It was close to midnight when the operation concluded. Anji decided to leave the rest of the procedure to Doctor Yun and Senior Researcher Mo. Already, her body was hitting its limits and she felt dizzy.
Little Mushroom helped Anji to clean up while the girl was half asleep on her feet. However, when she learned that Aunt Wine was waiting outside, Anji gathered the rest of her remaining energy to greet the head chef and apologise for missing another meal again.
"My dear! You look asleep on your feet. Don’t apologise, it was an emergency. How are you feeling? I’m assuming the surgery went well. Silly Hu is out of danger now with Doctor Yun, right?"
Showing concern for both the child and the patient inside, Aunt Wine presented the heated-up food and told Anji to eat up. Although there was an internship tomorrow for Anji, due to the circumstances, she was going to exercise her right as the resident cook to force Anji to take the day off. Aunt Wine, Senior Librarian Pearl and Doctor Yun were the three primary welfare officers during Anji’s unique attachment program who had veto rights to prevent her from showing up at a researcher’s quarters should Anji’s condition take a turn for the worse.
Originally, Aunt Wine was considering of exercising her right to bring up a day off for Anji after Researcher Yang’s incident. However, Doctor Yun deemed her healthy enough, and they knew Researcher Ke would likely not give Anji any chores to do. Hence, her intentions to make Anji take a day off were overruled.
Now, nobody else could change Aunt Wine’s mind. Pearl had already received word about the accident and sent a letter proposing that Anji take the week off to recover. Aunt Wine was all for it. Doctor Yun’s approval was the last thing they needed, and regardless of his opinion, she would make him agree to give Anji the day off for at least tomorrow.
As the tired child ate while half snoozing, Aunt Wine helped to clean the child’s messy chin where the soup dribbled. Although Anji could not finish eating everything due to her losing battle with sleep, it was good enough. Seeing how Anji had eaten something before sleeping, the retired chef cleaned up the rest of the remaining food. It was a waste to throw food away, but she would overlook the wasteful act this time.
Unwilling to wake the child up, Aunt Wine packed the food and was about to carry Anji back when Pearl appeared. Read complete version only at noveⅼfire.net
"I just finished my work," the senior librarian panted. The dark circles beneath her eyes had gotten worse again. "Let me take her back. You should sleep too, Aunt Wine. It’s not as if you’re young anymore."
Hearing the concern and also insult, the cook huffed and wagged her finger at the librarian with a glare.
"I’m still plenty young," she chided. "Doctor Yun is still inside. I’ll have to stay and talk to him about giving Anji the day off tomorrow. You should take her back first. It was a long day for her. Be sure to leave a note to let her know she’s not reporting for internships, but she should check-in for lunch. Assistant Hu is out of danger. She can visit him in the afternoon."
Agreeing, Pearl carried Anji on her back and left to bring the girl back. It was going to be a long night. However, sleeping in clothing that smelled of blood was not good. She would change Anji’s clothes before tucking her in.
Not long after Pearl left, Doctor Yun finally opened the infirmary windows, indicating that the surgery was over. The man was exhausted but relieved that everything had gone smoothly for his first time.
"Good work," Aunt Wine handed him a warm bowl of soup she had left over warmed up. "I didn’t bring your share of food, so you’ll have to accompany me back to the kitchen for a good meal. Is Silly Hu alright?"
Despite his fatigue after completing his first surgery, Doctor Yun offered to carry the food basket and walked with Aunt Wine to the mess hall.
While walking, he described the process of the surgery and admitted that Anji played a huge part in the success. Senior Researcher Mo was still with Assistant Hu, helping him speed up the recovery of his internal wounds and stabilising his energy. The serious injury would recover within two weeks now that his life was out of danger.
"At first, I could not believe she was the disciple of such a famous doctor who disappeared from the world. However, her advanced medical knowledge and incredible ability to control qi made it possible for me to locate and remove the bone fragment embedded inside the ruptured spleen. Of course, Senior Researcher Mo was helping Anji, but it was the young child who navigated the safest path for us."
As it turned out, there was more than one bone shard that we had to remove. Fixing the shattered portions of his ribs would normally be impossible for most doctors. Doctor Yun explained that he would remove all the broken fragments and let the body go through a natural binding process under normal circumstances. However, there was a risk of permanent damage and deformity in natural healing. Yet, it was thanks to Anji and Senior Researcher Mo that they were able to piece the broken fragments, fusing them back to the original bone and holding them in place using energy threads while he stitched the open wound.
"I never knew medical science could be greatly improved with the help of cultivators," he admitted. "If only there were cultivator doctors, there would be so many more patients in critical conditions that we could save."
Sighing, Aunt Wine reflected on her time as a cultivator. The thought of becoming a cook never occurred to her until she had given up advancing in her cultivation. It was the same for most cultivators. However, their little cutie was different. Instead of choosing to focus on only one thing in life, she chose to look at it from a bigger picture and integrate every aspect of it into her life.
"We have much to learn from her," she nodded. "But she’s not going to go to anybody’s lab tomorrow. After helping you with the surgery, I think it’s only right that she rests."
Agreeing immediately, Doctor Yun promised to check on Anji tomorrow. For now, his stomach took precedence, interrupting them with a growl.