Yan Feifan's heart sank.
That splash of red meant something was terribly wrong.
It was papilledema—a swelling of the optic disc inside the eyeball, caused by increased intracranial pressure.
Only then did Yan Feifan notice that the twitching of the burly man's facial muscles was rhythmic.
This wasn't a facial tic caused by pain at all. It had to be a focal seizure brought on by dangerously high intracranial pressure.
Yan Feifan also noticed the man's gaze had become unfocused.
He quickly examined the man's head.
After a quick inspection, Yan Feifan felt a swelling about five centimeters in diameter on the upper left side of the back of the man's head.
Other than that, there were no other signs of head trauma.
Yan Feifan concluded that the man must have suffered an accidental blow to the head, which had unexpectedly ruptured a blood vessel in his brain.
The blood had been slowly pooling inside his skull, gradually increasing the intracranial pressure until the symptoms finally manifested.
That's why the triage doctor had missed it, classifying him as having minor injuries.
He turned to the young nurse and ordered loudly, "Call a neurosurgeon immediately! And go tell Mr. Wan that I have a patient with a cerebral hemorrhage who needs urgent treatment."
Seeing the young nurse hesitate, Yan Feifan urged her sharply, "What are you waiting for? Go, now!"
The young nurse scurried out in a panic.
Just then, a voice suddenly rang out in Yan Feifan's mind. "Not bad. You finally noticed the patient's abnormality and made the correct diagnosis."
"But, Yan Feifan, why aren't you doing anything yet?"
Yan Feifan turned his head to look at Yiyi, who had appeared to his right dressed as a doctor, and said coldly, "I've already sent the nurse to report it."
Yiyi walked over to the man, who was now frozen like a statue, and studied him. "You know full well that in his condition, you must lower his intracranial pressure as quickly as possible."
"Otherwise, once the pressure gets too high, it will be difficult for blood to enter the brain. That will quickly lead to hypoxic damage to the brain cells, and subsequently, brain death."
"When every second counts, you just send a nurse to make a report while you do nothing yourself?"
Yan Feifan struggled, trying to defend himself. "I'm just a resident. With attending physicians around, I'm not qualified to perform this level of emergency procedure."
Yiyi shot Yan Feifan a contemptuous look. "So, to you, a person's health and life are less important than hospital regulations?"
Yan Feifan fell silent, not knowing how to argue his case.
Yiyi pointed at the man, whose pained expression was now frozen in place, and said slowly, "Let me tell you the possible consequences of this delay of a few dozen seconds!"
"Loss of vision in one eye or hearing in one ear?"
"Numbness and impaired mobility on one side of his body?"
"Hemiplegia?"
"Paralyzed in bed, or perhaps a vegetative state?"
"Brain death, or even just... death?"
Then, Yiyi's tone suddenly turned mocking. "Let me take another guess, Yan Feifan. The reason you won't act probably isn't because you're afraid of violating hospital rules. It's just because..."
"You're scared, aren't you?"
"You're afraid your skills aren't good enough. You're afraid of failure, aren't you?"
Yiyi said tauntingly, "After all, even if you've simulated this thousands, or tens of thousands of times in the world of your consciousness, it was just a simulation. You could always try again if you failed."
"But in the real world, you're facing a living, breathing person."
"A man of flesh and blood who can talk and breathe won't give you a second chance."
"So, you're cowering. You're backing down."
Yiyi gave him another look of disdain. "Yan Feifan, if you don't have the guts, then just give control of the body to me."
"Are you just going to stand by and watch a life be permanently damaged, or even lost, because of your cowardice and incompetence?"
Spurred on by Yiyi's relentless provocation, Yan Feifan's gaze gradually hardened with resolve.
He turned and looked Yiyi straight in the eye, his voice low and firm. "After practicing tens of thousands of times in the world of my consciousness, I absolutely will not fail."
"Yiyi, if you think you're taking control of my body, you can dream on."
As he spoke those words, the world around Yan Feifan returned to its normal flow of time.
He grabbed a Puncture Needle from a compartmentalized box full of medical instruments and tore open the sterile packaging.
The dazed man vaguely saw Yan Feifan approaching with a needle that looked ten to twenty centimeters long. A jolt of fear brought some clarity back to his eyes.
"Doc... tor..."
Hearing the man's slurred speech, Yan Feifan quickly explained, "Your intracranial pressure is too high. I need to lower it urgently to buy time for further treatment."
"I'm going to perform a puncture through your right nasal cavity to drain some cerebrospinal fluid."
