Quarrel
Helping Dr. Jian Scold Someone
A crowd had gathered at the entrance of Jian Qing’s clinic. A man wearing a black jacket stood by the clinic door, hurling insults while banging on the door, creating a loud commotion.
“I have number 2? My number is before his, so why did he get to go in first?”1
“Does your hospital follow any rules? I brought my father here at 9 o’clock, are you all blind and can’t see that?”
“Damn you! How does a doctor like you treat patients? Do you even know what fairness is?”
“Last time too, just for a cold, you prescribed a whole bunch of tests! The Party2 supports you worthless people, and all you know is how to bully common folks! Your face is as stinky as a latrine!3 With such a terrible attitude, how can you possibly cure anyone?”
Lu Yinxi roughly understood that the quarrel had started because of the order in which patients were called.
It’s common in outpatient clinics to encounter people who cut in line and see the doctor out of order, especially in the emergency department, where there are frequent clashes between patients or between patients and doctors. This is less common in the oncology department, as most oncology patients have one foot in the grave already; they don’t have the energy to make a big fuss. However, the families of oncology patients, under the pressure of caregiving, may become irritable and vent their anger on others.
Lu Yinxi took off the white coat she was wearing, removed her mask, placed them in the guide desk, rolled up Jian Qing’s mentor’s handbook as if it were a medical record, opened her phone, turned on the recording function, and walked over to pretend to be a patient waiting in line.
In case a fight breaks out, it wouldn’t be convenient for her to get involved while wearing a white coat—it wouldn’t look good…
She approached a woman who was watching the commotion and asked, “Sis, what’s going on here?”
“The man missed his number. The doctor let someone else in first, and after he came back and waited for a while without being called in, he started losing his temper and cursing people.”
Inside the consultation room, Jian Qing was still prescribing medicine and ordering tests for other patients. Calmly, she explained to the man at the door, “There’s no point in causing a scene with me. Hospital regulations state that those who miss their number are placed at the end of the queue.”
The man in the jacket took out his phone, opened the camera, and started filming Jian Qing: “Alright, you’re not going to handle this, are you? I’m a big influencer on XX video platform, with millions of followers. I’ll expose this right now and let my fans and netizens judge for themselves—let them see what kind of place your hospital is! My father is feeling unwell and has been waiting all this time, and you don’t even care that people outside are cutting in line. You can’t make money by going against your conscience like this. Do you think we common folk have no rights?”
A nurse scolded him, “Stop filming, stop filming! You’re not allowed to film here!”
Jian Qing gestured to Wei Mingming, “Call the security department to come up.”
Lu Yinxi took a deep breath, adjusted her facial expression, rolled up her sleeves, and charged into the crowd. She blocked the man in the jacket who was filming Jian Qing, grabbed his phone, and deleted the video.
The man snatched his phone back. “Are you out of your mind? What’s this got to do with you?”
Lu Yinxi, adopting the demeanor of a street shrew4, yelled at him, “I really feel like smacking you upside the head! You missed your number and now you’re here twisting the facts and pretending not to know what’s going on? Who’s really not following the rules here? So what if you got here at 9 o’clock? I woke up at 5, was waiting at the door by 7, and just stepped out to use the bathroom, only to come back and see you making a scene? What are you making all this fuss for? You don’t want to see the doctor, but we still need to! Stop wasting everyone’s time! Isn’t that right, everyone?”
She had received professional voice training and spoke from her diaphragm, her voice loud and clear. Her string of words was delivered with rhythm and clarity, accompanied by an overbearing expression. She intentionally directed the conflict toward the crowd, inciting the previously silent onlookers to go from watching the spectacle to voicing their opinions.
“Yeah, stop arguing, we still need to see the doctor,” someone from the crowd echoed.
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“Everyone has it tough. If you missed your number, just follow the hospital’s rules.”
“You didn’t keep track of time, so how can you blame the doctor? The doctor is just following the rules too.”
Human nature tends to avoid trouble, remain indifferent when things don’t concern them, and enjoy watching drama unfold, but only when their own interests are at stake do they step up and speak out.
Faced with everyone’s criticism, the man in the jacket turned red and then white with anger. “I had an appointment for number 2! It was rush hour, and there was a traffic jam, so I was just ten minutes late! Why should I be put at the back of the line just for being ten minutes late? Have none of you ever been late before?”
