Chapter 170: Can I Touch Your Face?

Chapter 170 -169: Can I Touch Your Face?

During his lunch break, Yu Zhiming was in the first employee cafeteria, eating while on the phone with Yu Xiangwan.

“Fourth Sister, transfer six thousand to Mom and Dad, and three thousand to Eldest Sister. Then, set aside enough for our living expenses this month.”

“Use the rest for the short-term rental project.”

The moment Yu Zhiming finished speaking, Yu Xinyue’s voice piped up from the phone.

“Fifth Brother, I’m your sister too! You got your paycheck and thought of Eldest Sister, but how could you forget about me?”

“Fifth Brother, I’m heartbroken. Utterly heartbroken.”

“It sends a chill through my heart. You could’ve at least given me a few dozen or a hundred yuan just as a token. But not a single cent! Hmph!”

Yu Zhiming rolled his eyes. “Third Sister, you and Third Brother-in-law both get a monthly salary, and it’s a good one.”

“Eldest Sister is at home taking care of Mom and Dad, so she doesn’t have an income.”

“And Xiaobo is busy with his startup, so he won’t have an income for the next few months. I’m guessing all the money Eldest Brother-in-law earns is getting poured right back into that venture.”

“Most importantly, the bond between me and Eldest Sister is deeper than what I have with you, Second Sister, or Fourth Sister. You can’t compare.”

Yu Xinyue’s voice piped up again from the phone. “I know, I know. It’s just because she breastfed you when you were a baby.”

“Hmph. I wasn’t… physically equipped for that back then. If I had been, I would have fed you too without a second thought.”

As soon as she said that, the sound of a playful scuffle came through the phone. “Lao Si, where do you think you’re putting your hands?”

“Are you asking for a spanking?”

Yu Zhiming was speechless. Just as he was about to end the call, Yu Xinyue’s voice came through again.

“Fifth Brother, it’s only right that you provide for Mom and Dad. And no matter how good you are to Eldest Sister, the rest of us won’t get jealous.”

“We all know Eldest Sister basically raised you. It’s only natural for you to treat her like a parent.”

After a moment’s pause, Yu Xinyue’s voice continued.

“Fifth Brother, everyone knows my recent transfer to this new position was because of you.”

“If word of your high salary gets out, I suspect Second Sister might start to have some feelings about it.”

“This is just my speculation, but you know that couple, Second Sister and Second Brother-in-law…”

“Fifth Brother, just be aware of the situation.”

Yu Zhiming ended the call with his third and fourth sisters and let out a soft sigh.

Even the teeth and tongue sometimes clash, so it was only natural that the five siblings wouldn’t be completely without conflict.

Relatively speaking, his second sister was the least close to the others.

Among Yu Zhiming’s four sisters, she was the only one with a bachelor’s degree. After graduating from college, she became a teacher at the county’s experimental middle school.

Less than a year after she started working, she began dating a household registration officer on her own.

Yu Zhiming also knew that back then, his parents hadn’t been very happy with his second brother-in-law and had consistently disapproved of the match.

His second sister had even fought with their parents several times because of it…

After lunch, Yu Zhiming headed straight for the specimen room at the Liver Disease Research Center.

The specimen room was a real eye-opener for Yu Zhiming.

Row after row of shelves of varying heights held at least two or three hundred liver specimens.

Each specimen was immersed in formalin, housed in a large, transparent jar of uniform size.

Each and every specimen was remarkably well-preserved and looked surprisingly fresh.

Yu Zhiming felt dizzy from all the choices. After looking for ten to twenty minutes, he finally, and indecisively, selected a Grade III nodular-expansive hepatocellular carcinoma liver specimen.

He carried the large jar, which weighed ten to twenty pounds, to the administrator’s desk to sign it out.

As the administrator logged the checkout, he reminded him, “Dr. Yu, please be careful with your research. I will inspect it thoroughly when you return it.”

“If it’s damaged…”

Yu Zhiming cut him off. “Make a note for this specimen: to be destroyed due to excessive damage.”

The administrator shuddered, his eyes widening as he cried out, “Dr. Yu, you can’t do that!”

“This is a treasure that Academician Tan has spent decades accumulating! You can’t just damage it at will.”

“Let alone destroy it.”

“Even its destruction would require a strict approval process, needing Academician Tan’s personal signature before…”

Yu Zhiming cut him off again. “You don’t need to worry about anything else. Just report this to Academician Tan.”

With that, he signed his full name in the logbook and strode away, carrying the heavy jar.

The administrator didn’t dare to stop Yu Zhiming. After a moment of stunned silence, he grabbed the logbook and ran to find Academician Tan…

Around six in the evening, Luo Qing, accompanied by her aunt Luo Ying, slowly left Huashan Hospital in an ambulance.

Luo Ying squeezed Luo Qing’s left hand, her voice laced with worry. “Why not have the surgery at the hospital? Why are we going to some kind of underground, temporary operating room instead?”

“It sounds so strange. Aren’t you worried at all?”

A faint smile touched Luo Qing’s lips. “Dr. Yu already explained, didn’t he? He said it’s quieter there, which will help him perform the surgical puncture better.”

