The Godfather of Surgery

"Blood! Get the blood!"

"Why hasn't the blood arrived yet?"

In the middle of the night, in the operating room of G City People's Hospital, the lights were bright, and the frantic, hoarse shouts echoed in the air.

A few more bags of blood were hung on the infusion stand, while nearby, piles of empty blood bags lay scattered, with faint traces of blood still visible inside.

The blood flowed quickly through several transparent tubes, entering the patient's body.

The transfusion had become the only support for the patient's life on the operating table.

"This isn't good. Can't find the blood vessels. Gauze! Keep packing it in. Talk to the family, let them know the chances of survival are slim. Prepare them mentally." Director Wu had been rummaging through the pelvic cavity for a long time but couldn't find the damaged blood vessels, so he could only keep packing gauze in. Sweat covered his forehead as he repeatedly moved the sterile drape aside, signaling the circulating nurse to help wipe his face.

Young doctor Yang Ping was holding a retractor on the table. After several sleepless nights of surgeries, he was starting to feel dizzy and lightheaded.

Suddenly, a warm current forcefully surged through his head, spreading throughout his entire body.

It felt as though the world had suddenly frozen. Everything and everyone around him stood still, the image before his eyes was frozen in place, and Yang Ping's body couldn't move, but his consciousness remained active.

A window appeared in the top-right corner of his vision.

A series of subtitles appeared, accompanied by a robotic female voice:

"Binding process starting!"

"Binding successful!"

"Binding complete!"

"Testing—"

Everything around him disappeared, and he found himself in an unfamiliar space.

In the center was an operating table, with a patient lying on it, already prepped for surgery.

How did I get here? Who's holding the retractor on the table?

The space was eerily silent, and no one answered Yang Ping's questions.

Yang Ping cleared his thoughts and slowly approached the table. The exposed surgical area looked exactly like the patient he had just tried to save.

"Would you like to start the simulation surgery?" A prompt appeared on the screen.

Is this a simulation of the patient's rescue? Yang Ping thought and chose "Yes."

The screen immediately started a countdown—a five-minute timer.

Yang Ping began the surgery, with a robotic assistant helping him. Indeed, the patient was the same as the one he had just operated on, stabbed in the pelvis, with gauze stuffed inside, and blood still gushing out.

He began trying to find the blood vessels but couldn't locate them.

The five-minute countdown ended, and the patient's heartbeat and breathing stopped.

Yang Ping felt defeated, unsure of what to do next.

He took a deep breath, extended the incision, and opened the abdominal cavity fully.

Since the heart had already stopped beating, no more blood came out. He used a suction device to clear the accumulated blood, making it easier to locate the ruptured blood vessels.

He searched through the cavity, finding the common iliac artery. However, this artery didn't branch into the internal and external iliac arteries as expected. Instead, it continued downward, branching off repeatedly, but neither the main vessel nor the branches showed any signs of damage.

Yang Ping was confused. Could it be a vascular anomaly?

Following this thought, he found the abdominal aorta upstream and traced it downward. About ten centimeters above the common iliac artery, he found a finger-thick branch of the abdominal aorta. Continuing down the branch, he finally found the site of the rupture.

It turned out to be an anomalous external iliac artery. Instead of branching off from the common iliac artery, it originated directly from the abdominal aorta, and at a very high point. Such an anomaly was something most surgeons might never encounter in their entire careers.

Dealing with this kind of anomalous vessel, especially in an emergency with blood everywhere, was difficult enough. Even if there were time, finding the right vessel would be extremely challenging. No wonder Director Wu had searched for so long without success.

"Would you like to repeat the simulation?"

Yang Ping clicked "Yes."

Sure enough, the patient on the operating table dissolved into light fragments and reappeared. Everything returned to the moment when Yang Ping first entered the system.

This time, he knew exactly where the bleeding vessel was. He immediately targeted the anomalous external iliac artery, clamped both ends of the rupture, ligated the veins, and then slowly sutured the artery.

Ligating the veins was fine, but ligating the artery would lead to necrosis in one of the limbs, so the veins could be ligated, but the artery had to be sutured.

This time, the entire process took half an hour to complete.

The patient still didn't survive, and the system judged the attempt as a failure.

"Try again!"

This process repeated endlessly, hundreds of times.

Finally, Yang Ping was able to complete the surgery in under three minutes, and the system judged it as a success.

The surrounding space immediately disappeared.

Yang Ping found himself back in the real operating room.

At that moment, the frozen scene thawed, and everything returned to normal.

The external iliac artery had ruptured! And it was an anomalous external iliac artery.

