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

A man in his fifties was lying on the bed, his legs pressed tightly together, and one hand pressing down on his lower abdomen.

The woman who accompanied him stood at the foot of the bed, with three boxes of medicine and an unopened pair of men's underwear in a plastic bag.

"How long have you been holding it in?"

The man, his eyes closed and his forehead covered in sweat, said, "I was acting strange this afternoon. I sat at home for half an hour just now, and not a single drop came out."

"He's always had some difficulty urinating, and I thought he just hadn't been drinking enough water these past few days." The woman handed over the medicine bag. "Yesterday, his nose was stuffy, so he went to the pharmacy and bought another box. I asked him which box he took, and he said the blue one."

The man frowned and corrected her, "The clerk said the blue box one is twice a day."

The woman opened the bag for him to see: "Look for yourself, there are three boxes inside, which one isn't blue?"

Just as the two were about to start arguing again, Ma Hao took the medicine bag and first asked when the last time he urinated was, and then asked if he had a fever, back pain, or blood in his urine.

The man answered haltingly, and the woman tried to fill in the gaps, only to be corrected by him halfway through.

In addition to the medications previously prescribed by the urologist, the medicine bag also contained a newly opened box of compound cold medicine.

Ma Hao flipped the box to the ingredient side and saw that it contained chlorpheniramine maleate. He then asked him when he started taking it and how many times a day he should take it.

"Once last night, and once at noon today." The woman remembered clearly, "The pharmacist said it could be taken for a runny nose."

Lin Ye slowed his pace as he passed bed number seven after leaving the treatment room.

The man's lower abdomen was bulging; as soon as the hand touched it, he recoiled.

"Has Teacher Qin seen it?"

"Not yet, we're about to call him." Ma Hao placed the three boxes of medicine side by side on the bedside table. "The patient already had difficulty urinating, and yesterday we added compound cold medicine."

Qin Hai arrived quickly.

After listening to the patient's medical history and looking at the box of compound cold medicine, he examined her abdomen again and asked Jiang Wen to have a bedside bladder scan.

The dark area on the screen was very large, and the machine estimated that the amount of urine had exceeded 700 milliliters.

"Acute urinary retention." Qin Hai put the cold medicine box back on the bedside table. "The ingredients in this medicine might make urination more difficult. You already have this problem, so don't take this one for now. Ask about your past urination history in more detail. Jiang Wen, prepare for catheterization."

Upon hearing that a tube needed to be inserted, the man immediately shrank back into the bed: "Could you give me an injection first? Maybe I'll pee on my own."

"Your bladder is already very full, and waiting any longer will only make you feel worse." Qin Hai explained the reason and asked if you had a history of urinary retention or prostate problems.

The woman rummaged through the medicine box for a long time before finally pulling out a folded outpatient slip: "The urology department prescribed some medicine last year. He took it for two months, then felt fine and stopped going."

The man tried to argue, "It's not that I didn't go; something came up on the day I registered."

"Can I temporarily stay for a year if something comes up unexpectedly?"

"Alright, alright, let's not bring up the past." Ma Hao took the outpatient slip, checked the name and date, and said, "I'll put this in your medical record for now and return it to you later."

Jiang Wen drew the curtain.

Ma Hao stepped outside the curtain and added the medical history and medication discontinuation time he had just learned into the record.

Not long after, a long, heavy sigh came from inside the curtain.

"Slow down, don't pull on the pipe," Jiang Wen's voice followed.

The woman stood outside, tiptoeing to peek through the curtain: "Is it clear? Did you pee?"

"It's out." Jiang Wen lowered the drainage bag. "Let him lie down first."

After the curtain was pulled back, the man finally removed his hand from the lower abdomen.

His shoulders, which had been tense, slumped down.

He glanced at the drainage bag beside the bed, his voice softening considerably: "I really should have come sooner."

The woman snorted, stopped cursing at him, and simply bent down to pull up her trouser legs that were dragging on the ground.

Ma Hao re-examined his lower abdomen and then reported to Qin Hai.

After reviewing the results, Qin Hai contacted the on-call urologist to have a urinalysis and kidney function test performed according to the specialist's advice. The decision on whether he could go home with the catheter would be based on the results.

We had just made contact here when another patient was brought in from the emergency room after a seizure.

As soon as Qin Hai turned around, Ma Hao followed half a step.

"Teacher Qin, I'm still following up with bed number seven. If you need me to go over there, I'll hand him over to Lin Ye first."

Qin Hai paused for a moment: "No need. You finish with bed seven; there are people in the emergency room."

