oh! Using hypothermia to slow blood circulation, that’s brilliant! My dear Dr. Lu, you never cease to amaze me!”
“Shut up,” Lu Qingshi responded without looking up. Yu Gui followed her instructions, isolating the veins, but happened to glance up and noticed cold sweat on her forehead.
By now, the wall clock had passed six hours – counting from when they started, the surgery had gone on for thirteen full hours.
This far exceeded the pain medication’s duration. Yu Gui knew pain was returning to her body, seeping in from everywhere.
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