Granting You a Second Life 121 Which Ending Do You Like?

Li Xiuying was laying in bed with her eyes closed. Her fists were clenched by her sides as she thought about the day's events. 'I didn't prepare well enough. Its my fault I let Daiyu get hurt, I should have planned better. I should have investigated Chong Honghui's and his fathers contacts. That stupid couple wants to get involved too, I'm going tear everyone's mask off.'

Li Xiuying had been rethinking her plan. For now she would use Xǔ Junjie to scare Jia Kuai Hua's parents a little. Xǔ Junjie had come forward to help Daiyu at the restaurant so he shouldn't object. After that she would go and collect some favors from someone who owed her, as well as punish the Li family a little.

Li Xiuying's felt uncomfortable at the thought of using Xǔ Junjie without getting permission from him. Xǔ Junjie wasn't her favorite person in the world but he also wasn't her enemy so it just didn't feel right to not warn him, especially when lives could be affected.

She sent Xǔ Junjie a message [I am using you to get revenge for Daiyu].

Xu Junjie [Dr Li? How? What's going on? Is Daiyu in trouble?]

Li Xiuying was exasperated [Audio recording of Friday night. Yes or No?]

Xǔ Junjie [That's fine, Is there anything I can do to help?]

Li Xiuying ignored Xǔ Junjie and put away her phone.

She got out of bed, opened her bed side cabinet and twisted the dial of the safe within it. She then retrieved one of the many disposable phones.

Li Xiuying sat at her laptop ad began to edit the audio recording. First she cut the the recording down so it was only Xǔ Junjie's narration of the ending of the story about Jia Kuai Hai. Then she found an audio recording of whispering and subtle sounds of cutlery/ dinning. Lastly she merged all the audio recordings together and listened. When she was finally happy with the end result she upload the audio file onto her phone.

She sent everything to Jia Kuai Hai's parents followed by a single message [Which ending do you like?] She turned off the phone and headed to the kitchen to destroy it, in the same way she had destroyed the last.

The reason she had gone to so much trouble to edit the original recording was that it was too clear and too close to Xǔ Junjie, so the Jia family with the help of Chong Honghui could narrow down the list of senders. She wasn't going to leave this to chance.

After Li Xiuying had reduced the disposable phone to dust. She began tapping away on her personal phone.

Li Xiuying created a chat group "YingYingYu" before sending a message [Can't make it tomorrow for lunch. Dinner 8 pm?]

[Daiyu: YINGYINGYU! Sure, I'm free whenever]

[Changying: I'm good with dinner]

[Changying: Are we really going with YingYingYu? What about the alpaca's?]

[Xiuying: Night]

[Daiyu: Good night. See you tomorrow]

[Changying: It was a legitimate and catchy suggestion. I'm so unappreciated for my genius. Alpaca 1 out.]

....

Wednesday 8:50- Unity hospital

Li Xiuying was making her way to her office. She saw Shen Xiaosi waiting patiently outside.

Shen Xiaosi: "Good morning Dr Li."

Li Xiuying: "Morning."

Li Xiuying unlocked the door and entered. She lent on her desk and faced Shen Xiaosi: "Ready?"

Shen Xiaosi: "I'll try my best."

Li Xiuying: "Someone will be here at lunch and at 5 to lock the office after you leave."

Shen Xiaosi: "Okay."

Shen Xiaosi was poised to start completing his long list of tasks. Every second was important, he didn't want to lose his job. His track record so far was abysmal; he had already breached a contract and didn't want to add getting fired to the mix.

Li Xiuying: "Report tomorrow." She placed the key to the office on his desk as she exited the room.

Li Xiuying was looking forward to having an easy day in theater today. She went to change into her scrubs and put her things in her locker.

Li Xiuying was making her way to theater 7 when she was unexpectedly stopped by someone.

Wu Fei Hong was soft spoken: "Hello Dr Li. My name is Wu Fei Hong and I'm currently in my 5th year of surgical residency. I would like to specialize in breast surgery and I was hoping too observe today."

Li Xiuying assessed the woman in front of her: "Fine."

Wu Fei Hong: "Thank you Dr Li." She didn't like to speak superfluous words and found small talk difficult. She had heard from the others that Dr Li was strictly business at work and that suited her work ethic perfectly.

Li Xiuying didn't feel any ill intentions from Wu Fei Hong and even if her intentions were less than kosher nurse Meng Eu-Meh would destroy her.

Li Xiuying greeted everyone as she entered the theater.

