Volume 1: Rise
Bullet Marks
Scars are the medals of heroes
The places bustling with activity are not limited to the emergency scenes; the First Affiliated Hospital’s emergency center is also extremely busy. As the Southeast region’s leading comprehensive teaching hospital, it handles seventy percent of the difficult and severe cases in the Eastern area. The emergency center not only bears the heavy responsibility of pre-hospital emergency care but is also the first battlefield for critical patients. Even without major disasters, the daily number of patients exceeds two thousand. Those injured in the apartment building fire are being sent over one after another, causing the entire emergency center to be completely overwhelmed.
“Notify the blood bank to prepare blood; we need ten units of red cells.”
“What? None?” Xu Qiankun, grasping the phone, was overwhelmed: “Brother, it’s not that I’m making it difficult for you, but I have a large number of injured people here waiting for life-saving treatment!”
“Come on, make way, make way!” The green channel is wide open, as another critical patient is pushed into the emergency room.
“Have the general surgery team quickly come down to take patients! Look at us here, it’s all chaos like a pot of porridge, the observation room is completely filled with beds, there’s not even a place to step!”
The doctor, accompanied by a nurse, checked each room one by one, feeling indignant.
The nurse also looked troubled: “The general surgery side says they also have no hospital beds…”
Xu Qiankun heard this and shouted from down the corridor: “Then let them add beds in the corridor; what kind of situation is it if you don’t admit patients who should be admitted!”
As he spoke, he slammed the medical records book heavily on the table. Usually, these matters in the wards are managed by Lu Qingshi. Although he doesn’t like that person, he has to admit that there is some skill there, and at least that face, when cold, is quite intimidating.
Qin Xuan, as a key member of the obstetrics and gynecology department, was also pulled down to help with consultations. At this moment, having just sent off an injured pregnant woman, and seeing the sky completely dark, she grabbed a nurse from the emergency department and asked: “Has your Director Lu still not returned?”
The nurse shook her head: “Not yet.”
After speaking, she hurriedly walked away again.
She pulled her mask down from her face, took out her phone, and called Lu Qingshi. It was always in a state of no answer, so she had to mutter while walking: “Strange, everyone else has returned, what is she doing dawdling behind and not answering the phone?”
As she said this, she walked to the entrance of the emergency center, typing on the keyboard with her head down. Before she could finish a complete sentence, an ambulance came roaring with its horn blaring, screeched to a stop in the green channel, and before it was steady, Lu Qingshi had already opened the car door and jumped out.
Qin Xuan put her phone in her pocket and ran over: “You…”
She hadn’t finished her sentence when, catching a glimpse of the injured person lying on the stretcher out of the corner of her eye, her face turned pale, and she followed by pushing the stretcher and running.
“Which operating room is empty?” Lu Qingshi’s condition looked not much better than Gu Yanzhi, with her face completely bloodstained, and her white coat so dirty that its color was indistinguishable, those usually indifferent eyes were even more bloodshot.
“Operating room three, I just came out from there.”
“Good,” Lu Qingshi said, pushing the person into the elevator: “Yu Gui, you go call general surgery, thoracic surgery, cardiac surgery, anesthesiology, and critical care medicine down for a consultation.”
“Okay,” Yu Gui responded and ran to the triage desk to make a call, and before Lu Qingshi entered the elevator, she heard her shouting: “I don’t care! Gather in the third operating room within three minutes, if no one comes, people will die!!!”
Before entering the operating room, the anesthetist was responsible for intubation, and Lu Qingshi ran to scrub her hands. She quickly kicked the switch, letting the water flow over her arms. She cupped a handful of water and splashed it on her face, feeling thoroughly refreshed. She raised her head to look at her disheveled reflection in the mirror and took a deep breath:
Stay calm, Lu Qingshi, you must stay calm.
“Where are the family members? Has the critical condition notice been signed? What——” a director threw the forceps into the tray: “Without the signature, how can we perform the surgery? If something goes wrong, who will be responsible?”
Lu Qingshi slowly walked in, her face clean of bloodstains, making her sharp features stand out even more: “I will be responsible.”
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“You…” the other person was momentarily choked, as Lu Qingshi walked to the main surgeon’s position and stood firm: “I am her first attending doctor and also the emergency department director. If anything goes wrong, I take full responsibility.”
The other party wanted to say something more, but was nudged by the person next to them, so they swallowed their words, and a multi-department collaborative surgery quietly began.
After opening the chest cavity, the third assistant across drew a sharp breath: “Three ribs are broken, and there are multiple organ injuries. Her surviving until now is simply a miracle.”
A miracle?
