A few quick notes before you dive in:
【In novels: “Yandere green-tea male lead? Ugh, I’m obsessed~”】
【In real life: “If he’s a creep, run. Immediately.”】
【In novels: “This patient is so pitiful, I have to heal him~”】
【In real life: “Getting emotionally tangled up with a patient is absolutely not okay!”】
【This book was started when the author had just stepped into clinical training and was interning at a top-tier hospital. Some of the settings come from real life, but they’re also way more dramatic than reality, so please don’t overanalyze, okay? Most of the plot is basically the author’s own bedtime brain-movie used to lull herself to sleep, hehe~~】
【And to every sweet reader who clicked on this book—thank you so, so much. I’m seriously honored~~】
So now then,
the story of Vivienne Hartwell and Elliot Mercer
officially begins...
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First Affiliated Hospital of xx University.
“Tap.”
After hitting the final Enter key, Vivienne Hartwell lifted her hands from the keyboard, rubbed her aching neck and shoulders, then stretched hard enough to make her whole spine loosen up. A smile of pure relief spread across her face, the kind that looked like she’d just crawled out of a battlefield alive.
Finally. She had finally finished sorting out today’s major case files.
Ever since last week, when she ate a mango brought in by a patient’s family, the psychiatry department had not had a single peaceful day.
Patients kept getting admitted one after another, like water pouring through an open gate.
Even she, a lowly resident-in-training, had ended up taking in five patients under her own name.
Seriously, what a messed-up world.
Look at this nightmare of a society—people were getting pushed to the brink.
She worked herself to the bone for that pathetic little paycheck, and in the end, it all went straight back into the hospital.
That patient admitted yesterday evening looked like some big shot too—the son of one of the hospital’s major shareholders.
He came in by helicopter, no less, all the way through the green channel.
A private VIP room. The dean received him in person.
The whole thing was ridiculously over the top.
Vivienne Hartwell rubbed her face, still unable to make sense of it.
What kind of trouble could a rich young master possibly have?
Too much money to spend?
The second she got the notice yesterday, she hadn’t even had time to swallow the food in her mouth before rushing toward the inpatient building.
And the moment she got to the ward—wow, what a scene. The place was packed.
The dean, the vice dean, the head of psychiatry, the director of inpatient services...
There were even several bodyguards at the door, dressed head to toe in black, wearing clear acoustic tube earpieces.
She was the attending resident in charge of the bed, yet she still couldn’t squeeze her way in.
From yesterday up till now, she hadn’t even seen what this noble patient looked like.
Probably some delicate, high-maintenance rich boy.
At the thought, Vivienne let out a quiet sigh.
If she’d known clinical work would be this exhausting, she really should’ve listened to her mentor—get the PhD, stay at the university, and become a proud lecturer.
But then again, she had this grand dream of saving the world.
So what else could she do?
Keep grinding, obviously.
Vivienne yawned, rubbed her sleepy eyes, and looked up at the electronic screen on the wall, glowing with that faint eerie red light.
It was already two in the morning.
No wonder the whole place was so dead quiet. Vivienne Hartwell could even hear the faint rasp of her own white coat brushing against itself.
Click, click.
Creepy as hell.
Still, if she held on for five more hours, the shift change would finally save her.
Vivienne slumped in her chair with zero image to protect, eyes sweeping over the surveillance feeds on the computer while she silently prayed to the medical ancestors in her heart.
Please, Hippocrates, let every patient stay in bed and sleep like an angel.
Please don’t let anything blow up on the night shift.
Just let her get through tonight in peace.
She was so sleepy her soul practically had one foot in the underworld.
The resentment hanging off her right now could probably feed ten evil sword spirits.
She’d been grinding nonstop till now. Couldn’t the universe just let her catch a break?
Very good. Total peace and harmony.
Not a single person in the common area.
Vivienne nodded in satisfaction. After checking the monitors, she was just about to sit down and look over tomorrow’s surgery schedule—
Bang!
A sudden, sharp thud came from outside the door.
“Who’s there?!”
Vivienne, who had only just relaxed, got scared so badly her whole body jolted. She froze for a few long seconds.
Then she snapped back to herself and hurriedly grabbed the mouse, pulling up the surveillance cameras one zone at a time.
No one was at the triage desk.
The pantry was empty.