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

Lin Ye and Ma Hao walked from their dormitory toward the emergency building. Lin Ye had his white coats draped over his arms, and Ma Hao had a blue folder tucked under his arm, filled with the postoperative medical records he had revised in the dormitory. He muttered to himself as they walked.

"I worked on it until the very last second in my dorm room. If Old Wang still finds fault, I'll squat outside his office and revise it until he's satisfied."

Lin Ye had some orange candies that she had casually slipped into the dormitory earlier in her pocket, and she didn't respond to his words.

As they entered the emergency room, Nurse Zhu at the triage desk was entering information into her computer. She glanced up at the two of them.

"You're finally here. The patient in observation bed 3 just said their hand is swollen. Could you take a look at it later? Oh, and Zhao Xiaoyun just said in the nurses' group chat that she packed the braised beef in a thermal container. She'll bring it over for the night shift. Don't worry about it beforehand; save it for when you're hungry later in the night."

Ma Hao's eyes lit up. He tightened the folder under his arm, leaned against the triage desk, and chatted with Nurse Zhu, asking her if the braised beef was salty enough.

Lin Ye put on his white coat and was just about to head to the observation area with his triage book when two people rushed in through the door.

The woman in her pajamas ran until her hair was disheveled. Behind her, a man was holding a little boy in his arms. The child was wrapped in a thin coat, his face was red from crying, and he was clutching his stomach tightly with one hand. In his other hand, he was holding a plastic toy box with a silver bead pattern on it. When he was sobbing, he tried to put the box in his mouth, but the woman gently patted the back of his hand.

"Doctor! Please take a look at my child! He's been crying all afternoon! I can't soothe him no matter what I do!"

"Don't push, don't block the triage area." Nurse Zhu got up and pulled out an examination chair next to her. "Let the child sit here first, don't hold and rock him."

The couple hurriedly placed the child on the examination chair. The little boy curled up and cried, his little shoulders twitching.

Seeing Lin Ye in a white coat walking over, she burst into even louder sobs and buried her face in her father's arms.

Lin Ye squatted down first, his line of sight level with the child's.

He took the stethoscope off his chest, put the metal tip into his white coat pocket for a couple of seconds to warm it, then took out some orange candy from his pocket and waved it in front of the child.

"Little friend, what are you holding in your hand? It's shiny, isn't it pretty?"

The little boy, sniffling, peeked out with half an eye, staring at the candy in his hand. He nodded, pointed with his little finger to the toy box in his hand, and mumbled out two words: "Zhuzhu..."

"Doctor, my child started crying around 4 o'clock." The child's mother looked at him crying and tears immediately fell down her cheeks.

"He got into a tantrum over a toy with another child, so we gave him some strawberries to eat, but he vomited them all up. He didn't touch his dinner at all. At first, we thought he had an upset stomach, but when we were about to leave, we saw his toy box was open, and we remembered seeing news about children swallowing beads... He probably didn't swallow them, right? He doesn't usually put things in his mouth."

"What time did you vomit? How old is the child?" Lin Ye asked softly. "Was there any blood in the vomit? Was the stool red? Do you have a fever?"

"He's four years old. He only vomited once, around 4:30 PM. It was all strawberry-like vomit, no blood, no fever, and he hasn't had a bowel movement this afternoon." The man frowned, trying hard to recall. "I was watching the game in the living room at the time, so I didn't pay much attention..."

Lin Ye gently touched the child's little hand holding the toy box with his finger.

"Then tell your uncle, is Pearl sweet? Have you tried it?"

The little boy stared at the candy, hesitated for two seconds, nodded, pointed to his mouth with his little finger, then to his stomach, and pouted, "It hurts..."

Ma Hao was chatting with Nurse Zhu about other things when he heard this and came over.

"Holy crap, no way?" He pulled a crumpled Ultraman Zero sticker out of his white coat pocket; it was leftover from when he was comforting a feverish little patient.

