Chapter 231: Chapter 231

"Can anyone tell me what just happened?" Xu Yino asked, frowning as they walked out.

The others also stared intently at Liu Banxia. Today's events were far from ordinary.

"It's more than 90% likely to be hemorrhagic fever," Liu Banxia said casually.

"No way! How could it be hemorrhagic fever? People live very healthy lives nowadays. And surely no one allows rats into their rice bags or jars at home?" the normally reticent Su Wenhao couldn't help but interject.

As soon as Liu Banxia mentioned the disease's name, they all recognized it and knew the details. This was basic knowledge for medical students; it was impossible not to understand.

Hemorrhagic fever, also known as hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, did align with the patient's symptoms: fever, aches, and signs of renal dysfunction.

The main sources of contagion are currently rats. Their blood, saliva, urine, and feces can all transmit the disease to humans.

Su Wenhao was from the countryside and knew there were many rats there. However, rat poison was also widely available now. Rats mostly stayed outdoors; it was less common to see them inside homes.

Besides, not all food contaminated by a rat leads to infection. It also depends on whether that particular rat carries the pathogen.

"Oh, I just thought of something!" Liang Xiaolin suddenly exclaimed. "A lot of that corn was half-eaten. What if rats ate the corn, and then the patient ate it too, but didn't clean it properly?"

They were in the emergency department, and her voice was quite loud, immediately capturing everyone's attention.

"That's probably close to what happened," Liu Banxia said with a grin. "However, I don't think it was because he didn't clean the corn properly. Rather, after cleaning the corn, he didn't wash his hands thoroughly."

"Frequent handwashing is a good habit," he continued. "People often focus on washing their food in daily life but forget their own hands. Corn is most satisfying when eaten by hand, held and gnawed. That might be how he slipped up and got infected."

"Teacher Liu, how are you so amazing?" Xu Yino exclaimed, her eyes wide and sparkling with admiration.

"It's nothing special. Someone in my hometown contracted this disease before," Liu Banxia said with a smile.

"In his case, rats had gnawed on his cabbage. During winter, his favorite dish was cold-tossed cabbage hearts. He was lucky, though, because his symptoms were very apparent, with hemorrhagic spots on his body, leading to a quick diagnosis."

"This patient's symptoms weren't as obvious, which probably has something to do with his constitution. Many diseases present this way, not always showing textbook typical symptoms. However, this is just my speculation for now. We need to wait for the final test results."

"Teacher Liu, how could you tell the corn was gnawed by a rat and not by insects?" Huang Bo asked.

"Su Wenhao, explain it to these city kids," Liu Banxia said.

"If it were insects, they'd typically only eat the tip. You could just chop that part off, and it would be fine. But much of this patient's corn was cut off diagonally, more than halfway down. A normal household wouldn't waste food like that," Su Wenhao explained.

Liu Banxia gave him an approving pat on the shoulder. "Su, is your hometown far from Binhai City? If not, we should visit sometime when you're free."

"Ah... Teacher... I..." Su Wenhao stammered, blushing. The shy young man grew even more flustered at Liu Banxia's suggestion of visiting his home.

"My family used to live in the countryside too, before we moved to town," Liu Banxia said with a laugh. "Life was wonderful back then, especially as a child. We'd just pull potatoes from the ground and toss them into the big pot. Mix them with some chili sauce, and it tasted heavenly."

"Teacher Liu, didn't you wash the potatoes?" Xu Yino asked, blinking.

The lighthearted exchange amused everyone and helped alleviate Su Wenhao's awkwardness.

They were all smart kids and understood Liu Banxia wasn't just trying to get a free meal. He wanted Su Wenhao to integrate better with the group. Otherwise, how could Su Wenhao, with his shy nature, conduct patient consultations effectively in the future?

Liu Banxia could take a break at noon, but the interns couldn't. They rotated through the operating room, with each shift lasting about an hour, or at most an hour and ten minutes. This rotation at least allowed them some rest.

When Liu Banxia lay down on his bed, he initially planned to nap. However, he found himself unable to sleep. The recent events and Xu Yino's questions kept replaying in his mind.

Of course, it wasn't because Xu Yino's compliments had made him feel smug. Rather, he was contemplating whether today's correct diagnosis had anything to do with his Diagnostics Skill proficiency.

Take the appendectomy he performed earlier today, for instance. In the past, he would have either expanded the incision or switched to laparoscopy. He wouldn't have risked just reaching in with his hand as he did.

But at that moment, he hadn't hesitated. After palpating the area, he had a clear sense, a certainty, that he could perform the surgery successfully and retrieve the appendix.

He had never considered this before. He was a bit confused: was it the skill level enhancing his actual knowledge, or his knowledge leveraging the skill?

After racking his brain to no avail, he resorted to his usual philosophy: if you can't figure it out, stop thinking about it. Why bother?

The afternoon's surgical schedule arrived. He had to lead the interns into the next set of challenges.

For him now, appendectomies and cholecystectomies were not particularly challenging procedures. Even the number of observers for laparoscopic cholecystectomies had dwindled.

Nevertheless, there were still some new interns and resident doctors from this year's intake observing.

