When I'm on the night shift, all the department heads can't sleep.

After finishing his shift and taking off his white coat, Lin Ye noticed that there was a bit of iodine on his cuff, which had turned a large yellow stain that he couldn't wash off.

He and Ma Hao dragged themselves back to the dormitory, too weak to even speak. Passing by the breakfast stall at the dormitory entrance, they bought two cups of hot soy milk and two fried dough sticks. Just as they took a bite of the fried dough stick, the cold wind made their stomachs churn with acid, and they almost vomited.

"Damn, I could fall asleep the moment my head hits the bed."

Ma Hao yawned, tears welling up in his eyes. "Remember to get Director Wang's signature this afternoon, don't oversleep. Last time, a resident trainee missed the deadline for the signature, and the Science and Education Department chased him for more materials, almost affecting the handbook review."

"Um."

Lin Ye responded and stuffed the remaining half of the fried dough stick into the plastic bag, as he really couldn't eat any more.

Back in the dorm, they didn't even shower before collapsing onto the bed and falling asleep.

The curtains were drawn tightly shut, making the room as dark as midnight.

Lin Ye was awakened by Ma Hao's screams.

"Holy crap! It's 3:57!"

Lin Ye sat up abruptly, his head spinning. He grabbed his phone and glanced at it; the 3:40 reminder was still hanging on the screen.

Without even washing their faces, the two put on white coats and slippers and ran to the surgical building.

I ran into a nurse pushing a treatment cart in the hallway and almost bumped into her. We ran all the way to the surgical office, both of us panting like dogs.

There were about a dozen resident trainees lined up at the office door. They were all people who had missed signing their rotations in various departments. They were squatting by the corridor wall, yawning, holding crumpled rotation manuals.

Seeing the two of them running over, the neurosurgery resident at the front of the line raised his chin: "Are you also here to get your registration renewed by Director Wang? Get in line, Director Wang just finished surgery and is scolding his students inside. He's not in a good mood today."

Ma Hao leaned against the wall, panting for a long time, his face filled with despair: "What the hell? Wasn't it supposed to be a fixed sign-in time every Wednesday at 4 pm? Why is it Friday today too?"

"You think it's just the two of you who leaked?"

The neurosurgery resident pursed his lips. "It was supposed to be Wednesday, but Director Wang had surgeries until the early hours of the morning this week, so it was temporarily changed to this Friday afternoon. He's going to an academic conference out of town next week, so if we make it up, we'll have to wait another two weeks. Last time, one of my colleagues was five minutes late and was kicked out. He was just one signature short of the deadline from the Science and Education Department, and he almost cried."

The two of them stood at the end of the line, leaning against the wall, panting.

Several resident trainees gathered around and complained that Director Wang was the strictest when it came to signing off on medical records. He wouldn't sign off on poorly written medical records, sloppy rotation summaries, or even those who were late. He said she was even more difficult to deal with than the teachers in the Department of Science and Education.

As the conversation went on, the topic veered back to the graduation theory exam next month. Some said they'd been studying gastroenterology and neurology a lot lately, others said they hadn't finished working through the past exam questions for cardiovascular medicine, and someone mentioned last week's mock defense, saying that a resident trainee was stumped by Zhou Min's questions and had to go through a second round of questions afterwards.

"Holy crap, is this for real?"

Ma Hao's face turned pale. "Isn't it our ER's turn to defend their dissertations next week? Will Professor Qin be just as strict?"

"Director Qin isn't scary."

The neurosurgery resident tucked the handbook into his pocket. "He asks very detailed questions. Someone in our department was answering a case, and he kept pressing him on why a CT scan wasn't performed. He couldn't answer for a long time, so he went back and spent the whole night looking through that medical record. Don't expect to make something up on the spot."

Ma Hao's face fell instantly. He leaned against the wall, flipped through the cheat sheet tucked inside the manual, and muttered to himself as he memorized the antibiotic classification.

After waiting in line for about twenty minutes, it was finally their turn.

The office smelled of disinfectant mixed with the smell of boxed lunches. Director Wang sat behind his desk, having just taken off his surgical cap. His hair was a mess, like a bird's nest, and there was a half-eaten boxed lunch in front of him. He didn't look too good.

Director Wang didn't even look up. He took Lin Ye's handbook, flipped through it, and only snorted when he saw the name.

"Lin Ye, right? We talked about it on WeChat last night."

"Yes, Director Wang. The two pages about surgical rotations need to be signed again."

Director Wang flipped through the large medical record he had written, and pointed to one of the pages: "This is the post-appendectomy progress record. You didn't write down the post-operative body temperature and abdominal signs completely. Go back and fill them in."

He quickly signed his name, stamped the booklet, and tossed it back, saying, "Come earlier next time you need to sign, I might not have time to wait for you."

"Understood, Director Wang."

Lin Ye took the manual.

