DSMIS CH17

Chapter 17: You Have a Fever

It was only after the car entered the village that Shen Xing realized he had underestimated the local village roads—and Jiang Lin’s driving skills. Many of the narrow lanes looked barely wide enough for a tricycle, yet Jiang Lin managed to hug the very edge of the roadbed and squeeze the car through. Had it been Shen Xing behind the wheel, he probably would have parked right at the entrance.

Holding onto the overhead grab handle, Shen Xing couldn’t help but ask, “Hero, is this the only road? Can an ambulance actually get in here?”

“Yes, an ambulance is slightly narrower than my car, and the drivers are used to these kinds of roads.”

The villages here were quite different from the ones in the North where Shen Xing had been as a child. In northern villages, houses were mostly built close together in concentrated clusters. Here, due to the mountainous terrain and uneven ground, houses were scattered unevenly—often with one household tucked under this side of the mountain recess and another situated under that one.

As the car twisted and turned through the maze of paths, Shen Xing was completely lost. He even had the fleeting, ill-timed thought that if Jiang Lin decided to sell him out right now, he wouldn’t even be able to find his way home. It was only when the car finally pulled up at the base of a mountain slope that he realized they had arrived.

The moment Jiang Lin got out of the car, someone came out to greet them. The man looked to be in his nineties or fifties and spoke with a heavy local dialect. Shen Xing could only catch the general idea: it seemed that the mother of Jiang Lin’s colleague had returned from herding sheep only to find two missing. She went back out to search for them, but because the rain had made the mountain paths slippery, she slid down a slope. Fortunately, a neighbor was nearby and spotted her in time to help bring her back home.

After thanking the neighbor, Jiang Lin led Shen Xing into the house and approached the bedside. “Aunty, how are you feeling? Where does it hurt right now?”

Shen Xing observed the woman in bed, who looked to be around sixty years old. Her clothing resembled ethnic minority attire, though he couldn’t tell which specific minority it was. The moment she saw Jiang Lin, she grabbed his hand and kept insisting she was fine, saying she would be alright after resting in bed for a couple of days. Jiang Lin turned and pointed to Shen Xing beside him.

“Aunty, this is my neighbor, and he happens to be a doctor. How about letting him take a look at you first? If it’s nothing serious, we won’t go to the hospital.”

Recognizing that Jiang Lin was trying to coax the elderly woman, Shen Xing stepped forward at the right moment. “Could you tell me where you fell? Where does it hurt the most right now? Don’t worry, Jiang Lin and I are neighbors, so I’m checking on you for free. No charge.”

After coaxing her a couple more times, Shen Xing managed to get a rough idea of her injuries through the elderly woman’s somewhat vague descriptions and Jiang Lin’s translations. Turning his back to the woman, he whispered softly to Jiang Lin:

“I suspect a femoral fracture, and the issue with her knee also seems fairly serious. As for the lower back pain she mentioned, it’s currently unclear whether it’s muscle damage or spinal injury. She must go to the hospital for further examination.”

Fifteen minutes later, the ambulance arrived. The nurse on duty was somewhat surprised to see Shen Xing there, but Shen Xing didn’t have time to explain in detail. He simply instructed them to prepare a rigid stretcher and personally performed temporary immobilization on Cao Shulan’s spine and leg. Considering how bumpy the mountain roads were, he tied the immobilizing straps quite tightly. He then gathered a few people to help him lift the stretcher, repeatedly emphasizing that they must keep it steady and ensure her head, neck, and trunk remained aligned.

The elderly woman was visibly unnerved by all the commotion. Jiang Lin spent a long time comforting her, promising that they weren’t going to a major hospital, just to the county hospital for a quick checkup.

“You’ve been to the county hospital many times. Don’t be scared. I’ll drive right behind you. If you feel uncomfortable anywhere, just tell Dr. Shen. Don’t bottle it up.”

With that, he glanced at Shen Xing. Although Shen Xing found his level of concern for a colleague’s mother a bit peculiar, he still gave him an “OK” hand sign. “Don’t worry, Hero.”

Then, remembering something, he added, “Oh, by the way, Hero, when you park later, just tie Qianjin to a tree in the hospital yard.”

He certainly wouldn’t be able to go home anytime soon, and he was worried the poor little useless thing might throw up inside Jiang Lin’s car.

When Jiang Lin got back into his car, the intense nerve pain flared up with renewed fury. The hand gripping the steering wheel was slick with cold sweat. He took another painkiller tablet, pressed his throbbing temple with his hand for a moment before opening the car door to step out.

The ambulance drove directly to the emergency department. Cao Shulan was wheeled into the CT room and had several blood panels ordered. While the blood work would take some time, emergency scans could be retrieved immediately. Shen Xing reviewed the scans right away, and Jiang Lin quickly walked over.

“Dr. Shen, are the results out? How is she?”

“Has your colleague arrived yet?”

Jiang Lin’s expression paused slightly. “He can’t make it.”

Shen Xing froze for a second, his keen instincts picking up that something wasn’t right. “What about other family members?”

“Aunty Shulan has a younger brother in Qujing, and we’ve already notified him. The earliest they can get here is tomorrow. Tell me about her condition first.”

“Based on the scans, there’s no problem with her spine; it should just be a contusion. However, there is a fracture in the femoral shaft, and the break isn’t very clean—there are bone fragments. Given the patient’s advanced age and poorer healing capacity, conservative treatment isn’t suitable. Right now, we only have the CT results; the blood tests will take a bit longer. If the blood work supports surgery, I recommend performing an operation to fix it with an intramedullary nail.”

