Nian

Breakups were normal in life.

Li Yun remembered being enamored by his first girlfriend at the beginning high school. Back then, he was a bit clueless about how to deal with girls, so he often asked Bufu, who had the most dating experience, for advice. Probably not a good idea thinking about it now, but Bufu was truly a romantic who regularly showered his girlfriends with flowers and gifts.

Much of Bufu's advice was sound and simple, be yourself and be a gentleman. Unfortunately, being himself meant letting her know about his habits of watching people and psychoanalyzing them. At first, she thought it was funny.

As Li Yu's face reading ability improved, he gained a better understanding of people's intentions, including his girlfriend. When she had asked him out, she thought he was the bad boy type who was always hanging out with a bunch of delinquents. After they got together, she quickly realized that what she needed in a relationship was different from what she had initially wanted; the novelty had worn off. When they entered their senior high school, her friends convinced her that she needed someone with a better future, and they naturally broke up.

Was Li Yun upset at the time? No, he had seen it coming days before and avoided her as much as possible to delay the inevitable breakup. Rather than upset, he felt sad and oddly relieved.

The situation with Wen Nali was the same. Li Yun knew that Wen Nali was going to break up with him as it was an inevitable conclusion when she applied for a position in the States. She liked him, but not enough to delay her plans of professorship.

"I'm totally exhausted," Lui Jing dropped his body onto the couch.

"Hey, my leg!" Li Yun yelled out as his train of thought was crushed by someone's bony buttock.

Lui Jing quickly jumped up, holding onto his head and panicking. He was not aware that Li Yun was already resting on the couch. "Ah, sorry."

"Are you really that tired that you didn't even see me?" Li Yun scowled. As he readjusted his body into a sitting position, he looked at Lui Jing's face and noticed that something was off. "Hey, Lui Jing, go get a CT scan."

"Uh, why?"

"Did a patient attack you today?"

"Oh yeah, you heard about that too? Some crazy guy whacked me with his crutches. But I'm fine now."

"Are you sure? Do you feel like you're losing focus, and there's this warped sensation in your head?"

"Yeah, I'm feeling a bit depressed, but I'm feeling fine."

"You're only feeling fine because you took some pain reliever. You could have some minor concussion. It's not bad now, but if you don't deal with it now, you might have difficulty in the future."

Lui Jing was a bit frightened. He was a doctor himself, so he understood what Li Yun was implying. Untreated concussions could lead to chronic headaches. Rather than delaying treatment, he called the radiology office and requested a CT scan for himself.

The hospital made it simple for employees to access medical services for themselves, and Lui Jing got an appointment within an hour.

"Thanks for squeezing me in at the last moment," said Lui Jing in the CT room.

"Hey, not a problem, if we don't treat doctors first, who's going to treat the patients," Technician Wu replied into the microphone from the adjacent room. "Are you a first year resident in the ACS program?

Technician Wu had seen Lui Jing ID badge, so his real question was about something else.

"Yeah, what about it?" Lui Jing asked while laying down, and preparing for the CT machine to operate.

"When Director Hong recruited Chief Zhang, we all thought he was a monster. Then Doctor Zhang recruited two deputy chiefs for the ACS unit, and they were even bigger monsters. Chief Gao is like a commanding bull in the ER while Chief Lim is like a machine in surgery. But I have to say, this year new recruits are pretty impressive."

Lui Jing got through the scan, and Technician Wu released all the straps. Lui Jing thought he himself was pretty impressive, he always had good grades and performances. Typically, residents in ACS didn't choose to go into ACS. However, there really were monsters in the ACS unit.

"Who did the rotation in radiology?" Lui Jing wondered.

"Zhou Mi Xuan and Yang Kang," Technician Wu replied.

Lui Jing thought everyone in ACS was pretty impressive. Despite being considered the leftovers, the new residents of ACS stood out from the rest. One of the main reasons was how the Chiefs assigned the residents with different roles based on their weaknesses and strengths.

Most other residents were like Lui Jing, they were slightly above average in everything. It did not sound that impressive, but this was an important quality to have in ACS. They didn't need to specialize in everything, but they should know enough to make decisions in life-threatening situations.

As for the ones with specialty roles, none of the other residents could complain.

Yang Kang worked well with patients, and was in charge of post-op care and stayed in the ICU most of the time, learning about pain management and internal medicine.

Mi Xuan and An Luchang both had high technical abilities and book smarts. When it came to using laparoscopes, surgical tools, and robotics, they were the most receptive and quick to learn in simulations.

"Wow, you know a lot about our unit," said Lui Jing after hearing Technician Wu talking about the residents.

"Well, your resident gossiper Yang Kang talks a lot," said Technician Wu. "Apparently they call An Luchang the baby monster and Mi Xuan the ice monster."

"Oh, you haven't heard about Li Yun."

"He has't rotated into the department yet and Yang Kang seems afraid to talk about him, but I have seen him around," said Technician Wu.

Lui Jing nodded, he understood why people were afraid of Li Yun.

"Guess what everyone outside of ACS call Li Yun?" Asked Technician Wu.

Lui Jing had no idea.

"The Nian."

"Why Nian?"

"Because of how crazy annoying he is," said Technician Wu. "I haven't seen it personally, but I have heard other staff and nurses talking about it. When he was on rotation with the attending surgeon Doctor Deng from the Cardiothoracic department, he pointed out all the errors that happened during the surgery. It forced Doctor Deng to go back and fix the error. Everyone said Doctor Deng lost face because of it."

Lui Jing thought about the Nian, a giant demon known for causing panic, destruction, and fear.

"That sounds like him," said Lui Jing. "What else did you hear?"

"I heard something similar happened in the general surgery department with Doctor Chun. They were performing a simple laparoscopic cholecystectomy, Li Yun was only the second assistant, but Doctor Chun decided to let him do surgery. Some of the nurses said Doctor Chun wanted to see him make mistakes, but he completed the surgery without any further complications."

"I was in the theater at the time," said Lui Jing.

"Ooh! You were there!? Tell me about it, all the video clips of the surgery were taken down by the hospital administrators."