Is there no limit to this doctor's skills?

Chapter 1 The Instinct to Improve

At 11:30 p.m., Guo Ziyuan rubbed his throbbing temples as he went downstairs from the operating room into the changing room.

The changing room was dimly lit and claustrophobic late at night, with only the sound of Guo Ziyuan's rubber surgical slippers rubbing against the floor.

"Squeak..."

Guo Ziyuan opened the locker and immediately put on his old-fashioned mechanical watch. Wearing a watch during surgery is inconvenient, so he slightly adjusted the watch face.

11:32：32…33…34……

As the second hand ticked, Guo Ziyuan couldn't help but recall the details of the surgery that had just ended, in which the patient was not in good condition.

"Buzz buzz buzz~"

"Buzz buzz buzz~"

The phone, placed in the wardrobe, vibrated for the fifth time, its body pressed tightly against the wardrobe surface.

Guo Ziyuan stared at the words "Weiwei" on the screen, his finger hovering over the answer button for seven or eight seconds before finally swiping it open. His voice was so tired he couldn't completely hide it: "Still not asleep..."

"Guo Ziyuan," the woman's voice was blunt and direct, "My parents asked me again today, when are we getting engaged?"

"My brother is getting married, and his girlfriend is asking for a dowry of 280,000 yuan..."

Guo Ziyuan squinted and leaned against the metal cabinet. The cool temperature of the cabinet door seeped through his washcloth onto his skin, and the hairs on his skin immediately stood on end.

He tried to keep his tone calm: "Weiwei, I just finished surgery. From eight o'clock yesterday morning to eleven o'clock tonight, it's been thirty-nine hours."

"Yesterday was a surgery day, and we performed several emergency surgeries in succession."

"Can we talk about this tomorrow?"

Lin Weiwei's breathing became erratic, and her voice rose: "When are you not busy?"

"Guo Ziyuan, my parents raised me with great difficulty. He is my only younger brother. His wedding is a big event. As his older sister, I have to help him with his wedding."

Two resident doctors walked down the operating room corridor, chatting as they went. When they met the gaze of attending physician Guo Ziyuan, they immediately quickened their pace and slipped past.

Guo Ziyuan really wanted to say,

We were just on a blind date.

Your brother is your parents' son, not your son, and certainly not my son.

Your brother wants to get married, that's his business. I haven't said I'd definitely marry you...

Guo Ziyuan, of course, wouldn't say that. Instead, he suggested, "Your parents should be the ones to help your brother with his problems."

"Whether he wants to get married or not, you can't sacrifice your time to find a life partner..."

The woman interrupted, "Just tell me if it's okay or not?"

A voice came through the phone: "Sis, if he doesn't agree, then so be it."

"An old man in his thirties who drives a beat-up car worth a few hundred thousand yuan, lives on a mortgage, and is still unmarried."

"I think Brother Liu is much more reliable than him... He just thinks he's someone important."

The woman remained silent for a moment, then her tone softened slightly: "Guo Ziyuan, I gave you a chance first. It's just that you were useless."

Guo Ziyuan felt as if a string in his mind snapped with the "snap" of the phone being hung up.

In your eyes, am I, Guo Ziyuan, really that despicable?

Bachelor of Clinical Medicine from Huazhong University of Science and Technology; Master of Professional Medicine from the Affiliated People's Hospital of Wuhan University.

Although I failed the doctoral entrance exam and ended up at Yilan Central Hospital, I was promoted to attending physician at the age of 28.

Although I've always been an attending physician, I've learned quite a few surgical techniques.

I just haven't been promoted to associate chief physician yet. Even associate chief physicians are asking me to do live broadcasts, aren't they...?

With such rapid technological advancements against a whiteboard backdrop, where is there time to date?

If it weren't for my parents' constant urging, and seeing the wrinkles on their faces getting deeper and deeper...

A WeChat message popped up from the phone's swipe screen: "I told Uncle and Aunt about the things we couldn't agree on. Let's make things clear as soon as possible to avoid any misunderstandings."

She had anticipated this and had taken precautions beforehand; this is the final notification.

Two minutes later, my mother called.

Guo Ziyuan suddenly felt a headache coming on, his scalp tingling, and his hands becoming clumsy, but he still managed to take it. His mother's voice nagged in his ear, "Ziyuan? How come you and Weiwei also had a falling out?"

"She's a good person. She doesn't ask for much in dowry, and she's well-behaved. The only problem is that she's a bit too eager to get married."

"Your father and I are fifty-nine this year, almost sixty..."

