Chapter 684: The Older It Is, The More Fragrant

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The next day, Ling Ran napped, played a game on his bed, got up again, cooked a pot of porridge for himself, cleaned the courtyard, watered the flowers, cleaned up the treatment room in the clinic, read several theses on primary biliary cirrhosis, memorized a few words such as primary biliary cirrhosis, and strolled around. Soon enough, the day started to get brighter.

Lower Groove alley started to wake up as well. The residents walked back and fro either to make their lives better or just to enjoy the moments. They created their own movements and made the small Lower Groove alley more and more lively.

Ling Ran had been living in such an environment since he was a child, and he did not think it was special in any kind of way. He simply changed a pair of shoes, took the keys, opened the door, went out for a walk, and came back with deep-fried dough sticks, small steamed buns, pickled vegetables, and a bowl of small wontons.

He bought the small steamed buns, pickled vegetables, and deep-fried dough sticks. The small bowl of wonton had been given to Ling Ran for free by a middle-aged lady at the entrance to the alley. Ling Ran had to accept it and noted it down in his book at the door.

This was a ‘housekeeping method’ implemented by Ling Jiezhou a long time ago. When the middle-aged lady who gave small bowl wontons came to the clinic to see a doctor, her medical fees would naturally be discounted.

‘My son has enough money to spend in this life’ was Tao Ping and Ling Jiezhou’s perception of money for now. They had been implementing it to a certain extent.

Ling Ran did not rush to open the clinic door, so he sat in the courtyard and ate his breakfast of a small bowl of wonton, pickled vegetables, steamed buns, and deep-fried dough sticks. He looked through some new X-rays on his phone as he ate his food. He enjoyed a leisurely morning.

At around ten o’clock, Juan Zi came to the clinic. She saw Ling Ran and immediately became so happy that she yanked him to his feet. She smiled as she said, “Young Ran, you’re finally back. Everyone is talking about you. We did not expect you to go to Beijing for surgeries. By the way, do you want to hang up the massage signboard? Your father said that he hikes everything up by 3 RMB for that.”

“Not now.” Ling Ran leaned against a reclining chair under the eaves, took out his phone, and said, “I’m going to play games today and read some books this afternoon.”

“That’s good. The fewer the people, the more we can relax.” Juan Zi had no objections to that. Then she lifted a big bucket with one hand, and with one loud whoosh, splashed the water at the courtyard. She mopped the floor next and laughed as she said, “Old Miao is waiting for you every day. He would be so happy when he knows you’re here now.”

In order to make more money, old Miao had went through some thorough research on suturing.

His opponents were the young girls who were in the plastic surgery field. A lot of young girls who did plastic surgery did not have skills, and some of them did not even have a license. They just transferred to this field from the cosmetic industry. They were sweet, soft and good with words. It was the power that Old Miao could never attain. Therefore, Old Miao had to work hard to study the skills to get a living.

In the afternoon, Lin Jiezhou and Tao Ping took their own sweet time to come back.

“Son, look what dad brought you!” Ling Jiezhou pulled out a suitcase and laid it flat on the patio.

The suitcase was a piece of ordinary luggage.

That meant it was the suitcases that were dragged by pilots and some flight attendants at the airport.

The color was a little dull. It was made of good material, and was deceitfully spacious. It was quite attractive, in fact, it attracted many people’s attention.

Ling Jiezhou opened it slowly.

A suitcase full of raw pork was displayed in front of the crowd.

“So? How do you feel? This is black pork from our hometown.” Ling Jiezhou extended his hands and pointed to the suitcase as if he was ceremoniously promoting the pork in their hometown.

Ling Ran felt the awkward discomfort of the dull suitcase when he looked at it.

How would the suitcase ever be attractive again after it was stuffed with those greasy pork meat?

“I took some pork bellies and several pounds of pork ribs. By the way, I got some pig’s ears too. Look, a pig has only two ears.” Ling Jiezhou proudly showed off.

“Didn’t you say there is no one in our hometown?” Ling Ran was a little puzzled by Ling Jiezhou’s actions.

