It should have had a purplish tint, yet it looked dark brown.
He already knew the reason from the blood test results.
Jeong Minsu shouted, his irritation mounting.
“Fatty liver on top of all this?”
“Push everything.”
“I know… There, that spot.”
“Saw it.”
Taesu snapped, his mixter fumbling across the liver’s surface, seeking the end.
Jeong Minsu’s suction followed hot on its heels.
To the two of them struggling desperately, Kim Hyeokgwon’s cry rang out.
“The ECG readings are too bad. At this rate, arrhythmia will hit.”
“It’s already frequent.”
“It’s more than that.”
Kim Hyeokgwon shouted like a thunderclap.
At that moment, Jeong Minsu checked the ECG and informed Taesu with a horrified expression.
“Stop the bleeding right now. Right now.”
“Have I been playing around until now?”
“I’m saying it has to stop first. The heart is screaming that it has no blood.”
Jeong Minsu shouted harshly.
Taesu also knew the two weren’t talking nonsense.
But the bleeding point wasn’t immediately visible.
No matter how much he peeled back, there was no end.
At this rate, he needed more time to find the bleeding point.
But he couldn’t ignore their warnings.
Taesu sensed death breathing down his neck.
Every fine hair on his body stood on end.
Moreover, his heart felt twisted and wrung tight.
*Even just for a moment.*
Even one chance would be good.
If he discovered that chance, he was confident he would never let it go.
It was fine to call it a mad resolve in this uncertain situation.
He couldn’t let Jo Jeongmin’s life end here.
Because he was the village’s rising star?
Taesu never wavered because of such things.
Anyone’s life was equal.
Then because it was a life?
Of course, that was the most important and precious issue.
But the reason that made Taesu even more desperate was slightly different.
Actually, by now, the person called Jo Jeongmin
felt as familiar as a younger brother.
From the first day they’d entered the village until now, they had met every single day.
He’d listened to every word and actively helped with anything, never refusing.
Jo Jeongmin had played a large role in them getting along with the villagers.
Taesu was human too.
He had learned that medicine must always be practiced with reason rather than emotion.
But as long as he was human, he couldn’t be without feelings.
This was someone he had met once more, talked to once more than others.
If he failed to save him because of the inadequacy of their medical skills, it would become a regret for a thousand autumns.
Leaving everything else aside, he didn’t want to send away another patient who had come to him.
That desperation made Taesu’s mind spin at emergency speed.
It was brief.
In that short moment, a strange glint flashed across Taesu’s eyes.
*Flash.*
A way to create one chance came to mind.
Only once.
There wouldn’t be a second.
The method was reckless, even.
But Taesu held tight to his mind that was trying to grow complicated.
*I can’t guarantee he’ll survive even if we stop the bleeding. Then… go.*
Die this way or die that way?
Nonsense.
The determination to create an opportunity rather than wait for one to come was stronger.
Before more time passed, Taesu sought out Kim Hyeokgwon first.
“Hyeokgwon, what are the current vitals?”
“Are you blind?”
“How are the current vitals?”
Cold.
Taesu’s voice sank to the floor.
This voice, and moreover the atmosphere.
Kim Hyeokgwon felt a chill down his spine the moment he sensed it.
Deadly serious.
Taesu had never once spoken falsely when it came to medicine. But his current demeanor was special even among those moments.
Even the fiery-tempered Kim Hyeokgwon couldn’t measure up to Taesu right now.
To that extent, Kim Hyeokgwon also spoke in a serious voice.
“The current vitals are…”
His report continued rapidly.
Taesu also intuitively realized that Kim Hyeokgwon had noticed his change. But without minding, he ordered according to the report.
“Glucose, two transfusion packs each. And vitamins and hormones with the glucose, plus albumin.”
“Twenty seconds.”
*Swish.*
At the same time as the shout, Kim Hyeokgwon’s body moved rapidly left and right.
He was so fast that he looked like two people.
So much so that the atmosphere Taesu exuded was icy.
Jeong Minsu had that much sense as well.
Strength automatically entered the hand holding the suction.
It was exactly the feeling Kim Gwanghyeon had spoken of.
*A beast.*
If he showed even a small opening, he felt he would be torn to shreds by sharp fangs.
He felt that way even though they had only exchanged glances.
Taesu, who had been watching with such cold eyes, spoke in a sunken voice.
“When I give the signal, scatter the gauze.”
“G-gauze?”
“Yes. Gauze.”
“O-okay…”
Jeong Minsu answered with effort.
Taesu’s gaze returned to the affected area.
Meanwhile, Jeong Minsu only then felt himself able to breathe.
*Gulp.*
He swallowed dryly for no reason.
And without a word, he checked how much gauze remained.
Even at this moment, the ECG was howling savagely.
*Beep-beep-beep.*
The pulse, in particular, had risen to its maximum value.
It was a reading just before being judged as arrhythmia.
That state had been maintained for over five seconds.
It was thanks to the antiarrhythmic role of the lidocaine Taesu had administered earlier.
If not for that, arrhythmia might have already hit several times.
No, even now it was dangerous.
It stood one step right in front of arrhythmia.
Then, as if the promised twenty seconds had passed, Kim Hyeokgwon reported in a stiff voice.
“It’s all done.”
“You opened the TV as wide as possible?”
