"What do you mean, 'I'?"
Ji Jue blinked innocently and countered, "As you know, Director, as a newcomer, I value the hospital regulations above all else. Why would I ever violate them intentionally?"
At that, Director Qian's smile broadened until it was downright radiant. "Then why did you administer treatment without reporting it to your superior first? That isn't in accordance with hospital regulations, is it?"
An uncontrollable, hair-raising chill crept up from Ji Jue's heels and shot straight to the back of his head.
A foul cold engulfed his soul.
Behind him, Tong Hua could already see invisible, gaping maws manifesting out of thin air, faintly encircling Ji Jue from every angle.
His head, his neck, his hands, his legs, his internal organs...
They were practically drooling with hunger, aching to lick and chew!
"Desperate times call for desperate measures. The patient's life comes first."
Ji Jue gave an unshakeable reply, his expression dead serious. "While carrying out my duties, I received a plea for help from the patient. Upon assessment, I determined that her deteriorating condition posed an imminent threat to her safety.
"After I explained the treatment plan, both the patient and her family gave their full consent. In the end, the procedure was carried out seamlessly and yielded delightful results."
In an instant, the smile on Director Qian's face vanished without a trace, replaced by raw ferocity. "Know your place. You are merely a resident. The hospital regulations do not permit you to accept pleas for help from patients!"
"They don't forbid it either, do they?"
Ji Jue shot back. Caring not a whit for the malice pricking his spine like needles, he stared straight into that mangled, unrecognizably stitched face. "Besides, as a doctor, how could I just stand by and watch a patient suffer?"
"Is that so?" Director Qian's face was completely devoid of expression as he glared daggers at him.
Ji Jue nodded resolutely. "Of course it is."
A kindhearted doctor had provided emergency aid to a suffering patient during his ward rounds, delivering her from misery, winning the gratitude and admiration of the patient and her husband, and drawing praise from all the other patients in the ward. He had practically embodied the duty represented by the white coat.
Wasn't that the truth?
Going by this achievement alone, if he didn't make the front page of this month's hospital bulletin, nobody would accept the results!
In a flash, the malice and ferocity vanished into thin air.
The gaping maws receded into the shadows, and an exaggerated grin resurfaced on Director Qian's face, brimming with approval and delight.
"Just as I expected!"
Director Qian clapped him on the shoulder, his expression turning ever more 'benevolent.' "It seems you get along swimmingly with the patients. You don't hesitate for a second when it comes to saving lives.
"I knew I wasn't wrong about you. Out of all the new hires, you have the highest caliber!"
"Thank you for the praise, Director. It was all in a day's work."
"It's just a pity. I thought you'd slip up and make a little mistake. I was even wondering if I ought to lend you a helping hand... hehehehe..."
As though sighing with nostalgia, the hair on Director Qian's head wriggled like snakes. He looked back over. "Since even that couldn't stump you, I'll leave the next operation in your hands as lead surgeon."
His grin was brilliant, radiant with eager anticipation. "You won't let me down, will you?"
If this had been the outside world, Ji Jue would have snapped back with something like, *Do you even hear the absolute nonsense coming out of your mouth?*
*Me? Surgery?*
*I don't even have a fucking medical license, all right?!*
Still, considering this godforsaken hospital didn't even pay salaries and treated its own staff's lives like dirt, it was only natural that patients' lives were treated with equal disregard.
Water off a duck's back.
Hardly a big deal.
After racking his brain for every possible excuse and finding no way to refuse Director Qian's demand, Ji Jue had no choice but to nod. "What kind of surgery?"
"What other surgeries are there in obstetrics? Delivery, of course."
Director Qian patted his shoulder one last time and gave a warm, caring instruction. "Go review the patient's chart, and get ready to scrub in shortly."
With that, he turned and walked away.
Only, at the dark end of the corridor, he suddenly turned his head. His radiant smile was swallowed by the shadows. "If you don't do a good job and violate hospital regulations, very bad things will happen."