He waved it in front of the child's eyes, making a clattering sound. "Little friend, look what this is! Zero! He fights monsters. Tell your brother how many beads you ate. If you answer correctly, this sticker will be on the back of your hand to help you fight the monsters in your belly."

The little boy's eyes widened, and he stretched out his little hand to reach for the sticker, randomly holding up three fingers.

The child's mother's face turned pale instantly.

"Let me see the box." Lin Ye reached out and took it. The lid was loose and opened easily, revealing the shiny silver beads inside rolling around with a clattering sound.

Nurse Zhu handed over a clean curved tray and tossed over two pairs of examination gloves.

"Count the turns carefully, don't let it roll on the ground and then you won't be able to find it later."

"Alright, I just found out that the braised beef weighs two jin. So I'm here to be your helper, huh?" Ma Hao was as sarcastic as he was, but he had already deftly taken the box, poured all the beads into the curved plate, and counted them one by one with his fingertips.

Lin Ye counted with him, three times.

Ninety-six.

There were four missing.

"I remember this box contained a full hundred pills..." the woman's voice trembled. "I just opened it last week."

A pale blue, semi-transparent notification box flashed before Lin Ye's eyes.

[Risk Factor: Increased risk of ingestion of multiple magnetic foreign objects.]

[Key gaps: quantity, material, time of ingestion, abdominal pain/vomiting/blood in stool.]

He raised his eyelids slightly and looked at the couple.

"Are these beads magnetic balls? The kind where two of them stick together?"

"Yes, yes, yes!" the woman nodded quickly. "The seller said it was good for brain development, so I specifically bought the largest size because I thought his throat was too small to swallow it..."

"Did any other children play with him this afternoon?" Lin Ye interrupted her. "Between three and four o'clock, did any other children touch this box?"

The man suddenly slapped his forehead.

"Yes! The twins from downstairs! They're about the same age as my kids. They came over for a visit around 3 PM, and the three of them played on the playmat for almost an hour. I was watching the game and saw a goal, so I wasn't really watching..."

The woman swayed, almost losing her balance: "I only turned around to grab a package... I'm going home to look for it right now! I'll lift the sofa up! Maybe it rolled under the sofa!"

"Don't go back."

Qin Hai's voice came from behind. He had just come out of the emergency room, his white coat sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He walked over, glanced down at the silver beads in the curved plate, and gently pressed the child's upper abdomen.

The little boy cried out in pain, shrinking back as if he had been in agony.

Lin Ye relayed all the information he had just gathered to him: "A four-year-old boy started crying intermittently around four o'clock, vomited once of stomach contents, had no fever, and was holding a magnetic bead toy. The parents said that the original packaging contained 100 beads, and there are currently 96 beads left, with 4 missing. The child held up three fingers, but the number was uncertain. He had played with two children of similar age in the afternoon, and the whereabouts of the remaining bead are unknown."

Qin Hai nodded and made two marks on the triage slip with a pen.

"Order an abdominal X-ray, and if necessary, a lateral view. Make a call to the pediatric on-call department for a consultation, and tell the radiology department to prioritize the X-ray so you don't have to wait in line."

He reached out to stop the woman who was about to rush out the door. "Don't go back to look for the beads now. It's no use whether you find them or not. Don't let the child leave the emergency room. Don't go anywhere until the X-rays come out. The numbers haven't matched yet."

"Oh, right, you two call the neighbors now and ask if the two twins you play with have any stomach aches, vomiting, or crying. Don't forget them."

"Okay, okay!" The couple nodded quickly, and the man frantically pulled out his phone to call their neighbor.

Lin Ye took the triage slip and led the family members to the payment window.

As I passed by Ma Hao, who was carrying a folder and heading towards the surgical building, I nodded at him.

"Call me after you finish watching the film. I'll go buy an iced Coke after I finish delivering the patient's medical records, and bring you a bottle. Sister Zhao's braised beef won't arrive until late at night, so I need to eat something first."

Lin Ye folded the triage slip and put it in his pocket, quickening his pace.

The green sign for the radiology department was lit at the end of the corridor, and the child's cries could still be heard intermittently.