Disciplinary Code

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With a calm and composed demeanor, he returned to his office. He had just sat down and hadn’t even had a sip of water when the nurse on duty appeared at the door, leaning against the door frame. Her gaze swept into the room and stopped on him.

“Doctor Ji,” the nurse raised her eyebrows with a concerned look. She whispered, “Director Hao is looking for you.”

Ji Yao: …

No need to ask, just by looking at this expression, he knew it wasn’t good news.

With a resigned sigh, he stood up from his chair, leaning on the office desk with one hand. He hooked his finger around the teacup on the table, poured the last sip of cold overnight water into his stomach.

The ice-cold temperature traveled down his throat, dispersing through his veins as if spreading through his chest. The cold sensation made Ji Yao shiver, finally awakening his mind a bit.

He pushed his office chair aside and walked out. The nurse on duty waited by the door frame until he approached before quietly saying, “It’s that family again, causing a scene. This time they brought a middle-aged woman with them, it seems like she’s the real wife and mother… Doctor Ji, be careful.”

Ji Yao: … 

Ji Yao immediately had a headache.

When things went wrong, they often seemed to trigger a chain reaction. Ji Yao belatedly realized that this time the “Mercury retrograde” didn’t seem to have much to do with the ‘innocent’ Jiang Heng—purely bad luck brought them together.

About ten days ago, on a night shift, they received a case of a wealthy young man who crashed his sports car in an accident.

The speed-obsessed car was as fragile as paper. Its front bumper remained intact, but a steel plate from the dashboard had folded and punctured his abdomen. The wealthy young man was rushed to the hospital by an ambulance past two in the morning. He was accompanied by a group of friends, all dressed flashy and bright, as if it were still midsummer, wearing torn and tattered stud-adorned T-shirts. They looked like they had been parachuted in from the other half of the world.

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Those friends left the patient at the hospital and disappeared in a hurry. Not a single one of them stayed behind. The emergency room was in chaos, and with Ji Yao’s limited experience, he struggled to find a phone number labeled “Father” on the patient’s phone.

However, it wasn’t until the emergency treatment was completed that the patient’s family finally arrived. A middle-aged man reeking of alcohol stumbled into the room, his high-end suit looking like a rag that had been hastily pulled from a table at some party. His mind was a mess, soaked in alcohol, and he could barely hold a conversation without swaying to the side.

It was unclear whether he was overwhelmed by grief or still intoxicated. In any case, he couldn’t string together a complete sentence.

The woman who came with him seemed to be slightly older than him. She struggled to support him in her high heels, casting awkward smiles at the medical staff in the room.

The patient’s blood pressure continued to drop, and it was evident that he was failing to inhale enough air. Ji Yao hurried over, planning to perform surgery as soon as possible. He grabbed the family member and asked him to sign the surgical consent form. However, the middle-aged man, for some unknown reason, only cried, holding his face. He couldn’t steady his trembling hand enough to sign the form, and between sobs, he kept saying, “Save my son.” But he refused to put pen to paper.

Unable to communicate with the man, Ji Yao had no choice but to give the consent form to the woman beside him.

The woman hesitated at first, gripping the pen as if she wanted to say something but then bit her lip and signed without a word.

Partly to blame was his own preconceived notion: he had a subconscious feeling that if the “father” came to see the patient, the one with him was either the biological mother or the stepmother. He didn’t bother to confirm further, and this neglect created a problem.

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If Ji Yao could foresee the future, if he knew how much trouble this wealthy young man would cause later, he wouldn’t have rushed those few minutes at the time.

This incident could be considered trivial or significant, depending on the outcome of the patient. But the problem was, the surgery was successful, yet the patient didn’t survive. He struggled for over a day in the intensive care unit and finally passed away.

It was during this time that they learned the truth: the person who had signed the consent form was not a legal family member of the patient—she was simply an affair of the middle-aged man, not even knowing if she was the second, third, or fourth mistress.

Ji Yao was annoyed just thinking about it. He pinched the bridge of his nose and walked a few steps forward, then stepped back again. He said to the nurse, “That thing you were supposed to give me last time…”

The nurse responded with an “oh,” pounded her palm, and said, “The ‘Water Retrograde Begone’ wallpaper, right? Just wait, Doctor Ji. I’ll go to the break room and get my phone to send it to you.”

Ji Yao: …

“I told you before, Doctor Ji, your zodiac sign is in retrograde, but you didn’t believe it,” the nurse continued chattering, “That symbol is quite effective. There were over 30,000 reposts on Weibo. It’s better to believe it than not.”