Meng Eu-Meh looked at Wu Fei Hong: "You are?" Al the other staff members also looked at the newcomer with sharp assessing gazes.

Wu Fei Hong: "Hello Nurse Meng. I'm Wu Fei Hong. I'm a 5th year surgical resident and with Dr Li's permission I will be observing."

Meng Eu-Meh: " Someone gave us some trouble in theaters yesterday, don't even think about doing anything stupid and we'll get along just fine."

Meng Eu-Meh never wanted to be apart of something as dangerous as yesterday again. HR and management will be interviewing everyone involved in yesterdays incident today. In fact yesterday management had already been notified and they called various people involved.

Wu Fei Hong: "Yes." She wasn't here to cause trouble, so the warning didn't worry her.

15 minutes later the patient was on the table and Li Xiuying began operating.

Li Xiuying: "Risk factors for breast cancer?"

Wu Fei Hong rapidly fired her answers: "Risk factors include: Family history of breast cancer, inherited genes such as BRCA 1 gene, past history of cancer, DCIS, LCIS, unopposed estrogen release i.e. nulliparity, age, ethnicity- Caucasian women have a higher risk than other groups, overweight post-menopausal women, tall post-menopausal women, starting periods early and having late menopause, small risk for those who take combined oral contraceptive, HRT, lack of exercise, smoking and drinking."

Li Xiuying: "Good."

Li Xiuying:" What receptors do we test breast cancer cells for?"

Wu Fei Hong: "ER, PR, HER2."

Li Xiuying: "Why do we test for receptors?"

Wu Fei Hong: "To help inform medical management. For HER2 positive breast cancer - Herceptin can be used, For ER positive breast cancers- drugs such as tamoxifen or Arimidex can be used depending if the woman is pre or post menopausal. PR positive - they treat it the same as ER positive. If the patient is triple negative then chemotherapy is suggested instead of hormone therapy."

Li Xiuying nodded, she finished suturing the incision site closed.

The HCA's and nurses where doing checks and tidying the patient readying to move them to the recovery area.

Li Xiuying: "Next patient."

Meng Eu-Meh: "Called. "

Li Xiuying: "Scrub up."

Wu Fei Hong: "Yes"

Li Xiuying brought up the patients mammogram results and images from the lymphoscintogram.

Li Xiuying picked up the marker pen "mark the area for incision."

Wu Fei Hong looked at the scans then walked over to the patient and put a large arrow on the left side of the patients chest. She then drew an ellipse which extended from the mid point of the chest to the outer side of the breast. It was 3 cm high in the middle.

Li Xiuying extended the height of the ellipse and extended it higher towards the underarm.

Wu Fei Hong took note of the adjustments.

Li Xiuying looked at Wu Fei Hong in the eye, to check for any signs of falsehood: "Experience?"

Wu Fei Hong: "I have assisted on 20 mastectomies this year."

Li Xiuying: "Assist. Sterilize and drape." She would first see how Wu Fei Hong performed as an assistance.

When Wu Fei Hong had finished, Li Xiuying started making an incision.

Li Xiuying: "Post procedure complications?"

Wu Fei Hong pulled the skin open to create some tension as Li Xiuying used the bipolar : "Complications include seroma, haematoma, nerve pain, shoulder stiffness PE, DVT, infection, lymphoedema after lymph nodes are removed. "

Li Xiuying: "Good."

They worked in silence from then on, with the occasional instruction from Li Xiuying of what instrument she wanted and how she wanted Wu Fei Hong to hold the breast tissue.

Li Xiuying then used the radiation probe to find lymph nodes before removing them and placing them in specimen pots: "Send the nodes to the lab. Weigh the breast tissue."

Meng Eu-Meh: "I think it weighs 500g."

Li Xiuying: "1 kg."

The nurse holding the specimen: "750g."

HCA giggled: "675g"

Wu Fei Hong also joined in: "800g?"

The nurse put the breast tissue on the scales: "1.1 kg. Dr Li wins."

Everyone in the theater then waited for the lab to send the results on whether the cancer had spread to the lymph nodes; in which case they would have to be removed.

Li Xiuying: "Close up."

Wu Fei Hong took the needle and forceps from Meng Eu-meh: "Thank you."

Li Xiuying stood quietly waiting for Wu Fei Hong to complete her task.

Wu Fei Hong: "Can I have the drain please?"

Meng Eu-Meh passed her the surgical drain which she stitched in place.

Wu Fei Hong cleaned the area and looked over to Li Xiuying.

Chapter end