Lu Yinxi retorted loudly, “What do you mean ‘just ten minutes late’? Don’t you know that in a hospital, three minutes could save a life? This is just how the hospital rules work—what can you do about it? If you’ve got the money, why don’t you buy the hospital and have all the doctors here treat your dad? Why should you waste our time just because you didn’t keep track of yours? Is your time money while ours isn’t? Why should we have to pay for your mistake? Do we all owe you something? Do you want to see who can shout louder? Who can’t raise their voice? If you really wanted to get your dad treated, and you knew there was a traffic jam during rush hour, why didn’t you get up earlier? Were you really serious about getting your dad treated? Now that you’ve offended the doctor, do you think the doctor will still be in the mood to help your dad? Are you trying to deliberately harm your dad?”
In the early years, when haters insulted Lu Yinxi on Weibo, she would use a secondary account to fight back. Over time, she honed her skills in stirring up trouble, sarcastically provoking people, and manipulating public opinion.
Unable to outargue her, the man raised his hand high. “You better shut up! If you weren’t a woman, I’d slap you right now!”
Jian Qing took off her glasses, walked over, and pulled Lu Yinxi behind her protectively. “You dare try?”
Lu Yinxi, not showing any fear, stuck her head out from behind Jian Qing. “Let me tell you something. I’m a patient, and I have a heart condition. If you don’t let me see a doctor, and you try to hit me, if anything happens to me, my entire extended family will show up at your door with wreaths and burn spirit money!”5
Patients who cause trouble in hospitals often resort to this tactic—demanding compensation by creating chaos.
Lu Yinxi pointed at Jian Qing, pretending not to recognize her. “How is your hospital being managed? Where are the security guards? Drag him out of here! I still need to see the doctor!”
In the crowd, an elderly man sitting in a wheelchair coughed a few times, his face extremely pale, and in a hoarse voice, he called out, “Zhigang, come back, stop arguing!”
During peak consultation hours, there were several security guards downstairs maintaining order by the elevators. As soon as the nurse called for help, they rushed upstairs with electric batons in hand.
A few tall, burly security personnel wearing helmets and armed with electric batons and police sticks appeared, and the man in the jacket immediately quieted down.
Lu Yinxi spat, “Coward who bullies the weak and fears the strong.”
The leading security guard took out a notebook to record the situation, asked some questions, and advised, “If you can’t explain clearly, we’ll go to the security office or the patient-doctor mediation office to discuss it further. For now, don’t hold up others from seeing the doctor.”
The man didn’t respond and sat back down, wearing a sour expression while muttering curses under his breath.
The nurse dispersed the onlookers, leaving two security guards stationed at the door of Jian Qing’s consultation room, one on each side, intending to wait until this troublemaker finished his appointment before leaving.
Lu Yinxi had no choice but to sit in the waiting area for a while, continuing to pretend to be a patient.
Wei Mingming sent a message: 【The boss wants you to return to the ward first.】
Lu Yinxi replied: 【I’m not going back.】
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She was worried that the man in the jacket might start cursing again later. The doctors and nurses couldn’t curse back, so she decided to stay and help Dr. Jian scold him.
Thinking about what Jian Qing had gone through made her angry. Even a clay figure has some temper6, yet in a profession reliant on knowledge, it’s become so lowly that they can’t even curse back when scolded or fight back when hit. What kind of world is this?
She fiercely glared at the man in the jacket, who glared back with a menacing look. The elderly person beside him was so angry that he kept pounding his chest and coughing.
Lu Yinxi looked at the elderly man and slowly softened her gaze.
Coughing—was he a lung cancer patient?
The coughing grew increasingly severe, and the man in the jacket shouted at Lu Yinxi, “Why the hell are you staring at my dad?”
Lu Yinxi retorted angrily, “Look at what you’ve done to your dad! He has phlegm in his throat; you should give him a tissue!”
“Mind your own damn business!” the man cursed as he looked around, searching for tissues.
Having just caused a scene, the people around him were avoiding his gaze. A kind-hearted auntie took out a pack of tissues and handed it to him, but he didn’t say a word of thanks. He took it and held it up to his dad’s mouth, gently patting his dad’s shoulder. “Dad, are you okay?”