"Okay, Teacher Qin."

Ma Hao returned to bed number seven and told the couple about the progress of the examination.

Once the man's pain subsided, he became more talkative, asking how he would walk home with the tube in his mouth, where he would put it while sleeping, and whether he could remove it himself the next day.

The woman's face grew increasingly grim as she listened, and she raised her hand and slapped his arm.

"Try pulling it out yourself if you dare."

"I was just asking."

"When have you ever not asked first, and then turned around and did it yourself?"

Ma Hao explained that they couldn't remove the tube themselves and that the drainage bag should be positioned below the bladder. He also instructed them that if they continued to have no urine output, experienced renewed lower abdominal distension and pain, fever, significant hematuria, or if the catheter dislodged, they should go directly to the emergency room. Jiang Wen was showing them how to secure the drainage bag. The woman watched intently, while the man reached out to help, but she pushed his hand back down.

After the results on the workstation were refreshed, Ma Hao first opened the urinalysis, then flipped to the kidney function test.

The urinalysis showed no obvious signs of infection, and the kidney function test was also normal.

He reported the results to Qin Hai, who went to the bedside again to verify the results and confirmed that the man had no fever and no lower back pain.

Subsequently, Qin Hai confirmed with the on-duty urologist and decided to let the patient go home with the catheter in place for the time being, and to have a follow-up visit as arranged by the specialist, with the urology department assessing when the catheter should be removed.

Ma Hao returned the outpatient slip to the woman and checked the contact number again.

The man moved slowly while putting on his shoes, protecting the drainage tube before bending over.

The woman stuffed the new underwear back into the plastic bag, still grumbling, "It's a waste of money."

"You can wear it again in a couple of days."

"Listen to what the doctor says first before worrying about what to wear."

The two walked out of the observation area one after the other.

The woman took a few steps and then turned back, asking what to do if the drainage bag stopped producing urine at night.

Ma Hao didn't call out from across the nurses' station. Instead, he brought her back to the bedside and explained the situation again, only letting her leave after she understood.

After the couple left, bed number seven became empty.

Ma Hao completed the discharge record and wrote the name of the compound cold medicine and the time of administration into the medical record.

Qin Hai reviewed the records and signed in the mentor column.

I will come to take over the night shift on time.

Ma Hao completed the process of submitting the list of who would continue to care for the patient in the emergency room and what results were pending for the other two patients.

The other person flipped to the last bed, looked up, and asked, "That's it?"

"That's all."

"Okay, I'll take it."

Ma Hao then put down his pen.

Lin Ye had already taken off his white coat and was standing at the locker room door waiting for him: "Are you coming or not?"

"Here they are." Ma Hao closed his handover notebook and followed him into the locker room.

The two changed their clothes and went downstairs.

The rain had stopped at the entrance of the emergency room, but there was still a layer of water on the steps.

Ma Hao walked around the puddle, took a few steps, and then touched his backpack to confirm that the transparent folder was still inside.

His cell phone rang at that moment.

The screen showed a call from her mother.

Ma Hao stared at the phone for two seconds, then answered, "Hello, Mom, you're still awake?"

"Aren't you Xiaoye? Have you come out yet?"

"Just came out."

"I saw the weather forecast said it was raining where you are. So, didn't I tell you to go hear the results today?"

Ma Hao looked down and kicked away a small pebble at his feet: "I need to look around again."

There was a two-second silence on the phone. The mother seemed to turn to ask someone a question, then quickly returned to the line: "Are you going to work tomorrow?"

"Take a break tomorrow, start work the day after tomorrow."

"As long as he can still go to work, that's fine. Four weeks is fine too, don't act like the sky is falling." After she finished speaking, she shouted to the side, "Can't you hear me? He's still in the hospital. Don't ask from so far away, I can't hear him."

My father's voice came through the phone: "I asked him if he had eaten."

"I've eaten," Ma Hao answered before his mother could speak.

"If you say you ate, you're probably just grabbing a bite at the hospital." Her mother didn't believe her at all. "When you get home, put less seasoning in your instant noodles. If your shoes get wet, don't stuff them under the bed again, or the whole house will smell the next day."

The mother asked again, "Are you walking back alone?"

"Kobayashi is with me."

"Okay, I'll talk to you later. Send me a message when you arrive, so your dad won't ask again later."

The father, standing nearby, protested, "When did I ask?"

Before hanging up the phone, Ma Hao laughed out loud.

He put his phone back in his pocket and quickened his pace to catch up with Lin Ye.

The path below the steps was still glistening with water as the two walked one after the other toward the dormitory.