When it was Ma Hao's turn, Director Wang flipped through two pages of his handbook, frowned, and threw the handbook back into his arms: "What kind of stuff is this? The postoperative three-day progress notes are all 'the patient's general condition is good,' where are the vital signs? What about the drainage? What about the temperature? Take it back and rewrite it. Come back to me for my signature next week."

Ma Hao's face turned pale instantly: "Director Wang, the Science and Education Department is collecting the handbooks next week. Could you please make an exception? I'll definitely make the replacements when I get back and send them to you, okay?"

"Send it over? I'm in the operating room every day, how can I have time to wait for you to send it over?"

Director Wang glared at him, then softened his tone, "Finish writing this and put it at the surgical nurses' station before midnight tonight. I'll check it after I finish surgery. If it's satisfactory, I'll sign it off tomorrow; if not, wait for the next approval."

"Okay! Thank you, Director Wang! Thank you, Director Wang!"

Ma Hao quickly hugged the manual to his chest, pulled Lin Ye and walked out, afraid that he would change his mind.

Stepping out of the surgical building, Ma Hao finally dared to breathe a sigh of relief, patting his chest with lingering fear: "Damn, that scared me to death! I thought I was really going to die if I had to wait until next week."

"Who told you to copy patient records every day? They're all just platitudes."

Lin Ye smiled, flipped through the manual in his hand, and finally signed the page on surgery. His handwriting was flamboyant, and the red stamp was a little crooked.

The two walked towards the emergency room. Just as they reached the door of the treatment room, they saw Nurse Zhao squatting on the ground checking the seal on the ambulance. She had just returned from a two-day break, and her hair was a bit shorter. She raised her chin when she saw them.

"Did you go to get the signatures done?"

She held a registration book in her hand, and made a checkmark on the seal. "Director Wang has scolded three people today. Weren't you two kicked out?"

"Almost."

Ma Hao held up the handbook in his hand with a bitter face, "They want me to rewrite the medical record and send it over before midnight tonight, otherwise they won't sign it."

"Serves you right."

Nurse Zhao chuckled, pulled two oranges from her uniform pocket, and tossed them to them. "These are tangerines my mom just sent this morning; they're really sweet. I'm working the night shift tonight, so I came early to check the car. I'll bring you some homemade braised beef later."

She didn't talk much, and after checking the seal, she took the emergency registration book and headed to the nurses' station.

He took a couple of steps and then turned back: "Oh, right, I just ran into Director Qin at the elevator. He was holding his car keys. He asked you to go to the demonstration room after you finish signing, it seems to be about the defense."

"Understood, Sister Zhao."

Lin Ye took the orange; it was cool and refreshing.

The two walked around to the entrance of the demonstration room and happened to run into Qin Hai coming out of it, holding a stack of printing papers. He stopped when he saw them.

"Have you finished signing?"

Qin Hai glanced at the manuals in their hands.

"I've finished catching up on Teacher Qin's lessons."

Lin Ye nodded.

"Um."

Qin Hai handed him the stack of papers. "These are the actual questions and grading criteria from last year's retention defense, as well as a list of questions for three common emergency cases. You two take a look at them. The defense is next Wednesday afternoon. Don't embarrass the emergency department if you can't answer them."

He paused, then added, "Tonight, Xiao Ye, you two will have your regular shift."

"Understood, Teacher Qin."

The two of them quickly took it.

Qin Hai didn't say anything more and turned to enter the emergency room.

Back in his dorm, Ma Hao slumped into a chair, let out a wail, and threw the handbook on the table: "Damn it, I'm really going to die. I have to catch up on my medical records and review my defense questions. When will this ever end?"

Lin Ye placed the stack of past exam questions on the table, flipped through a couple of pages, and found the questions to be very flexible: "Why didn't you check the amylase in a patient with acute abdominal pain?" "What is the basis for your judgment of high risk, and have you ruled out other possibilities?" "How would you communicate if the family refused to be tested?" All of these questions required answers based on real cases; simply memorizing them was useless.

He boiled a kettle of water, made two buckets of instant noodles, and pushed one bucket to Ma Hao.

"Eat first, then catch up on your treatment plan and do two sets of practice questions."

Ma Hao got up and started tearing open his instant noodles, shoving the noodles with his fork. "What if I don't pass my defense? If I can't stay, I'll go back to the county hospital in my hometown. My parents keep saying that it's close to home, at least someone will take care of my meals."

Lin Ye didn't say anything, but picked up a mouthful of hot instant noodles, which warmed his stomach a little.

"Stop talking nonsense and eat quickly. After you finish eating, you can recover from your illness. You have to go to work tonight."

Lin Ye tapped the edge of his bucket with his chopsticks.

"Okay, okay."

Ma Hao mumbled through a mouthful of noodles, "Oh, right, don't forget to bring your power bank for tonight's shift. Last time I was on night shift, my power bank ran out of power, and I almost suffocated half the night sitting up."

As darkness fell, the only sounds in the dormitory were the steam from instant noodles and the rustling of documents being flipped through.