Lin Jie slowly opened his eyes to see the gray-green tent, along with the IV drip dropping bit by bit.

"A-Jie, you're awake? How's your body feeling?"

Looking at An Kexin's concerned face, Lin Jie asked, "How long did I sleep?"

"Eight hours. It's now 8:31 in the morning," An Kexin replied softly.

Having slept for eight hours, Lin Jie was somewhat surprised to find that his body didn't feel the overwhelming exhaustion or unbearable muscle pain.

After thinking for a bit, he realized, and asked, "Did Miaomiao give me a massage?"

An Kexin nodded and said, "Yes, every hour she gave you a full-body massage. I only managed to convince her to rest at six in the morning."

With a face full of blame, she said, "You, don't you understand your own physical condition?"

"Always pushing, always pushing. And now you've gone and fallen asleep on the operating table, making everyone worried."

Lin Jie awkwardly chuckled.

In fact, yesterday evening, when Lin Jie arrived at the triage area, he had already sensed that his body had reached its limit.

If he kept himself busy with surgeries, maybe Lin Jie could hold on a bit longer.

But taking a break, and then chatting with Lin Miao for a while, made the energy he had mustered dissipate.

At that time, Lin Jie had two thoughts while treating the company commander.

One was to adjust his mental and physical state through a slow-paced surgery, allowing his body to endure a bit longer.

The other was that he was holding onto the idea of trying anything in a desperate situation.

Since the company commander had already been given up on, and since he was not in good enough condition to take on other emergency surgeries, he thought he might as well give it a try.

"Did I fall asleep in the middle of the surgery, or after it ended?"

Recalling carefully, Lin Jie was a bit uncertain. It seemed that during the latter part of the surgery, he was in a daze.

Could it be that he performed the surgery while asleep?

Cautiously, he asked, "Kexin, how's that company commander now? Alive, or dead?"

An Kexin rolled her eyes at Lin Jie and said huffily, "Still alive!"

At this, she smiled and said, "A-Jie, do you know what they're saying about you outside?"

"Your surgical assistant swore that you performed the craniotomy for that company commander with your eyes closed."

"If it weren't for the biting bone forceps dropping from your hand, they said they wouldn't have realized you had fallen asleep from exhaustion."

Seeing An Kexin laughing, Lin Jie knew the company commander was fine, and he let out a long, relieved breath.

He tried to get out of bed, but An Kexin reached out to hold him down.

"You stay lying there. Two additional medical volunteer teams have arrived, adding twenty or thirty more doctors. Honestly, we don't really need you right now."

An Kexin said sternly, "What you need most is to nurse your health back."

Lin Jie struggled to sit up and said, "Even if you don't need me as a doctor, it's still good to have an extra hand. Besides, I'm still the highest-ranking official in this field hospital."

An Kexin laughed and snorted, "You're just wielding that title like a rooster feather."

"According to Miaomiao, while you were busy with surgeries yesterday and slept heavily last night, this hundred-person field hospital has still been running smoothly."

"So, your title of highest-ranking official is just a name, don't take it too seriously."

Lin Jie said sheepishly, "I'm not stupid, I know this."

Saying that, he was about to get out of bed.

An Kexin stopped him again, urgency in her voice, "You should at least eat something before going to save people, right? Sister Xiaoxiao has gone to get food, wait a bit and eat something."

People are iron, food is steel!

With that, Lin Jie actually felt hungry and sat back down on the bed. He said, "Okay, I'll eat something before heading out. Kexin, what's the situation with this earthquake?"

An Kexin pulled the blanket over Lin Jie's legs and said, "The Richter scale registered a 7.4 magnitude, and the focal depth was nine kilometers."

"The epicenter was in a place called 'Village,' I checked the map, and it's only three or four kilometers in a straight line from our campsite."

"The news reports say that two to three hundred thousand people were affected by this earthquake, with several towns severely impacted, having a population of about fifty thousand."

"As for the exact number of casualties..."

An Kexin paused and said, "The news says the preliminary estimate of those killed has already exceeded two thousand..."

Hearing this number, Lin Jie felt a melancholic ache in his heart.

Although humanity can now move mountains and fill seas, in the face of nature's power, individuals are still incredibly fragile.

Lin Jie noticed the bandage on An Kexin's right foot, with crutches placed by the bedside. Changing the subject, he asked, "How is your foot feeling?"

"Much better now, not as painful anymore."

An Kexin smiled and feigned lightheartedness, saying, "Kemeng and I truly are sisters; I injured my right foot, and she hurt her left. Now both of us are hobbling around on crutches."

"A-Jie/Big Brother Jie, you're awake!"

With these two soft exclamations, Zhang Xiaoxiao carrying a tray of food, and An Kemeng on crutches, entered the tent together.

The food was simple: vegetable and meat buns, porridge, boiled eggs, and pickled vegetables.

Lin Jie ate two big buns, a bowl of porridge, two eggs, and after a simple wash, bid farewell to Zhang Xiaoxiao and the An sisters before leaving the tent.

On his way to the first surgical vehicle, he encountered Colonel Fang Jianbin.

"Comrade Lin Jie, at three and five in the morning, two medical rescue teams arrived, adding up to twenty-five people; we've built four more sterile operating rooms!"

Colonel Fang observed Lin Jie's expression, then continued, "Under the current conditions, the wounded being sent here can all receive effective treatment. Comrade Lin Jie, you don't have to work as hard as you did yesterday."

