295-297

Chapter 295: The Grim Reaper Kid  

Medical Center.  

24 hours into a 48-hour shift.  

Hospital Cafeteria.  

Everyone sat together, looking exhausted—everyone except Adam.  

“They call me 007, huh?”  

George, the chubby guy with a slightly whiny voice, muttered bitterly.  

“No one calls you 007,” one of the female interns responded weakly, eyes closed, barely able to muster any energy.  

“Don’t lie to me. I heard them whispering in the elevator.”  

George had an expression that said, I know the truth, so stop trying to comfort me—but actually, I’d love it if you kept comforting me.  

“Don’t let it get to you,” Adam said with a smile. “That guy Alex, the first one to call you 007, is actually a textbook example of a 007 himself.”  

“What?”  

George was stunned.  

The other interns, including Cristina, perked up, their exhaustion momentarily forgotten as they eagerly listened.  

Adam recounted the incident where Alex had misdiagnosed a patient.  

“That bastard!” George fumed. “He’s so careless, and yet he had the nerve to make fun of me first?”  

“I didn’t expect him to be that kind of person.”  

Meredith sounded disappointed.  

Women have an almost supernatural intuition when it comes to spotting guys who treat them as backup options. Alex had always looked at Meredith with a certain sleazy glint in his eyes. Yet, because of his bad-boy charm, she hadn’t found him entirely repulsive—until now. His unprofessional behavior, though, was a deal-breaker.  

“Haha.”  

Seeing Meredith’s reaction, George suddenly laughed.  

Everyone turned to look at him in surprise.  

Cristina was blunt as always. “George, have you lost your mind?”  

“Lost my mind?” George shook his head, still smiling. “Sure, I botched my last surgery and got stuck with the 007 nickname. But Alex is also a 007—that’s hilarious! Compared to him, what do I have to be upset about? Besides, I just finished comforting one of my patients. Their happiness is my happiness.”  

“How exactly did you comfort them?”  

Adam looked at him suspiciously.  

“You know Tony? The one getting a coronary bypass?”  

George explained, “He and his wife were worried, so I told them Dr. Burke is incredibly skilled and that the surgery would be totally fine. I even guaranteed—”  

“You what?! Seven times over?!”  

All seven people at the table shouted in unison.  

“What?”  

George blinked in confusion.  

“Are you related to the hospital director?” Adam asked, intrigued.  

“Uh, no?”  

George was baffled. “Why would you think that?”  

“Because if you’re not, then how the hell did you even get into this program?” Adam sighed. “No matter how skilled a doctor is or how confident they are in a surgery, there’s always risk involved. That’s why, as a doctor, you never guarantee an outcome to a patient or their family. That’s basic common sense! You didn’t know that?”  

“Mrs. Savage was so worried… I just wanted to reassure them,” George stammered. “And Dr. Burke said the risk was minimal, so I figured—”  

“Don’t stress. You probably won’t be that unlucky,” Liz, the tough one, reassured him.  

“Yeah, if Dr. Burke says the risk is low, then it really is low,” Meredith added.  

“Wouldn’t be so sure about that.”  

Cristina smirked. “007s bring death wherever they go. And have you noticed how unlucky George is? If it were anyone else, nothing would go wrong. But since it’s George…”  

She trailed off as everyone turned to glare at her. Seeing the clear annoyance in their eyes, even Meredith looked displeased. Cristina had no choice but to sigh and apologize.  

“Sorry, George. I get cranky when I’m tired.”  

George forced a smile but was clearly sinking into an existential crisis, now convinced he might actually be a harbinger of death.  

“Dr. Nazi hates me even more now,” Liz suddenly spoke up, bringing up her own frustrations. “Mr. Jones has fragile blood vessels and needs an IV for antibiotics. I should have done a central venous catheter. I knew I shouldn’t wake her up, but I’d never done one before…”  

“So you woke her up anyway,” Adam guessed, amused.  

“Yeah.” Liz sighed. “She did it for me, then told me that next time, unless Mr. Jones is literally dying, unless his toes are curling up for a toe tag, I’d better not wake her up again.”  