The elderly man, with his hair graying, coughed until his face turned red. He seemed to be struggling to breathe and kept pounding his chest, coughing up a lot of phlegm, which had streaks of blood in it.
It seemed like the elderly man was a patient with central lung cancer, which can lead to occasional coughing up of blood.
Seeing the blood, Lu Yinxi felt her stomach churn and quickly averted her gaze.
Suddenly, there was a thud as the elderly man fell from his wheelchair and collapsed on the ground, continuously coughing up bright red, thick blood.
“Dad! Dad! What’s wrong with you?” The man in the jacket hurriedly knelt down to try to lift him.
Seeing so much blood, Lu Yinxi’s vision darkened. She suppressed the strong urge to vomit, stood up, and shouted, “He’s coughing up a lot of blood—let him lie on the ground! Don’t make the mistake of trying to pick him up like they do in TV dramas!”
The man was in a panic, completely at a loss, and he followed whatever Lu Yinxi shouted.
Jian Qing and Wei Mingming heard the commotion and rushed out of the consultation room. “Wei Mingming, call for a stretcher! Lu Yinxi, contact the elevator dispatch at number 600016 and have them come to the sixth floor.” She knelt beside the elderly man, checking him while asking the man in the jacket, “Is there a problem with the left lung or the right lung?”
The man was trembling with anxiety. “Lung… cancer, right… right lung! Doctor, I beg you, save my dad!”
Tumors can invade blood vessels, causing them to rupture and lead to significant coughing up of blood. If not treated promptly, the blood may not be expelled from the body in time, resulting in airway obstruction and suffocation.
When significant coughing up of blood occurs, the patient should not be moved around carelessly, and sitting or standing is not advisable. If there is a clear side of bleeding, the patient should be placed in a lateral position (on their side).
Jian Qing calmly said, “You need to stay calm. We need to get him down to the emergency department.”
Wei Mingming and the nurse quickly brought over the stretcher. Everyone worked together to lift the elderly man onto it and pushed him to the elevator.
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The hospital’s medical elevators are equipped with fixed telephones, and there are designated elevator attendants who usually handle the buttons, maintain order, and direct the crowd. In case of an emergency, they can dispatch the elevator, disabling the sensors on other floors to ensure uninterrupted service, allowing patients to reach their destination quickly and efficiently.
Jian Qing and a few nurses took the elderly man to the emergency department while Wei Mingming and Lu Yinxi stayed behind in the consultation room.
Wei Mingming held onto Lu Yinxi and said with a sigh, “Xiaolu, oh Xiaolu, you’ve hidden yourself well. Today I finally realized how good you are at cursing…”
Usually, she appeared gentle and soft, like a delicate little cat that could be blown over by the wind, but unexpectedly, when she cursed, she was fierce and assertive, transforming into a raging tigress.
Lu Yinxi smiled faintly, trying to maintain her idol image, and explained in a soft voice, “That was all to protect you… I’m really not so fierce. The person you saw just now wasn’t the real me; it was the me in a performance. I was just putting on a show of being fierce and domineering. It’s all acting! I’m really good at it; you couldn’t tell, could you? My heart was also racing, and I was so afraid he would hit me…”
Wei Mingming pondered for a moment and said, “I have this instinct… that slap mark on my boss’s face last month, was it you who did it?”
Lu Yinxi waved her hand, denying it. “That’s just your illusion…”
Before Wei Mingming could say anything else, Lu Yinxi’s expression became serious. “I also want to go to the emergency department. That man clearly isn’t a good person. What if he takes his anger out on Dr. Jian if his dad doesn’t make it?”
Footnotes
- Hanging the number (挂号): In Chinese hospitals, patients must register and receive a numbered ticket before seeing a doctor.
- The Party (党): Refers to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which is often mentioned in both positive and negative contexts within the general public in China.
- Latrine (茅坑): a toilet or an even simpler facility that is used as a toilet within a sanitation system.
- Street shrew (潑婦罵街): A term used to describe a woman who loudly and aggressively argues in public… a karen ( ≧ᗜ≦)
- Burning spirit money (燒紙錢): In Chinese culture, spirit money, or joss paper, is burned as an offering to the deceased during funerals or other ceremonies.
- Clay figure temper (泥人尚且還有三分脾氣): This phrase is a Chinese idiom meaning that even the most patient or mild-mannered person will have a limit to their tolerance.