Jiang Lin rubbed his face with his hand. “Is this surgery high-risk?”

Shen Xing picked up on Jiang Lin’s emotional state—an undisguisable anxiety. His voice involuntarily softened a notch.

“Intramedullary nail fixation is very effective for femoral shaft fractures and is a routine orthopedic procedure. Plus, your colleague’s mother doesn’t have an open fracture, so the post-operative infection rate is quite low. I’ll perform the surgery myself. As long as the pre-operative evaluation shows no issues, the surgery itself isn’t particularly high-risk.”

Jiang Lin let out a sigh of relief. Shen Xing looked at his appearance, pursed his lips slightly, and picked up another scan underneath.

“There’s one more issue.”

Jiang Lin raised his head again. “What is it?”

“The CT scan just now included her knee. She has arthritis, and the fluid buildup in her right knee is fairly severe. Normally, conservative treatment would be fine for this, but from the fall just now, there’s some damage to the ligaments around the right knee joint surface, which may worsen her arthritis over time.”

Jiang Lin frowned deeply. “Is there any solution?”

“If circumstances permit, a thorough fix would be a knee replacement. If she doesn’t do that, physical therapy like traction can offer some relief. However, given her age, the condition will likely deteriorate over time. But that would be an elective surgery; I suggest waiting at least three months after the femur surgery before considering it. The family can take their time to decide.”

While they were talking, a nurse brought over the expedited blood report. Shen Xing reviewed the results alongside the anesthesiologist, exchanged a few brief words, and then walked over to Jiang Lin.

“Hero, the pre-operative evaluation looks good. The surgery can proceed. Go ahead and contact her family—you can record a video to confirm consent for the surgery, or the patient herself can sign the written consent.”

Jiang Lin nodded. By the time all the paperwork was finalized, half an hour had passed.

Shen Xing got up to change into his surgical scrubs. Jiang Lin called out to him from behind, his voice laced with tension. “Dr. Shen, I’m relying on you.”

Shen Xing smiled, gave him a wave, and headed toward the surgical prep area. His white lab coat fluttered slightly with his quickened pace, somehow easing Jiang Lin’s mind by a fraction.

This was the first femoral surgery Shen Xing had performed since arriving at Fulan County Hospital. The surgery itself wasn’t overly complex, but because he hadn’t worked with the first assistant and nurses many times yet, and the operating room was still unfamiliar, the pace was steady rather than fast. The procedure took four and a half hours. Shen Xing’s last meal had been breakfast at the hotel restaurant; even though he had downed a bottle of glucose mid-surgery, he was now famished to the point of his stomach sticking to his back.

As he walked out of the emergency operating room, he saw the person who had been sitting hunched over on the bench across the hallway immediately lift his head. Jiang Lin parted his lips, but no words came out. Shen Xing flashed him a smile and gave an “OK” gesture before slipping his hands into the pockets of his lab coat and walking over to him.

“The surgery went very smoothly. We’re sending her to the ICU for two days of observation. If there are no complications, she can be transferred to a general ward.”

The shoulders of the man sitting opposite slumped slightly, as if he had finally let out a breath he was holding. However, his voice was dry and raspy, sounding as though his throat was inflamed: “That’s good. Thank you so much, Dr. Shen.”

“Don’t mention it; it’s my job.”

Jiang Lin reached down, picked up a bag from beside him, and handed it over. “I didn’t know when the surgery would finish, so I didn’t dare buy hot food. Have some of this to hold you over.”

Shen Xing saw at a glance that the bag was filled with snacks—pastries, bread, ham sausages, and milk. “You really are a lifesaver, Hero.”

Shen Xing stepped in front of him to take the bag, only then realizing something was off about the man. His lips were dry and pale, yet his cheeks were slightly flushed, and he looked thoroughly exhausted. Shen Xing suddenly reached out a hand from his pocket and pressed the back of it against Jiang Lin’s forehead. As expected, it was burning hot.

“You have a fever.”

Shen Xing was standing very close, close enough for Jiang Lin to catch the faint scent of disinfectant on him. Suppressing the urge to lean his head further against the cool back of that hand, Jiang Lin spoke up: “I’m fine. It’s probably just a cold from the drop in temperature over the past two days.”

The emergency operating room was on the first floor, and the hallway was freezing cold. Did this guy seriously sit here enduring the cold for over four hours?

“Don’t take it lightly. The flu is really bad this season. Go up front, register, and get a blood test done.”

Jiang Lin leaned back into the hallway chair, appearing resistant to the idea of a blood test. “Not going. I’m fine. I’ll just drink some hot water and it’ll pass.”

Shen Xing found it amusing. “Is the hot water at your house some kind of miracle panacea?”

Jiang Lin shrank back slightly and didn’t take the bait. Instead, he asked, “Does the hospital need someone to stay overnight with her tonight?”

Shen Xing’s sense that something was wrong grew even stronger. The surgery was already over, yet no family members had shown up, nor had Jiang Lin’s colleague called or video-chatted even once from start to finish. This was clearly unusual. Considering Jiang Lin’s line of work, a bad premonition suddenly crossed his mind. He looked up at Jiang Lin’s current state—clearly, now was not the time to press the issue.

“No need. I just swapped shifts with a colleague, so I’m on night duty tonight. I’ll keep an eye on her condition. If any issues arise, I’ll notify you immediately. Right now, your best move is to go home immediately and drink your hot water.”

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Author’s Note:

Officer Jiang is about to spill the beans!