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

On the other side of the emergency room, the senior surgeon in general surgery took his phone away from his ear and put it back in his pocket.

"The operating room agreed to admit him. Even with unstable blood pressure, he has to be sent. The abdominal effusion is more than the bedside ultrasound at the county hospital estimated. Perform an laparotomy first, followed by external pelvic fixation. He will remain on the operating table in the orthopedic department, and the anesthesiologist will keep a close eye on his blood pressure."

Zhou Min first checked the monitor by the bedside, then turned to Jiang Wen: "Hang up the third bag of red blood cells, and have the pressure infusion equipment follow the vehicle."

Lin Ye spread the registration form on the table.

Zhou Min took it and added two lines on the back: "Operating room reception time left blank," "Blood pressure changes during transport left blank," and "Post-operative destination left blank."

"When you're delivering the goods to Taiwan, follow me to the elevator and report your blood pressure to me along the way."

She pushed the watch back in front of Lin Ye.

Lin Ye took the registration form, went around to the head of the bed, first checked the blood bag label on the IV stand, and then bent down to look at the patient's abdomen.

When Zhou Min was counting, her belly was bulging, and the heart rate on the monitor slowly climbed from 124 to 130.

He reached out and gently pressed around the outside of the patient's abdominal wall, then withdrew his hand.

The patient frowned, and his forehead was covered in sweat.

"His stomach is more bloated than when he came in," he told his senior general surgeon. "There's probably still blood coming out of his abdominal cavity."

The senior surgeon from general surgery walked over, pressed his palm on the patient's abdomen twice, and said with a grim expression, "Bring the bedside ultrasound over and have it checked again before transferring the patient to the operating table."

The ultrasound machine was pushed to the bedside.

When the probe was pressed down, the dark area on the screen was even larger than what the county hospital had reported.

The general surgery senior surgeon straightened up: "We can't wait any longer, send him directly. Keep a close eye on the anesthesia, and increase the pressure as soon as the blood pressure drops."

The patient was transferred onto a stretcher.

The anesthesiologist pushed the portable monitor on the left, while the senior general surgeon walked on the right, one hand resting on the railing of the stretcher, talking on the phone with the operating room as they walked.

The orthopedic surgeon followed behind, carrying a list of spare instruments for external pelvic fixation.

The stretcher rolled over the threshold of the emergency area, and the wheel bumped against something.

The patient groaned and gripped the edge of the sheet with his fingers.

The anesthesiologist, staring down at the monitor, shouted to the back, "The blood pressure has dropped below 90. Increase the pressure and speed up the infusion."

Jiang Wen caught up from behind and adjusted the flow rate of the infusion pump a few times.

The general surgery supervisor didn't stop, saying into the phone, "The person is already at the elevator and will be in the operating room within ten minutes."

Lin Ye followed to the elevator entrance.

Before the elevator doors opened, the general surgery supervisor glanced back at him.

"Your judgment just now was correct."

The elevator doors closed.

Lin Ye walked back to the work station, clipped the registration form into the handover folder for that night, and added a line on the back: Blood pressure dropped below 90 during the delivery to the station, but rose again after the anesthesia was adjusted and the pressure was increased. He was still conscious when he entered the elevator.

Zhou Min glanced at the clock on the wall; it was just past six.

"The evening shift handover is at 7:30. Director Qin is in his office and wants you to go there now."

Lin Ye responded, checked the last blank column of the registration form again, and closed the folder.

He had finished treating all the patients on the day shift, but the patient in bed three of the observation area was still on an IV drip. He glanced at the numbers on the monitor; they weren't dropping anytime soon.

He walked to the office door, straightened the collar of his white coat, and then knocked.

The emergency room director's office is the second to last room at the end of the corridor.

The door wasn't closed properly, and a narrow beam of white light shone through.

Lin Ye knocked twice, and Qin Hai's voice came from inside.

"Enter."

Qin Hai sat behind his desk, with an emergency room schedule spread out in front of him and several medical records stacked next to him.

He turned the scheduler around and pointed his finger at the night shift column for next Monday.

"You're on the night shift next Monday."

In the resident physician section, two names are written side by side.

Lin Ye, Ma Hao.

Qin Hai's finger didn't move away: "Sun Zhiqiang will be on the day shift next Monday and teaching rounds on Tuesday, he won't be there in the evening. Zhou Min is on standby, keep her phone on. There are second-line specialists in the emergency room, and it's just the two of you at the front desk."

Lin Ye stared at the schedule.

His name was next to Ma Hao's, but there was no teacher's name above it.

Below the Monday section, there was a line of small print: On-call second-line general surgery, anesthesia standby.

"Are you nervous about working the night shift alone for the first time?"

"nervous."

Qin Hai nodded: "It's good to be nervous. Those who aren't nervous are people who haven't had any accidents before." He paused and added, "This was my first time on duty alone, and I walked back and forth to the observation area six times in the first half of the night."

He opened a medical record next to him, inside which was a test request form, the edges of which were already frayed.

Lin Ye recognized his own handwriting; it was a photocopy of Chen Jianguo's aortic dissection application form from over two months ago, during his first night shift. The words "resident trainee" were still printed in the title column.

"I kept a copy of this paper," Qin Hai said, his gaze falling on the application form. "More than two months ago, when you signed this, you were still a resident trainee. Back then, you were only responsible for one patient; if you made a mistake, you were the one in charge."

He put the application form back into the medical record and closed it: "Next Monday night, you'll be working as the front desk staff for the entire ER. One mistake and you'll be responsible for the entire shift afterwards."

"I know."

"Good to know."

"Is there anything you want to ask?"

Lin Ye thought for a moment: "Which department will be on duty for the second line of the emergency room next Monday night?"

General surgery.

"If two critically ill patients arrive one after the other, which one should Ma Hao and I take care of first?"

"You triage patients, you decide the order, and he goes with you," Qin Hai said. "If he misses someone, you cover for them. If you miss someone, then it's my turn."

"If I catch him, who will catch me?"

"You yourself. Those extra cases you've seen compared to him weren't for nothing."

Lin Ye nodded: "I'll arrive half an hour early to go through the patients in the observation area first, and then check the critical cases in my shift."

Qin Hai glanced at him for two seconds, then stood up and stuffed the schedule into the drawer.

"Okay. Since you have plans, I won't say more." He walked to the door, then turned back and added, "Don't make me get up in the middle of the night to take over your shift next Monday."

Lin Ye looked at the names on the duty roster again, folded it up, and put it in his pocket.

In the emergency room corridor, the last group of patients on the day shift were being discharged.

The lights at the triage desk had been dimmed a notch, and Nurse Zhao was organizing the spare supplies for the night shift.

Lin Ye came out of the office, stood in front of the vending machine at the end of the corridor for a while, and finally only took a bottle of water.

He unscrewed the cap and took a sip.

Next Monday night, on his night shift, Sun Zhiqiang won't be watching him from behind, and Qin Hai won't be there to oversee things.

At that time, Ma Hao will be sitting at the next camera. Zhou Min's phone number will be in her contacts, but she won't call him.

He imagined that night: in the corridor at two o'clock, the triage desk phone rang, Ma Hao looked up at him, waiting for him to speak first. Or perhaps he would answer the phone first, the other end reporting an unclear illness, and he would have to figure out which direction to ask from just one sentence.

He screwed the bottle cap on and walked towards the shift handover room.

He folded the duty roster in his hand into four folds and put it into the inner pocket of his white coat.