When performing surgery, a lead surgeon might not need a heart as still as water, but they must at least be calm. Strong emotions are the biggest taboo.

This is especially true for delicate procedures like cranial tumor resections, which demand the lead surgeon to have a clear mind and be completely focused.

It’s no exaggeration to say that at critical moments in some surgeries, the lead surgeon even needs to regulate their own heart rate and breathing to avoid affecting the fine movements of their fingers.

Yan Feifan saw Dr. Qiu Ge’s chest heaving erratically and her breathing growing ragged. He knew she had been severely distracted by the five-million-yuan incentive.

Logically, this shouldn’t happen to a renowned and experienced surgeon like Qiu Ge.

But the problem was, it was indeed happening.

Seeing Dr. Qiu Ge lose her composure and unable to control herself, Yan Feifan grew anxious.

Setting aside the five-million-yuan incentive, if the surgery failed for a reason like this, they would surely be ridiculed by their peers.

Yan Feifan could accept failure due to an unforeseen accident, failure due to a lack of skill, or even failure due to a mistake.

But to fail because of stage fright, because of nerves?

Yan Feifan would not allow it.

With the lead surgeon suddenly in this state, the others in the operating room looked at each other, at a loss for what to do.

Qiu Ge, the person at the center of it all, was also trying constantly to regain her composure.

She regulated her breathing, trying hard to clear her mind and calm herself down first.

Then, Qiu Ge’s gaze shifted to the circulating nurse, Hu Xue, and she ordered, "Mr. Hu, come here and slap me."

"Slap me hard!"

Hu Xue was dumbfounded, asking in disbelief, "Dr. Qiu, slap you? You want me to?"

Qiu Ge nodded. "Yes, slap me."

"I need a jolt of pain to shake off these messy thoughts and get my drive and confidence back."

After getting confirmation, Hu Xue looked pleadingly at her familiar colleagues, but no one dared to meet her gaze.

"What are you dawdling for? Hurry up!" Qiu Ge urged impatiently.

Hu Xue shuffled over to Qiu Ge and slowly raised her hand.

But her hand just wouldn’t come down.

Seeing Qiu Ge glare at her reproachfully, Hu Xue steeled herself, gritted her teeth, and took a large step back.

"Dr. Qiu, please don’t make this hard for me."

"I really don’t dare..."

’Useless at a critical moment.’ Qiu Ge was very disappointed and turned her gaze to the scrub nurse beside her...

Just then, she felt someone approach her.

Qiu Ge had just started to turn her head when an unbearable, twisting pain shot through her right side, forcing her to double over involuntarily.

"Ah... It hurts..."

"You son of a..."

Qiu Ge whipped her head around and saw Yan Feifan, who had appeared beside her at some point, and she swallowed the last word of her curse.

She remained bent over, sucking in a sharp breath, her eyes wide. After two tears welled up and fell to the floor, she slowly straightened up.

"Mr. Yan, you really didn’t hold back, did you?"

"What did I ever do to you?"

As she spoke, her voice was tinged with complaint.

Yan Feifan said innocently, "Dr. Qiu, did I do something wrong? You were the one who asked for a jolt of pain."

"This unexpected, intense pain should be more effective than a stimulus you were psychologically prepared for!"

"Or... would you have preferred I slapped you instead?"

Seeing Yan Feifan raise his right hand high, Qiu Ge quickly shook her head. "This is fine, this is fine."

"I’ve got my confidence back now. I can continue the surgery."

With that, Qiu Ge returned to her position as lead surgeon, stood before the microscope, and held out her right hand for an instrument...

Qiu Ge felt a slight weight in her right hand.

The familiar sensation told her that the scrub nurse had placed a pair of microscissors in her hand.

But a searing pain still radiated from her right side.

The sharp pain made Qiu Ge certain that the spot was definitely swollen, and probably bruised purple and blue.

’Yan Feifan, you bastard!’ Qiu Ge cursed inwardly.

’I’ve never been treated like this in my entire life.’

