The emergency department at Yanjing University’s campus hospital was particularly busy today, with almost every student wearing camouflage military training uniforms. The September sun in Yanjing was still scorching, and many freshmen suffered from varying degrees of heatstroke during their military training.
"Dr. Li, didn’t you say a handsome doctor would be coming today? It’s already ten o’clock, and he isn’t here yet?" A petite nurse with a round face and dimples when she smiled asked Dr. Li, the chief physician of the campus hospital.
Dr. Li Jingyi was a woman who had just turned forty this year, though she hardly looked it, appearing at most thirty-two or thirty-three. She had been serving in the emergency department at Yanjing University’s campus hospital for fifteen years and was considered a highly respected senior in the section, which also had two other doctors and four nurses. At the end of the last semester, the original head of the emergency department reached retirement age, so a new campus doctor was appointed, who directly took over the old head’s position, becoming the new head of the emergency department.
Li Jingyi had gone through the new head’s background information and knew that he was a top student, having earned a Ph.D. from Harvard Medical School in the United States at the age of twenty-two, and was a leading expert in emergency care. Li Jingyi held this new head in high regard, if only because the mention of Harvard Medical School alone filled her with awe, regarded as the top medical school in the world without peer.
Li Jingyi was a very rule-abiding doctor, and seeing that it was almost ten o’clock and the new doctor hadn’t arrived yet made her slightly displeased. Being a doctor entails being very punctual, as life’s matters are of grave importance and there can be no carelessness. Even if you have remarkable medical skills, if you lack a sense of time and delay the treatment of patients, what’s the point of having brilliant medical skills? A person without medical ethics, no matter how skilled they are, is wasted.
"Mind your business, why bother with others?" Li Jingyi gently reprimanded. The campus clinic was unusually busy today, with students visiting in droves during September’s opening month. There were so many, just two doctors couldn’t handle them all, and most of these students had varying degrees of heatstroke, with just a few being seniors who had upset stomachs.
The round-faced young nurse stuck out her tongue, made a face, and quickly rushed to and fro, busying herself.
Dr. Li Jingyi was actually quite easygoing, but when the round-faced nurse mentioned the new doctor who was two hours late, she couldn’t help feeling a bit upset. As the new head of the emergency department, he hadn’t shown up yet, let alone behaved like a leader. With the old head retired, she thought she was the most senior and skilled in the department. Even a clay idol has moodiness, and suddenly facing a high achiever from Harvard Medical School, Li Jingyi couldn’t help having mixed feelings, so she spoke a bit harshly to the young nurse.
"Next!" Li Jingyi called out to the people outside her office. There were still three or four people waiting in line. It was just ten in the morning, and more than ten students with heatstroke had already arrived. How would they cope by the afternoon? These students with heatstroke, some of them didn’t even need to be here; just a little rest would have sufficed, yet they insisted on joining the crowd, making the situation unbearably hectic.
Xiao Lin arrived at Yanjing University at nearly ten-thirty. What should have been a twenty-minute journey took nearly three hours, instilling a fear of Yanjing’s roads in Xiao Lin. If this kind of traffic happened frequently, he figured he would need to leave for work at least an hour early.
Walking down the tree-lined path, he saw students participating in military training on the sports field, each dressed in camouflage uniforms. The youthful faces full of vibrant energy brought him a familiar feeling as if he were back in the military camp.
Driving through campus roads, Xiao Lin glanced at the corridors lined with trees and the female students wearing cool summer clothes. He sighed inwardly, "What a beautiful sight! How did I not notice this before? I’ll need to make up for it now." He wasn’t in a rush to dash to the campus hospital despite being two hours late.
Xiao Lin had never been to Yanjing University before, but he quickly located the campus hospital since he saw two groups of people supporting a student toward the same direction along the way. By just glancing at the latter group with the supported student, Xiao Lin could tell that the student was mildly heatstroked and likely headed to the campus hospital for treatment. He leisurely followed them, enjoying the scenery as he went—why not?
After finding a spot to park, Xiao Lin walked to the entrance of the campus hospital just as the last group supporting the heatstroked student entered the lobby. It seemed he didn’t even need to ask where the emergency room was. However, in the next moment, he saw the heatstroked student suddenly go limp, and the two students supporting her almost stumbled, losing their balance as all three fell to the ground.
Fortunately, they had already reached the hospital lobby. Seeing the three people on the ground, three nurses hurried over to help, lifting them with a flurry of activity.
"She’s already unconscious!" one nurse exclaimed with a hint of surprise. "Get her to the emergency room quickly. This student seems to be suffering from severe heatstroke!"
Xiao Lin glanced from a distance at the unconscious student, whose face was extremely pale, breathing somewhat labored, the student had fainted. Observing more closely, he noticed this indeed appeared to be symptoms of severe heatstroke, yet upon looking at the heatstroked student, Xiao Lin felt it wasn’t just that. The sun wasn’t even that strong now, so if it were heatstroke, at most it should have been mild, treatable with casual medicine and slight rest.