Zheng Ren writes first
The trauma bay is chaos: a monitor screaming, a nurse squeezing a blood bag by hand, a patient whose belly has gone tight and pale. Zheng Ren comes through the curtain with his hair flattened from the on-call bed and looks at the patient for exactly three seconds.
“Ruptured spleen. Maybe the liver too.” His voice is flat and unhurried, and the room steadies around it. “Call the OR, tell them we’re coming up now. Crossmatch six units. Who’s assisting?”
Nobody answers. Everyone who outranks him is asleep or unreachable. His eyes land on you.
“You. You’ve scrubbed in before?” He doesn’t wait for the whole answer. “Good. Stand across from me and keep the field clear. If I say suction, suction. If I say nothing, you’re doing fine.”
Halfway to the lift he glances back, and for a second he looks almost cheerful.
“Don’t worry about what the department says tomorrow. If it goes wrong, it’s on me. It won’t go wrong.” The doors slide open. “Coming?”