The Little Surgeon's Guide to the Wheelchair Iceberg Sister - Chapter 3

Patient Duan Zhixin, a 34-year-old male, had arrived at the Emergency Department with severe right lower abdominal pain for two hours, accompanied by a fever. He had taken ibuprofen, but it provided no relief.

Wu Shuang rushed to the surgical department, where she performed a physical examination and blood tests on Duan Zhixin. The results confirmed a diagnosis of acute appendicitis. She instructed the patient to fast and go to the emergency radiology department for a CT scan to rule out other diseases and contraindications.

Lying on the gurney, Duan Zhixin’s face was pale, and cold sweat had long since soaked through his white shirt. Still, he forced himself to sit up. “Doctor, is this surgery absolutely necessary?”

“Yes, it is!” Wu Shuang replied. “Let’s get the CT scan first. Barring any complications, you’ll likely be in surgery in about an hour. This isn’t a major operation, but delaying it could be life-threatening!”

“But I have a system test tomorrow! We’ve been working on this project for three years, and tomorrow is the most important day! Ah! I have to be there!” Duan Zhixin cried out.

Wu Shuang glanced at his sunken dark circles and greasy hair, silently guessing the nature of his work. She still tried to comfort him kindly, “I know work is important, but you’re sick…”

“Damn it! All that work for nothing,” Duan Zhixin growled, pounding the hospital bed. He then turned to Wu Shuang. “Sorry, doctor, I’m not taking this out on you…”

The colleague who had accompanied Duan Zhixin was a younger man. He chuckled at the patient’s reaction. “Master, you’d better focus on getting well. President Tao and I will keep an eye on the new model tomorrow. Besides, Axiao is still here, and we have plenty of backup plans, so don’t worry… Doctor, where’s the CT scan? I’ll wheel him over now.”

At seven in the morning, Wu Shuang successfully completed Duan Zhixin’s laparoscopic appendectomy.

She took off her surgical cap and mask, revealing deep creases on her face from the elastic bands, making her look like a little calico cat.

Wu Shuang joked with the scrub nurse, “Look at the time. I’ll grab some breakfast and be just in time for the shift change. That way I can get right back to being a corporate slave tomorrow!”

The nurse laughed. “Young people really do have so much energy. You can just keep going without a break.”

“I have to!”

Wu Shuang rushed to her Monday morning shift in the Breast and Thyroid Surgery Department. After the general handover, she took in three new patients.

The afternoon was supposed to be her time off, but she was still thinking about Duan Zhixin, who had just had his surgery. She decided to check on him in his ward.

She wished she hadn’t.

Duan Zhixin, who had recovered from general anesthesia less than six hours ago, was still sporting a drainage tube in his abdomen and an IV in his hand. Yet, he was already propped up in bed, wearing a headset and working on his laptop.

He had practically moved his entire workstation to the hospital bed!

“Duan Zhixin!” Wu Shuang exclaimed.

Duan Zhixin flinched, instinctively slamming his laptop shut. The sudden movement sent a sharp pang of pain through his abdominal wound, and he let out a pained “Ouch!”

“You just had surgery today. You need strict bed rest. This is really not the time to be grinding,” Wu Shuang warned, her expression stern.

“I wasn’t working, I swear…” Duan Zhixin stammered, a guilty smile twitching on his pale lips.

Wu Shuang glared at him again, then carefully checked the drainage tube. She flipped open the medical chart at the foot of the bed to review his vitals, relieved to find everything normal. Before leaving, she reminded him again to get some rest, adding that she would return tonight to change his dressing.

“Yes, Dr. Wu.”

But the moment she was gone, Duan Zhixin flipped his laptop open again.

Ever since graduating from university, Duan Zhixin had worked at Xizhi Technology, a company located in the industrial park near Jinda First Affiliated Hospital. He had been there for ten years.

When he first joined, Xizhi Technology was just like Duan Zhixin himself, young and full of vitality.

The company’s founder, the boss, had been a lecturer in the Computer Science Department at Jingda University. Encouraged by national policies, she had ventured into entrepreneurship, becoming one of the first in the country to research and develop VR equipment.

