Medical Center.
The first round of the 48-hour shift had entered its first deep night.
Bianca's eyes became misty from just a single concerned remark from Adam. She stared at him, suddenly no longer feeling sleepy.
Adam chuckled silently, shaking his head in a wordless refusal.
This was a hospital—there were no secrets here.
He had no intention of leaving behind any leverage against him.
"Hey, Adam, guess who almost hit a home run in the on-call room just now?"
Bald Chris spread his arms wide, wiggling his body as he walked over.
"Almost? So, it didn't actually happen," Adam teased.
"Uh…"
Bald Chris's grin stiffened for a moment, but he quickly recovered, boasting, "That's only because she got paged. Otherwise, I definitely would've hit that home run. We only met less than twelve hours ago, and I already had my pants off."
"Who is she?" Bianca asked curiously.
"Kara, a nurse from Internal Medicine," Bald Chris replied eagerly. "She's Hispanic—absolutely gorgeous. At first, I was worried we were moving too fast and that I might scare her off, but then she shut me up and told me to take my pants off. That kind of confidence? So damn attractive."
Bianca glanced at Adam, a flicker of something unreadable in her eyes.
"I'm going to do rounds," Adam said, turning to leave.
He was in the hospital pulling long shifts to extend lives—not to gossip about nighttime escapades. Besides, he wasn't some divine being who could miraculously eliminate all diseases with a touch. It was best to stay out of these kinds of conversations.
"Dude, wait up!"
Bald Chris, still not done chatting, chased after Adam, leaving Bianca, whose excitement faded into drowsiness once more.
Nurse's Station.
"The patient in bed 4-B has post-op pneumonia. Administer antibiotics."
A cocky male intern was giving medical orders. Adam, suspecting this guy was a strong competitor, paused to listen closely.
Lu Xun once said: Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.
"Are you sure about that diagnosis?" the nurse questioned.
"I don't know—I'm just an intern."
Without even looking up from the chart, the cocky intern scoffed, "I have a great idea. Why don't you go to medical school for four years and then let me know if the diagnosis is correct?"
The nurse fell silent.
Even though nurses often said, *Doctors diagnose, but nurses actually treat patients—nurses run the show!*—without that shiny medical doctorate, it was hard to argue back when a half-baked intern spoke with such arrogance.
"She has rapid breathing and a fever. It's a post-op complication," the intern declared confidently, seeing that he had "silenced" the nurse. "Go ahead and administer the antibiotics."
The nurse shot him a cold glance and walked away without a word.
Their job was to carry out orders. Doctors gave the directives, but they also bore the responsibility.
Who's afraid of who?
"Oh God, I hate nurses," the intern muttered, full of smug superiority.
Adam, witnessing the scene, couldn't help but chuckle.
At first, he thought this guy was a king—turns out, he was just a bronze.
"What are you laughing at?" The intern frowned.
"You might end up hating them even more," Adam said with a smirk. "Because if the nurses who didn't go to med school for four years turn out to be right, and you—who did—are wrong…"
"That's impossible."
The intern's expression changed.
"What's impossible?" Adam asked curiously. "The symptoms you just listed could also point to diaphragmatic inflammation, pulmonary embolism, or other unknown conditions. That nurse is experienced—she didn't get that way overnight. Yet you dismissed her without even examining the patient. Are you really that sure?"
The intern's face darkened.
If it were another doctor questioning him, he might have shrugged it off or even fired back with another jab.
But Adam's skills had been widely acknowledged since his flawless performance in his first surgery. Stories of his medical school brilliance and legendary internships had spread everywhere.
Even someone as arrogant as this intern wouldn't dare claim superiority over Adam—let alone mock him as a mere "nurse."
And if Adam was saying he was wrong… then there was a good chance he was wrong.
But admitting that in front of the nurse? No way.
The more he had just enjoyed belittling the nurse, the more humiliating it would be to backtrack now.
And just because there was a high chance he was wrong didn't mean he definitely was.
What if his diagnosis was correct?
With a scowl, the intern stormed off.
"That was awesome."
A pretty young nurse looked at Adam with admiration in her eyes.
"Thank you."
The older nurse nodded at Adam in gratitude.
"You're welcome," Adam said with a smile. "My mom is a nurse."
After building some goodwill with the nurses, Adam left the station.
"Adam, why do that?" Bald Chris asked, catching up.
"What do you mean?" Adam raised an eyebrow.
"Doctors stick together, nurses stick together," Bald Chris said. "That's just how it works. Even if Alex was wrong, we should've acted like we didn't notice. How could you call him out in front of the nurses?"
The cocky intern's name was Alex—one of the twenty surgical interns in this batch, though assigned to a different team.
"Kara, there you are."
Adam suddenly smiled and looked behind Bald Chris.
"…You were absolutely right, Adam!" Bald Chris did a complete 180, nodding righteously. "Nurses deserve respect! They're not beneath doctors—no way! Every role is essential. Hospitals couldn't function without nurses!"
He turned around—only to find no one there.
"You scared me," Bald Chris grumbled, catching up to Adam again.
"Are you scared?" Adam asked casually, flipping through a patient chart.
"I… yeah."
Bald Chris had been about to say "no" but hesitated, glancing around nervously. He had just started hooking up with Nurse Kara, and he definitely didn't want to ruin his chances over some dumb comment about nurses.
"Good," Adam patted his shoulder. "Don't think you can badmouth nurses just because Kara isn't around. Hospitals have no secrets. Anything you say about nurses will reach her ears eventually. Then you can forget about that 'home run.'"
On the flip side, Adam's stance in defending the nurses would also spread. It would undoubtedly earn him goodwill from most of them.
With Dr. Leonard backing him, Dr. Sherry watching out for him, and the nurses willing to support him wholeheartedly, why should he worry about offending some bronze-tier intern who could be dismissed at any moment?
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