Lin Jie smiled lightly and said, "You don't have to worry about me. What happened last night won't happen again. After a good night's sleep, I'm fully recovered now."

He then advised, "Appropriately arrange for staff to take turns resting, ensuring every doctor can be in good condition to save the injured!"

"Yes, Comrade Lin Jie!"

After saluting, Fang Jianbin jogged away…

Because the number of doctors suddenly increased significantly, Lin Jie no longer needed to occupy two surgical vehicles and exhaust himself with surgeries as he did yesterday. He started participating in the rescue work of the injured from start to finish.

As a result, his surgical efficiency dropped considerably.

However, performing a surgery every twenty to thirty minutes on average is something other chief surgeons can't quite compare to.

Moreover, the person in charge of triage also knew Lin Jie's outstanding ability, and the injured sent to him were mostly those who were in the most critical condition.

After one o'clock in the afternoon, Lin Jie completed another surgery.

After the injured person was taken away, Lin Jie and several surgical assistants got off the surgical vehicle.

At this moment, several medical staff waiting outside entered the surgical vehicle, cleaning and disinfecting the operating room at the fastest speed, and replenishing plasma and surgical supplies.

Lin Jie noticed that a table had been set up outside the surgical vehicle, with Fang Jianbin and several soldiers holding food to place on it.

Seeing Lin Jie, Fang Jianbin put down the food, jogged over, and said, "Comrade Lin Jie, it's lunchtime. Please have something to eat. Always holding on with chocolate won't be good for your body."

"I have already instructed that no injured will be assigned here within half an hour."

Lin Jie saw that several assistants were looking exhausted, nodded, and said, "Okay, let's eat and rest for a bit!"

The dishes were all large pot stews, such as string beans with meat, eggplant with meat, the soup was seaweed egg drop, and the staple was rice.

Although the meals were ordinary, in the current environment, having hot meals was already considered very good treatment, at least better than stuffing black chocolate into one's mouth.

Lin Jie and several assistants sat down and without any politeness, each started eating in big bites…

He had barely finished half a bowl of rice when he heard a clamor of footsteps approaching from afar.

Looking back, he saw a person being carefully escorted over by a dozen others.

Seeing the condition of the person in the middle, Lin Jie couldn't help but exclaim, "Damn it, holy... shit!"

This was a soldier, whose camouflage uniform was so stained with blood and dust that the original color was barely visible.

Most notably, his face and upper body were pierced with many thin long kebab skewers, at least a dozen.

Among them, two skewers particularly caught Lin Jie's attention.

One was pierced into the person's left eyeball, and another into the left chest at the heart area.

The issue was, this person walked over on his own.

If it were the dead of night, this scene would surely be terrifying enough to cause fright.

"Expert Lin!"

A dust-covered female military doctor jogged over quickly and said urgently, "I am the attending doctor, Yuan Li. Last night, I led a medical team to the disaster site."

"Let me introduce the condition of this soldier to you."

"His name is Li Hao, twenty-two years old. While crawling into rubble to rescue a child, he suddenly encountered a gas tank explosion. Due to the confined space and protecting the child, Li Hao didn't have time to dodge..."

"If not for a few planks blocking, these skewers could have pierced through his body."

After detailing the injury process, Yuan Li continued, "I used a portable X-ray machine to examine, these dozen skewers have pierced into both his lungs. Fortunately, due to the muscle blockage, no pneumothorax has formed..."

Lin Jie frowned and said displeasedly, "Doctor Yuan, get to the point directly!"

"One skewer has pierced into the patient's right atrium!"

Yuan Li's words made several of Lin Jie's assistants gasp at the same time.

Compared to this news, the skewer in the left eye seemed trivial. The loss of one eye is manageable, but a skewer in the right atrium poses a risk of immediate cardiac rupture and death.

"Expert Lin, to avoid bumps and other unforeseen accidents on the road, we didn't dare to take a vehicle or call for a helicopter. Li Hao walked over ten miles to get here, step by step."

"Expert Lin, please save him!"

These words left Lin Jie feeling somewhat incredulous.

Walking over ten miles and nothing happened?

This could be described as a walking miracle.

Lin Jie commanded, "Prepare extracorporeal circulation equipment, we'll perform surgery!"

"Expert Lin, we don't have such equipment as extracorporeal circulation!" A surgical assistant beside him reminded softly.

Lin Jie frowned even deeper!

Although calling a helicopter to urgently bring a set of extracorporeal circulation equipment from a large hospital was an option, coming and going would take at least one or two hours.

Lin Jie looked at Li Hao once again.

Gritting his teeth and tightly pursing his lips, he kept silent as he watched him.

Lin Jie understood that Li Hao remained silent because he was holding his breath, fearing that if he opened his mouth, the breath would be lost.

This breath, along with his will to survive, allowed Li Hao to continue walking over ten miles to this place, safely.

But this didn't mean he could hold on for another one or two hours.

Everyone has their limits.

Performing cardiac suture surgery without using extracorporeal circulation equipment – Lin Jie had succeeded in such on Xiao Qi, and with his further medical expertise, he was certain about his ability to succeed once more.

Lin Jie approached Li Hao and said softly, "Hold on for another half an hour, I can save you!"

He turned and looked at several surgical assistants, instructing, "Prepare for surgery, let me show you my true capability!"

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