161: Chapter 161 SSS-Rank Hidden Quest: Twin Destinies, Quest Completed!

"Your hands..." Professor Liu Chongli looked at Lu Chen.

"Hmm?"

"Your hands are not human hands."

Lu Chen was stunned for a moment.

"Professor Liu, should I take that as a compliment?"

Professor Liu Chongli didn't answer, but the corners of his mouth curled up slightly.

He turned back around and continued with the subsequent steps of the surgery.

Biliary tract anastomosis.

Hemostasis and irrigation of the abdominal cavity.

Placement of the drainage tubes.

Professor Liu Chongli completed these steps himself.

But from beginning to end, he intentionally or unintentionally kept Lu Chen in the position of first assistant.

From third assistant to first assistant.

No one in the Operating Room raised any objections.

Because everyone had seen that scene just now.

...

Three and a half hours later.

The surgery was over.

From the first incision to the closing of the abdomen, the entire surgery took nine hours and forty minutes.

The monitors in both Operating Rooms showed stable vital sign curves.

The donor, Wang Hui, had stable vital signs, and the function of the remaining left half of his liver was normal.

The recipient, Wang Jianguo, had stable vital signs, and the functional indicators of the newly implanted liver began to recover.

Both father and son had survived.

When Professor Liu Chongli took off his surgical cap, he let out a long breath.

"This surgery was harder than I expected, but the result is better than I expected."

He turned his head to look at Lu Chen.

"That Parachute Suture of yours, I'm going to write it into my teaching cases when I get back."

"Professor Liu, you're being too kind."

"I'm not being kind, I'm telling the truth."

Professor Liu Chongli's gaze was very serious.

"Performing an anastomosis of this precision on a 1.8mm Variant Hepatic Artery with a degenerated vessel wall... in the entire province's vascular and Transplant Surgery Departments combined, there are no more than five people who could do it."

"You are twenty-four years old."

"Do you know what that means?"

Lu Chen did not answer.

Professor Liu Chongli patted his shoulder.

"If you're interested in moving towards the field of transplantation in the future, come find me."

He turned and pushed the door open to walk out.

Outside the Operating Room.

Director Li Sen was standing there.

Beside him was President Zeng Dayang.

Next to them was President Sun Guofan.

President Sun Guofan had specifically come down from his office today.

A Living Donor Liver Transplantation, a patient the province was highly concerned about, and the news of a twenty-four-year-old Resident Physician under his command turning the tide during the surgery had already reached his ears through the Operating Room's intercom system.

After Professor Liu Chongli came out, he had a brief exchange with President Sun Guofan and President Zeng Dayang.

Lu Chen was the last to leave the Operating Room.

He stayed inside to do a final check on the position of the drainage tubes and the hemostasis of the surgical site, only coming out after confirming there were no problems.

When he pushed open the door, he saw a row of people standing in the hallway.

Sun Guofan, Zeng Dayang, Li Sen, Professor Feng Yuan, Zhao Yaqin, and Meng Yan.

And Shen Xiaoning.

She stood at the very back, clutching a bottle of water in her hand.

Her eyes were red.

Lu Chen walked over.

President Sun Guofan spoke first.

"Little Lu."

The president, in his early sixties and wearing reading glasses, spoke with a voice that wasn't loud but was very steady.

"Well done."

Two words.

Coming from the president's mouth, they carried a lot of weight.

"Thank you, President Sun."

President Zeng Dayang said with a smile from the side.

"Professor Liu just told me that your Vascular Anastomosis technique made him want to revise his teaching slides."

"President Zeng, you flatter me. Professor Liu's surgery was the core; I only assisted in certain parts."

"That assistance of yours was extraordinary," Director Li Sen added from the side.

"Alright, let him rest first." President Sun Guofan waved his hand.

"A surgery of over nine hours—even an iron man wouldn't be able to hold up."

...

The crowd dispersed.

As Sun Guofan left, he took another look at Lu Chen, his eyes containing something very subtle.

It wasn't simple appreciation.

It was a kind of re-evaluation.

As if he were looking at something he originally thought was an ordinary stone, only to find it was jade.

After the hallway quieted down, only Lu Chen and Shen Xiaoning remained.

Shen Xiaoning stepped forward quickly and handed the water to him.

"Drink some water."

Lu Chen took it, unscrewed the cap, and took a sip.

"How long have you been waiting out here?"

"Nine hours and forty-one minutes."

Lu Chen glanced at her.

"You counted that precisely?"

"I counted every single minute."

Shen Xiaoning's voice trembled slightly.

"After you went in, some information came out intermittently over the intercom. I heard them say the vessel walls were too fragile and couldn't be sutured, I was scared to death..."

