After being separated from my family, I became a darling of the military region thanks to my medical

The next morning at 7:30, the sky over the North City Military Region General Hospital was gloomy, the northwest wind stung the face, and it looked like it was going to snow again.

Ye Zhen sat in the passenger seat of the military green Beijing Jeep, resting with her eyes closed. Gu Zheng steadily steered the car into the main hospital gate. He stepped on the brake in the open space outside the outpatient building, grabbed a thick scarf from the back seat, and leaned over to wrap it tightly around Ye Zhen's neck twice.

"The wind outside is erratic. If we can't finish reviewing those medical records by noon, let those old men take over. No more working non-stop." Gu Zheng tied a knot in his scarf, his voice deep and carrying an unyielding military authority.

Ye Zhen opened her eyes and lifted her pointed chin slightly from under her scarf. She didn't answer, but pushed open the car door and got out. Gu Zheng took out the car keys and strode after her.

As soon as the two turned the corner of the outpatient building, they saw a scene that made them exclaim, "Wow!"

In the long corridor outside the surgical consultation room, more than twenty provincial chief physicians and experts, all wearing white coats, stood ramrod straight in three neat columns in the middle of the corridor. Gao Haiping, who was leading the group, still looked sickly, but he was in excellent spirits.

Seeing Ye Zhen and Gu Zheng approach, Gao Haiping straightened the collar of his white coat, turned to face the team, and shouted in a strong voice, "Ready!"

More than twenty senior experts, considered pillars of strength in hospitals across the country, stood at attention in unison. Although their posture wasn't as disciplined as that of soldiers, their presence was undeniably commanding.

Gao Haiping turned around, faced Ye Zhen and Gu Zheng, and bowed deeply. "Dr. Ye, Chief Gu. This first bow is to thank Dr. Ye for sharing her knowledge so generously these past few days. Not only did you not hold back the core technology, but you also guided us through practical exercises step by step. We old guys are completely convinced of this academic integrity!"

Gao Haiping straightened up and then bowed a second time solemnly. "This second bow is to thank Commander Gu for setting up the warm tent for us in the backyard. Without that good coal and charcoal, we old bones would have frozen to death in the draft."

The experts in the corridor followed Gao Haiping and bowed in unison to the couple.

Ye Zhen stopped in her tracks. Her gaze swept over the fine lines around the eyes and the red, frostbitten knuckles of the elderly comrades. Without any feigned politeness, she simply handed the canvas bag in her hand to Gu Zheng behind her, her tone remaining as cool and matter-of-fact as ever.

"I'm teaching you these skills so you can get back to work as soon as possible. There are too many patients in this country waiting in line for life-saving treatment; I can't save them all even if I operate all night. As long as you're willing to learn, I'm willing to teach you." Ye Zhen looked at Gao Haiping, "Vice Dean Gao, has your fever subsided? If so, I'll arrange for you to cover the shift at the triage station today."

Gao Haiping didn't feel like he was being treated like a laborer; instead, he stood even straighter and loudly replied, "I guarantee I'll complete the mission!"

Gu Zheng carried Ye Zhen's canvas bag in one hand, the other hand in the pocket of his leather jacket. He raised an eyebrow slightly, his gaze slowly sweeping over the group of old men.

"I had the tents set up, that's true," Gu Zheng's voice carried a hint of lazy, roguish military charm. "But don't flatter yourselves. I was just worried about my wife. If you all get sick, she'll have to take over all your chores. I'll provide you with good blankets and good coal, with just one request—don't tire my wife out. Experts, do you understand?"

"Got it!" The veteran experts weren't angry at all; instead, they burst into laughter. They now completely understood their leader's temperament—he was a sharp-tongued, protective, and doting "living devil" who cherished his wife dearly.

The crowd dispersed, each heading to their triage post. Ye Zhen walked into the office, sat down at her desk, picked up a red and blue pencil, and quickly switched into high-intensity work mode.

At noon, the main office's administrative and logistics department's switchboard room was in complete chaos.

Several young female operators, wearing black headsets, frantically plugged and unplugged wires into the huge telephone exchange jacks, their brows slick with sweat. More than twenty visiting experts, having finished lunch, didn't return to their tents to rest; instead, they all crowded into the corridor outside the switchboard room, vying for the phone.