He then added reassuringly, "Don't be afraid. It'll only hurt for a second!"
With that, Yan Feifan inserted the long needle into the man's right nostril.
Finding the right position and trusting his feel for it, Yan Feifan took a deep breath, braced the back of the man's head with his left hand, and with his right hand, pushed forcefully...
With a soft SQUISH of the needle piercing flesh, more than half of the needle in Yan Feifan's hand disappeared into the man's nasal cavity.
If this puncture went too deep, or if the angle was wrong, it would cause irreversible brain damage.
But the moment Yan Feifan's hand stopped, he knew one thing with absolute certainty.
He'd succeeded!
At that moment, Yan Feifan felt an unprecedented sense of relief, as if an invisible shackle had fallen away from him.
The instant he detached the syringe from the back of the Puncture Needle, a reddish, bloody fluid shot out from the needle's hub.
The fluid sprayed all over the front of Yan Feifan's sterile gown.
Just then, the sound of hurried footsteps approached from the distance.
The curtain to the cubicle was thrown open, and the young nurse ran in.
She saw the front of Yan Feifan's gown soaked with bloody fluid and froze, stunned. It took a sharp glare from Yan Feifan to snap her out of it.
"Mr. Wan said that all the attending physicians and above are busy resuscitating patients and can't get away right now."
"Mr. Wan said he authorizes you to perform the emergency procedure."
"Mr. Wan also said you should proceed with confidence and that if anything goes wrong, he'll take full responsibility."
The nurse, catching her breath, added, "I also paged the neurosurgeon."
Yan Feifan nodded and gave another order. "Get a gurney over here..."
Another five minutes passed before an associate chief physician, who had rushed over from Neurosurgery, arrived with a team and took the man away...
After changing into a fresh sterile gown, gloves, and mask, Yan Feifan went back to treating the wounded.
After treating the injuries of five more patients, the young nurse led in a beautiful, impeccably dressed woman in her early twenties.
Yan Feifan removed the gauze from her left brow bone, revealing nothing more than a six-centimeter-long laceration.
He couldn't help but glance at the young nurse.
'This wound is so small and shallow, a nurse could have handled it directly. Isn't having me treat it overkill?'
The young nurse quickly and timidly explained, "Mr. Yan, Mrs. Xv brought her over."
"Mrs. Xv said there aren't any more patients with injuries suitable for you at the moment."
"This lady's wound is on her face, and among all the residents in the emergency department right now, your suturing technique is the best."
"So..."
Yan Feifan waved a hand, indicating that he understood.
As he began to clean the young woman's wound, he heard her ask through the pain, her voice filled with worry, "Doctor, will it leave a scar?"
Yan Feifan said calmly, "It's impossible for there to be no scar at all. However, as long as you don't have a keloid-prone skin type..."
He continued with great confidence, "After it heals, no one will be able to see it unless they're looking for it up close."
The young woman let out a small "oh" and, fighting through the pain and fear, remained perfectly still, allowing Yan Feifan to work.
Once the wound was cleaned, Yan Feifan selected the finest 4-0 suture to close the woman's wound.
Surgical suture diameters come in several standard sizes, such as 6-0, 5-0, 4-0, 3-0, 2-0, 0, 1, and 2.
The more zeroes, the finer the suture's diameter.
Among these, the 6-0 and 5-0 sizes are also known as cosmetic sutures.
Sutures of this gauge are most commonly used in plastic surgery.
During facial cosmetic procedures, these sutures are typically made of absorbable material and used for intradermal stitches.
When a highly skilled plastic surgeon sutures a cosmetic wound, the scar will be extremely small after it heals.
To the naked eye, it would be virtually unnoticeable.
However, in a place like the emergency department, facial wounds are usually closed with 0 or 1 gauge sutures.
Yan Feifan's deliberate choice of a 4-0 suture was already a considerable courtesy to Mrs. Xv...
After finishing with the young woman's wound, Yan Feifan stepped out of the treatment room and saw that the emergency hall had been transformed into a massive trauma center.
A total of four teams were working to save their respective patients.
A dozen or so interns and residents stood by, observing.
Seeing that no more patients were being brought in, Yan Feifan knew that this wave of the emergency was over...
He walked out of the emergency hall and saw Yan Ziruo hurrying toward him.
Yan Feifan shielded his eyes and looked up at the bright sky, dotted with white clouds.
"Sis, I'm fine."
"And besides, I beat that annoying Yiyi again..."
Yan Ziruo asked in confusion, "Feifan, who's Yiyi?"