Chapter 214: A Galaxy of Talent
Gu Jiaojiao felt a chill run down her spine, and the pressure was immense. Han Chenyu was implying that these patients were all extremely important.
"Divine Doctor Su Gu, I have faith in your medical skills. Please, you must help us treat them. We will be sure to thank you properly."
Gu Jiaojiao was touched to hear such an imposing, tough-as-nails man pleading with her.
But she was just a doctor. She could save lives and heal the wounded, but she couldn’t bring the dead back to life.
"Mr. Han, it’s too early to say anything. Everything will have to wait until I’ve seen the wounded.
I will do everything in my power to treat them. There’s really no need for thanks.
They are all heroes. It would be my honor to be able to heal them."
"Divine Doctor Su Gu, you are truly a person of principle. The car is fixed. Let’s go." Han Chenyu personally opened the car door for her.
Gu Jiaojiao got into the car with calm composure, not the least bit fazed. ’In my past life, even foreign officials opened doors for me!’
It was already past nine p.m. ’I wonder if my man is asleep yet!’
Gu Jiaojiao sorely missed the cell phones of her past life, which would have let her video chat anytime, anywhere.
But in this era, there were only landlines. She hadn’t reached her destination, so there was no way to contact him while she was on the road.
Su Shuochi was currently hooked up to an IV drip. His wife had left him a ten-day supply of medicine before she left.
Gu Jiaojiao had wanted to arrange for one of Divine Doctor Jiang’s apprentices to insert the IV needle for him, but he had refused, saying he could do it himself.
With one hand, he skillfully set everything up, placing the IV stand next to the telephone.
At dusk, he had seen his parents off to their new house, and during the day, he had other matters to keep him busy.
So he hadn’t had much time to miss his wife. But now, in the quiet of the night, longing and worry washed over him like a tidal wave.
’Why hasn’t the living room phone rung yet?’ he silently chanted over and over. ’Come on! Ring already!’
But the phone remained stubbornly silent. His free hand restlessly stroked the receiver back and forth.
He was sick with worry. ’Who the hell is driving her? Why are they so slow? It’s this late and she still hasn’t arrived.’
’It has only been six hours, and I’m already going mad with longing. If only I could just get a call and hear her voice!’
Another ten agonizing minutes crawled by, but the phone remained silent. By the time his IV drip was finished, it still hadn’t rung.
He patiently put away the IV stand. Finally, unable to bear it any longer, he wheeled himself to the door and pulled it open.
He looked out at the sky, dotted with countless stars. But the beautiful nightscape couldn’t capture his attention. A wave of disappointment washed over him.
With a sigh, he went back inside and sat down by the telephone again. He lost track of time.
The telephone finally rang. His heart leaped with the sound, and he snatched up the receiver instantly.
The voice he had longed to hear came from the other end. "Su Shuochi? Is that you? You were waiting for my call, weren’t you?"
It was her...
Hearing that familiar voice, he was so moved he nearly shed tears. "Yes, it’s me. Honey, you finally made it?"
"Mhm, I just got here. Make sure you eat properly and go to sleep early, okay? I’ve still got things to do here, so I can’t talk for long."
"Wait—?" BEEP... BEEP...
Su Shuochi clutched the receiver, dumbfounded. ’She was in that much of a hurry?’
After hanging up, Gu Jiaojiao followed Han Chenyu to the temporary field hospital.
Inside the crude, makeshift field hospital, many military doctors were busy trying to save the wounded.
Xia Qiuming was among them. He was handsome enough on a normal day, but he was utterly captivating when he worked.
Many pretty female doctors and nurses were always fluttering around him. The moment an operation was over, they would start chattering.
"Professor Xia, let me wipe the sweat for you."
"Professor Xia, you looked so incredible performing surgery just now!"
"Professor Xia, I’ll pack up your medical kit for you..."
"That’s enough. All of you, get lost." Xia Qiuming was getting sick of all the noise.
