"Thank you."

Susan felt Adam's sincerity and smiled with relief.

Their eyes met naturally.

For a moment, Susan found it hard to look away.

She had silently done many thankless tasks like this before. It would be a lie to say she wasn't a little frustrated.

Now, she had met someone like Adam—a person who truly understood her. And to top it off, he was incredibly handsome and charismatic.

Considering her busy work schedule, she could hardly remember whether she had broken up with her boyfriend or not. She couldn't even clearly recall what he looked like. At that moment, she found herself a little entranced.

Adam hesitated for a brief moment before quickly looking away.

According to Rajesh's theory, that fleeting fraction of a second was enough to spark chemistry between him and Susan—not the kind Rajesh imagined in his head, but something real.

Susan was an attractive woman who matched Adam's aesthetic preferences.

She was worldly yet untainted by cynicism, silently doing good deeds. Unlike Saint Liz, who always insisted that others follow her ideals, Susan simply did what she thought was right.

But she was both a colleague and a superior at the hospital, unlike Bianca, whom he knew inside and out. Adam had no intention of letting that spark turn into something more.

"Okay."

Susan was a kind and mature woman in her thirties. She immediately noticed her momentary lapse and smiled awkwardly. "I have a patient to check on. Page me if there's an emergency."

"Got it."

Adam nodded with a smile.

Once Susan left, he let out a quiet breath.

No doubt about it—this was the kind of world you'd see in a Hollywood TV show. The number of attractive men and women in the hospital was overwhelming, and it was all too easy to end up in a messy situation.

This only strengthened his resolve to avoid entanglements with beautiful female colleagues.

After all, people are naturally drawn to beauty—men and women alike.

And Adam was far from the only good-looking guy in the hospital.

But a good-looking guy who maintained his self-discipline? That was rare.

Better not follow the crowd.

"Adam!"

A chubby, sleazy-looking man named Stu waddled over, waggling his eyebrows. "I heard you were the first one to see that guy who tried to perform his own circumcision."

There were no secrets in a hospital.

It had barely been any time, and the shocking news had already spread everywhere.

If this had happened in Adam's past life, it would've been trending on social media by now—probably with some viral phrase like, 'If you can't even cut yourself, do you really love me?'

If the shy young man had known that, he probably wouldn't have waited so long, suffering in silence, before finally pulling his pants down after Adam arrived and the nurse had left.

"You're interested in this too?"

Adam teased, "What, already thinking about ditching your orange?"

"You know me, I'm just that kind of free spirit."

Stu smirked proudly. "No one can tie me down. I've even got a new girlfriend—cantaloupe. Still the same method—poke a hole and microwave it for 30 seconds. That texture…"

"Enough."

Adam had mentally prepared himself, but even so, he couldn't handle Stu's perversion any longer. He cut him off. "Don't you have work to do? Why are you hanging around the ER?"

"Heh, I got Shani to transfer me to help out in plastic surgery."

Stu grinned. "Dr. Jordan over there really likes me. Says I've got a talent for plastic surgery. I was part of the entire surgery for that DIY circumcision guy."

"Not bad."

Adam looked at Stu in surprise.

Among the interns, aside from Adam, who was clearly the top performer, and George, who had the worst luck, most of them were just trying to get by. Meredith was busy using her latte bribes to cozy up to her bosses. Who would've thought the sleaziest one—Stu—would be the first to get into the OR?

"When the internship ends and we choose our specialties, I'm definitely picking plastic surgery."

Stu looked triumphant.

"Good choice."

Adam nodded. "Light workload, high income, and most importantly, you like it."

"That's the best part!"

Stu got even more excited. "Think about it, Adam—once I become a famous plastic surgeon, imagine how many beautiful women will come to me, letting me work my magic on them. And if I open a clinic in Beverly Hills, catering to Hollywood actresses… that would be heaven!"

"I didn't hear anything."

Adam's mouth twitched. He had no patience for Stu's bottomless sleaziness.

Whoever ends up as a patient under this guy's knife is doomed.

Total Liu Bei move—way too cunning.

"Dr. O'Malley, come with me."

A nurse called out to George, the chubby and somewhat effeminate intern, who was also assigned to the ER.

"Sure!"

George flashed his warmest smile and followed the nurse toward the patient rooms. "What kind of patient? Cardiac arrest needing defibrillation? A baby choking on something?"

"You've heard about Dr. Duncan's amazing work already, huh?"

The nurse glanced at him, a playful smirk on her face. "Neither of those."

She pushed open the door.

"What's going on?"

George's smile froze.

Inside the room, patients were seated with bowls in their laps, vomiting into them. The overwhelming stench of bile and sickness filled the air.

"This is a German tour group," the nurse explained. "They all got food poisoning at the Imperial Restaurant on 46th Street."

She then turned to the patients. "Good afternoon, this is Dr. O'Malley. He'll be taking care of you. If you have any questions, feel free to ask him."

"Good afternoon, Dr. O'Malley—ugh!"

A patient tried to greet him but immediately began dry-heaving.

George stood there, his smile now completely hollow.

"Don't worry, Bambi. This is simple."

The nurse, thinking now this is what an intern should look like, smiled brightly. "You just need to perform rectal exams and collect stool samples."

"On all of them?"

George's face turned green, especially when he spotted some of the bigger women, their thighs thicker than his waist. He suddenly felt like his soul was leaving his body.

"On all of them," the nurse confirmed with a sympathetic glance.

"Dr. Duncan was just at the nurse's station. Can't he help me out?"

George forced a smile.

"I can try, but you'd better get started. These patients can't wait."

The nurse reminded him.

"Alright then…"

George pulled on latex gloves, looking as though he was marching toward his doom.

Nurse Station

"Hehehe…"

As expected, George's situation quickly became gossip. The nurses laughed openly.

"Dr. Duncan was right there. Why didn't you ask him?"

An older nurse teased.

"Dr. Duncan is handling real emergency cases. We can't have him wasting time on something like this."

The nurse who had taken George to the room smirked.

"Exactly."

The other nurses nodded in agreement.

"Dr. Duncan is practically at the level of a resident."

"He's so handsome. How could we ask him to collect stool samples?"

Just around the corner, George was carrying the collected samples to be sent to the lab when he overheard them.

He stood frozen in place, stunned.

All his life, he had always had great luck with women.

Yet now, compared to Adam, the nurses naturally saw him as the guy who dealt with poop.

What kind of twisted world was this…?