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

At 1:40 a.m., a bed finally became available in the emergency room.

It's not because there are fewer patients.

The reason is that the most dangerous cases were all taken to the operating room and CT room.

The floor hadn't been mopped dry yet, and the emergency records were tucked into the medical record cart, a thick stack with the corners wrinkled from being soaked in water and sweat.

Nurse Zhao took a marker and rewrote the name on the whiteboard.

Patient number one, unidentified, head injury, awaiting CT scan after thoracic decompression.

Number two, Wang Cheng, is undergoing general surgery for abdominal bleeding.

Number 3, Li Xiaoya, 29 weeks pregnant, is undergoing obstetric surgery.

Patient number four, Lele, is undergoing general surgery for abdominal bleeding.

She paused for a moment after writing the last word.

"On this night shift, the whiteboard is almost overflowing."

Qin Hai stood in front of the whiteboard: "If there's not enough space, change to a larger one. No one can be left out."

Lin Ye leaned against the nurses' station, holding the number one CT transfer assessment form in his hand.

The anesthesiologist has completed the airway assessment for patient number one, and the thoracic surgeon has also been present to review the decompression needle, preparing to place a closed thoracic drainage tube before transport.

Luo Jianping stared at the monitor: "The blood pressure has gone up a bit, and the oxygen saturation is 95. After closed drainage, we'll go for a CT scan. The neurosurgery team is waiting outside the CT room."

Number One remains in a coma.

A chest drainage bottle hangs beside the bed, its water-sealed container bubbling away—evidence that someone in this emergency room can still breathe.

Lin Ye bowed his head to check: "Portable oxygen, monitor, suction device, emergency medicine, and transport personnel have been confirmed. Clear the elevators along the transport route first."

Qin Hai glanced at him: "Not bad, you look like someone in the emergency room."

Before Lin Ye could speak, Sun Zhiqiang coughed beside him.

"Don't praise him too soon. I still need to sign the notes he wrote tonight."

Qin Hai said calmly, "Then you should sign it properly."

Despite his complaints, Sun Zhiqiang had already filled in the time that Lin Ye had missed writing on the draft paper.

The phone rang in the CT room.

"The elevator is ready, let's go."

When No. 1 was wheeled out of the emergency room, Lin Ye followed beside the bed, his fingers constantly touching the monitoring line.

The hospital corridor was quieter on a rainy night than during the day; so quiet you could hear the wheels rolling through the cracks in the floor.

Luo Jianping stood at the entrance of the CT room, his phone tucked between his shoulder and ear: "Reserved for the operating room. If the scans show acute subdural analgesia, go straight to the operating room."

The last few minutes after the CT scan were stretched out.

Lin Ye stared at the numbers on the monitor. The system didn't have a new countdown; it only displayed one line.

[Patient No. 1 in the Red Zone: Transfer risks are manageable; awaiting imaging results.]

When the video popped up, Luo Jianping cursed.

"Acute subdural hematoma, cerebral contusion and laceration. The pupillary changes are understandable. Notify the operating room, go immediately."

Qin Hai asked, "What about the chest?"

The thoracic surgeon glanced at the scans: "The right-sided pneumothorax has lessened, and the closed drainage position is usable. There is lung contusion, but this is not the first incision."

Luo Jianping nodded: "Let's start with neurosurgery. Don't waste time in the CT room."

Number One was wheeled into the operating room.

A notification popped up at the edge of Lin Ye's field of vision.

[Patient No. 1 in the Red Zone: Entering the neurosurgical procedure.]

Lin Ye had just relaxed his palm when his phone rang.

Nurse Zhao's voice came through the receiver: "Come back. The obstetrics department has the results."

When Lin Ye rushed back to the emergency room, Shen Ruomei had just called from the obstetrics operating room.

"The baby was delivered via C-section, a boy. His cry was weak, and the neonatal intensive care unit took over his recovery. Placental abruption was confirmed, and there was significant bleeding. Currently, uterine contractions are relatively good, but we will continue to monitor for bleeding."

Qin Hai pressed the speakerphone button: "What are the master's vital signs?"

"We can manage." Shen Ruomei's voice was also hoarse from exhaustion. "It's hard to say about the baby. We're 29 weeks along, and Liang Xiulan is trying to save us."

Nurse Zhao wrote on the back of whiteboard number three: The mother is stable, and the premature baby is recovering.

