The Awesome Operation

The rain wasn't too heavy, so it was just right to be able to wash off the mud on my body and the cow's body.

Jiang Yao took off her top: "Little Zhe, give me your clothes too and I'll wash them for you!"

"Thanks, but Yao Yao, could you please not wave that in front of me? It would be disrespectful not to look at you, but looking at you would also make me seem lustful."

Jiang Yao gave a charming pout: "I don't mind!"

From the other side came the cow's painful moos.

It looked like things weren't going so smoothly!

After a while, the cow stopped mooing!

After another while, Shen Bing walked over dejectedly.

"Give it to me straight - are mother and calf safe or are both dead?"

"Neither."

Shen Bing shook his head: "This cow used up too much energy before, and it's her first calf. She simply doesn't have the strength to give birth to the calf. She's exhausted."

Tang Xiaoguo nodded: "I think carbon roasted would be better."

Tang Linqian shook her head slightly: "Let's boil it - add bay leaves and fishmint herbs to make the flavor more complex."

Jiang Yao said: "After all, I raised it with my own hands. I don't have the heart to eat its meat. Just save me some broth later without any chili!"

Shen Bing was at a total loss: "Ladies, that's not what I meant for you to discuss! Everyone come here, you too, Lu Zhe."

The six of them crouched around the fainted mother cow, with two small calf legs sticking out of the cow's behind, occasionally twitching.

Shen Bing's face was solemn as he said: "Now we're faced with the most common familial drama - do we save the adult or the child?"

Lin Qianqian worriedly said: "Has it come to that?"

Shen Bing nodded: "The mother cow doesn't have enough strength to give birth to the calf, and I can't pull it out either."

Ning Shu said: "Lu Zhe has a lot of strength, why don't we let him try!"

Lu Zhe grasped the calf's legs and pulled, then gave up: "Can't pull it out."

Tang Xiaoguo was surprised: "You didn't even use any strength!"

Shen Bing sighed: "What Lu Zhe did was right! What I meant by 'pull out' isn't by brute force. The calf is stuck inside now, if we rip off its legs or spine in our pulling, the calf will be crippled. But like this we can disintegrate the calf inside the mother cow to save her."

"That's too pitiful!"

When the girls were chatting earlier they could discuss various cooking methods breezily, but now crouched in front of the mother cow on her last legs, they were all moved to compassion.

"If her baby is gone, she must feel terrible, right?"

Shen Bing nodded: "The other option is to damage the mother cow's body, pull the calf out completely intact, but that risks massive bleeding for the mother cow."

Lu Zhe contemplated: "We can raise the calf from young, and the mother cow can still provide milk. Isn't there really any other way?"

Shen Bing shrugged: "At least I don't have any other solutions right now."

Lu Zhe nodded and looked towards Ning Shu: "Let's hear what our theory expert thinks?"

"Me?" Ning Shu thought for a moment: "How would I know? Afraid of draining the battery, I haven't charged my phone for days..."

"How much do you remember?"

"For humans, we could use a C-section or lateral incision. A C-section means cutting open the abdomen, and a lateral incision is..."

Ning Shu really didn't know how to describe it, so she scratched a diagram on the cow's butt with a stick: "To prevent tearing the birth canal, make an incision here."

The few girls simultaneously shuddered delicately, unconsciously squeezing their legs together.

Lu Zhe nodded: "In short, expand the opening."

"Something like that."

Lu Zhe thought for a moment: "Given the current situation, a C-section is impossible. Opening up its belly now would basically kill it. We can consider using a lateral incision to help the mother cow give birth smoothly!"

"Who's going to do it?"

All the girls, Shen Bing included, shook their heads vigorously like rattles drums.

"Ding! New mission: Complete the cow surgery to allow the mother cow to safely give birth to the calf.

Reward: +2 potential points!"

Lu Zhe nodded. He said solemnly: "Since none of you can do it, it looks like I'll have to. Luckily it's passed out, saves us having to find anesthetic."

"Lu Zhe, do you know what you're doing?"

"I have absolutely no clue, but that won't stop me acting like an awesome doctor! We'll just have to wing it on feeling!"

"An awe...some doctor?"

But some things sound easy but are extremely difficult in execution - you need to know what you're doing.

Lu Zhe started arranging the surgery:

First, the scalpel needs to be thin and sharp!

The dinner knife sharpened into a blade can manage.

Second, to prevent heavy bleeding, we need a hemostatic.

Grinding dried palm tree bark into powder makes palm charcoal, an excellent hemostatic.

Third, we need sutures. Guo Er's earrings can barely pierce human skin, but cowhide is so thick, don't even think about it.

Ants can't be used for the sutures either, the tensile strength is too low.

Lu Zhe prepared to use thinner nails and banana fiber thread instead. The method is to push one nailed with thread through, then use another nail to pull it out from the other end. The nails don't need to penetrate the cowhide fully, they can still complete the suturing.

This requires an exceptionally sharp nail, and the suturer needs rather extraordinary skill.

Sharpening the nails isn't difficult, and Lu Zhe's arm was slashed by the bear, so he has professional suturing skills.

Take advantage of the mother cow's fainting to get started!

Lu Zhe sterilized the tools, and with Ning Shu's help, made a 5 cm lateral incision on the cow's butt. The mother cow let out a pained moo, but she truly had no strength left to struggle, she could only let the blood pour steadily out.

The two looked at each other!

Lu Zhe asked: "Is it more blood than normal, or did we cut something we shouldn't have?"

Ning Shu blankly shook her head: "Don't know!"

But right now they couldn't consider hemostasis, they had to hurry and pull the calf out!

Lu Zhe firmly grasped the calf's legs, slowly applied force, and finally pulled out a wet little calf covered in mucus from the mother cow's behind.

"Guo Er and Qianqian, take care of the calf!"

"Got it...wait, how do we take care of it?"

Lu Zhe didn't have time to explain. He hurriedly cut the umbilical cord, pressed palm charcoal-wrapped cloth to the bleeding, but large amounts of blood still flowed out between his fingers.

"Seems cows and humans aren't the same!"

"Of course they're not the same, but we saved the calf, right?"

Looking back, not so easily!

The calf lay on the ground, ceaselessly convulsing, its mouth opening and closing while making gurgling sounds.

Qianqian and Guo Er stood there, completely at a loss.

It was still Shen Bing who quickly took out a syringe water gun, shoved the cylinder at the calf's nose, forcefully pulled back, sucking out a bunch of mucus. Then he aimed at the other nostril, sucking out another huge lump of mucus.

After repeating this several times, the calf's breathing finally steadied. After another while, it struggled to move its limbs until it shakily stood up.