Chapter 414 - 413: Self-Preservation is the Top Priority

Chapter 414: Chapter 413: Self-Preservation is the Top Priority

Tumors of the skull base, especially those near the brainstem, have always been considered the most challenging type of brain tumor resection.

For Yan Feifan, this was business as usual.

Neurosurgeons could handle less difficult brain tumor surgeries on their own; they wouldn’t call in for backup.

For Yan Feifan, the most difficult part of a skull base tumor surgery was designing the puncture trajectory.

Some trajectories required piercing through healthy, functional brain tissue, which would inevitably cause some damage.

Torn between two evils, Yan Feifan had to design a puncture path that would cause the absolute minimum amount of damage.

Under the watchful eyes of Dr. Kevin Vega, Yan Feifan openly, without any attempt to hide his methods, performed a dehydration denaturation test using absolute ethanol on the biopsied tumor tissue.

An hour and ten minutes later, Yan Feifan had his results.

With Dr. Qiu Ge’s assistance, Yan Feifan made a total of five punctures in different areas of Zhou Yan’s head, injecting carefully calculated doses of absolute ethanol.

With that, Yan Feifan’s part in the procedure was complete.

After another forty-five-minute wait, Dr. Qiu could begin the craniotomy on Zhou Yan to resect the tumor.

"Mr. Yan..."

Vega called out to Yan Feifan as he was about to leave. "Seeing is believing. Putting everything else aside, these five puncture trajectories alone are enough to leave me in awe."

"The design of these trajectories is brilliant. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of any routes that could be more precise while causing less damage."

Yan Feifan smiled smugly. ’If you could think of a better puncture path in such a short time,’ he thought, ’then what was the point of the hundreds of simulations I ran in my mindscape? It would have all been for nothing.’

Vega’s eyes glinted as he continued, "Mr. Yan, to be honest, you’re so young that I had a hard time believing you could do what even the most experienced neurosurgeons in the world cannot."

"It requires an almost unimaginable understanding and mastery of the brain and spinal cord."

"But you, Mr. Yan, have done it."

"You’ve made me believe that true, innate geniuses really do exist in this world. An unparalleled genius."

This foreigner’s praise was making Yan Feifan feel a little light-headed.

However, he knew foreigners were often more emotionally expressive and weren’t stingy with their praise, even to strangers.

It was best to just take it with a grain of salt.

"Mr. Vega, thank you for your praise."

Yan Feifan got straight to the point. "If you have something to say, it’s best to be direct and brief."

"I have a surgery scheduled for tomorrow."

Vega quickly got down to business. "Mr. Yan, it’s like this: I would like to establish a collaborative partnership with you."

"I have several patients with extremely difficult brain tumors, and I can’t guarantee a successful outcome."

"If we were to collaborate..."

Vega paused before adding cryptically, "My patients are all wealthy individuals, worth millions of US Dollars at the very least."

"To them, nothing is more important than their health."

Yan Feifan couldn’t help but be amused.

’This Vega is pretty sharp. He knows the best way to get my attention and persuade me.’

Yan Feifan feigned hesitation, pretending to mull it over.

Just then, Qiu Ge, who had been standing quietly to the side, cleared his throat again.

This foreigner, Vega, knew how to take a hint. He quickly added, "I can’t make any guarantees about medical exchanges at the hospital-to-hospital level."

"But I am confident I can facilitate exchange visits and short-term training internships between our departments."

He then extended another invitation. "If you, Mr. Yan, were willing to come to Johns Hopkins Hospital to give a presentation and perform a demonstration surgery, I would extend a warm welcome on behalf of the entire neurosurgery department."

Yan Feifan waved a hand. "Mr. Vega, thank you for the invitation, but I don’t have the free time to fly to the United States right now."

"As for the international medical collaboration, I am in favor of it in principle."

"I should also point out that, given my schedule, I can only arrange one such collaborative surgery every two weeks at most."

"One every two weeks?"

Vega considered this for a moment before nodding. "That’s acceptable."

"If it were one per week, I wouldn’t be able to handle flying back and forth between the United States and China every week either."

Yan Feifan smiled. "Now that we’ve agreed on the principle of collaboration, as for the specific details..."