"Dr. Liu, it's confirmed! It's hemorrhagic fever!" Xu Hui's voice echoed into the operating room just as Liu Banxia was meticulously dissecting a gallbladder.

DING! Patient Reception Task completed.

Gained 300 Experience Points, Diagnostics Skill proficiency +300 points.

Liu Banxia glanced at him, nodded, and then returned to the operation.

The others in the room were confused. What did the confirmed diagnosis have to do with Dr. Liu? He's been in surgery all this time. Does he have a relative who was admitted?

"The patient's family wants to thank you. When will your afternoon surgeries be finished?" Xu Hui asked again.

"Are they offering more of that green corn?" Liu Banxia quipped. "It'll probably be around 6:00 p.m."

"Alright, I'll make sure you get an extra chicken leg for dinner tonight," Xu Hui said before hurrying off.

Those who overheard this became even more curious and couldn't help but start asking around.

After all, they were all students from the same medical college, and those observing the surgery were general surgery interns. They quickly contacted the intern group stationed in the emergency department, who enlightened them.

This was somewhat hard for people to accept. How could Dr. Liu be so capable? Diagnosing a case of hemorrhagic fever with such subtle symptoms, and all during a meal break?

Consequently, a wave of jealousy washed over some of them. They envied Xu Yino and her group. Everyone knew that although Xu Yino's group was nominally supervised by other attending doctors, they always tagged along with Liu Banxia.

Considering the sheer number of surgeries Liu Banxia's group had scrubbed in on recently, they'd already left the other interns far behind. If Liu Banxia was also this brilliant at diagnosis, what chance did the others stand?

As for Liu Banxia himself? He was entirely focused on the current cholecystectomy. He needed to complete the advanced task: five perfect surgeries.

Therefore, he had to exert his utmost effort to perfectly complete the four cholecystectomies scheduled for that afternoon and evening.

Time passed slowly. By the time Liu Banxia finished his last surgery, it was already 10:30 p.m.

DING! Cholecystectomy Task completed.

Excellent Surgeon Task progress (4/5).

Gained 200 Experience Points, Cholecystectomy Skill proficiency +200 points, Suturing Skill proficiency +100 points, Medication Changing Skill proficiency +50 points, Diagnostics Skill proficiency +50 points.

Task Rating: Perfect.

Bonus: 200 Experience Points, Cholecystectomy Skill proficiency +200 points, Suturing Skill proficiency +100 points, Medication Changing Skill proficiency +50 points, Diagnostics Skill proficiency +50 points, Glory Points +5.

「The Incredible Challenge」 Task completed (56/50).

Task Rating: Perfect.

Bonus: 1,000 Experience Points, Cholecystectomy Skill proficiency +500 points, Appendectomy Skill proficiency +500 points, Liver Surgery Skill proficiency +500 points, Inguinal Hernia Repair Skill proficiency +500 points, Gastric Surgery Skill proficiency +500 points, Intestinal Surgery Skill proficiency +500 points, Suturing Skill proficiency +1,000 points, Medication Changing Skill proficiency +1,000 points, Diagnostics Skill proficiency +500 points, Glory Points +50.

Reward: Sixth Enhanced Attribute Slot.

Looking at the slew of rewards, Liu Banxia felt quite gratified. The hard work of the past ten days hadn't been in vain. All four cholecystectomies today received perfect ratings.

This task's reward was a cumulative bonus, reflecting all the skills and proficiencies he had utilized in surgeries over the past ten days.

The Gastric Surgery and Intestinal Surgery skill proficiencies were new additions, indicating a more refined categorization by the system. Previously, such skills would have been bundled under Suturing and Medication Changing.

But compared to all these rewards, the bonus of the sixth Enhanced Attribute Slot made him the happiest. It was truly incredible!

These slots were as good as attribute points, and every attribute point was precious. Glory Points, on the other hand, could be earned through surgeries and tasks.

He was now just one step away from completing his current goal; the advanced task only needed one more perfect surgery.

Glancing at his character avatar, he noted the new slot had appeared on the head. Without much thought, he immediately used his points to acquire a sapphire and socketed it to enhance Spirit.

His Spirit attribute had received the fewest enhancements so far, so it needed bolstering.

DING! Gained 5 Spirit points. Current Spirit: 67. Comprehension, Memory, and Concentration increased by 19.64%.

Liu Banxia was deeply satisfied. This was his biggest gain from today. Even if he didn't complete the advanced task in one go, it didn't matter. He could take it slow.

"Thank you, everyone. You've all worked very hard."

After the patient was wheeled out, Liu Banxia turned to the operating room staff and gave them a sincere bow.

"Liu Banxia, we're finally done with this intense stretch," Wang Lei said. "The OR schedule is likely packed for tomorrow. We've been specially granted two days off, so you owe us a meal."

"Haha, no problem!" Liu Banxia readily agreed. "Everyone get a good night's sleep tonight. Rest well tomorrow, and we'll all have a meal together the day after tomorrow." The latest_epɪ_sodes are on_the novel_fіre.net

He genuinely felt he needed to thank them. While he could sustain himself with the Primordial Elixir, the staff in the operating room didn't have such an advantage.