After the Divorce, I Became a Super Doctor

Chapter 003

Aldric didn't need to think twice. If he could make the Ashford family owe him, his life would change forever.

He brushed Caelan aside without a second glance and stepped forward with the professional smile he had spent years perfecting.

"Mr. Dorian." His voice was warm, full of authority. "I'm Aldric Shen, the top cardiac specialist at Aurelian. Please calm down. Tell me your father's condition. What happened?"

Dorian drew a ragged breath. "My father collapsed suddenly. His chest pain was severe, then he lost consciousness. He had been complaining about tightness since morning, but he refused to be examined. He said it was just fatigue."

Aldric nodded slowly, his face serious and attentive. His eyes briefly swept over Victor on the stretcher. Grayish skin, lips slightly blue, breathing short and irregular.

He already had his diagnosis.

"Acute myocardial infarction," said Aldric in a confident tone. "Most likely a coronary artery blockage. We need to get him to the catheterization room immediately for further treatment. Every second counts, Mr. Dorian."

Dorian almost nodded.

"That's not it."

The voice came out calm. Not loud, not rushed, but clear enough that everyone nearby turned to look.

Caelan was still standing in the same spot, studying Victor on the stretcher with eyes that were reading something no one else was seeing.

"This isn't a typical cardiac event." He stepped one step closer, his voice flat and measured. "Look at the breathing pattern. The intervals are inconsistent, not the Cheyne-Stokes pattern typical of acute heart failure. The skin discoloration runs gray from the fingertips to the lips, not central cyanosis. And more importantly," his eyes stopped at Victor's neck, "there's an abnormal tension at the Jiuwei and Juque points. Two meridian points that connect directly to the pericardium energy pathway."

The lobby went quiet.

"This is Jue Xin Tong. Absolute heart pain syndrome in ancient medicine. Not an arterial blockage, but a disruption in qi flow along the pericardium meridian, triggered by chronic stress and the accumulation of heat toxins in the body over many years. If he's taken to the catheterization room and treated with conventional methods, his condition won't improve. It could even worsen the pressure on his heart."

No one spoke for a full three seconds.

A young doctor in the corner of the room opened his mouth, then closed it again.

Aldric was the first to speak.

"Nonsense!" His voice burst out, his face flushing red. His eyes locked onto Caelan with an anger he no longer bothered to hide. "Qi? Meridians? You just walked out of prison and now you're talking about folk magic in this hospital?" He turned back to Dorian, his voice dropping but full of pressure. "Mr. Dorian, ignore him. This man is an ex-convict who hasn't touched the medical world in four years. He doesn't even know what he's talking about. Follow me now, your father can't wait."

Dorian looked at Caelan for a moment, then shifted his gaze to Aldric.

Aldric immediately moved, signaling the nurses to push the stretcher.

"Don't let that crazy bastard anywhere near my patient!" he ordered without looking back.

They moved toward the corridor, and the lobby filled again with whispers.

Caelan didn't follow. Didn't call out. He only watched the stretcher disappear behind the corridor doors before turning back to the receptionist.

The young woman was still standing with an expression that was hard to define, somewhere between awe and confusion. She had clearly heard everything that just happened.

"Sorry," said Caelan. "I was here to see HR."

The receptionist blinked once, then snapped back. "Oh. Yes, of course." She reached for the phone on her desk with a slightly uncertain hand and dialed the HR extension.

"Hello, this is the lobby. There's someone here applying for a doctor position." She paused, then continued in a quieter voice. "His name is Caelan Voss."

From the receiver, two seconds of silence. Then the voice on the other end shifted in tone. "Caelan Voss? Tell him to wait there. I'll be down in fifteen minutes."

The receptionist hung up and looked at Caelan. "Please have a seat, sir. HR will be here in fifteen minutes."

Caelan nodded and walked to the waiting chairs in the corner of the lobby. He sat with his back straight, hands resting on his knees.

---

The catheterization room on the seventh floor had never been this quiet with someone lying on its table.

Aldric worked with practiced hands. The catheter was inserted through the radial artery, contrast was injected, and the monitor displayed the blood flow through Victor Ashford's coronary vessels in real time. The procedure was clean. No significant blockage was detected, but Aldric proceeded anyway with stent placement at a segment that appeared narrowed.

Seven minutes later, the cardiac monitor showed a more stable rhythm.

Dorian, who had been standing behind the observation room glass, let out a long breath. His shoulders dropped for the first time since he had run into the lobby.

Inside the room, Aldric pulled off his gloves and glanced at the monitor with a satisfaction he didn't entirely hide.

The Ashford family. He had just saved the head of the family.

Visions began playing in his mind. The medical director's chair he had been eyeing for years. Exclusive contracts with major clinics. Invitations into Velmont's highest social circles.

But only three minutes had passed.

The monitor beeped.

One long tone, then two, then red alarms lit up across the entire panel.

Victor's heart rhythm, which had just stabilized, collapsed suddenly. Not gradually, but all at once, like a foundation giving way from below. His blood pressure plummeted. The color that had briefly returned to his face faded back to gray, darker than before.

"What's happening?!" Dorian knocked on the glass.

Aldric was already moving. "Epinephrine, now! Get the defibrillator ready!"

Nurses ran. Medication was injected. Defibrillator paddles were prepared.

First shock. No response.

Second shock. A rhythm appeared briefly, then collapsed again.

"Blood pressure eighty over forty, Doctor. Still dropping."

Aldric wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve. His eyes jumped from the monitor to the patient, from the patient back to the monitor. Nothing made sense. The procedure had been correct. The vessel was open. This should have worked.

But Victor Ashford was dying right in front of him.

Dorian pushed open the catheterization room door. Sterile protocol was the last thing on his mind.

"Do something, damn it!" His voice was hoarse, his eyes red. "You said you were the best doctor here. Prove it!"

"Mr. Dorian, please stay calm, we are..."

"I don't care how, just save my father!"

Aldric turned back, ordering another round of medication, rechecking the catheter, rechecking the stent. Everything was technically flawless. There was nothing wrong with what he had done.

And yet Victor's condition kept getting worse.

His heart rhythm was now completely erratic. His breathing was growing shallower. The old man's hand hung limp at the side of the table with no tension at all.

Aldric stood in the middle of the room with hands that didn't know where to move.

Dorian stared at him. In that stare there was no longer any anger, only fear, pure and deep.

"Get him."

Aldric blinked. "Who?"

"The man in the lobby." Dorian's voice dropped to a whisper that somehow carried more weight than a shout. "The one who described my father's condition. Get him now."

The color drained from Aldric's face. "Mr. Dorian, he's an ex-convict. He has no medical license, he isn't even..."

"Who cares?!"

The shout froze the entire room.

"As long as he can save my father," said Dorian, his voice trembling but his eyes hard as steel, "his background doesn't matter!"

No one moved for two seconds.

"Get him." Dorian looked at the nearest nurse. "Now!"

The nurse nodded and ran out of the room.