Then he melted into the dark.
Behind him, Ji Jue curled his lip. "How bad? Dock my pay?"
Tong Hua, who had been scared half to death, couldn't hold back an eye-roll. "They'll dock your lifespan, obviously!"
"Then it's settled."
Ji Jue pointed decisively at her. "You're my first assist!"
"Why me?!" Tong Hua gasped in horror.
"Since when does a teammate get to kick back while the other suffers?" Ji Jue countered as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "We're such good friends now. If we die, we die together!"
"Well, gee, thanks a fucking lot!" Tong Hua fumed. "The moment we get out of here, I'm going straight to Sister Wen and crying about how you bullied me!"
"Go ahead and cry! We can cry together! I'll tell her you peeked while I was changing and tried to ravish my pure, innocent body!"
Ji Jue held his head high and strode ahead, brimming with confidence.
And so it was decided!
***
Afterward, he promptly had Tong Hua quantum-speed-read every single file and book, shoving every scrap of information related to childbirth into his brain.
Even with his abilities, Ji Jue was left dizzy and overwhelmed, barely able to take it all in.
To be safe, they reviewed every record, piece of knowledge, and surgical breakdown in the room, right down to half a manual on postpartum care for sows.
Not that it was likely to help much.
Given the bizarre nature of this hospital inside the Chrono Ruin, Ji Jue wouldn't even be surprised if the one lying on the operating table turned out to be a two-hundred-pound, tanned, burly trans football player.
Suffice it to say, better prepared than sorry.
Even so, when he saw the 'laboring mother' on the operating table—a creature boasting four or five legs, seven or eight arms, and a head that was the only part vaguely resembling a human—Ji Jue couldn't help but shake his head in awe at the sheer absurdity and wonder of the Chrono Ruin's creations.
Put this design in a horror game, and it would easily be the final boss at the end of the stage. The kind where you had to run a marathon through a haunted mansion in a chase sequence just to trigger the fight.
At that moment, seeing fresh meat deliver itself right to her doorstep, the mother on the delivery table began thrashing violently. She parted her maw of jagged fangs, famished and eager to replenish her nourishment.
Unfortunately for her, thick chains bound her limbs, torso, and neck tightly, leaving her completely immobilized. Two pairs of pitch-black eyes without a trace of white stared fixedly at Ji Jue, her mouth opening repeatedly in shrill shrieks.
"Hurry along now, everyone is waiting for you."
Standing beside the operating table with his hands clasped, Director Qian offered a genial smile. "Don't keep the mother waiting."
Under the surgical lamp that shone down like a spotlight, an assortment of equipment had long been prepared. Yet in the darkness beyond the beam of light, it seemed... crowded with heads.
Ten? Twenty? Or was it thirty?
Around the operating table, vague silhouettes had clearly been waiting for ages. Right now, they were restless and expectant, craving the start of the surgery. Crimson eyes gleamed in the dark like a cluster of ravenous stars.
"Who are they?" Ji Jue glanced back.
"Family members accompanying the delivery," Director Qian informed him. "Don't worry, they won't disturb you. You must also appreciate the deep bond between the family and the mother.
"At such a critical juncture, it's only natural for them to be present."
Present for what?
To attend a feast?
Watching those shadowy figures rubbing their hands and drooling, Ji Jue's eyelids twitched violently. *If the baby is born, you hold a banquet; if the baby isn't born, you feast on the doctor, is that it?!*
He gave Tong Hua a stealthy nudge with his foot to snap her out of her daze. Then, assuming the mantle without hesitation, Ji Jue stepped up to the operating table. Raising his sterile-gloved right hand, he gestured toward his side. To prevent Tong Hua from mistaking it for finger-hearts, he made sure to bark, "Prepare anesthesia. Hand me the tool."
