The Enhanced Doctor
Chapter 34 - 034 Background Board (for emptiness, loneliness, and cold updates)

Chapter 34: 034 Background Board (for emptiness, loneliness, and cold updates)

(Thanks to Head of the Ou Team and Night Color Weiwei for their encouraging tips)

"Doctor, can I get an anesthetic?" the blue-collar man asked, his face strained.

He was definitely in for some suffering. For him, there really wasn’t any other choice.

Liu Banxia furrowed his brow. "It’s not that serious. Local anesthesia would actually make you more uncomfortable. Caudal anesthesia would be making a mountain out of a molehill. Two moments of pain, each lasting less than a second. Think you can take it?"

Guan Wei looked at Liu Banxia in surprise, feeling quite anxious. Those were a lot of promises to make to the patient! With this patient’s condition, did Liu Banxia really think he could fix it with just two snips? Guan Wei wondered if Liu Banxia was getting a bit too cocky.

"Doctor, it’ll only hurt twice? Really?" The blue-collar man, for some reason, even felt a little happy.

"Pretty much. Can one of you patients lend a hand? Find something for this gentleman to bite on," Liu Banxia said, starting his preparations.

The blue-collar man was very cooperative. He didn’t need anyone else; he took off his own shirt and stuffed it into his mouth.

"Brother Guan, can you readjust the light for me? I’m taller than Qi," Liu Banxia said, flexing his fingers.

"Banxia, are you sure?" Guan Wei asked with concern.

"No problem. We just need to be quick. We’ll snip it off while the pseudo-healed area isn’t looking," Liu Banxia said with a smile.

Guan Wei felt exasperated listening to this, and the other proctology doctors didn’t know what to say either. The other patients, however, were quite amused by his words; they found his teasing tone quite funny.

"Relax now. I’ll clean your wound first," Liu Banxia said as he picked up the scissors under everyone’s watchful eyes.

Guan Wei’s heart was in his throat. As an attending proctologist, he knew exactly how difficult this kind of procedure was; he certainly knew he couldn’t do it himself.

"HMM..."

The blue-collar man made this sound to let Liu Banxia know he’d heard him. Then, he felt a pain that seemed to come from the depths of his soul, and the pitch of his voice rose sharply.

"Brother Guan, recheck it," Liu Banxia said, putting down his scissors and flexing his wrists again.

Guan Wei took a close look, then gave a thumbs-up. "Perfect! With a snip like that, only Director Jiang in the entire Department of Proctology could pull it off."

"Don’t flatter me; I couldn’t do it so cleanly and neatly." Just as Guan Wei finished speaking, Jiang Tao chimed in.

"The first snip is the hardest. You have to apply as little pressure to the wound as possible. Otherwise, the patient wouldn’t be able to take it even before you cut. Accurate, steady, and fast. I’m impressed."

"Hahaha... I told you Doctor Liu was something special! See, I was right, wasn’t I?" Before anyone else could react, the northeastern big brother who had been nearby exclaimed joyfully.

You never quite know what will resonate with people. As fellow sufferers of anal fistulas or perianal abscesses, even if they barely knew each other, they were now tightly united, collectively fighting the pain of dressing changes. This was empathy born of shared suffering.

At present, they were all happy for the blue-collar man. They had always had a good impression of Liu Banxia, so their applause was very enthusiastic.

Liu Banxia waved his hand. "Director Jiang, take a look. How should I make the next cut?"

As he spoke, he winked at Jiang Tao.

And the blue-collar man? He was in real pain. It wasn’t as if the pain from the first snip had passed and then it didn’t hurt at all. Hearing Liu Banxia’s words, he relaxed a bit, knowing he would have some time to recover.

However, what he didn’t expect was that Liu Banxia had tricked him again. Just as he began to relax, Liu Banxia—SNIP!—finished with another cut.

He had been lying prone, hands supporting his forehead. Now, he was clutching the back of his head in pain.

It wasn’t just the blue-collar man; the other patients also hadn’t expected Liu Banxia to trick them twice. They too had assumed Jiang Tao would inspect it first. Then they saw Liu Banxia swiftly insert the scissors, and it was over. Didn’t he even need to aim?

"Alright, talk to your fellow patients, find a bed, and lie down for a while," Liu Banxia said after finishing the dressing change.

DING! You have gained 30 experience points, 30 proficiency points for your Dressing Change skill, and 50 proficiency points for your Anal Fistula Seton Ligation skill.

"I... I need to recover a bit. I can’t move right now," the blue-collar man said, pulling the shirt from his mouth and wiping away his tears.

No one laughed at him. Truly, only those who endure such suffering can understand it.

Actually, if Liu Banxia hadn’t put points into Strength and gained the additional attribute of Instrument Proficiency, he wouldn’t have dared to attempt this. Moreover, this patient’s pseudo-healing wasn’t complex. As long as his hands were steady, it wasn’t a particularly difficult procedure for him at his current level.

However, it was a different story for others. The way many proctologists looked at Liu Banxia now had changed. They were experts; they could see the skill involved. Liu Banxia had said he’d do it in two snips, and he really had.

Just as the director had said, it required being steady, accurate, and fast. If any one of these wasn’t perfect, you couldn’t hope to complete the task so smoothly.

The dressing changes continued. The most awkward person right now was Qi Wentai.

Even after the blue-collar man had recovered enough to be helped away by other patients to rest, no other patient asked Qi Wentai to change their dressing. _{freew\e bnovel.com}

Although Qi Wentai was a qualified doctor, when it came to understanding the pain of dressing changes, his perception was actually worse than the patients’. He thought the pseudo-healing was what made the patient’s pain unbearable; that was merely an excuse Liu Banxia had come up with.

Qi Wentai couldn’t very well leave at this point, as he was nominally there to help the Department of Proctology.

Liu Banxia certainly had his fill today, treating a total of 57 patients. Even though the experience and skill points he gained weren’t as much as from the very first dressing change, he still received a good few hundred points.

"Mission accomplished for today," Liu Banxia said with a smile, peeling off his gloves.

"Alright, I won’t keep you. Go home and get some rest," Jiang Tao nodded with satisfaction.

"Doctor Liu, don’t rush off! We have some fruit here; take some home with you." As soon as Liu Banxia came out of the dressing room, the northeastern big brother handed him a large bag of fruit.

He wasn’t the only one. Patients were peeking out from every room. Seeing the northeastern big brother make his move, they all came out of their rooms "at their fastest possible speed," none of them empty-handed.

"Oh, please don’t. I can’t possibly eat all of this. I won’t stand on ceremony—I’ll take one from each of you, alright?" Liu Banxia said with a laugh.

"Take them home to eat! After my seton comes out, I’ll have to go to our county hospital for dressing changes. Who knows when I’ll see you again," the northeastern big brother said.

"Then one banana will be enough for me. You should eat more fruit; otherwise, you’ll suffer during bowel movements," Liu Banxia joked.

Hospital regulations normally prohibited accepting gifts from patients, but it was hard to refuse such heartfelt generosity. Liu Banxia taking one piece of fruit from each patient wasn’t a big deal.

Even so, by the time he reached the proctology office, he was carrying a large bag. He dropped it off and immediately dashed out, giving Guan Wei no chance to stop him.

"This kid, he’s a slippery one," Jiang Tao said, shaking his head.

Qi Wentai overheard this, and the bitter taste in his mouth intensified. If he had to sum up all his experiences today in one phrase, it would be "human backdrop." It was precisely because of his presence that Liu Banxia seemed even more capable and popular. From the director down to the patients in the Department of Proctology, it was as if no one even remembered he existed.