“Of course… I have it open.”
Kim Hyeokgwon, who had been about to retort, corrected himself and reported calmly.
The moment he heard those words.
*Flash.*
Taesu’s eyes gleamed brilliantly.
One chance.
It was time to begin.
*Swish.*
The movement of the surgical instruments in both hands changed.
At the same time, he called out to Jeong Minsu.
“Minsu, gauze.”
“Here.”
*Thud-thud.*
Jeong Minsu immediately reacted and dropped the white gauze pieces.
Before they could even be stained red, Taesu’s mixter and bulldog clamp snatched them up and moved.
*Swish.*
The gauze pieces rapidly scattered to various spots in the affected area.
Taesu kept moving his hands and called out to Jeong Minsu again.
“Gauze, more.”
“Going.”
*Thud-thud.*
“More, more, more.”
“I’m going, I said I’m going, I’m scattering them.”
“Suction this way.”
“Tha… okay.”
Jeong Minsu couldn’t even talk back and moved the suction too.
It was barely a minute.
In that time, the scattered gauze already numbered dozens of sheets.
Nevertheless, they were scattered throughout the affected area to the point of being invisible to the eye.
It was to the extent that one would naturally think they had been randomly shoved here and there.
But they weren’t.
The gauze was encircling like a wall, blocking the organs.
The bleeding was accumulating into the artificially created space within it.
The rising blood was being aspirated by the suction, so the level was repeatedly rising and falling.
Jeong Minsu was surprised even watching with his own eyes.
“He’s making a wall with gauze…”
“Quiet.”
“……”
Jeong Minsu quickly shut his mouth.
The sharpness contained in Taesu’s voice had grown thicker.
To that extent, he was maintaining focus and moving both hands quickly.
Making a wall with gauze was only preliminary work.
The real thing started now.
*Swish.*
Taesu’s surgical instruments were moving outside the artificially created space.
Perhaps because the space was cramped, he twisted his shoulder, and perhaps because he had raised his toes, he drew even closer to the operating table.
“Hup. Ungh, mmm.”
Taesu didn’t even know how he was moving.
He was mixing up all of Caprene’s surgical methods.
In short, he was flailing recklessly.
He was moving his hands with desperation to lead this created opportunity to success.
*Beep-beep-beep-beep.*
The ECG sound grew sharper.
Now there were signs that arrhythmia was beginning.
The pulse value momentarily shot up absurdly.
Blood pressure also started jumping wildly along with it.
Kim Hyeokgwon, who was monitoring, shouted urgently.
“Dr. Choi.”
Jeong Minsu also pressed with a deathly pale face.
“Taesu, hurry.”
It was the moment the two of them were shouting at the top of their lungs.
Taesu suddenly shouted.
“Got it.”
“Got it?”
*Snap.*
Jeong Minsu and Kim Hyeokgwon’s gazes snapped to the ECG.
At that moment, the ECG sound completely changed.
*Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep. Beep-beep-beep.*
The pulse and blood pressure that had been rampaging frantically also calmed down.
“It stabilized like this?”
“Is that even possible?”
“It is.”
“He’s just barely hanging on. Nothing much has changed.”
Taesu informed them of the cold reality.
Even so, it was certain that they had escaped the crisis of arrhythmia.
It seemed he had indeed caught the bleeding.
The level of pooled blood dropped rapidly.
*Gurgle.*
The constantly rising bleeding revealed the floor.
“Uh.”
Jeong Minsu quickly withdrew the suction.
He still wore an expression that had no idea what had just happened.
Then Taesu pulled both hands from the affected area.
The mixter was still in one hand.
The bulldog clamp that had been in the other hand was gone.
Jeong Minsu looked down with a puzzled face upon seeing that.
“Why… Hm? Ah!”
Somewhere within the affected area, a silver surgical instrument gleamed.
Intuiting the location, Jeong Minsu spoke with a trembling voice.
“The hepatic vein.”
“Right.”
Taesu answered briefly.
But Jeong Minsu’s eyes were wide open.
“How? No, making a space like this with gauze and then…”
“I was really on edge too. It’s only because I caught it the moment I found it.”
“If you hadn’t caught it on the first try…”
As Jeong Minsu was about to speak with a terrified expression, Taesu cut him off.
“I caught it.”
“Right. You caught it.”
“Anyway, it worked, didn’t it?”
“It did… It worked.”
Jeong Minsu answered in a daze.
Then Kim Hyeokgwon shattered the awkward atmosphere with a shout.
“Worked, my foot.”
“I’ll continue right away.”
“Hurry and proceed. Blocking it like that isn’t a very good situation either.”
“Understood. Then…”
“Wait.”
When Kim Hyeokgwon suddenly called out, Taesu glanced back.
Kim Hyeokgwon, facing him, stretched out one hand and gave a thumbs up.
“You were cool for the first time in a while.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Isn’t welcome actually ‘welcome to hell’?”
Kim Hyeokgwon replied meaningfully.
It had been a while since he’d heard that.
Before he knew it, one corner of Taesu’s mouth had risen all the way up.
“The surgery that follows is also ‘welcome to hell.’”
“I was just saying that.”
“I’m serious. Continuing right away.”
Taesu’s hand moved immediately.
With just one beat to catch his breath, the break was over.