"Most of the patients who come here aren't well-off, so we try to save as much as we can..."

Zhang Tiesheng wasn't sure what he had said to Liu Long, but the subsequent signing of the consent forms went very smoothly. Neither Liu Long nor his wife Liu Liyuan hesitated at all, and they went straight into the operating room after signing.

This saved Lu Cheng quite a bit of trouble.

Just before the surgery was about to start, Liu Liyuan asked, "Doctor, can I have cosmetic sutures for my situation?"

Lu Cheng shook his head, "That's not possible, ma'am. Your current condition involves internal tendon damage, not just a simple muscle and soft tissue injury."

"Cosmetic sutures wouldn't be practical, we need to prioritize function restoration."

Women all enjoy being beautiful, but Lu Cheng also needed to explain carefully.

Liu Liyuan sighed, "Oh... okay..."

Lu Cheng continued, "Although we can't use cosmetic sutures during surgery, you can use some scar-reducing medication afterward. You can buy it online."

"There are some imported products available online, and the prices are relatively cheaper during promotions, cheaper than in the hospital."

"But it's still not very cheap."

Liu Liyuan immediately asked, "Does it work?"

"It works, it can lighten scars," Lu Cheng said with a smile.

Lu Cheng brought it up because a previous patient had their beauty anxiety reduced due to a less visible scar.

Therefore, Lu Cheng paid attention to issues related to post-surgery scar repair.

Long County People's Hospital certainly didn't have any scar repair medication, but Lu Cheng could recommend it to patients who could then make their own purchases online if they wished.

This could also be a way to earn some 'Skill Points' as extra reward.

"Dr. Lu, I heard from Dr. Zhang that your skills are particularly good, how did you learn them at such a young age?" Liu Liyuan asked politely.

"My skills aren't that great, it's Brother Zhang who's praising me too much."

"Learning skills means a lot of hard work and diligence..."

...

In the blink of an eye, more than three hours had passed. Although Liu Liyuan couldn't have cosmetic stitches, and couldn't use absorbable cosmetic suture, Lu Cheng was still incredibly meticulous during the stitching.

He aimed to align the entry and exit points of the needles more precisely and ensure the incision was more neatly aligned. As long as someone doesn't have a keloid tendency, the resulting scars would be less noticeable.

This was within Lu Cheng's capabilities and didn't require excessive effort, only slightly extended the surgery time.

But this was inconsequential.

After Lu Cheng exited the operating room, Zhang Tiesheng hadn't gone home yet and warmly prepared breakfast for Lu Cheng.

In the director's office, Lin Qianlong, Zhang Tiesheng, and Lu Cheng sat together. Lin Qianlong and Zhang Tiesheng began eating first and finished first.

The office door was closed, so Lin Qianlong and Zhang Tiesheng each enjoyed a post-meal smoke. Thin wisps of smoke emerged from Lin Qianlong's mouth, "Xiao Lu, the patient from yesterday woke up once this morning and has already been extubated."

"But the blood pressure is still a bit low, and the lactic acid levels are high. They might be able to come out tomorrow or even the day after."

"Everything else seems fine."

Lu Cheng glanced at Lin Qianlong and smiled, "Director Lin, you've already seen the patient? I was planning to check on them after breakfast."

The patient transferred to the ICU doesn't mean the surgeons can completely disregard it, they still need to do rounds.

But the surgeons mainly monitor the wound healing, checking if there's any bleeding at the surgical site, while vital signs maintenance is the ICU's responsibility.

Lin Qianlong smiled back, "Our department performed such a major surgery, I definitely need to pay attention to it."

"If in the future, these kinds of surgeries become a routine in our department, it would be quite significant."

"This Liver Preservation Surgery, even Professor Chen didn't perform many cases of it when he was here. I didn't expect you to handle it."

Zhang Tiesheng said, "Director Lin, you can't just describe Xiao Lu's talent as ordinary, his ability is extraordinary."

Listening to Zhang Tiesheng describe 'extraordinary' in such an 'elegant' way, Lu Cheng also laughed, "Brother Zhang, you might as well just describe it as 'abnormal,' your way of handling things..."

"What do you mean? I don't get it?" Lin Qianlong looked unexpectedly at Zhang Tiesheng.

"It's a pun," Lu Cheng smiled, "I just don't know if Brother Zhang was referring to travelling both by water and road, or just water."

Zhang Tiesheng's dark face tightened slightly, "Whoa, Xiao Lu, you think too fast. Did you learn this too?"

As the saying goes, a surgeon who doesn't know how to be tricky isn't a good sailor. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Jokes are quite common in the surgery and operating rooms.

Lu Cheng quickly ate a few more bites of noodles, sipped some soup, then packed up hurriedly. Glancing at the time, he quickly said, "Director Lin, I need to head to the emergency department for my shift. I'm almost half an hour late."

Today was Lu Cheng's daytime shift in the emergency department.

There are quite a few people in the emergency department, but the shifts are plenty. Lu Cheng's surgery duty coincided with the emergency department's daytime shift.

Lin Qianlong immediately said, "No rush, Lu Cheng, actually, your day shift has been cut..."

Lu Cheng looked at Lin Qianlong, a little confused.

Lin Qianlong understood Lu Cheng's expression, "Though Professor Tong said the shifts were already scheduled and couldn't be changed..."

"But we can adjust through the medical department."

"I discussed with Director Huang from the internal medicine department, and we thought if Xiao Lu could take even one more night shift, it would reduce the overall mortality rate in our emergency department."