This kind of bleeding was like a gushing fire hose. Without continuous blood transfusions, the patient would have already passed away.

"Blood pressure is dropping. We can't measure it. Start pressurized transfusion, quickly! Dopamine—" The anesthesiologist shouted, grabbing medication from the nearby drug box, opening it, and drawing the drug into a syringe to inject into the IV line.

According to the simulation, they only had five minutes to save the patient, and that life was about to slip away.

There was no time to explain to Director Wu—saving the patient was the priority. There was no time for anything else.

Yang Ping forced his way past Director Wu and took the lead as the main surgeon.

"Xiao Wu, come help me on the other side!"

Xiao Wu, another young doctor who had been helping on the table, immediately squeezed past the assistant director, taking the first assistant position.

"Scalpel! Vessel clamps! Vessel clamps! Get three suction devices!"

The surgical instrument nurse, circulating nurse, and anesthesiologist were all stunned for a moment. In their despair, they saw a glimmer of hope. After a brief moment of confusion, they immediately began to cooperate.

"Yang Ping, are you crazy? What are you doing?" Director Wu was furious, nearly stomping his feet. If not for the sterile field, he probably would have slapped someone.

Every second counted!

Yang Ping didn't say anything, keeping his head down, and extended the incision along the original cut.

This process had been practiced countless times, almost to the point of muscle memory.

"Keep up the pressure, transfuse the blood! Make sure the suction devices are ready, pull off the suction tips, and drain directly."

"Suction! Vessel clamps!"

Once the gauze used for hemostasis was removed, blood spurted out, flowing quickly along the three suction tubes.

With extreme skill, Yang Ping instantly found the ruptured blood vessel's ends in the sea of blood. Without even looking, his left hand found the proximal end of the vessel, and his right hand immediately clamped it.

Then, using the same method, he clamped the other end of the vessel.

"Vessel clamps!"

He temporarily clamped the accompanying vein of the external iliac artery.

The bleeding stopped. The blood in the pelvic cavity slowly drained away like receding tides, gradually exposing the clamped vessel.

"Six-zero, vessel suturing needle!" The instrument nurse skillfully handed it over. Yang Ping quickly snipped the ends of the blood vessel with scissors.

Once trimmed, he put the scissors down, picked up the needle, and began suturing the vessel. Every stitch was precise, with the right spacing and margin, as if a machine was operating—fast and flawless.

In mere seconds, the vessel was successfully sutured.

"Thread, ligate!"

The vessel clamp held the thread, which was handed to Yang Ping. He ligated the accompanying vein and then ligated the small vessels next to it.

The area was flushed, suctioned, and the surgical site was cleared. Negative pressure drainage was placed, and the incision was closed in layers in one smooth motion.

After the final stitch, the anesthesiologist sighed in relief. The blood pressure had risen.

Everyone looked at Yang Ping with deep respect.

A life-or-death race against time—won!

"Senior, you're amazing!" Xiao Wu quietly gave Yang Ping a thumbs up.

At that moment, subtitles and a female voice appeared:

"Test complete. Perfect binding with the host!"

Yang Ping realized that only he could hear the voice, and only he could see the subtitles.

What in the world just happened?

At that moment, Yang Ping felt like a deflated balloon—exhausted beyond belief.

Everything felt like a dream.

The anesthesiologist leaned against the wall, sipping from a bottle of glucose.

In the corner, a nurse was on the phone: "Baby, are you still awake? Where's Dad? Is he still at work?"

The wall clock read: 00:49.

Director Wu was still in shock, unable to process what had just happened. The assistant director patted Yang Ping on the shoulder: "Take care of yourself."

"Director, I'm sorry, just now—" Yang Ping tried to explain but didn't know how to start.

Director Wu snapped back to reality: "It's fine. As long as the patient is okay, that's what matters."

They wheeled the patient to the ICU—Intensive Care Unit.

Yang Ping, Xiao Wu, the anesthes

iologist, and the nurse pushed the gurney to the ICU, where they briefed the on-duty doctor.

Afterward, Xiao Wu went back to the orthopedic duty room.

It was Xiao Wu's shift, and Yang Ping had only called him in to assist with the emergency surgery.

Yang Ping didn't waste any time. He quickly hopped on his e-scooter and headed back to his rental apartment in the city.

It was already past 2 a.m. He rushed to shower and collapsed into bed, planning to get some rest.

But everything that had happened today was too bizarre. Just thinking about it kept him wide awake.

He pinched himself hard.

It hurt—this wasn't a dream.