My junior colleague, desperate to build a "helpful" persona, kicked open the operating room door when a film crew came to the hospital, all for a better shot. "Film in the OR! It's the most authentic setting." Startled during surgery, my hand slipped. The operation failed, and the patient hemorrhaged and died on the spot. Afterward, she threw herself into a senior colleague's arms, sobbing: "I... I was just trying to help. It's not my fault..." I was blamed for medical malpractice, yet my colleagues only surrounded her to comfort her: "You meant well." "It's her own lack of skill. She can't blame you." Furious, I shouted: "This is a hospital! Not a studio! You kicked the door open during surgery. What were you thinking?" Overcome with "guilt," she cried and threatened suicide to atone. To protect her, my senior colleague deleted the surveillance footage of her kicking the door and told the press I was incompetent. I was fired, shunned by the medical community, and eventually killed by the vengeful family of the patient. Reborn, I returned to the day my junior colleague kicked open that door. 1 "Can the family keep it down? Stop wailing!" "You're disturbing the film crew!" Just like in my past life, my junior colleague Chloe Quinn kicked open the OR door with a bang. Fortunately, this time I was prepared. I gripped the scalpel firmly, cleanly excising the cancerous tissue while carefully avoiding major blood vessels. I calmly directed everyone to continue the surgery. From excision to hemostasis, from suturing to wrapping up. My surgical gown was soaked in blood, looking like I had just crawled out of a sea of blood, but my expression remained calm. The look in everyone's eyes was one of shock. When the door crashed open, a nurse dropped her hemostats in fright. No one expected me, the lead surgeon, not to even tremble. After the surgery, before I could change. Chloe rushed up to accuse me: "Dr. Foster, you're covered in blood and still got in the shot. That take is ruined!" "Renting equipment costs five thousand dollars a day. Can't you be considerate of others?" I didn't answer. Once the surgery was fully complete, I raised my hand and slapped her hard. Slap— "If you're sick, go to the psych ward upstairs! Don't go crazy in my OR!" Her eyes reddened, covering her face pitifully: "Sob... Dr. Foster, why did you hit me?" Her sobbing attracted the attention of colleagues nearby. Seeing people gather, Chloe cried even louder: "I just understood the crew's hard work and wanted to help." Frowning, I slapped her other cheek. 2 Chloe's face swelled up high; she even forgot to cry. I pointed at her and scolded: "As a doctor, instead of stopping outsiders from messing around, you led the charge to kick open the OR door! Are you evil or just stupid?!" Chloe covered her face and wept, choking out: "I just meant well..." "If Dr. Foster thinks I'm wrong, I apologize." I sneered: "You should apologize to the patient you almost killed!" I hated her act of looking pitiful after doing something wrong. But some people bought it. "Isn't the patient fine? Is this necessary?" Dr. Harris, a colleague from my year, stepped up to defend her. "Dr. Harris, can you take her punishment for her? If the patient died, would you go to prison for her?" I interrupted Dr. Harris, glaring at him: "This isn't your place to speak." "Is it my place then?" Dr. Vaughn, the most senior male doctor in our department and my senior, spoke up. But I gave face to no one: "You shut up too!" "You..." My face darkened: "This is a hospital. Patient safety is the top priority!" "Instead of holding her accountable for kicking open the OR door, you're here blurring right and wrong. What are your intentions?" "If I had been startled during surgery and my hand slipped, would you still be standing here arguing with me?" "Chloe is the intern under me. My evaluation of her internship is one sentence—she is unfit to be a doctor!" "I will write a truthful report and apply for her disciplinary action." 3 At this moment, covered in blood with a grim face, I looked terrifying. My colleagues were silent as cicadas in winter, daring not to persuade me further. I walked up to Chloe: "Insulting the patient's family, kicking the OR door—the patient almost died at your hands!" "Go back and copy the medical handbook a hundred times, write a self-reflection, and reflect properly! Apologize to the patient's family tomorrow!" "One more incident, and you take off that white coat and leave!" With that, I threw my gloves in her face and turned to leave. "Wait." Dr. Harris blocked my path, shielding Chloe: "We're colleagues. Do you have to be so ruthless?" I looked at his face and pointed at the trembling Chloe: "Then why did she have to be so ruthless? Won't stop until she kills someone?" Chloe's tears fell like broken beads: "Since Dr. Foster wants to punish me, I admit my mistake." "Scold me, Dr. Foster, just don't involve others." She