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

At 8:20 a.m. the next day, the door to the small conference room on the third floor of the administration building was half open.

Lin Ye didn't work the night shift last night.

But around 7 a.m., Qin Hai's phone call still woke him up from his dormitory during his residency training.

"At the debriefing meeting, bring the registration board from yesterday."

He stood at the doorway and first heard the sound of the projector inside.

A row of nameplates was placed on the long table.

Dean Chen Shouyi, Medical Affairs Department, Quality Control Office, Emergency Department, Cardiology Department, Thoracic Surgery Department, Neurosurgery Department.

White background with black lettering, the plastic shell has several worn marks on the edges.

There is no Lin Ye's name.

A blue plastic chair was placed alone against the wall.

The chair legs are uneven, so it will wobble whenever someone sits on it.

Liu Zhenhua came from the other end of the corridor, holding the transfer registration board from yesterday afternoon in his hand.

"What are you doing standing here?"

Lin Ye stepped aside.

"Waiting for you."

Liu Zhenhua handed him the registration board.

The two lines of text on the board are still very clear.

Xie Guangyi has entered the catheterization lab.

Shen Qingyuan was placed in the emergency room monitoring position.

None of them are out of danger.

Liu Zhenhua pointed to the last line.

"If someone asks you a question later, don't just nod. Say what you need to say."

Lin Ye took the registration board.

"Know."

"And one more thing," Liu Zhenhua lowered his voice, "Sit in the back row. It's not that you're useless. It's just that you don't have that position yet. Do you understand?"

The edge of the registration board pressed against Lin Ye's palm.

"clear."

In the conference room, Qin Hai was already sitting behind the emergency department's nameplate.

He saw Lin Ye come in, but instead of waving, he simply nodded with his chin at the chair against the wall.

"Sit there."

Lin Ye sat down, holding the registration board.

The chair wobbled slightly.

Tang Zhendong was flipping through Xie Guangyi's catheterization lab records without even lifting his eyelids.

"If the chair is broken, just replace it. Don't make it look like you're interrogating someone."

Qin Hai twitched the corner of his mouth.

"He should know where he's sitting right now."

Tang Zhendong turned the page of the paper.

"You emergency room educators really know how to pick a place."

The chief resident from the thoracic surgery department sat on the other side, with a printed copy of Shen Qingyuan's document pressed against his bedside.

"Shen Qingyuan's oxygen saturation remained around 95% during the latter half of last night. The external fixation was redone, and the water seal is unobstructed. We will have another X-ray this morning."

Chen Shouyi put on his glasses.

"Let's get past the two lines from yesterday first."

Zhou Li turned on the screen mirroring.

The screen lights up, and the first image is not the summary report.

It's a photo of the nurses' station.

The two pieces of paper were pressed together.

Xie Guangyi: Chest tightness and sweating, transient collapse, and abnormal electrocardiogram.

Shen Qingyuan: He experienced shortness of breath after being compressed during chest tube transport. His blood oxygen levels rose, but his left lung did not fully re-expand.

Half of an oxygen flow meter and a crumpled registration slip can still be seen at the edge of the photo.

Zhou Li did not read from a prepared script.

"From 3:26 PM to 3:54 PM yesterday, the emergency room was simultaneously handling two cases."

She tapped the keyboard.

"On one side is Shen Qingyuan, whose chest tube encountered a problem in the transfer channel; on the other side is Xie Guangyi, whose chest pain worsened in the examination area."

"In the end, Xie Guangyi went to the catheterization lab first, while Shen Qingyuan stayed in the emergency monitoring position and was treated at the bedside in the thoracic surgery department."

"Today's debriefing won't focus on who shouted the loudest. It will only focus on the evidence."

Two more people came in through the door.

One of them was a quality control expert from the institute's office, surnamed Du, in his fifties, with a gray jacket draped over his arm.

Another young staff member was carrying a stack of photocopied materials, which almost slipped off the door when he entered.

After sitting down, Expert Du did not look through the materials first.

His gaze first fell on the chair against the wall.

"Is this the resident trainee?"

Several pens on the conference table paused for a moment.

Qin Hai pressed the registration board against the edge of the table.

"Call him Lin Ye."

Expert Du nodded.

"Okay, Lin Ye."

He removed the pen cap.

"It's good that no one was hurt yesterday. But I'm not here to praise anyone today."

The registration board on Lin Ye's knee suddenly felt heavier.

Expert Du looked towards the emergency department.

