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

The moment Ye Zhen pushed open the door, the air in the ward changed.

Sun Dechang's face, which had been ashen just moments before, changed dramatically the moment he saw who it was, like a dramatic face-changing act on a stage.

His brows suddenly relaxed, his mouth stretched to its widest point, and even the creases at the corners of his eyes eagerly gathered together.

"Oh dear, Dr. Ye, why did you come in person!"

He braced himself against the edge of the bed and tried to sit up, not caring that the collar of his hospital gown was askew, and frantically kicked his legs under the blanket looking for slippers.

"Please sit down! Please sit down!"

Secretary Liu reacted even faster than him, grabbing the folding iron chair that the Zhou couple had just sat on, quickly wiping the chair surface with her sleeve, and holding the back of the chair with both hands, as if she wanted to bend down and hand it to Ye Zhen.

That respectful, barely daring-to-breathe demeanor was a complete contrast to the fierce, hands-on-hips-and-chasing manner he displayed just three minutes earlier—he was a completely different person.

In the corridor outside the door, Zhou Guoan's back was still not fully straight.

He was crouching against the wall, but his ears were standing up higher than a rabbit's.

He heard it. He heard every single word clearly.

As soon as the female doctor, whom he had just called a "young brat," entered the room, Director Sun's voice rose eight octaves, his tone filled with cautious flattery.

Li Shufen clung tightly to the door frame, her fingernails scratching white.

His lips trembled twice, but he couldn't squeeze out even a single syllable.

Inside the ward, Ye Zhen didn't even glance at the chair.

She raised her hand and gently pressed down on Sun Dechang's shoulder. The pressure wasn't great, but Sun Dechang's bottom obediently and properly landed back on the bed.

"Don't move." The cold voice was utterly succinct.

Sun Dechang was as obedient as a primary school student, quickly smoothing out the blanket, straightening his back, and pressing his hands firmly against his knees.

"Dr. Ye, please speak, I will listen to whatever you say."

Ye Zhen didn't respond to that, nor did she turn her head. She simply turned to the side and reached her hand behind her.

"Medical records".

Zhou Ming stepped briskly out of the queue.

With his right hand, he opened the blue hard-cover medical record folder, while his left index finger steadily pressed down on the latest page of the test report. He held both hands out flat and handed it to Ye Zhen without hesitation.

Li Shufen, standing outside the door, nearly popped her eyes out of their sockets.

When did her bookish son, who wouldn't even pick up a fallen oil bottle at home, become so quick-witted and agile?

Ye Zhen took the medical record, her eyes quickly scanning the rows of data. She slightly lifted her eyelids and looked at Sun Dechang.

"Have you experienced chest tightness a few times today?"

Sun Dechang nervously swallowed, thought carefully for a moment, and then held up three fingers.

"Three times! Once in the morning, twice in the afternoon, and the third time was just now."

At this point, he glanced nervously toward the doorway before quickly looking away.

Secretary Liu stepped closer and quickly added, "Dr. Ye, the two visits this afternoon were less than forty minutes apart. During the second visit, the director took a nitroglycerin tablet."

"How long does it take for the symptoms to subside after taking the medication?"

"A little over two minutes, no more than three minutes."

Ye Zhen nodded, flipped the medical record folder back to the previous page, focused her fingertip on a line of data, and turned her head to look at Zhou Ming.

What was your fasting blood sugar this morning?

"5.6," Zhou Ming answered without hesitation.

"auscultation?"

"I listened to it once at six o'clock this morning. A grade II systolic murmur could be heard in the second aortic valve auscultation area, but no moist rales were heard at the bases of both lungs."

Ye Zhen closed the medical record folder, and the barely perceptible wrinkle between her brows relaxed.

The hallway outside was eerily quiet.

Li Shufen stood there frozen like a log, her mouth opening and closing.

She works in finance at a grain depot; how could she possibly understand all those convoluted medical terms?

But she could hear the calm confidence in her son's voice. Steady, precise, unhurried, as if he had been given a tougher backbone.

In the ward, Ye Zhen handed the medical record folder back to Zhou Ming, her gaze returning to Sun Dechang.

"Blood clotting function is normal, liver and kidney indicators are within safe ranges, blood sugar is stable, and the electrocardiogram shows no further deterioration trend."

She paused for a second, then her tone suddenly became more forceful.

"However, the relief time from nitroglycerin has increased from one and a half minutes when you were admitted to more than two minutes. This indicates that the coronary artery stenosis is continuing to progress, and if it is delayed any longer, conservative treatment could be fatal at any time."

Sun Dechang's Adam's apple bobbed suddenly, and his hands unconsciously gripped the edge of the blanket tightly.

"Then... Dr. Ye, about this surgery?"

"Tomorrow morning at nine o'clock, coronary artery bypass grafting."

Ye Zhen spoke calmly and confidently, as if she were announcing something trivial.

"All pre-operative preparations will be completed tonight. You will not be allowed to eat or drink after midnight. I will come over at 7:30 tomorrow morning for the final evaluation."

Sun Dechang's chest heaved violently, his lips trembled, and his eyes visibly reddened.

He suddenly stretched out both hands and grabbed Ye Zhen's right hand, the veins on the back of her hand bulging out.

"Dr. Ye... my life is entirely in your hands!"

Ye Zhen did not withdraw her hand, nor did she utter a single polite word; she simply nodded faintly.

"rest assured."

Secretary Liu stood to the side, watching her usually decisive boss with this desperate, pleading expression, and she wondered what had gotten into her.

His nose tingled, and he bowed deeply to Ye Zhen.

His waist was bent extremely low, almost ninety degrees, and his forehead was almost touching his kneecap.

"Dr. Ye, thank you so much!"

When he straightened up, his eyes were red, and he rubbed the corner of his eye hard with his sleeve.

This scene was witnessed by the two pairs of eyes staring intently from outside the door.

Zhou Guoan leaned against the cold, icy wall of the corridor, feeling as if the last breath had been drained from his spine.

The chief secretary who had just given them a cold shoulder and slammed the door to kick them out.

The female doctor he hurled insults at, calling her a quack doctor who swindled money.

One bowed at a ninety-degree angle, while the other clasped hands tightly, entrusting their life and fortune to the other.

The director of the Light Industry Bureau had red eyes.

Even the high-ranking secretary had red eyes.

Zhou Guoan slowly lowered his head, his lifeless gaze falling on the red apple in his hand that had been smashed and bruised, now bearing a brown scab.

He felt that the rotten apple that had rolled on the ground and was covered in dust was more offensive than his old face.

Li Shufen's fingers had dug deeply into her palms.

She brought her mouth close to Zhou Guoan's ear.

"Old man...have we...have we really done something terribly wrong today...?"

Zhou Guoan remained silent.

With his eyes closed, the back of his head slammed heavily against the peeling wall, and with each impact, a chilling feeling of despair seeped from his bones.

Just ten minutes ago, he was in the ward, righteously spewing vulgarities, calling her a "young punk," a "charlatan," and "a scoundrel who disregards human life."

But in the blink of an eye, it became clear that Director Sun had queued for three whole days to get an appointment with this "scammer"!

The chief secretary bowed to her, bending over and touching her knees!

Zhou Guoan felt that he had lived most of his life as a complete joke. Coming here today, jumping around like this, was like an old man eating poison—he was tired of living!

Even those four apples that fell to the ground were smarter than him.

At least Apple knows to roll away with the terrain and find a secluded corner to hide in, so as not to embarrass itself!