"Then I heard you stepped up to do the Suturing on such thin vessels, I could barely stand out here..."

Her eyes reddened, and tears began to fall.

"Can't you, can't you let someone else do it? Why do you have to step up yourself every time..."

Lu Chen watched her cry.

"Because at that moment, only I could do it."

"But you're only twenty-four! What if something happened!"

"There are no 'what ifs'. Look, aren't I perfectly fine?"

Shen Xiaoning wiped her tears with the back of her hand, but they wouldn't stop, continuing to flow down.

Lu Chen stood there, looking at her for two seconds.

Then he reached out and gently patted her head.

"Stop crying."

Shen Xiaoning was stunned.

She looked up at him with tear-blurred eyes.

Lu Chen withdrew his hand from her head.

"Let's go, I'm hungry."

Shen Xiaoning froze for two seconds, then quickly wiped her face.

"I—I prepared food for you! It's at the Nurse Station! Braised pork ribs and shrimp fried rice, and seaweed egg drop soup!"

"When did you make it?"

"I started preparing before you went into the Operating Room. I've reheated it three times!"

"Three times?"

"Yeah, I didn't know when you'd come out, so I reheated it every three hours so you could have a hot meal when you finished!"

Lu Chen looked at her.

This girl had stood outside the Operating Room for over nine hours, reheating food every three hours.

Worrying about his safety while counting the time.

And then handing him a bottle of water the moment he came out.

Lu Chen didn't say anything.

He turned and walked towards the Nurse Station.

Shen Xiaoning followed him at a trot.

"Dr. Lu, do you think today's braised pork ribs will be good?"

"I don't know, I'll have to eat them first to find out."

"I used Lee Kum Kee's spare rib sauce! The online tutorials say it's the best!"

"Mhm."

"And the shrimp, I bought the freshest kind! I went to the market at five in the morning just as it opened!"

"Five o'clock? What time did you get up?"

"Four-thirty!"

Lu Chen's footsteps paused for a moment.

"You don't have to go that early in the future."

"But you have to go early to get the freshest ones!"

"Four-thirty is too early. Six o'clock is fine."

"Then I'll go at six!"

"Mhm."

The two figures disappeared at the end of the hallway.

Meng Yan stood by the Nurse Station, watching their retreating backs, the corners of her mouth curling up.

"These two youngsters."

...

8:00 PM.

Lu Chen returned to the Duty Room.

He had finished the first round of post-operative monitoring for today. Both Wang Jianguo and Wang Hui were in stable condition, and the subsequent monitoring was taken over by the ICU and Professor Liu Chongli's team.

He finally had some time for himself.

After taking a shower, he lay down on the bed.

Then he opened the system panel.

The settlement he had been waiting for all day finally arrived.

[System calculating...]

[SSS-Rank Hidden Quest: Twin Fates, Quest Complete!]

[Quest Rating: SSS-Rank (Perfectly achieved, both parties survived, zero complications)]

[Triggered 100x Experience Critical Hit!]

[Skill Experience Settlement]

[Vascular Anastomosis (perfect level): Progress 32/100 → 99/100]

Lu Chen's breath hitched for a second.

From 32 straight to 99.

The power of the 100x critical hit was terrifying.

He was just one point away from breaking through to God-level.

[Suturing (God-level): Max level reached, cannot be further increased]

[Basic Hepatobiliary Surgery (Entry Level): Progress 37/100 → 100/100 → Breakthrough!]

[Congratulations to the host! Basic Hepatobiliary Surgery has broken through to Skilled Level! Progress 0/100 → 67/100]

He rushed from Entry Level to 67 of Skilled Level in one breath.

With the 100x critical hit plus the experience from the practical surgery, he broke through two levels in a row.

[Basic Surgical Operations (Master Level): Progress 89/100 → 95/100]

[Ultrasound-Guided Puncture (Master Level): Progress 79/100 → 82/100]

[Internal Medicine Diagnostics (proficient level): Progress 73/100 → 76/100]

His other skills also saw a boost.

Although they weren't the primary skills for the 100x critical hit, the comprehensive experience from participating in the entire surgical process was significant.

[New Skill Acquired!]

[Congratulations to the host for learning: God-level Hepatic Artery Anastomosis]

[Skill Description: God-level Hepatic Artery Anastomosis covers all hepatic artery reconstruction operations under various complex conditions, including small-diameter vessel anastomosis, variant vessel handling, improved Suturing for degenerated vessel walls, and all other related Hepatic Artery Anastomosis operations. Once learned, the host can complete the highest precision hepatic artery reconstruction under the most extreme vascular conditions. Anastomosis patency rates and complication control will reach the peak level of current human medicine.]

God-level.

It was given directly as God-level.