The founding team consisted of seven people, half of whom were the boss’s junior students from the same research group. Duan Zhixin was one of them.

In the 2010s, they focused all their efforts on VR virtual reality experiences, determined to carve out a place for themselves in the pioneering field of intelligent technology.

Through unity and tireless work, Xizhi Technology soon achieved a breakthrough. They were in talks with Zhenguo, the largest tech company in the country at the time, and their future seemed incredibly bright.

But then, disaster struck.

Just as they were about to launch, Zhenguo, abusing its dominant position, unilaterally broke the contract and demanded exclusive rights to the project. Although they offered a massive buyout that would have made every team member wealthy, this was completely at odds with their goal of building the Xizhi Technology brand.

As if that weren’t enough, shortly after Zhenguo launched its own VR product, the boss died in a freak car accident. His college-student daughter, who was in the car with him, survived but was left disabled.

Xizhi Technology was left without a leader, and the team’s morale plummeted. The early members left one by one, leaving only Duan Zhixin and Axiao, a junior fellow graduate student from the Computer Science department at Jingda University named Xiao Ruiqi.

After two years of keeping a low profile, the company was taken over by the original boss’s daughter. Though her major was economics, she began teaching herself to code after joining the Xizhi Project.

With Duan Zhixin and Axiao’s help, the new boss quickly honed her skills, eventually surpassing even professional programmers.

Initially, Duan Zhixin hadn’t taken a liking to the young woman. He had only stayed because the original boss had helped him immensely when his father was critically ill. Out of pure loyalty, Duan Zhixin had remained steadfastly devoted.

As for why his Junior Sister, Axiao, had never left the company, Duan Zhixin wasn’t entirely sure. He was an unpretentious man who spent his days immersed in code, always oblivious to his colleagues’ relationships, which also happened to be of little interest to him.

But after working together for several years, Duan Zhixin had become thoroughly convinced of the new boss’s abilities. Her unwavering determination in the face of her physical disability had inspired him to work even harder. He believed that together with her, they could carry out her father’s legacy and truly make a name for Xizhi Technology.

However, neither Duan Zhixin nor the new boss trusted large corporations anymore, nor did they believe in any so-called “partnerships” with them.

Xizhi Technology insisted on developing and selling its own products. But in a tech market dominated by ever-changing trends and corporate monopolies, a small company stood little chance of breaking through unless its product was exceptionally good—a true game-changer.

That afternoon was the small-scale free trial of Xizhi’s new product among Jinda University students. Everyone was buzzing with excitement and anticipation, fully prepared to debug on the fly.

Unfortunately, his attending physician, Dr. Wu Shuang, had no idea he was feeling like a proud father over his product.

When Wu Shuang pushed in the medication cart and caught Duan Zhixin staring at his computer again, she couldn’t help but scold him. “I said, do you even want to live?!”

Duan Zhixin had no choice but to hide the computer again, but he couldn’t hide the smile on his face. Their product was receiving an excellent response, and the official launch of their functional AI tailored for college students was now within reach.

“What kind of work do you do that makes you so obsessed?” Wu Shuang’s shoulder-length hair was tied back in a ponytail, revealing a round, chubby face that formed a cute contrast with her thin and lanky body.

To Duan Zhixin, she looked both capable and youthful, reminding him of a girl he’d had a crush on back in school.

“Dr. Wu, don’t be mad! I’m a programmer, I build data models.”

No wonder, Wu Shuang thought.

“Our team is small but the workload is huge. We’re all just grinding ourselves into the ground,” Duan Zhixin continued cheerfully.

“Your boss is ruthless not to hire more people,” Wu Shuang said, pulling on her gloves to prepare the patient’s medication. She was complaining about her own situation, only to suddenly hear a voice:

“The boss says you’re the ruthless one!”

Wu Shuang spun around in shock. Standing two meters behind her was Taozi, the beautiful girl she’d met last Friday.

Because Wu Shuang had pushed the medication cart in, the ward door was wide open. Tao Yuan had simply wheeled herself in. Without the sound of footsteps, Wu Shuang hadn’t noticed anyone had entered.

