"Is this... a patient from the Department of Apparitions?"
Soon after, the protruding part quickly receded.
"Don't worry about which department it is. The Department of Apparitions isn't divided based on the type of ghost. Any patient who is directly possessed by a ghost is treated there. Besides, does a ghost face surfacing qualify as a case for the Department of Apparitions? Do you know under what circumstances one should seek treatment there?"
The Department of Apparitions is one that has internal medicine but no surgery, while the Ghost Surgery Department only has surgery and no internal medicine. After all, once a ghost has possessed a body, conservative treatment is absolutely impossible for a cure.
After considering for a moment, Dai Lin took a deep breath and said, "I apologize, teacher. I can't make a diagnosis in an uncertain situation."
Unexpectedly, Jiang Licheng nodded in approval.
"Very good, excellent indeed. That's right, you must not rush to a diagnosis in an uncertain situation. If you were to diagnose forcibly based on the present symptoms just to get my praise and recognition, you'd only ever be a mediocre doctor. In other professions, a mistaken judgment might at worst result in financial loss, but in our field, an error in judgment costs lives!"
Upon hearing these words, Dai Lin began to respect Dr. Jiang immensely.
"Remember what you said today," Dr. Jiang pointed at the patient before him and said, "Every judgment we make as doctors can determine a person's life or death! When practicing medicine, we should never pursue fame and fortune; we should prioritize our patients' health! Patients entrust us with their lives and well-being, and we must deserve this trust! Before cultivating medical skills, one must establish medical ethics first!"
The words "medical ethics" deeply resonated with Dai Lin!
"Alright, let's officially start the class now!"
The inpatient department, on the seventh floor.
This was a rather spacious single-patient room.
In the room lay a woman with pale skin and features that shared a resemblance to Gao Heyan by sixty to seventy percent.
Gao Heyan fetched a basin of water, wrung out a towel from it, and removed the hospital gown from the woman on the bed to wipe down her body.
Though bacteria and viruses cannot survive inside the hospital, cleaning the patient's body was still necessary.
"Sister," Gao Heyan whispered while wiping down her body, "finally, someone has survived the implantation of those eyes. If he can live through the curse's backlash, we might find a clue to awaken you. When you wake up, you will know what has happened and where the missing part of your soul is... If we can't find it, will you never wake up? Today, even the teacher asked about you..."
As she spoke, she paused, turning her gaze towards the window behind her.
"This place doesn't get sunlight, your complexion is getting paler... Now, I'm worried every year during your examination that the cursed object inside you may cause a backlash. The only consolation is that the cursed object's protection keeps your immunity from deteriorating and your limbs from atrophying."
At this point, she had finished wiping her sister's upper body and then started to wipe down her legs. After that, she proceeded to change her incontinence pad.
Since her sister's bladder reflex was reasonably good, she did not have a catheter but was instead wearing a paper incontinence pad. Thankfully, due to the hospital's sterile environment, neither bowel movements nor urination could breed bacteria. Although the nurses here were quite professional, Gao Heyan would personally come to change her sister's incontinence pad and wash her whenever she was free.
After everything was taken care of, she had just finished washing her hands in the attached bathroom of the ward when her cell phone rang.
Gao Heyan picked up the phone to answer it.
"Dr. Gao," a woman's voice came from the other end of the phone, "I've sent all of Lin Yan's test reports to your cell phone. Since you were her initial attending doctor, it doesn't violate any rules. Also, we collected blood from the shoe, which hasn't dried out, and had it tested in the laboratory."
"Okay, Tang Li, thank you."
"It's nothing. Dr. Gao Menghua has taken good care of us in the past; she saved my life in the operating room several times, so this is the least I can do. However, I think it's right to have the Malevolent Ghost Surgery Department treat this patient for the time being. It's probably better if your Wraith Surgery Department doesn't intercede."
"That's good..."
Gao He Yan looked towards his sister lying in the hospital bed and said, "Actually, I am in my sister's ward right now."
"Really? Is Meng Hua doing okay? I've been too busy with work recently, but when I get some time, I'll come visit her too."
"She's... fairly well. Fortunately, the dean's policies still have a human side, allowing medical personnel to receive free treatment for work-related injuries."
"Mm, good, I won't keep you any longer, I've got to go get busy."
"Alright, thank you anyway, Tang Li."
After hanging up the phone, she sat back down at her sister Gao Meng Hua's bedside and checked the imaging data on Lin Yan she received on her phone.
"This..."
She looked at the CT images on the phone, her face growing increasingly grim.
"How did she survive a week without treatment after being targeted by a female ghost? It can't possibly be because of that peace charm, can it?"
...
Jiang Li Cheng moved the scalpel in his hands from the center of the patient's clavicle, slowly cutting down to the symphysis pubis.
What surprised Dai Lin was...
Instead of unveiling bones and organs, what appeared was... vast expanses of pure black!
"This is not a normal dissection, what we are revealing is not the human body, but their souls," Jiang Li Cheng explained unflinchingly. "The soul of a normal human should be semi-transparent, like white smoke, while the patient's is completely black..."
No sooner had he finished this sentence, a hand dripping with fresh blood stretched out from the pure black!
Jiang Li Cheng's expression did not change as he plunged the scalpel fiercely into the hand's webbing!
"Now let's see, what kind of ghost does this belong to?"
Around where the scalpel had pierced the hand's webbing, trails of black smoke began to surface. The hand kept reaching upwards, but every time it almost touched Jiang Li Cheng, it was as if an invisible wall was blocking it, completely unable to reach him!
Dai Lin continued his examination.
"It may be a state where the wraith is transitioning to the Malevolent Ghost stage, also known as Karma Force Ghost. Normally, wraiths eventually become Malevolent Spirits, but a minority of wraiths under the influence of strong Karma Force become Karma Force Ghosts. In such a case, the strong Karma Force turns the wraith into a Malevolent Ghost! Therefore, it is currently believed that Malevolent Ghosts are a special variant of Malevolent Spirits."
"You're right!" Jiang Li Cheng continued, "How did you figure that out?"
"Here." Dai Lin pointed at the hand: "A wraith is a curse generated by strong resentful thoughts, also known as Grudge. An excessively powerful Grudge can potentially evolve into Karma Force. Karma Force slowly enhances the ghost's Karma, transforming it into an extremely malevolent Malevolent Ghost. These black patterns are a manifestation of Karma. If the patient and the doctor cannot withstand the backlash of Karma, they could potentially die during the surgery. Dr. Gao has told me that Karma Force Ghosts also fall within the jurisdiction of the Wraith Surgery Department."
"You do know about Karma. Yes, this black smoke caused by Karma is a symptom specific to Karma curses, visible to the naked eye only when pierced by the hospital's surgical or dissecting scalpel. Those ghosts starved to death in folk tales belong to Karma Force Ghosts."
Afterwards, he pulled out the dissecting scalpel, and the hand retracted back!