Not long after, news also came from the general surgery operating room.

Meng Qingwei's voice was rough like sandpaper: "The second spleen ruptured with mesenteric vascular bleeding. The main bleeding has been controlled, and exploration continues. The child's situation is more dangerous; the spleen ruptured, and there is a lot of blood in the abdominal cavity. Fortunately, we didn't send him for a CT scan."

Sun Zhiqiang stood by the phone, muttering under his breath, "Even a child's spleen ruptured."

Nurse Zhao glanced at him: "Who are you cursing?"

"Criticizing seatbelts," Sun Zhiqiang said, "can save lives but also cause injury."

Qin Hai looked at Lin Ye: "Write this down. The first night's debriefing should focus on injuries sustained by children with seatbelts, not just on whether there is external bleeding."

Lin Ye nodded: "Understood."

At 3:20 a.m., the emergency room gradually returned to its nighttime state.

After the female injured person in the yellow zone had her wounds cleaned and sutured, the elderly person with chest tightness was placed under observation after ruling out acute myocardial infarction, and other minor injuries were registered one by one.

Liu Zhenhua from the Medical Affairs Department arrived at this time.

He was holding a black umbrella, his trouser legs were wet, and his face was no less relaxed than the people in the emergency room.

When Nurse Zhao saw him, her lips twitched. "Director Liu, are you here to arrest us for wandering around in the middle of the night, or to offer your condolences?"

Liu Zhenhua folded his umbrella: "None of those. It was a multi-vehicle collision on the highway. The hospital leaders asked if there were any deaths, complaints, or media reports."

Qin Hai slammed a stack of emergency records onto the table.

"There have been no deaths within the hospital so far. I don't know about any complaints; you media outlets can try to stop them at the entrance yourself. The records are here, the procedures are here, and everyone is in the operating room."

Liu Zhenhua flipped through two pages, his gaze settling on Lin Ye's name.

"You figured it out first again?"

Lin Ye stood up straight: "It wasn't just me. Director Qin made the decision, Teacher Sun performed bedside ultrasound, Nurse Zhao handled the triage, and various specialists were present."

Liu Zhenhua looked at him for a few seconds, but didn't nitpick like he used to.

"Say the same thing at tomorrow's debriefing meeting."

Qin Hai sneered: "Don't worry, he's even more afraid of missing a word in the record than you are now."

At 4:05 a.m., news began to come back from the operating room.

Wang Cheng, the second patient, had his bleeding controlled and was transferred to the intensive care unit.

Lele's spleen ruptured and the bleeding was stopped, but the spleen preservation failed. Part of the spleen tissue was removed, and she was transferred to the pediatric intensive care unit for monitoring.

The mother, Li Xiaoya, had stable vital signs, and the newborn was transferred to the neonatal intensive care unit after intubation.

The first unidentified patient underwent neurosurgical craniotomy for decompression but remained in a coma and was transferred to the intensive care unit.

No one can say they have it easy.

But all the red zones are still alive.

The system taskbar in front of Lin Ye refreshed.

[Current night shift: Night 1.]

[Patients in the red zone: 4/4 have entered the effective treatment process.]

[In-hospital deaths: 0.]

[Zero-fatal ER weekly progress: 1/7]

Lin Ye looked at the line "1/7" but couldn't feel happy.

Because every "temporarily stable" on the whiteboard is not a period.

Nurse Zhao handed him a glass of warm water: "Drink it. Staring at the whiteboard won't magically give it a second life."

Lin Ye took the water and realized that his hands were shaking.

Sun Zhiqiang sat next to him, his eyes closed, and said, "This is how it is for all the emergency teams. You'd better not jinx the later teams."

Lin Ye said in a hoarse voice, "I didn't say anything."

"It's strange enough that you're here."

Nurse Zhao kicked Sun Zhiqiang's chair: "Don't scare the newbie."

Qin Hai stood at the door, looking at the emergency room corridor after the rain stopped.

Before dawn, the headlights of ambulances occasionally swept across the hospital grounds.

Lin Ye held the notebook in his arms, his eyelids burning with heaviness.

Suddenly, a line of small gray text appeared below the system taskbar.

[Next night shift alert pool updated.]

[High-risk keywords: fever, low white blood cell count, unstable blood pressure.]

He gripped the glass of warm water, his knuckles slowly tightening.

The first night has just ended.

The risks for next night are already lining up on the edge of our vision.