Liz propped her head up with one hand, looking utterly drained. “She already hated me. Now she definitely hates me. I’m probably going to get stuck doing rectal exams every day for the rest of my internship.”  

“No complaints here.”  

Cristina raised a hand.  

Interns rotated rectal exam duties, so if Liz got stuck with them permanently, that meant less work for the rest of them.  

But it also meant Liz would probably get a humiliating nickname.  

Poop-Scooper? 

Butt-Gremlin? 

For a female doctor, such nicknames would be devastating.  

“Meredith, how’s your epileptic patient doing? I heard she had a seizure in the middle of the night.”  

Adam asked casually while eating.  

Doctors needed to share information. No one could see every case firsthand, so learning from each other’s experiences was crucial.  

But only through discussion—no unauthorized involvement.  

For instance, Liz had mentioned the central venous catheter earlier. Adam could have done it easily. If it had been George or another doctor, they probably would have jumped at the chance to help, especially in front of a female colleague. Showing off was practically a male instinct.  

But Adam hadn’t even offered to help.  

Because it wasn’t his place.  

Liz’s supervisor was Dr. Miranda Bailey, aka the “Nazi.” Her superior was Dr. Burke.  

If Liz had an issue, she had to report to Bailey. If Bailey couldn’t handle it, then she would escalate it to Burke.  

Adam, despite his skills, was just another intern in a different group. If he interfered, it would be a serious violation of protocol.  

And if something went wrong? He’d be in deep trouble.  

Thinking you’re too skilled to mess up?  

That was the kind of mistake only a suspected nepotism hire like George would make.  

Adam wasn’t that reckless.  

Besides, he didn’t need to show off to impress women. More often than not, the opposite was the problem…  

“Don’t even bring her up!”  

Meredith scowled. “It was like the Boy Who Cried Wolf. First, she faked a seizure to get me to fix her hospital room’s TV because she couldn’t watch some stupid pageant.  

Like, seriously?  

I’m a doctor, not a repairman!  

Then, when she actually had a seizure, I thought she was faking again and showed up late. Almost didn’t save her in time.”  

She clenched her fists. “And then Dr. Shepherd scolded me for not monitoring her more closely.  

I hate patients like that!”  

There was something else she didn’t say out loud.  

She hated Dr. Shepherd even more.  

Just yesterday, he had been making flirty, borderline inappropriate comments, practically devouring her with his eyes. But the moment things went wrong, he turned on her instead of offering any support.  

The high-stakes pressure had nearly broken her. Even though she’d ultimately saved the patient, the sheer terror of what almost happened had been so overwhelming that she’d run outside and thrown up.  

Damn men.  

Not even a shred of decency.  

Beep! Beep! Beep!  

Suddenly, every pager in the room started going off at once.  

Chapter 296: Competition, Competition!  

Medical Center 

Cafeteria  

The beeping of pagers filled the air.  

“What’s going on?”  

Christina asked in surprise.  

“Something big must be happening. Let’s go.”  

Adam got up and motioned to the others.  

The surgical interns scattered throughout the cafeteria were already moving as well.  

As they passed the nurses' station, Adam once again spotted Alex, the cocky intern who acted like a top-tier surgeon but was anything but.  

“Did you page me again?”  

Alex asked, a mix of guilt and annoyance in his tone.  

“Yes.”  

The senior nurse reported expressionlessly, “The patient in 4-B is still experiencing shortness of breath.”  

“Antibiotics take time to work.”  

Alex had a bad feeling but stubbornly insisted.  

“They should’ve already taken effect.”  

The senior nurse countered.  

She knew the effectiveness of these common medications even better than some doctors.  

“She’s old, practically an antique.”  

Alex, clearly irritated, caught the skeptical look in the nurse’s eyes and noticed Adam and the others watching him. He coldly added, “If she’s still breathing, she should be grateful. I have patients downstairs, ones who aren’t from the Civil War era. So stop paging me.”  

With that, he shoved the chart back into the nurse’s hands and walked off with an air of nonchalance.  

“How can he be like that?!”  