Tong Hua recoiled her half-raised hand like she'd been electrocuted. After a frantic scramble, she finally fished a syringe loaded with anesthetic out of the mountain of trays, only for Ji Jue to slap it aside without mercy.
"Not that one."
He pointed toward the corner of the operating room. "Bring me the big one."
Propped against the wall in the corner of the room was a sledgehammer.
Its handle was stained with dark red grime, and its iron head was crusted with rust. The moment it was touched, faint wails seemed to echo in the ears, a testament to just how many unlucky doctors or patients it had crushed to death.
"Here goes!"
*Wham!*
Under the dumbfounded gazes of the family, the director, and his assistant, Ji Jue wound up with both arms and swung the massive sledgehammer, smashing it straight down onto the 'mother's' head.
The entire delivery table shuddered in agony, nearly collapsing.
Bound beneath the iron chains, the flailing mass of arms and legs suddenly stiffened. The body went rigid, then went limp, slumping down without another sound.
The shrill screeching and howling ceased.
"Whew..."
Ji Jue let out a whistle and nodded in satisfaction. Knocked out cold without brain damage—just the right amount of force!
Yet right after that, he saw the mother's eyes snap open again, brimming with crimson, and she began wailing once more.
Ji Jue's smile froze for a split second. *Now that's just ungrateful.*
*In that case, let's do some brain damage after all!*
*Wham!*
Ji Jue instantly followed up with another blow, then another, and several more!
With every dull thud that landed, an untold number of arms and legs spasmed into the air and flopped back down, making for a spectacular game of whack-a-mole.
He didn't stop until that grotesque face was reduced to a bloody pulp and fell dead silent. He raised the hammer tentatively one more time, and seeing no reaction, he finally put down the anesthesia tool with a hint of disappointment.
He had been hoping to play a little longer.
"If the patient wakes up, remember to remind me to give her a booster. Intraoperative awareness is extremely dangerous,"
Ji Jue instructed Tong Hua solemnly, making her eyelid twitch uncontrollably.
*Dangerous? Dangerous my ass! I feel like your method of anesthesia is way more dangerous!*
*Thank heavens Masterwork Nature let you calibrate your strength properly, or with the way you swung that thing, the first few hits would've blown her head into paste!*
"Nothing to it, water off a duck's back," Ji Jue comforted her. "Don't be nervous. What's there to be afraid of? Isn't it just cutting her open, taking it out, and stitching her back up?"
"I-I'm not nervous!" Tong Hua tried to talk tough, wiping the cold sweat from her forehead. But then she saw Ji Jue glance back.
"No, I wasn't comforting you. I was talking to myself..."
Her vision went instantly black. *Big brother, do you actually know what you're doing?!*
Yet she didn't have the guts to slap her chest and tell him to get out of the way so she could do it, so she could only stew in anxious silence.
"All right, quit dragging your feet. Anesthesia doesn't last forever," Ji Jue ordered. "CT scan, hurry!"
Tong Hua went blank again.
*CT? Where the hell are we going to find a C—oh, wait, you mean me?!*
Gritting her teeth, Tong Hua glared at him for several seconds before finally reaching out her hand. *First day in the Chrono Ruin, and you shot at me, tutted at me, scared me for fun, and now you want me to be a CT scanner!*
*I am so remembering this grudge.*
*The moment we're out, I'm spreading your famous quotes eight hundred times over!*
The Eye of Aether instantly pierced through everything. The observations were transformed into records, pouring steadily into Ji Jue's mind.
It was just like turning on an X-ray vision hack.
Everything became crystal clear.
Yet the moment he saw the condition inside the mother's body, Ji Jue couldn't help but suck in several sharp breaths of cold air, his eye twitching violently.
*How the hell is this delivering a baby?!*
*What's the difference between this and bomb disposal in an armory?!*
*I mean, seriously, if it's already reached this point, couldn't they just cut straight to the chase and call in a bomb technician?!*
Chapter 156