Seeing Su Tang work quietly without a word, they stopped making their sharp, cutting remarks.
After all, trying to get a rise out of her felt like punching cotton—it wasn’t a pleasant feeling.
The appendectomy that afternoon was led by Doctor ng from surgery, a woman in her forties.
Rumor had it she’d been at the hospital for over a decade, always coveting the position of lead surgeon.
Su Tang had thought she’d be an assistant, but Doctor ng assigned her to handle so minor issues for the patient.
"Xiao Su is new here. It’s best to start with the basics."
Doctor ng smiled amicably, but her eyes were devoid of any warmth.
She didn’t see Su Tang as a real doctor at all.
Su Tang’s hand tightened around the razor. She had already perford appendectomies independently at her previous job, yet now she was being made to do the work of an orderly.
But she patiently finished the task, her movents so deft that the nurse handing her the instrunts paused in surprise.
When Su Tang had co here for her exams before, Vice President Jiang Kang had expressed so regret.
He said it was a sha for her to transfer now, just after she had finally established herself at the other hospital.
But here, Su Tang would have more opportunities for promotion, and she wouldn’t have to live apart from Lu Xiao.
Vice President Jiang Kang had approved of the move.
He also hoped Su Tang’s future path would be smooth and steady.
Su Tang sighed inwardly and completed the finishing touches.
Following Doctor ng into the operating room, Su Tang could only act as a gofer, a re observer.
Halfway through the surgery, Doctor ng’s hand suddenly froze. The patient’s bleeding wouldn’t stop.
Cold sweat beaded on her forehead, and the assistant beside her began to panic.
Standing in the corner, Su Tang glanced at the blood pressure on the monitor and couldn’t help but speak up. "Doctor ng, a small artery might not have been ligated properly. Try clamping with a hemostat at the three o’clock position."
Being corrected by Su Tang, Doctor ng’s face darkened. "What do you know? Is it your place to speak here?"
The words had barely left her mouth when the patient’s blood pressure dropped again.
Su Tang didn’t hesitate any longer. She took a step forward. "Let try."
Her fingers were as steady as a rock. The hemostat clamped precisely onto the bleeding point, and in less than half a minute, the bleeding stopped.
The entire operating room fell silent. Doctor ng’s face flushed red, then turned pale.
After the surgery, Doctor ng flew into a rage in her office. "Who does she think she is! Soone who got in through the back door dares to question my skills?"
Li Min quickly handed her a cup of tea. "Sister Wang, don’t be angry. Wasn’t she just lucky? There’s a patient with complex trauma coming in tomorrow. I hear the injuries are quite severe. We’ll see how she embarrasses herself then."
Early the next morning, an ambulance brought in a worker who had fallen from a scaffold. He was covered in blood, with three broken ribs and a possible spleen rupture.
Doctor ng looked at the scans, her brow furrowed, and said they should transfer him to a major hospital in the city.
"There’s no ti to transfer him. The patient’s blood pressure is continuously dropping. It’s a ruptured spleen with internal bleeding. He needs surgery imdiately."
Su Tang stated this decisively.
Doctor ng glared at her. "Are you trying to kill the patient? Our equipnt here can’t handle a splenectomy!"
"It doesn’t need a full removal. It’s just a subcapsular rupture. A repair surgery will suffice. I’ll be the lead surgeon."
Su Tang pointed at the scan, identifying the problem.
"You?"
Doctor ng looked as if she had heard a joke. "Su Tang, can you bear the responsibility if there’s a dical incident? Don’t forget you’re still on probation!"
Hearing Doctor ng’s deliberately pointed words, Su Tang finally lost her temper.
"Doctor ng, out of respect for you as a senior colleague, I have been more than patient. But please rember one thing."
She took a step forward and slapped the scans onto the table.
"At all tis, the patient’s life is paramount! As a doctor, I would hope you have so reverence for life."
"Rather than question here, you should go to our superiors and request that I lead the surgery. I, for one, am confident I can handle it."
This was the first ti since arriving that Su Tang had spoken so harshly to Doctor ng.
Su Tang had been a doctor for eight years and had never encountered a situation like this.
A patient was lying on the operating table, and the doctors were here, wasting ti with argunts.
She was the kind of person who despised this sort of office politics.
As they were at a standoff, Director Zhang hurried over. Seeing the patient’s condition, he said urgently, "What are you all standing around for? Get to surgery!"
Su Tang looked at Director Zhang. "Director, I request to be the lead surgeon."
Doctor ng imdiately objected. "Director, how can a newcor perform such a major surgery!"
Director Zhang hesitated for a mont. He rembered Su Tang’s suturing technique from the other day, then glanced at the critically ill patient. Clenching his jaw, he decided. "Let Su Tang do it. Doctor ng, you’ll be her assistant."
In the operating room, Su Tang put on her surgical gown, her gaze as sharp as a scalpel.
The voice with which she instructed the nurse to prepare the instrunts was calm and steady, not at all like a newcor’s.
Doctor ng stood to the side, speaking sarcastically. "Doctor Su had better be careful. If this suturing goes wrong, Deputy Commander Lu is going to lose face."
Su Tang ignored her, focusing on dissecting the tissue.
’What does my work have to do with Lu Xiao?’
As she finished the final stitch with absorbable sutures, the clock in the operating room showed that just over an hour had passed.
Doctor ng looked at the nearly invisible stitches. Her lips moved, but she couldn’t say a word.
When the patient was wheeled out of the operating room, his blood pressure had stabilized.
Director Zhang patted Su Tang’s shoulder, his eyes full of approval.
"Director, although Su Tang did complete the surgery, she is still a doctor on probation. Are you going to let all the probationary doctors in our hospital claim they can perform surgeries independently before they’ve even been made permanent?"
Doctor ng, clearly unwilling to accept this, stepped forward and said her piece.
Director Zhang turned around, his gaze landing on Doctor ng’s face, his tone sowhat stern.
This Doctor ng was a veteran of the hospital, yet here she was, making things so difficult for a newcor.
The more she tried to make trouble for Su Tang, the more it proved that Su Tang’s dical skills were superior to her own.
’She’s afraid of being pushed out.’
"ng, this hospital values skill, not seniority. The fact that Su Tang could handle the pressure and complete this surgery today proves she has the ability."
"Is letting a patient miss the optimal treatnt window while we argue the mark of a veteran doctor?"
He paused, his eyes sweeping over the silent dical staff. "From now on, whoever has the skill gets the job. Don’t use probationary status as an excuse. If you’re really capable, then do what Su Tang did and let your scalpel do the talking."
Doctor ng’s expression changed instantly. Her knuckles turned white as she clenched her lab coat, but she couldn’t utter a single word in rebuttal.
Director Zhang had been the head of surgery for ten years and was known for his fairness. Being publicly rebuked like this, Doctor ng felt utterly humiliated.
Su Tang stood to the side, feeling completely calm.
She had long understood that in a place like a hospital, compassion and compromise wouldn’t earn you respect. Only skill was hard currency.
And as it happened, skill was sothing she had in abundance.
This was the source of Su Tang’s confidence and composure.
When she went ho for lunch, Su Tang even told Lu Xiao about the incident.
Nearby, Mr. and Mrs. Su watched Su Tang’s confident, vibrant expression and both began to smile.
Loving a person is like tending a flower. The better Su Tang blood, the better her life here clearly was.
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