The Surgeon’s Studio

Su Yun’s words were vicious. Zheng Ren, who noticed the sorrow in Chang Yue’s eyes, suddenly had the urge to stand up for her and rebuke the idiot before him for his arrogance.

 However, before he could open fire, Chang Yue put on a warm smile as if her initial sadness had been simply an illusion.

 The Chu sisters quickly stood by her side and reprimanded Su Yun.

 Su Yun seemed to be accustomed to such situations. His gaze was empty as it flew past the Chu sisters and landed on two other girls sitting a short distance away.

 The two had finished eating and were simply chatting while tapping away at their phones. This was common these days and not out of the ordinary.

 Otherwise, why would the phrase, “the greatest distance in the world is not between life and death, but the gap between you and I with a phone in your hands,” exist?

 The girls, who sensed that they were being watched, quickly looked up from their phones and vigilantly scanned the area.

 The moment they noticed Su Yun, one of them immediately lowered her head, pretended to see nothing and continued stealing glances at him through her bangs. Meanwhile, the other girl’s cheeks flushed red as she summoned up her courage to meet his gaze.

 Two seconds later, she admitted defeat.

 “Su Yun, right?

 “You want to drink, yes?”

 The stony-faced Chang Yue sat up straight and stared into Su Yun’s eyes.

 It was the first time she was radiating this aura, which surprised Zheng Ren, both Chu sisters and Xie Yiren.

 “What?” Su Yun withdrew his gaze and smiled disdainfully.

 This slightly sassy expression accentuated his attractiveness.

 “Waiter!” Without making any response, Chang Yue waved her hand and called the waiter.

 A waiter trotted up to the table and greeted her enthusiastically, “What can I do for you?”

 “What beers do you have?” asked Chang Yue.

 The waiter rattled off a list of names, but she frowned, obviously dissatisfied.

 “Do you have old-fashioned Snow?” questioned Chang Yue.

 “Snow” was a general term for beers made more than a decade ago. After a large company had entered the mainland’s market and purchased most of its stakes, these cheap beers had almost disappeared and only a few places still stocked them.

 Unlike ordinary cartons of a dozen, Snow beers were packed in large plastic boxes of two dozen bottles.

 The legendary drinking pose with one foot on a box referred specifically to Snow beers as ordinary cardboard boxes were not practical to put one’s weight on, especially while drinking..

 “Yes, we do,” answered the waiter professionally, despite the wind visibly leaving his sails. Although Snow was cheap, he could not possibly chase his customers out.

 “I’ll have four boxes for now,” said Chang Yue lightly.

 

Su Yun’s expression remained unchanged. It was just four boxes, and he assumed Chang Yue was showing off.

 The Chu sisters quickly tried to stop her, but she smiled. “Do you know why I don’t drink?”

 “Huh?” Chu Yanzhi was puzzled.

 “Because my habits scare even myself.” The smile on Chang Yue’s face was relaxed and pleasant. “Romeo wants to get drunk today; that’s nice.”

 Zheng Ren did not understand why she would say that.

 It was completely out of context.

 Further attempts to persuade her against it ended up in vain as they were met with a silent smile. The Chu sisters were helpless and Xie Yiren, who was looking forward to her crayfish, seemed to be the only one who had no idea what was going on.

 Soon, the crayfish was served alongside the four entire boxes of Snow, stacked like a small hill.

 This table was occupied by incredibly good-looking people—with Zheng Ren as the exception—attracting the attention of other diners having their supper in the restaurant, but what caught their eyes the most were the four boxes of beers beside Su Yun and Chang Yue.

 The slightly courageous girl who had met Su Yun’s gaze just now proceeded to pick up the tab at the counter. Then, she came over and whispered with embarrassment, “I’ve paid for your bill.”

 She put a piece of paper, damp with nervous sweat,, in front of Su Yun and fled the scene.

 With his rich clinical experience, Zheng Ren guessed that she had a heart rate of over 130 beats per minute.

 “You’re really a ladies’ man.” With a bright smile, Chang Yue cracked open a bottle with her teeth and said, “I feel happy in the emergency department. Cheers.”

 She then proceeded to drink directly from the bottle.

 The rate at which the beer disappeared sent a chill down Zheng Ren’s spine.

 Despite his love for booze, he hardly ever consumed it due to alcohol intolerance, so he particularly admired those who were able to binge-drink but had enough self-control not to.

 Such people were legends in the making anywhere.