"I want to hear clearly. Did the process handle the risks, or did you put a resident trainee at the forefront and let him rush forward based on his gut feeling?"

He paused for a moment.

"It's hard to say. From now on, he'll be treated as a regular resident trainee. He should consult with superiors when necessary and wait for instructions from higher-ups. Don't put him in a high-risk, high-risk position anymore."

As soon as he finished speaking, even the sound of the air conditioner in the conference room seemed cold.

Qin Hai pushed the back of his chair back.

"Yesterday wasn't based on intuition."

"I didn't just say yesterday."

Expert Du opened his notebook.

"I've also looked at this list. Aortic dissection, epidural hematoma, myocardial infarction, splenic rupture, hypoglycemia, pulmonary embolism, pneumothorax, cerebral hemorrhage, and yesterday we added chest tube transport abnormality."

The pen tip touched the paper.

"He's in every document. It's happening way too often."

Tang Zhendong finally looked up.

"The high frequency could also be because he is actually in the emergency room."

Expert Du looked at him.

"Director Tang, I wasn't asking whether you like him or not."

Tang Zhendong put the electrocardiogram paper on the table.

"I'll also explain the procedure. Xie Guangyi experienced chest tightness, sweating, and collapse yesterday. His electrocardiogram showed dynamic changes, and angiography revealed proximal occlusion of the right coronary artery. This isn't based on mysticism."

The chief resident in thoracic surgery also sent out the scans.

"Shen Qingyuan's chest tube is compressed, the water seal bottle is tilted, the oxygen is almost empty, and his blood oxygen is 88%. It's better to keep him in the emergency monitoring bedside for treatment than to have something happen on the way back to the ward."

After listening, Expert Du did not immediately refute.

He put the pen back next to the notebook.

"I acknowledge these two cases."

Just as the group breathed a sigh of relief, his pen was pressed back down onto the notebook.

"Now let's talk about Lin Ye. What exactly is he?"

Lin Ye sat on a chair against the wall, his back pressed against the cold plastic backrest.

He cannot speak of the system.

We cannot talk about the risks that have appeared in our field of vision in advance.

He could only look at the papers on the table.

Qin Hai spoke.

"Standardized residency trainees".

Expert Du looked at him.

What can resident trainees do?

Qin Hai pushed the time sheet from yesterday to the middle of the table.

"He didn't give any medical orders, didn't decide who should go into the catheterization lab first, and didn't decide how the thoracic surgery department should handle it."

He tapped the paper.

"It was Tang Zhendong who decided that Xie Guangyi would go to the catheterization lab. It was Shen Qingyuan who stayed behind after being examined at the bedside by the thoracic surgeon."

Liu Zhenhua took over.

"What Lin Ye did was to gather all the information from both sides. Who was on site? Was there enough oxygen? Had the blood oxygen level dropped? Had the specialists arrived?"

Du's pen stopped.

"Then why did you let him ask?"

"Is there no one in the emergency room? Is there no one at the nurses' station? Is there no one to supervise the nurses? If something goes wrong, who will take responsibility?"

Qin Hai's face immediately darkened.

"It's on me."

Chen Shouyi closed the glasses case.

"Don't rush to take the blame."

Qin Hai looked over.

Chen Shouyi pushed the time sheet under the lamp.

"Read the paper first."

He looked at Expert Du.

"What was useful yesterday wasn't that Lin Ye was some kind of genius. It was that he asked a few of the dumbest questions first."

Chen Shouyi tapped the paper.

"Which side has people, which side doesn't, and which side would be more dangerous to push again?"

He paused.

"These few sentences are also necessary for other staff in the emergency room."

Expert Du nodded.

"Then let him talk about it himself."

All eyes around the conference table immediately fell on the wall.

Lin Ye held the registration board, his throat a little dry.

Chen Shouyi did not let him get up.

"Sit down and talk. Yesterday, both phones rang at the same time. What was the first thing you asked?"

Lin Ye looked down at the registration board.

"I'll ask who's at the inspection area first."

Expert Du looked at him.

Why?

"There's a lot of commotion over there in the inspection area."

After Lin Ye finished speaking, the people holding pens paused for a moment.

He continued.

"But after asking around, I learned that there were triage nurses, imaging staff, and security guards there. The elderly man was conscious, could speak, and hadn't completely fallen down."

"Blood sugar, blood pressure, and consciousness—can we test these three things first over there?"

He flipped the registration board to the other side.

