Sisi sat in the wheelchair, her hands folded on her knees, her gaze resting on her right thigh. Even through the hospital gown, she could feel the presence of those scars, running from the mid-lateral side of her thigh all the way down to just above the knee, like a winding river, recording her battle with Osteosarcoma.
Her mother pushed her to the Plastic Surgery Outpatient clinic, where the Doctor was waiting for her. Her Surgery would be done in two stages, the first being the implantation of a tissue expander, which had already been completed.
"Sisi, you’re here."
The Nurse called her na. Her mother pushed her along the corridor after the Nurse, into a room much larger than a regular consultation room. Three people were already inside: a neatly dressed middle‑aged Doctor, a young female Assistant, and a foreigner standing by the window. When he turned around, Sisi froze for a second.
Ivan, he was here again; it was he who had personally been the Chief Surgeon for her last Surgery.
Ivan’s golden curls were like the feathers of so kind of seabird, and his eyes were a clear blue, carrying an unexpectedly devout, almost reverent light.
"Hello, Sisi," he spoke in Chinese, the pronunciation a bit odd but fluent. "I’m Ivan, a friend of Professor Yang, and now I should be your friend too."
Sisi knew he was not just a simple friend of Doctor Yang. Ivan Kovalevsky, one of the world’s top experts in Plastic Surgery, a magician in the field of reconstructive Surgery. His appointnt list was booked out for three years; an ordinary Patient, even willing to pay a sky‑high fee, would struggle to obtain a chance for his Surgery. But Sisi was not an ordinary Patient. She was the first Osteosarcoma Patient in the world cured by Yang Ping’s thod, the living proof of Yang Ping’s theory, and more importantly, she was Yang Ping’s future Student.
And Ivan was a loyal follower of Yang Ping.
"Professor Ivan," Sisi said, "I looked up your information. Last year you turned down a Surgery invitation from a mber of the British Royal Family because you ’didn’t want to work during your vacation.’ Why are you willing to change your schedule for ?"
Ivan paused for a mont, then laughed, a hearty, unreserved laugh.
"Because you are Professor Yang’s Patient No. 1. It’s that simple. I’ve been waiting several years for this opportunity of his. It’s my honor to be your Chief Surgeon."
"As for the surgical plan," Ivan walked over to the light box on the wall and put up several of Sisi’s X‑rays and skin texture analysis images, "I call it ’redrawing the map.’ It’s not simply cutting out the scar and suturing it; that would only create new scars. What I’m going to do is use tissue expanders and local flap transfer to redistribute the skin tension of the right thigh, so that the scars are hidden in the natural skin folds. For the main Incision, I’ve designed a continuous combination of Z‑plasty and W‑plasty, following the intermuscular plane along the lateral thigh; for the auxiliary Incisions, I’ll use a series of small geotric revisions, combined with dermabrasion; the pin‑tract scars may need fractional laser treatnt."
"In short, I’ll make the scars completely disappear; it will be hard to tell with the naked eye that you ever had Surgery. Please trust , I can do it."
"Of course I trust you!"
"I told you the entire Surgery process can be completed during your vacation and will not affect your schooling. Everything is proceeding as expected," Ivan said with confidence. "The first Surgery was very successful. Now we’re ready for the second Surgery. This ti we’ll use preventive scar treatnt during the healing process to make the result even more perfect."
"Preventive scar treatnt," Sisi said, "I read about it in the literature—the preprint Professor Yang asked to read last month, the one on spatial reprogramming of fibroblasts."
Ivan raised his eyebrows in surprise, then smiled. "You really are his future Student," he said. "You’ve already started reading preprints. Yes, it’s that study. But this technology is still a few years from Clinical application—though that’s only for ordinary people. For you, it can be used at any ti. Technically it’s already very mature; what’s immature are the laws and regulations."
He turned toward the examination couch and motioned for Sisi to lie down. "Let examine your right thigh. Apart from my female Assistant, I’d like everyone else, especially the n, to step out."
Yang Ping was in the office of the Laboratory.
His phone rang. It was Ivan.
"Your future Student is impressive. She accurately cited my paper from three years ago on the new expanded flap technique, and the paper on preventive scar treatnt. She’s already started studying."
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