Liz, fierce as ever, couldn’t accept it. She stepped forward, ready to confront Alex.  

“Don’t.”  

Christina pulled her back, advising, “We need to get to the meeting. This isn’t our problem. If something goes wrong, someone will take care of him.”  

“Let’s go.”  

Adam called out and headed toward the meeting room.  

“Adam!”  

Liz quickly caught up to him, blocking his path with wide, disappointed eyes. “Shouldn’t we do something about this? That’s a patient’s life on the line.”  

“She’s experiencing shortness of breath, not a life-threatening crisis.”  

Adam frowned. “If her condition worsens, Alex’s attending physician will handle it. We’re in a different team. We don’t have the authority to interfere.”  

“But…”  

Liz’s sense of justice flared up. She knew Adam was right, but she was still unwilling to let it go.  

“There’s no ‘but.’”  

Adam said calmly, “If you’re really concerned, go talk to Alex’s attending or their superior.”  

Liz hesitated.  

Snitching in the workplace was a major taboo. No one liked someone who did that.  

She was already not in her attending’s good graces. If she went over her team’s boundaries to report Alex, she’d completely ruin her reputation.  

She had a strong sense of justice, but she wasn’t stupid. She had hoped Adam would step up instead.  

But to her surprise, he didn’t buy into it at all. Instead, he deflected it back to her, hitting her right where it hurt.  

“Come on, let’s just get to the meeting.”  

Meredith pulled Liz along, trying to calm her down. “Alex already made it clear he doesn’t want to be paged again. If the patient’s condition changes, the nurse will page his attending directly. It’ll be fine.”  

“I just hate how they’re treating her. Just because she’s old, does that mean she doesn’t matter?”  

Liz vented as she reluctantly followed. “We’re all going to get old one day. Would we want to be treated like that?”  

Adam glanced at her, suddenly feeling a strong sense of aversion toward this beautiful, fierce, and seemingly kindhearted blonde.  

He had studied psychology and had seen many cases like this before.  

People like Liz, who acted like saints, often lacked principles and boundaries.  

Today, she despised Alex for treating an elderly patient like she was already dead.  

Tomorrow, she might fall hopelessly in love with him. And by then, everything that happened today would be completely forgotten.  

This wasn’t just speculation.  

Self-righteous people always felt a need to "save" others. But good people didn’t need saving. So, they often found themselves drawn to bad ones. The worse the person, the stronger their urge to "fix" them.  

And in that process, the first person they lost was always themselves. To save one "bad" person, they’d abandon all their previous principles—even sacrifice good people if necessary.  

Meeting Room 

Everyone gathered.  

“Does anyone know what this is about?”  

“No idea.”  

“It’s probably not bad news. After all, they can’t punish all of us at once.”  

“Good point.”  

The room buzzed with speculation.  

Adam sat there, flipping through patient files.  

Christina pulled out a banana and started practicing her suturing technique on it.  

“You’ve got some real skills there.”  

Stu, the chubby intern, grinned lecherously.  

“You want to try?”  

Christina stabbed the suture needle deep into the banana, lifting a single eyelid as she stared at him blankly.  

“There’ll be a chance.”  

Stu smirked, completely unfazed by the implied threat.  

As a doctor, he was used to people practicing sutures on bananas. It didn’t trigger any uncomfortable associations for him.  

“First shift is almost over. Want to grab a drink later?”  

“Oh, come on.”  

The female interns rolled their eyes in unison.  

Adam chuckled. He knew that in the past 24 hours, Stu had asked every woman in the program the exact same thing.  

His strategy was simple: cast a wide net, hope for the best.  

The outcome? Obvious.  

With his short, chubby build and borderline creepy demeanor, he had definitely left an impression.  

Even Liz, the self-proclaimed savior of all, couldn’t be bothered to “redeem” him.  

“Heh.”  

Stu just laughed it off, taking their eye-rolls as encouragement. His persistence was truly something.  

“Good morning.”  

Just then, a handsome middle-aged doctor walked in and greeted everyone. It was Dr. Derek Shepherd, the attending neurosurgeon.  

“Good morning.”  

