Exhaustion

Eight hour surgery.

It was awful for her back. But the life saved was good for her morale.

Wang WenLing stumbled out of the operating room and removed the gloves, face mask and and threw them into the dustbin near the doorway, took off the theatre gown and dumped that into the assigned bin. She fell into the steel chairs by the wall just outside the OT but was too tired to even hiss when her bones hit the steel with a thud.

" Good work. Doctor Wang." The general surgeon came out and patted her head. She did not have the energy to even smile at him.

" You need to go home." Said Doctor Xie, the chief of surgery came inside the hallway and placed a small carton of banana milk near WenLing on the bench.

" But when you come back after a day, you will come to my office." She continued to look down sternly at one of her favourite juniors.

" Yes Ma'am." WenLing mustered some energy to reply her.

She knew that she was in trouble. The 20 year old patient had met with a car accident, and in addition to the steel rod that had pierced into his stomach, he was covered in glass particles. She was just clocking out from the trauma ward when she saw him. As a second year trainee in trauma surgery, she took charge of the patient's surgery after a 36 hour duty. It was against a lot of the hospital policies, but she knew that the chief of surgery and the head of trauma were occupied with a VIP patient and she wanted to make sure she was in on the surgery. The patient was finally stable, and she was sure she could handle a few scoldings from her senior.

" Get a cab, don't you dare drive in the condition that you are in." Dr. Xie muttered and gestured to a nurse to hand over the tablet with the patient's stats.

" Good work everyone. Refreshments are waiting for everyone in the conference room." She told the other nurses and doctors that were involved in the surgery.

WenLing smiled a little. She loved Xie JingFei. She wanted to be just like her when she got older. Even though there were a few minor surgeries scheduled in the other operation theatre for supposed VIP patients, she was here, inquiring after them. Sure, the hospital director would be there to do the bootlicking, but the chief of surgeries was here, taking care of them, which instantly boosted everyone's spirits.

Everyone made their way to the conference room, leaving WenLing to fend for herself. She sighed and sat up. She inhaled sharply when she felt her head spin. She admitted to herself that she had pushed herself too much this time. She reached for the banana milk, opened and took a sip. She sighed again and made herself drink the entire cartoon slowly. She could feel the sugar levels in her body getting recharged.

Once she had finished drinking the entire the carton, she threw it in the dustbin and made her way to the doctor's changing rooms. She quickly changed out of her scrubs and into her a loose t-shirt of some obscure band and a pair of boyfriend jeans that was faded and frayed too much from the frequent use. She took of her favourite pair of comfortable shoes and traded them for a sandal that was equally well used. She took out a tote bag from the locker and shoved the scrubs inside the tote, knowing that she was running out of clean scrubs to wear. She had a pile of unwashed scrubs at home as well.

She took her senior's advice and booked a taxi. She knew she would be a menace on the road if she drove in the condition that she was in. She waved goodbye to her colleagues on her way out to the pickup bay.

The Yang hospital that she was working was not the best or the biggest in the country. But she loved working there. She had first started working there because she wanted to train under JingFei after finishing her residency in surgery. She has yet to regret her decision in turning down offers from big hospitals.

She got in the taxi and relaxed after telling the driver her home address. She had chosen to stay in one of the apartments in a nearby block. It usually took her fifteen minutes to reach her home, but because of heavy traffic, it took them almost half an hour that day. It took the last reserve of her strength to hold on to her conscience.

She had never been as happy to see the front entrance of her apartment building as she was that day. She paid the driver, thanked him and rushed up to her apartment. She lived on the top floor, and the only decent thing about the building was the balcony, which had an incredible view. The apartment was small, with a living room and a open kitchen, one bedroom with an attached bathroom. But she has grown fond of it. Sure, she was renting it, but it felt good to have a place to call her own.

She knew that her apartment would look messy with medical books and dirty clothes scattered all over the place, but her lips twisted with a frown as she opened her apartment door and the smell assaulted her nose. She made her way to the door leading to the balcony, and opened it, hoping to air out the entire place. She knew she needed to sleep, but if she put off cleaning the apartment any longer, she would never do it, plus she had the entire day tomorrow to sleep.

So she gritted her teeth and set about cleaning her apartment. But she first ordered food and changed out of her jeans into a comfortable pair of shorts. She then collected the books and arranged them on book shelf that took up one entire wall of her apartment. Her living room looked more like a study room, one wall lined with book shelf, a large study table taking up most of the room, where she had set up her laptop. Her kitchen was at least neat, mainly because she rarely used it. She was rarely home, and on the off chance she needed to cook, it was mostly eggs. She was a lot of things, a good cook was not one of them. She just did not have patience for it.

She finished putting everything in order in the living room and moved to open her bedroom, thankfully it was a little better as she had a rule, that she would used her bedroom only for sleeping. After collecting a couple of unwashed clothes from the bedroom and putting inside the laundry bag, she felt a little bit better.

She debated a little bit to herself if she should do the laundry then, or after a small break. She inhaled sharply knowing that there would be no short breaks for her. She took out her laundry supples and dragged herself to the basement. She was glad that it was an afternoon on a work day. No one was there to hog the washing machines. She could finish washing all her clothes in one go. She separated her clothes into four piles of scrubs, inners, whites and regular clothes, then dumped them into different washing machines. She sat on the three seater sofa that was in the basement, thanking the person who had the insight to place a sofa there.

She took out her phone from the pocket of her shorts. She looked at the app for the food delivery and found that her food will take another fifteen minutes. Forty minutes for a food delivery, she decided not to order from that restaurant the next time, despite having really good food.

She was startled a little when she saw the incoming call. She straightened and answered the call.

" Hello Madam Duan." She answered.

A sweet voice answered her.

" WenLing, it has been a while since you came to see me. Come over tomorrow for dinner." She said in her usual authoritative manner.

WenLing smiled a little. WenLing's parents died when she had been ten years old, and because she did not have any immediate relatives, she was sent to a government run orphanage. Madam Duan had by chance come across her and supposedly couldn't resist her big googly eyes, and taken her in. She was given a place to live in their huge mansion and cute clothes to wear. But WenLing has always been clear about what she was to Madam Duan and her family. If she ever forgot, her son Duan Enlai was there to remind her without fail. She was a trophy they liked to show around when they wanted. That did not mean that they were bad people, they were just entitled and a little selfish. But the truth was that she did owe the life she had now to Madam Duan. So she would always say yes to her, always.

" I will be there by 5 Madam Duan." She made a promise.

After a few more minutes of general talk, Madam Duan cut the call, which was fantastic timing as she phone chimed that the food was there. She quickly left the basement and made her way to the front desk of the apartment building. The delivery guy was waiting for her there. She smiled at him, gave him a small tip and got the bag containing her lunch.

She opened the bag and inhaled the delicious garlic aroma coming from the food containers. She made her way to the basement again. She sat on the sofa, laid the bag on the floor between her legs and opened it. She took out the bigger of the two containers and opened it. The oily garlic noodles brought an instant smile to her face. She took out a pair of disposable chopsticks from the bag and dug into it.