 Chang Yue’s manner, assuming she did not get into a fight with Su Yun after getting wasted by the first three bottles, suggested that she was actually a heavy drinker.

 Su Yun’s smile radiated an evil charm.

 After pocketing the note he had just been given, he magically opened the beer bottle with a flick of a finger and gulped it down like Chang Yue.

 His moves were ten thousand times more elegant than hers.

 Zheng Ren and the Chu sisters were too dumbstruck to speak as empty bottles began piling up one after another, the crayfish no longer of any importance.

 The exception was Xie Yiren, who paid them no mind and started gorging on her favourite food.

 Occasionally, she would glance at the ongoing drinking contest when pausing to take a sip of water, but lost interest almost immediately and focused on devouring her crayfish instead.

 She was a pure-hearted foodie.

 An hour later, all four boxes of Snow had been consumed, but neither of them showed the slightest hint of drunkenness or the need to go to the bathroom. They ordered four boxes of beer and the competition continued.

 Curious, Zheng Ren thought, ‘How did they drink all these beers? It doesn’t comply with the law of conservation of mass.’

 

Historically, a grand secretariat¹ of the Ming dynasty was said to have a massive capacity for liquor. Out of curiosity, the emperor invited him for a drink and even prepared an urn of booze for the man to refill his bowl directly.

 In the end, the urn had been completely emptied, but the grand secretariat was still as sober as a judge with no signs of abdominal distention.

 Zheng Ren had always known that there were many types of strange people in the world, but the fact that he was face-to-face with one right now still unnerved him.

 Su Yun, who seemed to eliminate alcohol from his system through perspiration, began to sweat after the third box of Snow. Meanwhile, Chang Yue looked perfectly fine apart from a few hiccups.

 The manager of the restaurant approached them alongside the fourth box and politely presented them a large portion of crayfish—on the house—that he had personally prepared.

 Su Yun and Chang Yue were uninterested, though, and Xie Yiren was the only one who appreciated it.

 Suddenly, Zheng Ren’s phone rang.

 “Chief Zheng, a patient with an unclear diagnosis is currently causing trouble in the emergency department. Can you come and have a look?” said the emergency doctor on duty.

 A doctor’s life was that of misery, and a chief resident had the most f*cked-up life of all.

 Zheng Ren tried to explain the reason for his departure, but Chang Yue and Su Yun were unperturbed and merely waved their hands as if chasing away an annoying fly.

 Thus, Chu Yanzhi stayed behind to watch over the two drunkards in case they were unable to even return home. Chu Yanran, Xie Yiren and Zheng Ren could drive back to the hospital as the three of them were more than enough to handle any surgical emergency.

 Zheng Ren took one final glance at the drinking competition before leaving. Empty boxes stacked up to a man’s full height beside them, but the two rivals were still gulping down the remaining beers one after another with one foot on a box each.

 ‘They’re really drinking with a foot on the box.’ The sight was truly enriching in a way.

 1…

 …

 Xie Yiren and Chu Yanran rushed to the operating theater upon their return to the emergency department.

 If surgery was required, they could start preoperative preparations as soon as they were informed of such.

 Zheng Ren arrived at the department as well and saw two girls standing in the hall. One of them was crying and the other had a pair of smoldering eyes.

 This was a common phenomenon in the emergency department and Zheng Ren had gotten used to it.

 From the looks of it, the problem was rabble-rousing rather than an uncertain diagnosis. Zheng Ren understood that the emergency department received hundreds of patients daily, and there was only one doctor on duty in each division—internal medicine, general surgery, and obstetrics and gynecology. If they wasted any time handling disputes, actual treatment would be delayed and the backlog of patients would just lead to even more arguments in the end.

 Therefore, they would generally pass on these annoying issues to their superiors.

 Zheng Ren glanced at the girls, but strangely enough, the System did not provide any details on them, which suggested that they were perfectly healthy. Was this a deliberate medical dispute? It seemed unlikely.

 He quickly changed his attire, approached the girls and asked politely, “I’m the chief resident in the emergency department. What can I do for you?”

 “You’re a superior doctor? I want to lodge a complaint!” the girl howled furiously.

 “Please keep your voice down. This is a hospital,” Zheng Ren said calmly, “What happened?”

 “The doctor in the ECG room harassed my sister!”

 A bomb instantly went off in Zheng Ren’s ears.

 What the f*ck, which pervert did this?!