Doctor Ji’s headache grew, but when he thought of Director Hao on one side and Jiang Heng on the other, he suddenly felt that sometimes it might be worth trusting in the mystical.

Just to find some psychological comfort, Ji Yao thought painfully.

“Oh, and they are now insisting that the woman wanted to take the position of the wife, so she deliberately signed the form to harm the patient,” the nurse said with concern, “As for you, they suspect you had deliberate contact with her, making you an accomplice.”

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Ji Yao: …

“But don’t worry, Doctor Ji!” The nurse puffed her chest out and made a fist-pumping gesture. “Director Hao won’t take these baseless accusations seriously. I believe in you!”

“Thank you,” Ji Yao said, “I appreciate the organization’s trust in me, but let’s hold off on the verbal praise. I need to go to the battlefield first.”

With that, Ji Yao straightened his clothes, then turned and went to find the director’s office.

Director Hao YU, as his name suggested, was a kind and gentle person. He was honest and kind-hearted, but his demeanor was too soft at times, which made it difficult for him to handle certain situations.

When Ji Yao knocked on the door and entered, Director Hao was in the middle of a conversation with the “aggrieved party.” Judging by his expression, the conversation was clearly not going smoothly.

“Director, you wanted to see me.”

Ji Yao’s gaze swept over the guest sofa by the side, and he probably had an idea in his mind.

That day, two women had come. The unfamiliar one was middle-aged, well-maintained, and adorned with jewelry, but her appearance was slightly haggard, and her swollen eyes and dark circles couldn’t be concealed by makeup.

The other woman, younger than the deceased wealthy young man by a few years, Ji Yao had seen before. She was the patient’s sister.

As for the patient’s father, over the past few days, he hadn’t shown up even once. Ji Yao didn’t know whether he had run away or was hiding somewhere.

“This is our Doctor Ji,” Director Hao introduced him, attempting to mediate the situation. “Actually, Mrs. Li, none of us wanted this kind of situation to happen. It really is just a—”

Before Director Hao could finish his sentence, Mrs. Li, Li Linghua, turned her body and stared at Ji Yao’s face.

“You are the doctor who operated on him?” Li Linghua asked coldly.

“It’s me,” Ji Yao confirmed.

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If it were possible, Ji Yao would prefer not to get into disputes with patients’ family members, partly to avoid trouble and partly because the patient had indeed passed away. Out of humanitarianism, he didn’t want to engage in conflict.

“I want to hold you criminally responsible!” Li Linghua pointed at his nose and accused, “You must have colluded with that woman to harm Xiaowen!”

Ji Yao’s expression instantly darkened.

The sister of the wealthy young man had already come alone twice before, causing a ruckus each time and demanding a thorough investigation. It made it impossible for anyone to have peace.

Ji Yao had thought that the patient’s mother would be more reasonable, but he didn’t expect her to be just as unreasonable.

“Mrs. Li, there’s really nothing more to say about this issue,” Ji Yao had repeated these words numerous times. “The entire resuscitation process was recorded, and you can review the medication records. As for the signature, your husband himself refused to cooperate and the form was signed by someone else.”

“Moreover, all the medical staff in the emergency room were present, and everyone can testify,” Ji Yao stated professionally. “I am not responsible for any medical issues. Mr. Li’s death was due to postoperative acute infection. You can request an autopsy.”

“And I haven’t made any medical mistakes!” Ji Yao pushed back, his voice resolute. “If anything, the responsibility lies with your son—at the time, we confirmed with him multiple times if he had any history of allergies or special illnesses, and he repeatedly said no. We even asked him when he was conscious, and he still said no. He didn’t report even when he knew he had AIDS, nearly causing trouble for all the medical staff in the room!”

“All lies!” Li Linghua said with determination, her voice firm. “Your hospital is trying to shift the blame! It was your hospital’s negligence—from getting the signature from the wrong person to failing to treat a special patient accordingly. It’s a severe medical incident!”

“You can’t put it that way…” Director Hao tried to mediate, stepping forward to stand between Ji Yao and Li Linghua. He attempted to reason with her, “The situation is that we identified and adjusted the treatment based on the test results, and we increased the level of monitoring. This can’t be considered the cause of Mr. Li’s death.”

If it wasn’t for Hao Yu holding her back, she might have even physically confronted Ji Yao.

“Regardless of whether indirect or direct a stranger signing the document was still the case of my son’s death and i want the hospital to pay for this.”