"Hello! Is this the headquarters? Connect me to Fuwai Hospital in Beijing! Urgent hotline!" Gao Haiping grabbed a crank-operated telephone and yelled into the receiver, "This is Gao Haiping! Have cardiac surgeon Li answer the phone immediately! Go to the medical records room right now! Search for all children with Tetralogy of Fallot! I need cases with the most severe right ventricular outflow tract stenosis, cases that have undergone echocardiography! Get me the ventricular data clearly!"

Standing by the phone, Liu Jianmin from Shanghai People's Hospital wiped the sweat from his brow with a handkerchief. "What do you mean you can't find it? If you can't find it, then you're sleeping on the floor in the medical records room and searching! Find the echocardiogram results of that critically ill child who was transferred here the day before yesterday! Stop talking nonsense, hurry up!"

Northeastern, Shanghai, and Sichuan accents mingled together, and the switchboard room instantly became the dispatch center for critical care medical records from across the country. These top doctors, who held absolute authority in their respective hospitals, were now, across thousands of kilometers of telephone lines, forcing their deputies to dig deep and find a patient who met even the most extreme criteria.

In the dean's office, Zhou Hai's hands were trembling as he held the estimated long-distance phone bill that the logistics department had just handed him.

"More than twenty long-distance calls in just over half an hour? And all of them were expedited calls that required manual transfer from headquarters!" Zhou Hai slammed his hand on the table. "Have these old geezers gone mad? Do they think our hospital is a long-distance telecommunications bureau?"

The logistics chief wiped away his cold sweat: "Director Zhou, there's no way to stop them. They've given the order: all the phone bills will be covered by their provincial travel expenses, and if that's not enough, they'll have to pay out of their own pockets! They're acting like they're digging up some kind of legendary weapon."

Zhou Hai's eyes darted around, then he slammed the bill on the table. "As long as someone pays! Let them make the calls! Tell the operator to give these old fogies the best lines, make sure the calls don't drop!"

It was 2 PM. Verification results from various locations began to be relayed back via telegram or telephone.

The results were not ideal. Most of the cases found by hospitals were either mild or the patients were too old and had irreversible vascular lesions, which did not meet the best template for this "first large-scale practical application of the new surgical technique".

Gao Haiping sat on a bench in the corridor, his brow furrowed deeply as he looked at the pile of substandard data he had written down. "Old Liu, how's it going in Shanghai?"

Liu Jianmin was gripping the phone receiver tightly, his back to the crowd as he listened to the report. His body tensed more and more with each word coming from the phone. He quickly pulled a pen from his white coat pocket and jotted down a string of data in his palm.

"Is the left ventricular development index confirmed to be greater than 20? Yes! Yes! No severe central stenosis in the left and right branches of the pulmonary artery?" Liu Jianmin's voice began to tremble. "Report the blood oxygen saturation again! Only 65%?! Good, excellent!"

Liu Jianmin slammed the phone down. He turned around, his eyes bloodshot, but gleaming with ecstatic joy.

"Found him!" Liu Jianmin, his hands smeared with ink, rushed to Gao Haiping, so excited he could hardly breathe. "Our hospital just admitted a six-year-old boy from rural Anhui. Tetralogy of Fallot, extremely underdeveloped main pulmonary artery, almost completely closed right ventricular outflow tract, and a large ventricular septal defect!"

Gao Haiping suddenly stood up. "Can your hospital do this?"

"We can't do it!" Liu Jianmin slapped his thigh hard. "In the past, if someone brought in such a severe case of outflow tract stenosis, we wouldn't even dare to take them to the operating room. We could only shake our heads and tell the family to go home and prepare for the worst! But now, with Dr. Ye's new surgical technique, this child can be saved!"

Liu Jianmin took a deep breath, his eyes filled with a doctor's sincerity and a passion for technology: "Not only can a life be saved, but this is also a textbook example of an extreme case! If this surgery is successful, Dr. Ye's approach will be the standard in clinical practice nationwide!"

"What a golden opportunity!" Gao Haiping clapped his hands and grabbed Liu Jianmin's arm. "Let's go! Take your data and go back to Dr. Ye right away!"