The moment he looked up and saw Gu Jiaojiao, his face broke into a wide grin. "Jiaojiao! You got here so fast?"
His voice was incredibly gentle, a complete one-eighty from the man who had told everyone to get lost just seconds before.
All the women followed Xia Qiuming’s gaze, their killing glares converging on Gu Jiaojiao.
If looks could kill, Gu Jiaojiao would have already been sliced to ribbons by those women a thousand times over.
Their glares practically screamed, ’Where did this little seductress come from? How dare she try to steal our dream guy!’
"Weren’t you the one who said it was urgent?" Gu Jiaojiao’s voice was as lovely as a trickling spring, a refreshing sound that soothed the soul.
It was sweet as honey, putting one at ease and lifting their spirits. She wasn’t using her voice changer this time.
"Heh heh... It is urgent," Xia Qiuming said with a cheerful chuckle. "I’ll take you to see the patient who’s hanging on by a thread."
’It’s been two days, and they had never once heard Professor Xia speak in such a warm, gentle voice!’
’And it was all thanks to that seductress!’
Accompanying them was an elderly man, said to be Xu Qingxu, a titan in the Empire’s world of traditional Chinese medicine. He was apparently two tiers above even He Shen Yi.
While he admired Xia Qiuming’s skill with a scalpel, he still preferred conservative treatment methods.
Xu Qingxu’s ancestors had been Imperial Physicians. With knowledge passed down over several hundred years, his medical skills were exceptionally refined.
Later on, however, the medical texts passed down through the Xu Family had been almost entirely destroyed by foreign invaders.
All that remained was the knowledge in his own mind. After so many years of peace, he had managed to write down some of his own secret formulas.
"Divine Doctor Su Gu? Do you practice Chinese or Western medicine?" Xu Qingxu asked the most critical question.
"I focus primarily on Chinese medicine," Gu Jiaojiao said, lying without even blinking. "And please, I can’t claim the title of ’Divine Doctor.’ It’s just a polite moniker others have given me."
Gu Jiaojiao said this because she had noticed the flicker of anger in his expression when Western medicine was mentioned.
Although both Chinese and Western medicine had their place, Gu Jiaojiao chose to placate the elder before her.
Sure enough, Xu Qingxu was delighted. He began to ramble, "Excellent, truly excellent. The Little Divine Doctor is a sensible one.
This Western medicine, always cutting people open—it’s just reckless. Any recovery is pure luck. The body breaks down after going under the knife. How can it possibly compare to the wisdom our ancestors left us?"
"Elder Xu is right. For common illnesses, one should avoid surgery whenever possible. It’s better to use the conservative treatment methods of Chinese medicine.
However, for trauma patients, a scalpel is necessary. The success rate for surgery in these cases is very high."
Gu Jiaojiao said this with an air of soaring confidence; she wasn’t about to spout nonsense just to flatter Elder Xu.
"Mm. These patients have torn flesh and shattered bones. I know a scalpel is needed for a fast recovery. Don’t tell me the Little Divine Doctor can also perform surgery?"
Xu Qingxu just wanted a capable doctor who respected Chinese medicine; he simply disliked it when people praised Western medicine as superior.
"I know a little about surgery as well," Gu Jiaojiao said humbly. ’There are talented people in every era, after all,’ she thought.
The group quickly reached the patient who was hanging by a thread. Gu Jiaojiao took a high-tech instrument from her backpack to begin her analysis.
"His wounds need to be sutured immediately. He’s in a coma because he’s been poisoned. I’ll need to use my instruments to determine the specific type of poison."
Gu Jiaojiao stated with conviction. She was all business when she worked.
In fact, she had already discovered that this was the same toxin that had poisoned Su Shuochi.
Not only did the antidote for this poison not exist in this era, but even in her past life in the 2020s, it had only just been developed—and she was one of the researchers who had worked on it.