Lu Qingshi shook her head inwardly. Her ability to carry a 15-kilogram, burning gas tank, which could explode at any moment, from the fifth floor to the first floor by hand, and accurately throw it into an explosion-proof container, saving all lives within a two-kilometer radius, is perhaps the true miracle.
Someone said that a surgeon is just a craftsman of patching and mending, yet her hands, though unable to hold needle and thread, are adept at wielding the scalpel.
Stopping the bleeding, repairing the damaged areas, suturing the blood vessels, and connecting the nerves, Lu Qingshi and her team carefully and cautiously repaired Gu Yanzhi’s injured organs, gradually regaining the self-confidence she had lost.
Turning over the injured lung, a large gash had torn with half still connected to a healthy organ and the other half dangling in the chest cavity.
The thoracic surgery director, holding the tissue scissors, hesitated: “This… let’s cut it. There are too many blood vessels; if the connection isn’t good and it gets infected, it will be troublesome.”
Lu Qingshi shook her head: “4.0 absorbable suture.”
The nurse clamped the suture on the needle and passed it to her, and she grasped it steadily in her hand.
With a damaged lung, how can she breathe normally and run as a firefighter?
She thought, if Gu Yanzhi could speak, she surely would not want this either.
In the upper observation room, Qin Xuan watched her threading the needle, each stitch perfectly placed without any excess thread, fast and steady, almost dazzling. Excitedly, she tugged on Yu Gui’s sleeve: “Did you see that? This is your Teacher Lu’s true skill! She’s simply overqualified for the emergency department!”
With such suturing skills, she could easily be a university professor!
Exhausted from the day, Yu Gui didn’t even have the strength to speak, only standing there holding her breath, waiting for a result. As the surgery neared its end, she quietly let out a breath and collapsed into the chair.
“This is…” another assistant used forceps to lift the tissue beneath her heart, revealing clear surgical scars.
Lu Qingshi glanced at it, remembering how she once told her about the legend of the People’s Republic of China Falcon Commando.
Even though she was left with a body full of scars, when she talked about that unit, she was still animated.
Lu Qingshi quickly blinked, pushing the tears back: “That is a bullet scar.”
Only three inches from the heart.
“She… is an on-duty firefighter, a former SWAT retired soldier.”
In the operating room, everyone was instantly filled with respect, and their actions unknowingly became much faster.
Finally, after the clock on the wall marked six hours, the operating room light went out.
Lu Qingshi pushed the person out, and Gu Yanzhi’s brothers, who were sitting and waiting at the door of the operating room, quickly stood up: “Doctor, doctor, our captain, she…”
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Lu Qingshi removed her mask, revealing the first relieved smile of the day: “The surgery was successful.”
Several seven-foot-tall men took off their helmets, cheering and hugging each other, crying and laughing, which drew the head nurse’s reprimand: “What are you shouting for? What are you shouting for? This is a hospital, noise is not allowed!”
The troublemaker quickly straightened his military posture, placed his helmet on his chest, and aligned: “Everyone—at ease, attention, salute Dr. Lu!”
Facing these youthful faces, still covered with dust and dirt, with hands raised straight to their temples, their gazes were so passionate and sincere.
Lu Qingshi looked down, hands in the pockets of her scrubs, a slight smile on her lips: “A salute won’t do, go pay the rescue expenses.”
After sending Gu Yanzhi into the ICU, she finally breathed a sigh of relief. As her tense nerves relaxed, a wave of dizziness hit her, and she felt a stabbing pain in her waist. She leaned against the wall for a moment, then looked up to see Qin Xuan watching her with concern: “What happened to you? Where do you feel uncomfortable?”
“I’m fine,” Lu Qingshi slowly sat down, and Qin Xuan handed her a cup of hot cocoa, which she held in her palm, sipping slowly: “Thank you.”
She wanted to ask about the situation at the scene, how Gu Yanzhi got injured, but seeing her face full of fatigue, she couldn’t bring herself to ask anything. Emergency rescue is high-risk work; everyone being safe is the best outcome.
When she looked up again, that person’s head was leaned against the chair back, emitting steady breaths, with slightly messy bangs covering her eyes. Just like that, still holding a disposable paper cup, wearing scrubs, she fell asleep.
Qin Xuan shook her head, took off her own white coat and draped it over her, stood up, stretched lazily, and walked toward the end of the corridor, facing the morning sun.
“Ah, exhausted, going home to shower and sleep.”
At the morning triage station, not many people had arrived yet. Hao Renjie was yawning and eating breakfast, his first meal in two days. As he ate, his head bobbed like a chick pecking at rice, and finally, he fell forward with half a piece of vegetable still in his mouth, snoring asleep on the table.