"The situation is different over at the transfer channel. Shen Qingyuan, who has a chest tube, suddenly couldn't breathe. The water-seal bottle was tilted, and the oxygen was almost empty. There were only a caregiver and a nurse accompanying him nearby."

The edge of the registration board rests against the knee.

"They lack someone who can truly take over."

Expert Du did not interrupt.

Linye's voice slowed down.

"So go to the transfer channel first."

He quickly added a sentence.

"But we're not leaving the examination area behind. The triage nurses there will check the elderly person's blood sugar, blood pressure, and level of consciousness. The elderly person shouldn't stand up, and family members shouldn't try to help them up."

Zhou Li lowered her head and wrote a line.

Expert Du asked again.

Why did Xie Guangyi go to the catheterization lab first?

Lin Ye's gaze lingered for a moment on the catheterization lab record in front of Tang Zhendong.

"Xie Guangyi's dizziness wasn't just a simple case. He was already pressing on his chest while waiting in line, and then he started sweating and collapsed. The ECG showed an error in the inferior leads, and the second ECG showed a change. When Director Tang arrived, he rushed to treat it as an acute myocardial infarction."

Where is Shen Qingyuan?

"Reserve a spot in the emergency room monitoring unit."

Lin Ye raised the registration board a little higher.

"The thoracic surgery department is already at the bedside and can handle external fixation, connections, and water seals. Returning the patient to the ward would require going through the transport route again, which carries greater risks."

The only sound in the conference room was the wind from the projector.

Expert Du lowered his head and wrote a few words.

"This is explained clearly."

Lin Ye did not feel relieved.

Because expert Du asked again very soon.

"What if you're not here next time? Won't people ask?"

The back of the registration board was slightly bent from being pressed down by the forest.

He couldn't give a complete answer to that question.

He cannot hand over the system.

There's no guarantee that someone on every night shift will notice something amiss beforehand.

Just as Qin Hai was about to speak, Chen Shouyi raised his hand.

"Let him speak."

Lin Ye looked at the blank spaces on the registration board.

"It cannot be guaranteed."

He spoke very slowly.

"No one can guarantee that they will always think of the same disease first."

He lifted the registration board, making sure the blank side faced the edge of the table.

"But when the phone rings at the same time, don't try to guess the diagnosis."

"First, ask who's next to you."

"Have your blood pressure and blood oxygen levels dropped?"

"Is there any monitoring? Is there any oxygen?"

"Have you arrived at the vocational college yet?"

He paused for a moment.

"Also, if there's another disturbance on either side, it will be even more dangerous."

Tang Zhendong pressed the pen cap back onto the end of the pen.

"That's enough to get the emergency room moving first."

The chief resident of thoracic surgery also nodded.

"At least we won't have to throw patients with chest tubes back into the transport channel."

Liu Zhenhua wrote those few sentences into the meeting minutes.

Who was there?

Ask about vital signs.

Ask about monitoring oxygen levels.

Ask a specialist to take over.

Ask about the risks of transshipment.

Chen Shouyi looked at those few lines of text.

Write it clearly.

His voice wasn't loud, but it dominated the entire room.

"Don't write it as if Lin Ye can command anyone."

"The resident trainees can provide reminders, supplement evidence, and hand over the documents."

He looked at Qin Hai, then at Tang Zhendong and the chief resident physician of thoracic surgery.

"The decision-makers were still the superiors and specialists present."

Qin Hai leaned back in his chair.

"In plain terms, we're calling him here, not letting him make the decisions."

Zhou Min looked down and flipped through the signature board.

"But we can't let him speak and no one listens."

The meeting room fell silent for a moment.

Expert Du closed his notebook, then reopened it.

"Then let's take one case and do a full review."

Chen Shouyi looked at him.

"Weren't two cases yesterday enough?"

"The results for the two cases from yesterday are already available."

Expert Du pressed the tip of his pen onto the notebook.

"I need to see how it was discovered in the first place, how the superiors were notified, and how evidence was preserved. We also need to see if there was any excessive investigation."

The projection stopped on Xie Guangyi's electrocardiogram.

Expert Du's gaze swept over the emergency room, the medical affairs department, and the quality control office, finally landing on the registration board on Lin Ye's knee.

"Let's start with Chen Jianguo's case."

Lin Ye pressed his palm against the edge of the registration board.

The chair stopped shaking.

What was next put on the table was not the two pieces of paper from yesterday.

It was Chen Jianguo's words at 2:17 AM: "My stomach hurts."