This doctor is already middle-aged, and he's only just started practicing medicine.

Chapter 148 Acting?!
"Mom, don't you always say that Lu Cheng has a good character and isn't lacking in ambition? Aren't those two points enough?"

"You have such high standards." Mu Nanshu emphasized the word "high standards".

Mu Nanshu's father, Mu Leng, suddenly interrupted with his voice: "What your daughter thinks is her own business. Why are you interfering so much?"

“We’ve watched Xiao Lu grow up, so there’s no problem with his character. If Xiao Shu hadn’t invited Xiao Lu to develop his career in Shanghai, his starting point might have been very different.”

"Besides, if Xiaoshu and Xiaolu really can get together, you won't even have to bother with the background check for your future in-laws, wouldn't that be great?"

Mu Nanshu's mother, Yan Sangyue, glanced at Mu Leng and said, "It's not that I'm afraid of anything else, I'm just worried that after Xiaoshu marries into the family, her spending habits will be different from Lao Lu's, and Xiaoshu will suffer in silence..."

"Friends are friends, and spending habits are spending habits, right?"

"Don't you know Lao Lu and Lao Tian?" Yan Sangyue asked Mu Leng.

These words silenced both Mu Leng and Mu Nanshu, leaving them speechless.

……

When Lu Cheng arrived at the emergency department, Zeng Huanqi, who was on the night shift, explained to the patient with a smile, "Sure, if you think you should go to the orthopedics department, you can ask to go there."

"But let me make this clear: if you go to the orthopedics department, the quality of the surgery might not be as good as the one performed by Dr. Lu." Zeng Huanqi's words were clear, yet they also left room for maneuver.

"What do you mean it's not necessarily better than Dr. Lu's surgery?" The patient was a young woman in her thirties, who was enduring the pain while her brows were furrowed.

"It means exactly what it says."

"Our hospital's emergency department and orthopedics department both perform this type of surgery, but Dr. Lu in our emergency department does it routinely, while the orthopedics department does it selectively!"

"Didn't you already ask the doctor on duty? They said they wouldn't handle this. That's why I said you should go to the orthopedics department and find someone else. It's not certain that the quality of the surgery will be better than Dr. Lu's."

“We’re all in the same industry, so I won’t belittle or flatter anyone. I’ll just tell you the facts.” Zeng Huanqi turned his head and saw Lu Cheng.

He then said, "Dr. Lu is here..."

“Dr. Lu…” The young couple looked at Lu Cheng as Zeng Huanqi spoke, their expressions showing surprise before they said nothing more.

Although Lu Cheng looks young, his demeanor has long since shed the naivety of youth, and he is now calm and composed.

"Dr. Zeng, haven't you signed it yet?" Lu Cheng asked Zeng Huanqi with a smile as he approached.

Zeng Huanqi nodded: "The young couple is still hesitant. They said they asked a friend, who said this condition falls under the jurisdiction of orthopedics... but our hospital's orthopedics department doesn't do tendon surgeries anymore... so they're still struggling with it."

The young woman's husband spoke up: "Dr. Lu, what is the success rate of my wife's surgery? My friend told me that her condition is quite complicated."

"Is it true that if you're not careful, your post-operative recovery will be very poor?"

Lu Cheng glanced at the wound and determined that the woman's injury was a flexor tendon injury in Zone 3: "After a tendon rupture, it is easy for some complications to occur."

"For example, recurrent rupture, tendon adhesion, etc. These are common complications that we have actually encountered in clinical practice and have been statistically analyzed. Of course, there are also some rare ones..."

The young man frowned and asked cautiously, "Dr. Lu, would it be better for my wife to go to the state hospital?"

"But we were worried that going to the state hospital would take a long time, and that the tendon might become necrotic after we transferred there, which would waste time."

In today's world, with advanced internet communication, even ordinary people can usually find out the corresponding risks by simply searching for any symptom in the search bar.

Lu Cheng replied, "If you want to be transferred to a higher-level hospital, this would definitely be better."

"Dr. Zeng, does she have any vascular damage?" Lu Cheng asked Zeng Huanqi.

Seeing Zeng Huanqi shake his head, Lu Cheng said again, "Since there is no blood vessel damage, then it's time for surgery. You can still make it from Longxian to the State People's Hospital."

“Of course, if you choose to have the procedure done at our hospital, you won’t have to go through all that trouble.” Lu Cheng didn’t just offer to refer the patient to another hospital.

The young man laughed and continued to ingratiate himself, "Dr. Lu, you haven't answered my question yet. Wouldn't it be better if we went to the state hospital?"

Lu Cheng had been avoiding the question because it was difficult for him to answer, as it involved colleagues from other hospitals.

Lu Cheng wasn't overly modest: "It should be about the same..."

The young woman immediately became conflicted: "Are they about the same? Then why is there such a big difference in price?"