’The problem is, this was my own request. Not only can I not blame him, but I’m supposed to thank that bastard for stepping up.’

Fuming, Qiu Ge forced herself to concentrate on the surgery before her.

The view in the microscope’s eyepiece became clear once more.

Seeing the grayish optic nerves once again tightly entangled by a small, irregular, cotton-like mass, Qiu Ge’s heart skipped a beat.

’If I accidentally damage one of the optic nerves...’

’That five million...’

’My husband’s business...’

Qiu Ge felt the microscissors in her hand grow heavier and heavier as an indescribable tension washed over her again.

Just then, a thought suddenly occurred to her.

’That bastard, Yan Feifan, is on the other side of the surgical microscope, sharing the same field of view as me.’

’Yan Feifan can see my every single move during this surgery with perfect clarity.’

’If I back down and give up this time...’

’Not only would I have taken that pinch for nothing, but that bastard Yan Feifan will label me a failure.’

’I absolutely cannot lose face.’

’If I’m going to lose it, it won’t be tonight, and it won’t be in front of Yan Feifan.’

At this thought, something called courage surged from every part of Qiu Ge’s body.

This courage gathered in her hands, compelling them to finally move, making the first snip with the scissors since the surgery had been paused...

The surgical image from the microscope was being displayed in real-time on the large screen in the operating room.

Seeing the microscissors in the image meticulously snipping away the adhesions from an optic nerve, the scrub nurse, circulating nurse, and the others all relaxed.

As members of Dr. Qiu’s surgical team, their fates were tied to the lead surgeon’s; they would prosper or fall together.

As the surgery progressed, Qiu Ge suddenly felt that this daunting optic nerve tumor dissection wasn’t so bad after all.

Especially since most of the tumor had shrunk under the effects of the ethanol, it was no longer pressing so tightly against the optic nerve.

This gave Qiu Ge a good amount of room to maneuver.

As her confidence grew, Qiu Ge got into the zone, falling into her own work rhythm...

At 3:18 a.m., Qiu Ge looked at the small lump of mangled tissue in the metal tray, nodded with satisfaction, and felt a wave of relief wash over her, both physically and mentally.

For the subsequent closing procedures—placing the drainage tube, reattaching the piece of skull, and suturing the wound—Qiu Ge didn’t let Yan Feifan help and handled it all herself.

"Mr. Yan, you were so ruthless with that pinch. Aren’t you afraid I’ll hold a grudge?"

By now, the surgical microscope between them had been moved away.

Qiu Ge looked at Yan Feifan and added ominously, "You should know, women can be petty. We say one thing and mean another!"

Yan Feifan said plainly, "I’m not worried."

Qiu Ge noticed that Yan Feifan’s expression was calm, as if he truly wasn’t worried at all, which immediately annoyed her.

But then she remembered that in their relationship, she was the one who needed something from Yan Feifan, not the other way around.

Besides, she wasn’t the only department-level chief surgeon in neurosurgery.

At this thought, Qiu Ge felt a little disheartened.

’There’s really nothing I can do to this guy.’

Qiu Ge asked curiously, "Hey, Mr. Yan, what if I hadn’t been able to get back into a state to operate?"

"What would you have done?"

Yan Feifan lifted his eyes to meet hers and said, "I would have taken over the surgery!"

Qiu Ge froze, even her busy hands stopping mid-motion.

She asked in astonishment, "You could have finished the surgery in my place?"

Yan Feifan said thoughtfully, "I can only say that I was confident I could complete it."

"What a monster!" Qiu Ge muttered, then lowered her head to continue her unfinished work.

Around 3:40 a.m., Qiu Ge and Yan Feifan went to the family waiting area together.

"The surgery was a success."

"As for his specific postoperative condition, we’ll have to wait until your Xiaobao wakes up and we can run some tests to be certain..."

Qiu Ge patiently endured her mental and physical exhaustion to answer the family’s anxious questions. When she finished, she suddenly realized Yan Feifan was gone.

She knew he must have left to go rest.

Qiu Ge suddenly realized she still owed him a "thank you"...