sniffled and added: "But, can Dr. Foster be lenient?" "If I get disciplined... I won't get my residency certificate." Colleagues felt sorry for her and spoke up. "Why be so petty?" "Chloe didn't mean it." "Yeah, are you jealous of Chloe's beauty and using public office to avenge private grudges?" They were always like this. Whenever something happened, they defended Chloe indiscriminately. That's what emboldened her to do whatever she wanted, ignorant of the consequences. I interrupted them: "A millimeter of difference could lead to a patient dying on the table!" "My 'pettiness' is being responsible to the patient! Responsible to the white coat I wear!" "Besides, for kicking the OR door, firing her wouldn't be excessive! Writing a reflection is letting her off easy!" "Making stupid mistakes but not wanting to take responsibility, wanting to have her cake and eat it too. Did she not graduate kindergarten?" Then I warned Chloe impatiently: "Go write your reflection. If you're still crying and making a scene after my next surgery, you'll bear the consequences!" With that, I turned and left. 4 The next surgery lasted over ten hours, ending only the next morning. Post-surgery, I was exhausted. Chloe led a group of people waiting at the OR door. As soon as I came out, she knelt before me with a thud. "Dr. Foster, I really had no ill intentions." "Isn't the patient fine?" "Even if it's my fault, I've reflected deeply. Please don't discipline me." She was always like this, crying and playing the victim to escape responsibility after causing trouble. But I wouldn't indulge her: "You don't need to kneel to me. You should kneel to the patient's family." "If you know you're wrong, you should accept the punishment." I walked around her back to the office. After a whole night of surgery, my steps were unsteady and my vision dark. Just after changing, before I could rest, a nurse ran over urgently: "Something happened, Dr. Foster! You're trending!" My eyelid twitched. Thinking of Chloe kneeling, I had a bad feeling. "What trend?" "Look at this... Intern doctor bullied, forced to kneel to senior." The nurse anxiously handed me her phone. It was the video of Chloe kneeling to me, with nearly a million views. "When reporters went to interview Chloe, they caught her swallowing sleeping pills to commit suicide. She left a suicide note saying she was willing to die to appease Dr. Foster's anger." Would someone who really wanted to die cry and whitewash themselves in front of a camera? I downloaded the video to my phone to save as evidence: "Great acting. Much better than those pop idols." The nurse said, "Dr. Foster, think of something! Maybe go hide for a while!" The office door was suddenly barged open. The Chief of Surgery walked in with a dark face. Looking like he was here to assign blame, clearly prepared. 5 "Dr. Aria Foster! I asked you to mentor the intern, not bully her!" "Hitting people, making them kneel. What do you think this hospital is? The mafia?" Looking at the Chief's gloomy face, I said calmly: "Chief, do you know why I hit her? She..." Before I could finish, Dr. Harris cut in: "Chief, Chloe has been diligent since her internship started." "When busy, she goes thirty-plus hours without sleep. Even when I tell her to rest, she refuses to leave her post." "Because of heart pain from staying up late, she accidentally tripped and hit the OR door. She didn't want Dr. Foster to misunderstand that she was interfering with the surgery." "Chief, Dr. Foster treats interns like animals. Chloe is really too pitiful!" I didn't want to bring up the mentoring issues publicly. But for the same workload, other interns finished in half an hour while Chloe couldn't do it in five. Can she blame me for working overtime? At this time, Dr. Vaughn also stood up for Chloe. "Chief, it was an unintentional mistake." "Dr. Foster not only misunderstood her and wanted to discipline her but also used her residency certificate to threaten her to kneel and apologize. It's too excessive." The Chief slammed the table, furious. "You're saying Aria wanted to discipline her and threatened her with her residency certificate?" Dr. Vaughn nodded, looking at me unkindly: "Yes. Chloe has a soft personality and accepts things meekly. She thought it was her fault for upsetting Dr. Foster and swallowed sleeping pills to commit suicide. Fortunately, she was discovered in time, or we would never see her again." I didn't know if Dr. Vaughn and Dr. Harris truly couldn't identify a "green tea" (a seemingly innocent but manipulative girl) or just liked her pitiful act, hence aiding the villain. Listening to them twisting the truth back and forth, I laughed in anger: "There's surveillance outside the OR. A check will show who's right or wrong. No need to slander me with such low-level lies..." Slap— The Chief raised his hand and slapped me, cutting off my unfinished words.
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