This statement reveals that they had already inquired about the state hospital.

The young man pursed his lips, glanced at Lu Cheng with a complicated expression, and then took a few steps closer to Lu Cheng: "Dr. Lu, my wife was already a bit conflicted... What I meant was actually..."

After hearing the young man's explanation, Lu Cheng understood the couple's dilemma: the husband wanted to go to a better hospital, while the woman was worried about the cost.

"The hospitals in the state hospital are of a higher level and have a better overall level of technology than our hospital, and their fees are also higher. This is a unified pricing system for medical institutions, not a system set by the hospitals themselves."

"If you want to be transferred, you can arrange a car as soon as possible and get there quickly. The surgery, which has a deadline, should also be done as soon as possible. This cannot be delayed."

Just then, Tian Zhuang, who was on duty outside, ran in again.

Tian Zhuang walked in directly with the medical record in his hand, and said without any hesitation, "Dr. Lu, a patient has come to the clinic. She was brought here by Dr. Han Rong from the Department of Respiratory Medicine."

"Dr. Han Rong said that they came all the way from Qianzhou in Jilin Province."

Lu Cheng was quite surprised to hear this, and said, "Dr. Zeng, could you please write down your treatment plan? The surgery must be performed within a specified time... I'll go out and check on the situation."

The young couple looked at each other in bewilderment after hearing what Tian Zhuang and Lu Cheng said!

For a moment, they even thought that Tian Zhuang and Lu Cheng were brought in by Zeng Huanqi to put on an act, and that the purpose of this act was to persuade them to have surgery in Long County.

After all, what a coincidence! They were just thinking about whether to go to the state hospital, and the people from Jishi even made a special trip back to Longxian for surgery.
However, Tian Zhuang was holding a medical record book, and the cover of the medical record book was indeed a printed copy from the People's Hospital of Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture.

Surely no one would sever a tendon to help Lu Cheng and Tian Zhuang scam them out of more than two thousand yuan by acting in a play, right?
After Lu Cheng and Tian Zhuang left, the young woman asked Zeng Huanqi, "Dr. Zeng? What happened?"

Zeng Huanqi calmed down and said, "To tell you the truth, Dr. Lu Cheng in our department is indeed a doctor in our hospital, but he has a very special approach to tendon suturing."

"These patients were specially transferred from Jilin City, and there are quite a few local patients from Long County as well."

"Of course, the State People's Hospital is our superior hospital, and they can also handle tendons very well."

"That's 100% true."

Zeng Huanqi neither exaggerated nor remained modest, and appropriately raised Lu Cheng's price.

"Dr. Zeng, do you mean that Dr. Lu just said that the quality of his surgeries is the same as that of orthopedic surgeons at the State People's Hospital, and that he wasn't just being polite or bragging?" The young man looked somewhat surprised.

Zeng Huanqi smirked, too lazy to argue with the couple: "If Dr. Lu wants to tell the truth, he should say that he did a better job than the other side."

"We just can't make that claim. It's difficult to compare the specific levels of different hospitals side-by-side, and we haven't done so." "Anyway, that's the situation. You can make your own decision."

"If you believe Dr. Lu, you can have it done here. If you don't believe him, go to the state hospital."

"But you need to hurry. If the people outside have already spoken to you, signed the consent form, and gone into the operating room, you'll have to wait."

"Of course, no matter where you do it, you can't escape the risks you're facing."

The young man asked, "How long will it take?"

“It usually takes between one and two hours,” Zeng Huanqi replied.

The young woman said, "Don't even think about it, let's just sign it. After all, it's more than a thousand yuan cheaper, and if we go there, plus transportation and food expenses, it will be more than two thousand yuan."

The young man leaned close to his wife and whispered reassuringly, "It's not about the money, the main thing is that the surgery needs to be done well."

"This will be more beneficial for your recovery after surgery..."

While the two were still struggling with their decision, Lu Cheng had already completed the pre-arranged meeting and signed the agreement.

Dr. Han Rong from the Department of Respiratory Medicine said, "Dr. Lu, thank you for your hard work. I hope you can do a good job with the surgery."

“My dad cut his hand while making baby food for my brother’s child. My brother is actually an orthopedic surgeon, but he doesn’t do hand surgery. My brother insisted on sending them back…”

"Dr. Han, I really don't deserve such praise. There must be some misunderstanding that made my uncle and aunt go through all this trouble."

Lu Cheng quickly replied, "If there are no other problems here, then please take your uncle to the emergency operating room first. It's not early, so we'll start the procedure as soon as possible."

Lu Cheng did not know which department Dr. Han in the state hospital was Han Rong's brother.

Dr. Han looked at Lu Cheng carefully and said with a hint of gossip, "My brother said that a patient with multiple tendon injuries that you operated on before, Dr. Lu, was immediately transferred to the State People's Hospital for a follow-up examination."