Everyone responded, though Meredith’s expression immediately shifted.  

“I’m about to do something surgeons rarely do,” Dr. Shepherd said as he walked toward the group, his gaze sweeping across them. “I’m asking you interns for help.”  

The room fell silent.  

“I have a patient, a little girl named Katie Bryce. I still can’t figure out what’s wrong with her. The medication isn’t working, and all the tests and scans have come back normal. But she keeps having sudden, severe seizures.”  

He paused before continuing, “She doesn’t have much time left. If I don’t find the cause soon, she’s going to die.”  

His words hung heavy in the air.  

“That’s why I need your help. My perspective alone is limited. I need fresh eyes—different ways of thinking—to crack this case and figure out what’s making Katie sick.”  

The interns exchanged glances, their competitive instincts kicking in.  

“I know you’re all busy and exhausted, so I’m giving you some motivation.”  

Dr. Shepherd smiled.  

“Whoever finds the answer gets to be my surgical assistant.”  

The room instantly charged with energy.  

“Katie will need surgery, and the winner will get a chance to do something no other intern gets—assist in a high-level operation.”  

Excitement surged through the group. Eyes gleamed with determination as they silently communicated the same thought:  

Competition. Competition! 

Chapter 297: The Demeanor of a Great Doctor  

Conference Room.  

“Dr. Bailey will send you all Katie’s medical records. Time is running out, everyone.”  

Dr. Shepherd gestured for the assistant to place twenty copies of the medical records on the table for everyone to take. “If we want to save Katie’s life, we need to act fast.”  

With that, he turned and left.  

The interns immediately rushed forward, each grabbing a copy of the medical records.  

Adam was the fastest, securing his copy first and quickly flipping through it.  

Just as Dr. Shepherd had said, if this surgery were to proceed, it would be an advanced procedure—far more complex than the coronary bypass surgery Leonard had been planning to have Adam assist with.  

This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, extremely rare.  

“Meredith, let’s work together.”  

Cristina, the most ambitious of the group, whispered to Meredith, “You’re Katie’s primary doctor. You’ve been taking care of her from the start, so you definitely know more details. If we work together to find the answer first, our chances of getting into the surgery will each be 50%…”  

“I can work with you, but I don’t want to do the surgery.”  

Meredith looked completely uninterested. “You go ahead.”  

“You’re joking, right?”  

Cristina was both shocked and excited, unable to believe what she was hearing.  

For a surgery of this caliber, even resident doctors would be envious, let alone interns. That was why Dr. Shepherd used it as both a temptation and a motivator, pushing the exhausted interns to rack their brains for a solution.  

Yet, here was Meredith, a surgical intern herself, willing to give up such a rare opportunity just like that?  

“I don’t want to operate with Dr. Shepherd.”  

Meredith said with obvious distaste.  

“What’s wrong with Shepherd?”  

Cristina immediately sensed something was off between them and shot Meredith a questioning look.  

“If we find the answer, you do the surgery. Deal?”  

Meredith asked impatiently.  

“Deal.”  

Cristina was overjoyed. She grabbed Meredith’s hand and pulled her toward the library. “Let’s go right now.”  

With a case this complicated, there was no way to solve it without digging through books.  

Adam closed the medical record and also walked out of the room.  

Cristina glanced at Adam and, without hesitation, pulled Meredith into a run.  

Among the twenty interns, she had always considered herself the best.  

But when it came to Adam, that confidence disappeared instantly.  

Now, she had to catch up.  

This rare, high-level surgery was a crucial turning point.  

And she had the advantage—at least for now.  

As they reached the hallway corner, Cristina suddenly stopped and turned around, only to see Adam standing before Dr. Shepherd, smiling confidently.  

“Dr. Shepherd, I have an idea.”  

“Come on, you’ve got to be kidding me.”  

Cristina couldn’t believe Adam had already figured something out. But an unsettling feeling crept over her, and she found herself frozen in place, anxiously watching their conversation unfold.  

“Let’s hear it.”  

Dr. Shepherd’s expression was somewhat intrigued.  