After a busy day and night, some doctors squeezed into the duty room to sleep, while others lay haphazardly on the sofa to nap. Yu Gui, rubbing her eyes, sat at the desk typing medical records, typing and deleting while yawning continuously, until her head fell onto the keyboard, with unfinished instant noodles beside her.
Xu Qiankun finished the last surgery and came out, with daylight already bright. Dean Meng patted his shoulder, speaking earnestly: “Old Xu, your department worked hard again this time. Later, the Health Commission will surely give a commendation. To keep the casualties under ten from such a big fire is remarkable.”
Xu Qiankun stretched his old back, chatting as he walked: “Pre-hospital emergency was all done by Lu Qingshi, young and promising, young and promising. As for me, I’m just logistics support personnel.”
Dean Meng laughed: “Without you logistics support personnel, they wouldn’t be able to go to the frontlines and fight the hard battles!”
Xu Qiankun then beamed with a smile and, after pondering for a bit, spoke up: “About what I mentioned to you last time, the batch of equipment and new drugs from Changsheng Biotech are quite useful, you see…”
Dean Meng glanced at him, his eyes still smiling, but it sent a shiver down his spine. Fortunately, it lasted only a moment, and the feeling of unease disappeared, leaving him to wonder if it was just his imagination.
“Since they are useful, have Old Liu make a list for me. You can go to finance and apply; price is not an issue, but quality must be strictly ensured.”
Xu Qiankun nodded and bowed repeatedly: “Rest assured, the quality is absolutely no problem, many doctors in our department are using them…”
Back home, Lu Qingshi woke up to find it was already dusk. After all, not being young anymore, waking up only left her body sore, with every joint feeling as if it had been taken apart and reassembled.
She moved her somewhat stiff arm, walked to the kitchen to turn on the stove, took out vegetables and eggs from the refrigerator, and grabbed a handful of noodles. While waiting for the water to boil, she suddenly remembered something very important. She ran to the bathroom, lifted the washing machine lid, fished out the dirty coat, and from the inside pocket, felt a blood-stained key.
It was the key Gu Yanzhi had pressed into her palm before she fainted.
Holding this cold key, Lu Qingshi hesitated for a moment, walked to the kitchen to turn off the stove, then casually threw on a coat and went out, inserting the key into the lock of the next door.
“Click—” softly came the sound, and the lock core popped open. Lu Qingshi slowly pushed the door open, and a white fluffy shadow enthusiastically rushed toward her, startling her into closing her eyes, not daring to move.
After a long wait, when nothing large pounced on her, Lu Qingshi opened her eyes, only to see Hamburger whimpering at the door, barking twice. Its tail drooped as it wagged at her, as if it understood that the one returning was not its master.
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The Border Collie was large, almost as tall as half a child. Lu Qingshi swallowed and carefully walked inside: “Um… your owner is injured and in the hospital… in a few days, she will be back…”
She didn’t know if Hamburger understood, but it barked twice softly, shook around her feet, and then quickly ran to its own bed to lie down. Its round eyes seemed to carry a hint of grievance, leaving its back to Lu Qingshi.
The dog food bowl by the bed was empty of both water and food, and she could hear its stomach making gurgling sounds.
Lu Qingshi sighed and searched for dog food amidst the clothes, shoes, books, and game consoles scattered all over the place. She even found underwear in the sofa gap. Covering her nose, she pinched it up with two fingers, her face full of incredulity. Who could tell her why Gu Yanzhi’s home was so dirty! So messy!
Ah! As a clean freak, staying here feels like suffocating every minute!
She opened the TV cabinet, and a pile of snacks and instant noodles immediately gushed out, making Lu Qingshi’s scalp tingle. It was like those pictures in her social media circle where dishes stacked in a cupboard spill out when opened. The most dreadful thing had finally happened.
Lu Qingshi quickly closed it again. Wait, it seemed… she saw dog food.
She resignedly opened it again, dug out the dog food from deep within the pile of snacks, poured it into the dog bowl, and then filled a bowl of water from the dispenser, placing it next to Hamburger.
Hamburger then stood up happily, barking twice and wagging its tail at her, munching away. A bowl of dog food was quickly finished, indicating it was very hungry. Lu Qingshi poured another bowl, and Hamburger came over to lick her hand. Its wet tongue on her palm was a bit ticklish, and Lu Qingshi’s lips finally curved into a smile as she rubbed its head.
Looking at the mess, the excellent emergency doctor rubbed her forehead: forget it, after all, she had saved her twice, so… she would reluctantly help tidy up a bit.