Now, Wu Shuang stood with her back arched like a kitten startled by a cucumber, her movements to change the medication frozen in mid-air.

“Taozi!”

Tao Yuan also froze for a moment as Wu Shuang turned. The girl had a delicate, round face. While her features weren’t striking, they came together to form a natural, refreshing beauty.

However, Tao Yuan struggled with faces. It wasn’t exactly face blindness, but rather that she only focused on things that truly interested her. She often paid little attention to other people and matters.

For example, she had been completely immersed in her work at Xizhi Technology lately, leaving her with no desire to make new friends or any interest in the casual flings and fast-food romances of her recent past. She had only attended the party to celebrate her close friend Meng Zhou’s birthday, so while Wu Shuang’s face seemed familiar, she hadn’t given her much thought.

Wu Shuang, on the other hand, was incredibly nervous to see the woman she had fallen for at first sight again. She stammered, “Tao, Taozi, are you Duan Zhixin’s boss?”

Hearing the name “Taozi” for the second time, Tao Yuan finally remembered meeting her at the party. She did recall Xiao Shu mentioning there would be a young doctor in attendance.

“Duan Zhixin is on my team. I came to check on him,” Tao Yuan said, her eyes quickly scanning Wu Shuang’s name tag. “Dr. Wu, hello!”

“Boss, do you two know each other?” Duan Zhixin teased. “Little Dr. Wu saved my skin. Don’t you think you should thank her for keeping one of your best soldiers in the fight?”

Though seated in a wheelchair, Tao Yuan’s presence remained commanding. She looked up slightly at Wu Shuang, a faint smile playing on her lips. “I certainly should thank Little Dr. Wu. It seems we were destined to meet.”

Wu Shuang waved her hand happily. “It was nothing, really. Just doing my job.”

“It seems my top general is in good spirits. I won’t keep you any longer,” Tao Yuan said in a professional tone. “The condolence money has been wired directly to your payroll card. Buy whatever you need.”

Duan Zhixin picked up his phone and saw a bank notification. He tapped it open and his face instantly lit up with a beaming smile. “Thank you, Boss!”

Tao Yuan’s smile remained faint. “Brother Duan, Sister Shao, my housekeeper, will be here shortly to stay by your bedside.”

Duan Zhixin started to refuse, but Tao Yuan cut him off. “She’ll only be here for three days. After all, you’ve just had surgery, and there are many things you can’t do on your own. Just agree to it, okay?”

Duan Zhixin’s eyes reddened.

Tao Yuan turned to Wu Shuang. “Dr. Wu, do you have some time later? I’d like to treat you to a meal.”

Wu Shuang nodded vigorously, her face flushing red all the way to her ears above her green surgical mask.

Under Tao Yuan’s gaze, Wu Shuang felt her hands tremble slightly as she changed the dressing. Fortunately, it was a laparoscopic procedure with a tiny incision, and she finished the task in three minutes.

“Taozi, wait for me. I need to go change,” Wu Shuang said.

Tao Yuan smiled and nodded, her beautiful eyes crinkling at the corners.

After Wu Shuang left the room, Duan Zhixin asked urgently, “How do you two know each other?”

Tao Yuan had never deliberately hidden her sexual orientation at the company, but she’d never explicitly stated it either. She wasn’t sure how much this “straight-as-an-iron-bar” guy knew about her situation, so she kept her answer vague.

“A friend of a friend.”

Duan Zhixin pressed further. “Do you know if she’s married? Or has a boyfriend?”

Tao Yuan was taken aback. “I… don’t think so? Wait, do you like her?”

A rare, awkward blush crept across Duan Zhixin’s rugged face. “I mean, she seems nice. Just curious.”

Ten minutes later, Wu Shuang returned in casual clothes. She’d applied a touch of light makeup and was wearing an oversized denim skirt, looking even fresher and cuter than before.

“We’re heading out now,” Tao Yuan said, wheeling herself out the door with Wu Shuang.

“Will this get in the way of your work?” Tao Yuan asked.

“Not at all. I’m on call in the ward from Friday to Sunday, but I’m usually free for consultations from Monday to Thursday evenings.”

“Good to hear. What are we eating, Little Dr. Wu?”

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