“There are not many people left in our hometown, but since your great grandfather’s generation, you still have one of your grandfather’s uncle who is still alive.” Ling Jiezhou paused for a moment, chuckled a couple of times, before saying, “This time, they invited us to go back and pay a visit. We had to check on our family tree…”

“I was going to ask you to check on their health,” said Tao Ping from the back. She looked a little tired. She said to Ling Ran and winked.

Ling Jiezhou was unhappy. “That was their intention. But mainly, they asked me to go back to have a look. We’ve already eaten their pork stew, and we should look at the bright side. Think about it, when you say you like to eat intestines, your eldest paternal aunt immediately gave you half a bowl of pork stomach.”

“That’s the maternal aunt.”

“It’s from dad’s side, so we call her paternal aunt.”

“She said it herself that the maternal aunt took the dish for you.”

Ling Jiezhou groaned and decided to go back to reading his book.

Doctor Xiong came up from the side and took a look at the pork. He nodded slightly before asking, “Boss, are we getting bonuses today?”

“So, you only call me boss when you want bonuses, huh?” Ling Jiezhou snorted a couple of times before he asked, “Which part do you want?”

“I’m an old man, so I’ll eat the ribs.”

“Then I’ll give you 2 pounds of ribs,” Ling Jiezhou took a spring scale and accurately weighed 2 pounds of ribs for Doctor Xiong, and said, “Black pork is very nutritious. Doctor Xiong, once you eat my black pork, you have to be more active at work every day. We don’t advocate nine to nine six day work week policy, but in our current employment environment, it’s good for the company and our future’s development to go to work earlier, leave work later, and work an extra two days a week…”

Doctor Xiong took the pork ribs and looked at Ling Jiezhou, “I’m almost seventy.”

“The older the doctor is, the more valuable he is,” Ling Jiezhou gave Doctor Xiong a pat, weighed the pork for Juan Zi and Doctor Miao, and went to the kitchen with the luggage. On his way, he muttered, “We’ll make braised pork in the evening. I should let it cook a little more.”

Tao Ping went to change her clothes, then made tea on the first floor. She also caught up with Ling Ran’s recent life.

The neighbors downstairs came and went. Some chatted in the treatment room while they received fluid transfusions, and some went to the first floor purely to talk, which was similar to how the clinic had been operating for years, but the newly decorated Lower Groove Clinic could accommodate more people and had a more comfortable setting.

Ling Ran took advantage of the crowd to play another game, and he lost in the end, as usual.

The feeling of being at home was very comfortable.

Ling Ran took a long nap the next day and went to the hospital for his ward round only when it was afternoon.

To doctors, ward rounds were like ropes. Doctors who were tied to it could not run far. The ropes of high-level assistant lecturers and department directors were a little longer. According to the ward turnover rate, checking on the patients one or two times was enough. Performing one ward round once every three or five days or even once a week was normal. The ropes of attending physicians and resident doctors were each shorter than the last.

Doctors in charge of the patients had the shortest ropes. Performing ward rounds thrice a day was not much, and performing it only once a day was too little. Even on normal days, they still had to go for one ward round before they could leave.

Ling Ran did not have many patients for the time being. He just needed to check on the Briar and Bramble’s recovery. Then, he casually gave a number of patients with hepatolithiasis a pre-examination and performed two emergency surgeries. After that, it was about time for him to leave work.

After work, Ling Ran left the treatment room and found Zuo Cidian sitting on the small stool at the door. He was staring at the direction of the reception door.

“Doctor Ling.” Zuo Cidian saw Ling Ran walk over. He turned his neck around to say hello, and his body was still earnestly facing the reception door.

“What is it?” Ling Ran asked.

“We only have a case of Colles’ fracture today.” Zuo Cidian sighed. “How unlucky.”

Ling Ran was surprised. “Didn’t Department Director Huo talk about finding patients with fractures?”

“Department Director Huo may not have made time for it yet.” Zuo Cidian did not dare to push the blame to the department director, so he waved it off. “It will definitely take time to greet other hospitals, and I might have those patients after waiting for a few more days. Or there might be no patients with Colles’ fracture today…”

As he spoke, Ling Ran took out his phone, sent out two messages, and said, “They’ll send them in the evening. Go to sleep first, and get ready for consultation.”

“Okay… okay!” Zuo Cidian instantly perked up, like a K-9 unit fresh from training.

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