She squeezed Luo Ying’s hand with both of her own. “Auntie, what do I have to worry about?”

“Dr. Yu is a famous doctor on the rise. Would he really need to do something bad to me and destroy everything he’s achieved?”

Luo Ying nodded in agreement. “That’s true. Even if he wanted to do something bad, he wouldn’t need to be so open about it.”

“We left the hospital and got into this ambulance in plain sight of everyone.”

“Besides, I heard the place we’re going is the site of the district’s Public Security Bureau.”

The smile on Luo Qing’s face widened. “Exactly. There are bound to be plenty of police officers there. They’re not all going to conspire to hurt us, are they?”

After that, neither the aunt nor the niece spoke.

After more than ten minutes of silence, Luo Qing asked softly, “They all say Dr. Yu is young and handsome.”

“Auntie, just how handsome is he?”

Luo Ying chuckled. “He has fair skin, long eyebrows, almond-shaped eyes, a high nose bridge, and nice lips too.”

“Let’s put it this way: with his height, build, and looks, he’s qualified enough to be a model or an actor if he wasn’t a doctor.”

She noticed a look of longing on Luo Qing’s face and couldn’t help but gently remind her, “Qingqing, with Dr. Yu’s qualifications, he won’t be short of girlfriends.”

Luo Qing smiled. “I know, Auntie. I’m not that delusional.”

“I’m just thinking that if I can get some of my vision back, I’d like to see if Dr. Yu is really as handsome as you say…”

At nearly eight o’clock that night, Yu Zhiming, having finished his surgical preparations, walked into the tent-based operating room inside the civil defense shelter with Teacher Qi.

Luo Qing had not yet been put under anesthesia.

Meeting Yu Zhiming’s questioning gaze, the middle-aged anesthesiologist from Huashan Hospital explained, “Dr. Yu, the patient said she has something she wants to say to you.”

Yu Zhiming approached Luo Qing’s side.

Luo Qing “looked” toward the sound of his approach and said, “Dr. Yu, I’m not scared, but I know there are risks with this surgery.”

“Dr. Yu, I have a request…”

Luo Qing looked a bit embarrassed, yet her face was full of anticipation. “Dr. Yu, can I touch your face?”

“Yes.”

Yu Zhiming agreed without a moment’s hesitation.

He had the surgical nurse help him remove his mask, then bent down closer to Luo Qing.

The surgical nurse helped guide Luo Qing’s hand to Yu Zhiming’s face.

Luo Qing started at his forehead, her fingers slowly tracing their way down…

Her touch was meticulous and gentle, and it took a full five or six minutes for her to trace the entirety of his face.

A look of satisfaction spread across Luo Qing’s face as she smiled. “Dr. Yu, you really are as handsome as they say.”

“Dr. Yu, you can begin the surgery now…”

The surgery itself was relatively simple. It involved a puncture along the right optic nerve to insert a drip tube, making it possible to administer a thrombolytic agent to dissolve the blood clot.

This was a medicinal solution formulated with several types of bio-enzymes.

According to Qi Yue’s analysis and judgment, this thrombolytic agent should be able to effectively dissolve the blood clot inside Luo Qing’s skull within three to five days.

The difficulty of this puncture surgery lay in…

…minimizing damage to brain tissue and avoiding cerebral blood vessels, while creating a puncture path that connected as many clots as possible, thereby allowing the dripping thrombolytic agent to dissolve the maximum amount of coagulation…

After the surgery began, Yu Zhiming fulfilled Teacher Qi’s request, allowing him to experience absolute silence in utter darkness.

The moment the lights came back on, Qi Yue’s face was pale. He said, still shaken, “That was genuinely terrifying.”

“And the more I think about it, the scarier it gets. I can finally understand how Doctor You felt back then…”

Qi Yue mulled it over for a moment, then shook his head sharply and quickly changed the subject. “Zhiming, have you selected the puncture path?”

Yu Zhiming grunted in acknowledgment and officially began the surgery.

The first step was to remove Luo Qing’s right eyeball from its socket.

Qi Yue was very experienced.

He used a small, soft spatula to gently prod it twice, easing the eyeball out of its socket.

Then, Yu Zhiming took over to perform the puncture.

His movements were swift and precise, with no wasted motion. He used the puncture needle to pierce directly to the point of the tear between the optic nerve and the brain’s central connection.

Next, through the hollow bore of the puncture needle, he advanced a much more slender stylet, pushing a thin drip catheter that had a tiny, expandable head at its tip.

Once the catheter’s expandable head emerged from the tip of the puncture needle, it would inflate to act as an anchor.

The next step was to slowly withdraw the puncture needle.

After that, the thin drip catheter was connected to the medication drip, which featured a miniature pressure pump, and the right eyeball was repositioned in its socket.

With that, the puncture surgery was essentially complete.

Luo Qing still needed to be observed for an hour to confirm there were no adverse reactions before she could be transferred back to Huashan Hospital…

After nearly an hour of observation, just as Yu Zhiming and Qi Yue thought they were clear to leave, something unexpected happened.

The disturbance came from outside…

An urgent voice called from outside, “Someone’s been stabbed! They’re bleeding profusely and need immediate medical attention…!”