He hadn’t expected someone to come to him with an answer so soon after he had just given them the task.  

If it were really that easy, what did that say about him?  

“Based on the patient’s records, we can rule out hypoxia, kidney failure, and acidosis. The CT scan came back normal, so we can largely rule out a tumor.”  

Adam spoke steadily. “Her white blood cell count is normal, there’s no fever, and the spinal tap showed no abnormalities, so we can also rule out an infection.”  

“I know all that.”  

Dr. Shepherd interrupted. “Tell me your conclusion.”  

“I suspect an aneurysm.”  

Adam said.  

“The CT scan showed no bleeding, the patient has no headaches, no neck pain, no history of toxin exposure, no pregnancy, and no recent trauma.”  

Dr. Shepherd shook his head. “Medically, there’s no evidence to suggest an aneurysm.”  

“But she enjoys gymnastics, and her records mention a past fall and sprained ankle.”  

Adam explained. “A fall could potentially cause an aneurysm to rupture.”  

“Yes, but the chances of that happening are one in a million—and even then, it’s only theoretical.”  

Dr. Shepherd countered.  

“Is a one-in-a-million chance really that small?”  

Adam smiled. “Isn’t it still bigger than zero? Right now, we have no explanation for her condition. If every test has come up empty, then even the smallest possibility is worth considering. What harm is there in running another scan to confirm?”  

Hospital diagnostic procedures require medical justification.  

Tests can’t be performed arbitrarily because every scan ends up on the patient’s bill.  

This system prevents hospitals from conducting unnecessary tests just to overcharge patients.  

And when the cause of an illness remains unknown, even running a test may not help—minor abnormalities can be so subtle that they go unnoticed.  

A small aneurysm rupture was exactly the kind of condition that could be easily overlooked.  

Dr. Shepherd stared at Adam, momentarily dazed.  

For a brief moment, he saw the shadow of someone else in Adam.  

MRI Room.  

“Damn.”  

Dr. Shepherd had brought Adam to run a scan. When the image appeared on the screen, revealing a tiny fissure, he blurted out, “Subarachnoid hemorrhage. It’s small, but it’s there—she’s bleeding inside her skull.”  

A smile spread across his face.  

As a top-tier neurosurgeon, he wasn’t afraid of intracranial bleeding—it was just another surgical challenge. The real problem was when they couldn’t find the cause.  

“Adam, how did you figure it out?”  

Dr. Shepherd looked at Adam with a complex expression.  

“I listed all possible causes and eliminated them one by one.”  

Adam smiled.  

When he first opened the medical record, a 3D model of the human body had formed in his mind, allowing him to reference the vast medical knowledge he had absorbed from books. Through constant mental simulation and elimination, he quickly arrived at the most probable conclusion.  

“Well done.”  

Dr. Shepherd nodded.  

As a top surgeon, he understood the level of talent and effort behind Adam’s seemingly casual explanation.  

“Thanks.”  

Adam reminded him, “So, about assisting in the surgery?”  

“That’s yours, of course.”  

Dr. Shepherd closed the file and grinned. “I’ll go inform Katie’s parents now. The surgery is scheduled for this afternoon. See you in the OR.”  

“See you in the OR.”  

Adam beamed.  

Dr. Shepherd took a few steps before turning back. “You remind me of someone.”  

“Who?”  

Adam asked curiously.  

Dr. Shepherd simply smiled and walked away without answering.  

Earlier, when he had told Katie’s parents that he was out of options, they had threatened to seek another doctor—someone who wasn’t easy to get an appointment with.  

That doctor’s reputation and status far surpassed his own, particularly in solving rare and difficult cases.  

If the patient had transferred, he wouldn’t have felt too embarrassed—it was understandable when dealing with a doctor of that caliber.  

Now, however, Katie would likely stay under his care.  

But the solution had come from an intern.  

It left him with a complicated feeling.  

He wasn’t sure whether to be grateful for having such a talented intern or to wish Katie had indeed gone to that legendary doctor instead.  

He had never seen an intern this skilled before.  

Perhaps that great doctor had once been just as extraordinary in his youth.  

(End of Chapter)