Zhao Yuan froze for a moment at the White Cat's actions, clicking his tongue in amazement. 'Well now, you're a clever one.'
He quickly walked over to the White Cat.
He had only seen it from a distance before, getting just a rough idea. Now that he was closer, Zhao Yuan noticed a large amount of yellow pus oozing from the wound on the White Cat's back. 'This is a sign of infection and inflammation!' At the same time, some of the flesh around the wound had rotted, giving off waves of a sickening, putrid stench.
'This wound isn't just a day or two old.' Zhao Yuan's brow furrowed. The cat's condition required immediate surgery to clean out the pus, cut away the necrotic tissue, and suture the wound. Otherwise, its life would be in danger.
"I'm going to take you to get treated. Don't you run off, okay?" Zhao Yuan murmured as he reached out and picked up the White Cat.
The moment his hands touched the cat, its body visibly tensed, and a sharp glint flashed in its eyes. But it quickly relaxed, obediently letting Zhao Yuan pick it up. It even let out a few low purrs from its throat, as if something about Zhao Yuan put it at ease and which it liked a great deal.
Zhao Yuan carried the White Cat back to the anatomy lab and first used alcohol-soaked cotton balls to clean the pus and dried blood from the wound.
At first, Zhao Yuan was worried the cat would run away from the pain of the alcohol stinging its wound. But the White Cat's reaction was far beyond his expectations. Although it trembled uncontrollably from the pain, the cat didn't run. Instead, it stood obediently on the table, letting Zhao Yuan clean its wound, as if it truly understood that he was treating it.
"What a perceptive cat," Zhao Yuan marveled once again.
After cleaning the wound with cotton balls, Zhao Yuan administered a local anesthetic to the White Cat. Then, using surgical forceps, he picked up the rotting flesh and snipped it away piece by piece with surgical scissors.
Leaving this necrotic tissue would only worsen the infection. It all had to be removed.
Throughout the entire process, the White Cat trembled, constantly letting out low cries of pain. Even with a local anesthetic, it didn't mean there was no pain at all. Yet, strangely, no matter how much it hurt, the cat neither ran nor struggled.
The White Cat's cooperation made Zhao Yuan's surgery go quite smoothly.
After excising the dead flesh, Zhao Yuan picked up a needle and thread and swiftly sutured the wound on the White Cat's back.
The skills he had learned in the anatomy building these past days were now on perfect display. In just a few minutes, a near-perfect suture line appeared on the White Cat's back.
"Whew, finally done. But there are no anti-inflammatory drugs in the anatomy building. I'll have to go out and buy some medicine to sprinkle on the wound. Little kitty, don't run off. Just wait for me here obediently, understand?" Zhao Yuan instructed, stroking the White Cat's head.
The White Cat meowed while stretching out its tongue to lick Zhao Yuan's hand.
"Are you telling me you understand? Good kitty." Zhao Yuan patted the White Cat's head, turned, and left the anatomy lab. He hurried toward the campus clinic to buy anti-inflammatory medicine. He hadn't taken the cat with him because it was very weak after the surgery; a little draft or jostling could worsen its condition.
Zhao Yuan was quick. A little over ten minutes later, he returned to the anatomy building with the medicine.
Walking into the anatomy lab, Zhao Yuan breathed a sigh of relief. As expected, the White Cat hadn't left. It was still lying on the table where he had performed the surgery.
Seeing Zhao Yuan return, the White Cat let out two "meows." Although Zhao Yuan couldn't understand what the meows meant, he could hear the joy contained within the sound.
"You're so obedient." Zhao Yuan walked over, praised the cat, and then applied the anti-inflammatory ointment he had bought to its wound, covering it with a few gauze pads to bandage it.
The surgery was now complete.
Even though this was Zhao Yuan's first time performing surgery, and his patient wasn't human, it was still a considerable success.
As he cleaned up, Zhao Yuan said, "You have to be careful for the next few days. Don't rub off the gauze on your back. Also, it would be best if you came by every day so I can change your dressing and help the wound heal..."
He hadn't even finished speaking when he heard a soft chuckle.
'What's going on? Can cats laugh?' Zhao Yuan jumped in surprise. It wasn't strange for a cat to be perceptive, but for it to make a human laugh... now that was just too damn weird!
Just as he was wondering about it, a voice spoke up in the anatomy lab. "You're talking to a cat. Do you think it can understand you?"
Only then did Zhao Yuan realize that the chuckle hadn't come from the White Cat. He turned his head toward the source of the voice and froze once again.
Because he saw his anatomy teacher, Yu Ke.
'That laugh just now... was that from Teacher Yu? But isn't she the famous Ice Mountain who never, ever laughs?'
While Zhao Yuan's mind was racing, Yu Ke had already walked over to the White Cat. She glanced at the wound, nodded, and said with a stern face, "Nicely done."
"Thank you for the compliment, Teacher Yu." Zhao Yuan scratched his head, unable to stop himself from muttering inwardly, 'Could that laugh just now have been my imagination?'
Yu Ke reached out to pet the White Cat, but its fur immediately stood on end. It bared its teeth and let out a series of threatening low growls, a complete contrast to the docile and obedient creature it had been in Zhao Yuan's hands.
Yu Ke wasn't surprised. Instead, she wore an expression that seemed to say, 'That's what I expected.' She looked at Zhao Yuan and said, "I'm more curious about how you got this cat to be so obedient than I am about your surgery. Of all the strays around the anatomy building, this one is the least friendly to people. It won't even come out to eat when we feed it. The fact that you actually got it to accept surgery is unbelievable."
"Maybe I just have a natural affinity for small animals," Zhao Yuan said. He was quite puzzled by it himself. He had originally thought the cat was just unusually perceptive, but after hearing what Yu Ke said, it seemed that wasn't the case at all.
"Huh?" Inadvertently, Zhao Yuan saw a mass of black, Evil Qi floating over the area of Yu Ke's chest.
He had been using his Qi Observation Technique the entire time he was treating the White Cat, making it easier to monitor the changes in its body. The Wish Power still gathered in his eyes hadn't dissipated yet, which was why he could see the abnormality on Yu Ke.
"Teacher Yu, has your chest been bothering you recently?" Zhao Yuan blurted out.
"How did you know?" A flash of astonishment crossed Yu Ke's face.
"Uh, well, I could tell from your complexion," Zhao Yuan fibbed.
"You know Observation?" Yu Ke was even more surprised. "You shouldn't have learned diagnostics yet, have you?"
"I'm self-taught," Zhao Yuan replied.
"Quite capable, aren't you? To reach this level through self-study is truly impressive. I heard you performed astonishingly well in your Medical Ancient Texts class, and I didn't expect the same from you in diagnostics." After a few words of praise, Yu Ke waved her hand dismissively. "You don't need to worry about my condition. I know how to handle it myself."
Zhao Yuan felt there was something strange about the tone in which Yu Ke said that, but he didn't press the matter. In his view, her medical skills were definitely far superior to his own amateur level; it wasn't his place to worry about her.