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

The ophthalmologist on duty took a few steps, then turned back and gestured with his chin towards Lin Ye: "You come over here too. You're the one who asked about the medical history, so I don't waste time going through it all again."

Lin Ye responded and stuffed his pen and notebook into his white coat pocket. The ophthalmologist walked ahead, with Zhou Qiming following behind, his steps a little unsteady. He gripped the edge of his phone case so tightly that his knuckles turned white, and he didn't say a word.

The fluorescent lights in the corridor were dazzling. When passing by the observation area, you could hear the child in bed 2 swallowing magnetic beads making muffled noises. Nurse Zhao was bending down to change the IV drip for the old man in bed 3 and adjust the drip rate. She looked up and saw Lin Ye making a "hurry up and come back" gesture to Lin Ye.

The ophthalmology examination room is on the second floor of the outpatient building. At night, the corridor is empty except for a few lights.

The ophthalmologist led Zhou Qiming out of the emergency room through the side door, up the adjacent stairs, pushed open the door to the examination room, and turned on the light. The cold white light instantly filled the entire room.

He pulled over the examination chair and gestured for Zhou Qiming to sit down. He skillfully turned on the eye chart light and ophthalmoscope, and first pointed to the eye chart: "First, wear your own glasses and look at it. Cover your right eye, and use your left eye first. Look from top to bottom. Say whichever line you can see."

Zhou Qiming covered his right eye as instructed, squinted at the two lines, and got stuck on the third line. He paused when he pointed to the part blocked by the shadow: "This part is not visible, half a line is missing."

"Okay, now let's switch to the other eye."

When he switched to his right eye, Zhou Qiming spoke faster, only slowing down towards the last few lines.

The ophthalmologist wrote down the results on a piece of paper before gesturing, "Take your glasses off."

Zhou Qiming was slow to remove his glasses, and when the temples slid out from behind his ears, two shallow marks were pressed onto the bridge of his nose.

The ophthalmologist shone a flashlight into his pupils, then leaned closer to open his lower eyelids and looked at them. He then picked up his glasses and held them up to the light, revealing that the lenses had very thick edges.

What is your usual glasses prescription?

Zhou Qiming paused for a moment, as if he had just remembered this, and reached out to touch the hollow bridge of his nose: "I got these glasses last year. My left eye is about 650 and my right eye is about 625. I also have a little astigmatism. The prescription is in my phone's photo album, but I didn't remember it that accurately."

"That's good enough." The ophthalmologist put the glasses back on the table. "For high myopia, we'll treat it as high myopia first."

The ophthalmologist had him sit in front of the slit lamp, with his chin resting on the support and his forehead against the beam. A thin beam of light swept across his left eye, first examining the cornea and anterior chamber, then instructing him to look up, down, and to the side of his nose.

Zhou Qiming blinked repeatedly from the bright light, his hand gripping the armrest of the examination chair. The ophthalmologist narrowed the light and whispered a reminder for him to look up and not look away.

The only sound in the examination room was the hum of the small fan on the instrument. Lin Ye stood to the side and wrote down the information he heard in his notebook.

An ophthalmologist approached with a light source in his ophthalmoscope and asked Zhou Qiming to stare at a small red dot on the wall in front of him without moving his eyes. After about two minutes, his brows slowly furrowed.

He turned off his ophthalmoscope and placed it on the table, then pulled up a chair and sat opposite Zhou Qiming without beating around the bush.

"This isn't just ordinary eye strain. With your high myopia, the sudden appearance of fixed, dark shadows indicates a potential emergency in your retina. I can't make a definitive diagnosis right now, but I can't rule out retinal tears or partial detachment. I'll call a second-line ophthalmologist to come and have them dilate your pupils for a detailed examination. Laser treatment or further procedures may be necessary later."

Seeing Zhou Qiming's face turn pale instantly, he added, "This situation can't be delayed; we have to keep a close eye on it tonight."

Zhou Qiming stood there stunned for a long time, his lips moved, and his voice was hoarse: "Doctor... will I go blind? I just changed jobs, and I have to pay more than ten thousand yuan a month for the mortgage and car loan. If I lose my eyesight and my job, I really..."

He didn't finish his sentence. His Adam's apple bobbed, and he gripped the edge of the examination chair, his legs trembling.

"Don't think about the worst yet. You're relatively early. If you get it treated promptly, you might have a chance to save your eyesight. The worst thing now is to delay." He picked up his phone and was about to walk towards the door.

Zhou Qiming suddenly looked up: "Doctor, can I make a phone call? I want to ask my boss for leave, and then tell my girlfriend. She's waiting for me to come home, and I'm afraid she'll worry if it gets late."

The ophthalmologist glanced at the clock on the wall: "Okay, try to get to the point. After you're done, put your phone away and don't stare at it."

Zhou Qiming nodded hurriedly, his hand trembling slightly as he unlocked his phone.

He dialed his boss's number first, and when the call was answered, he cleared his throat carefully to make sure his voice was steady: "Brother Zhang, this is Xiao Zhou. I'm in the emergency room right now. My eyes suddenly feel a bit uncomfortable, and the doctor wants me to stay for tests. I'll ask for leave tomorrow, so please let HR know. Oh, by the way, I saved the project proposal due tomorrow in the 'Q3 Proposal' folder on my computer desktop. The last version is named with the date, and I've pasted the client's contact information at the beginning of the document. Could you please keep an eye on it for me tomorrow?"

I don't know what was said on the other end of the phone, but he kept agreeing, saying it was nothing, just a minor issue, and that he would let me know after the checkup was done, before hanging up.

He stared at the screen for two seconds, then dialed his girlfriend's number again.

The moment the call connected, the tension on his face eased a little, and his voice softened, even carrying a hint of laughter: "Hey, baby, there's an urgent bug at the company, and we all have to work overtime tonight to fix it. I might just stay at the company for the night and not go home. Don't wait for me, and remember to lock the door. There's some watermelon I cut this afternoon in the fridge, so eat it before it spoils. Um, it's okay, I'm not busy. I just wanted to let you know, so you can go to sleep early."

After hanging up the phone, he put it in his pocket and buried his head in his knees for a long time.

The ophthalmologist finished making a call to the second-line doctor at the door, then came in and said to him, "I've spoken to the second-line doctor, he'll be there in twenty minutes. Please sit here for a while, don't rub your eyes, and don't do any strenuous activity. We'll continue with the examination and treatment later. I'll call back from the emergency room to let them know the situation, so please don't run back and forth yet."

"Okay, thank you, doctor." Zhou Qiming nodded, leaned back in his chair, stared at the ceiling, and didn't say anything more.

Lin Ye stood to the side, writing down the vision test results, the ophthalmologist's preliminary assessment, and the arrival time of the second-line medical team in his small notebook. After confirming that there was no missing information, he greeted the ophthalmologist and turned to leave for the emergency room.

The smell of disinfectant in the corridor, mixed with the night breeze drifting in from outside the window, made one feel awake.

As I passed by the observation area, I saw Ma Hao hunched over the triage desk, still revising his surgical progress notes that Director Wang had rejected. His pen scribbled loudly as he muttered to himself, "This time I even wrote down whether there was redness and swelling around the incision, and I even marked the number of bowel sounds per minute. Let's see how old man Wang can find fault now..."

Lin Ye had just reached the triage desk and hadn't even gotten his footing when Nurse Zhao came out of the nurses' station with a bag of films that had just been brought back from the radiology department and nodded to him.

"The X-ray results for patient 2 in observation are out. Director Qin is waiting for you in the clinic and wants you to go there when you return."