"The hand surgeons there removed it, and the re-suturing didn't work well. There's a difference in function on both sides. Now I'm facing a lot of trouble."

Lu Cheng was slightly taken aback, then replied, "Oh, that patient went to the state hospital for rehabilitation afterwards!"

Nurse Deng Zhouzhou hurriedly led the people away, saying, "Dr. Han, the emergency operating room is over here. In this situation, nerve block anesthesia is usually required. Our head nurse has already called the operating room, and Director Tian Chao from the emergency anesthesia department will come personally to administer the nerve block anesthesia..."

Dr. Han then turned and led her father, saying, "Dr. Lu, I'll go now. Thank you for your hard work."

Lu Cheng glanced in Zeng Huanqi's direction from afar and said, "Dr. Zeng, I'll go disinfect and lay down the drapes first. You can come over after you're done here. There's no rush."

Zeng Huanqi nodded and began to quickly write down his diagnosis and treatment opinions.

Regardless of the couple's decision, the surgery schedule will have to be postponed.

This isn't a matter of who gets there first and who gets to do it first!
Whoever speaks and signs first will be the first to undergo surgery. There won't be any delays just because you arrived first; everyone else will have to wait for you.

In the emergency department, in the emergency surgery ward.

After Liang Haobo helped his wife sit down, he reassured her, "Don't overthink it. That Dr. Han Rong is definitely a doctor from our hospital, and the injured person she brought is indeed her father. They even look somewhat alike."

“I’ve already called Xiaowei, and she’ll buy us some daily necessities later. We just need to wait patiently for the surgery.”

“They’ve already come all the way from Jishi to Longxian. Waiting a little longer won’t affect the quality of the surgery.”

Chen Nanlan, Liang Haobo's wife, looked up and said, "Send another message to Xiaowei and ask her to bring me a set of makeup remover and face wash."

“I’m not worried that Dr. Lu and the others are acting, I just find this kind of thing hard to believe.”

"Why would a patient come all the way from Jishi to our Longxian County?" Chen Nanlan frowned, forcing out crow's feet.

As Chen Nanlan was speaking, a woman in bed 5 sat up and said, "Girl, you haven't had your surgery yet? I thought you had just finished your surgery and came over."

Chen Nanlan and Liang Haobo both turned to look and found that the woman in bed 5 was wearing a hand brace and was doing grasping exercises with her affected limb in front of her abdomen.

“My wife accidentally injured her hand while opening a durian. Ma’am, was your surgery also performed by this Dr. Lu?” Liang Haobo asked.

The older woman shook her head: "No, I wish Dr. Lu had performed my surgery. He happened to be away for training the day I was injured."

"My surgery was performed by Professor Tong from Xiangya Hospital. I was originally supposed to be admitted to the orthopedic ward!"

"Professor Tong instructed me to stay here."

"Alas, I'm unlucky. Professor Tong told me that my injuries were more severe, so the surgery took longer than others, and my recovery will be slower."

"When I was first admitted to the hospital, several other patients who had surgery with Dr. Lu said that they could have been discharged by now," the older woman said with some emotion.

"Big sister, where is Professor Tong now? You're really lucky!" A glint flashed in the eyes of Liang Haobo and his wife.

The older woman raised her chin: "Professor Tong is in orthopedics. You all think I'm lucky, right? I initially thought I was lucky too, after all, it was a professor from Xiangya Hospital who performed the surgery on me."

"But I later learned that Professor Tong said that Dr. Lu had already learned his true skills and even surpassed his teacher. Moreover, he was younger and more skillful, and his operation was probably even more exquisite than his own."

"In this hospital, if it's a ruptured tendon, you can't go wrong with Dr. Lu!"

The older sister covered her mouth and said, "Just don't let them take you to the orthopedics department too easily."

“Oh…we also went to the orthopedics department today, and the doctor there said they don’t do tendon sutures anymore,” Liang Haobo suddenly replied.

"Not doing it? No way, you were doing it just the day before yesterday?" The older woman looked bewildered.

Why did you stop?

Liang Haobo said, "I didn't ask specifically."

The eldest sister couldn't delve into the specifics, so she smiled and said, "Then you should just wait patiently for Dr. Lu to perform the surgery. Dr. Lu's surgical skills are excellent, I've heard they're as excellent as he is."

"Okay, thank you, sister. I'll need to ask you for advice after my wife comes out of the operating room," Liang Haobo quickly replied.

"Oh, no need, no need. Dr. Lu is very responsible. Just don't mind his nagging after your surgery."

"Everyone's recovery progress and process are different, so we can't learn from each other. We'll just have to listen to Dr. Lu when the time comes."

"Or Professor Tong will come to check on me tomorrow morning. You can ask Professor Tong."

"He's a professor at Xiangya Hospital, his skills and expertise are top-notch. He comes to check on patients every day, he's very dedicated," the older woman said.

……

(End of this chapter)