His gaze shifted to Zhou Yan on the operating table as he continued, "Let’s wait until tonight’s surgery is over, then find some time to discuss the details, either face-to-face or via video conference..."

Yan Feifan returned to his apartment before nine-thirty that evening.

Du Qiu cooked him a bowl of seafood wontons for a late-night snack.

"Feifan, that neighbor of mine called this afternoon..."

Du Qiu brought the bowl of seafood wontons to the living room, setting it on the coffee table with a broad smile. "They followed your instructions and took their son for a spinal alignment massage, and they also performed Gua Sha on his neck."

"He hasn’t had a migraine for a week now."

"Feifan, is their son’s migraine cured?"

Yan Feifan shook his head. "Migraines are different for everyone. Aside from some rare cases of spontaneous remission, medicine hasn’t found a definitive cure for most attacks. Current treatments are mostly focused on mitigation and prevention."

"Since the alignment massage and Gua Sha are effective, they should continue with them for a while to solidify the results."

Du Qiu hummed in agreement. "I’ll pass your message along to them."

"They also asked me to convey their sincere thanks to you."

After a brief pause, Du Qiu added, looking a bit embarrassed, "Feifan, I also got a call from another neighbor today..."

Before she could finish her sentence, she was interrupted by Yan Ziruo, who was sitting on the sofa watching TV.

"Mrs. Du, you know Feifan is taking traditional Chinese medicine to recover his strength. He desperately needs as much rest as he can get."

"From now on, if someone has a problem like that, just tell them to go to the hospital."

Du Qiu’s expression turned awkward. "Yes, yes, you’re right," she said, a little stiffly. "It’s much more convenient to see a doctor now. They can just go to the hospital."

"It was my fault for meddling."

With that, she returned to her room.

Yan Feifan scooped up a wonton with his spoon, blew on it a few times, and was just about to pop it in his mouth when Yan Ziruo, who was sitting beside him, opened her mouth wide with an "Aaaah."

Helpless, Yan Feifan had no choice but to feed it to her first.

He blew on a second wonton to cool it, only to see Yu Suye, sitting on his other side, had also opened her little mouth.

Completely exasperated, Yan Feifan had no choice but to feed her as well.

"You two," he grumbled. "When Mrs. Du asked you earlier, you both said you didn’t want any."

"Now that it’s cooked, you’re both acting like little baby birds waiting to be fed."

Yu Suye giggled. "It’s naturally sweeter when you feed it to me yourself."

"Okay, okay, you can eat the rest. I need to watch what I eat."

"I feel like my waist has gotten a lot wider."

Yan Feifan glanced at her waist and confirmed, "It definitely has."

Before Yu Suye could start grinding her teeth, Yan Feifan quickly changed the subject. "Su Ye, teach me some martial arts tomorrow morning. I need to learn how to defend myself."

Yu Suye let out a surprised "Huh?" and tried to talk him out of it. "To learn martial arts, you have to start with the basics, like stretching out your muscles and tendons."

"Feifan, can you handle the pain?"

"For example... can you do the splits?"

Just hearing that made Yan Feifan’s inner thighs ache.

Yu Suye continued to reason with him. "For self-defense, just practicing fancy-looking moves is useless. What matters is power and speed."

As she spoke, she threw a few punches into the air, WHOOSH WHOOSH, letting out the faint crack of displaced air.

"I’ve been training since I was a kid. My bones are conditioned for it, and I’ve developed a decent ability to take a hit."

"Feifan, with your current physical condition, even if you managed to land a punch, the reactive force would probably injure you."

"Your hands are so valuable. You can’t risk injuring them."

What she said made sense to Yan Feifan. He looked down at his long, slender fingers and asked, "If I can’t do this and I can’t do that, then how am I supposed to defend myself?"

Yu Suye replied with a perfectly straight face, "Of course, there’s a way."

"Run!"

"Practice sprinting and long-distance running for endurance. Your top priority should be self-preservation."

"Feifan, the most important thing for you, when danger appears, is to get yourself far, far away and protect yourself."

"As for settling scores after the fact? Don’t worry, there are plenty of people who will do that for you..."