A sudden, sharp headache struck like an axe. Guo Ziyuan's phone slipped from his hand and fell to the ground with a "thud."

He slid down onto the metal cabinet, his right hand unconsciously reaching for his temples...

Thud, his head hit the ground.

It hurts so much…

Ok…

The physical body and soul were separated, and the pain stopped.

……

"Senior brother? Senior brother Guo? Wake up... Master is coming soon."

Someone seemed to be gently nudging his shoulder.

Guo Ziyuan kept repeating the diagnosis he had given himself: "Mom...Mom...intracranial hemorrhage...intracranial hemorrhage."

Guo Ziyuan tried hard to open his eyes to reassure his parents.

As far as the eye can see, there are no sterile surgical drapes or green sheets. Have I entered an interventional operating room?

A shadowless lamp? No, that's not right.

It's not like an operating room light. It's a ring-shaped LED light that provides even and soft illumination.

He wasn't lying down, but sitting in a swivel chair, with a square steel workbench about a meter in front of him, on which were some operating instruments.

A needle holder about to slip out of its tooth, toothed tweezers with a broken tooth, a round scalpel handle with sharp scratches, and a substandard round needle with thread that is not suitable for use in the operating room and is even worse than the sutures procured in bulk.

Half a piece of stitching thread, not yet fully tied, was still hanging on an orange peel in the very center of the worktable.

This is 2-0 nylon thread with a needle; the needle tip gleams coldly under the light.

There was a group of doctors in white coats sitting at their workstations, some practicing surgical procedures intently, others exchanging ideas and discussing what they could improve.

The room contained familiar three rows of five operating tables, each one meter long, wide, and high; it was not an operating room.

On the left are rows of storage cabinets, and on the right are rows of surgical instrument sorting tables.

The window was half-open, and the night was deep.

"This... looks like the training room at the Provincial People's Hospital?"

"How did I get here?"

Guo Ziyuan instinctively reached for his phone to call his mother to explain, but what he pulled out of his white coat pocket was not an iPhone 16.

Redmi?

Tap the side button; there's no facial recognition login, only fingerprint login via index finger, which is located on the concave surface of the back of the phone.

The screen displays: 20:08 Friday, September 4th, the 26th day of the 7th month of the year Yiwei.

What year is the year of Yiwei?

Guo Ziyuan felt a dryness in his throat…

Have I been reborn?

"Senior brother, hurry up and get ready, Master is coming to teach." The voice rang out again, full of youthful vigor. "It starts at 8:15, it's already 8:09."

Guo Ziyuan slowly turned his head.

A round, pimple-covered face loomed close to my eyes, with single eyelids and black-rimmed glasses perched on the bridge of its nose. The eyes behind the lenses were squinting with laughter.

"Liu... Guanghui?" Guo Ziyuan's voice was dry, and his eyes were uncertain.

"Senior brother...you're not feeling well. Let me help you get ready..." Junior brother Liu Guanghui smiled, appearing obedient and sensible.

Guo Ziyuan's mind did indeed malfunction somewhat, and he continued to identify the other people in the control room one by one.

My classmates, doctoral seniors, juniors, and fellow resident physicians from the Provincial People's Hospital.

Guo Ziyuan lowered his head.

Young hands.

The skin was taut, the knuckles were distinct, and there were thin calluses on the base of the thumb and the pad of the index finger—the result of using needle holders and scalpels, but far less thick and hard than they would be a decade or more later…

"It really is a rebirth."

"It was autumn 15. I was a third-year master's student, and I was in the practice room."

The noise around me gradually increased and became clearer.

"Another rejection, damn it. I've finished both major and minor revisions and it still got rejected. I might as well not submit this paper to a Q2 journal." Two PhD students were chatting.

Another senior student comforted him, saying, "It's okay, there are plenty of magazines. Articles are harder to submit to anyway, take your time."

The senior student, whose manuscript was rejected, forced a formulaic smile, but his frustration remained undiminished.

For some reason, Guo Ziyuan blurted out instinctively, "Maybe after finishing the repairs, the Second District felt they weren't good enough and wanted to give you, Senior Brother, a chance to advance to the First District. That's a good thing."

Upon hearing this, the two doctoral students and Guo Ziyuan's junior, Liu Guanghui, all looked at Guo Ziyuan in surprise.

Guo Ziyuan maintained a calm and composed expression, a smile playing on his lips, while inwardly cursing under his breath—

This damned, primal instinct of "I want to improve so much" that comes with starting a job...