The system has offered Evan a chance to learn. He still has no idea what that means.
It felt as though his soul had been slammed down hard. The scene before Evan shook several times, an unreal shudder running through everything he could see.
“Huh?” When his vision steadied, he discovered that his surroundings had changed. He was in a meeting room. Everyone was seated, listening to a man at the front. Evan didn't recognize a single person around him.
“You young comrades have all been assigned to our hospital's gynecology department… To help our young doctors develop, we've established a program pairing senior physicians with junior doctors…” Evan looked around blankly. Outside, a loudspeaker seemed to be playing “The East Is Red.”
He looked at the man speaking at the front and froze.
“Dr. Qian?” He looked as though he'd seen a ghost. Hadn't Dr. Qian died in 1986?
Had he… come back to life?
Even Dr. Qian was here! How could this possibly not be a dream?
Evan looked down at his hands. Without another thought, he raised one and slapped himself across the face.
The crack was loud and sharp. Everyone turned to stare at him in astonishment, including Dr. Qian at the front.
No one knew what to make of it.
The right side of Evan's face reddened and swelled before their eyes.
Dr. Qian gave him an odd look. “Comrade Evan Xu, what's wrong?”
Evan sucked in a breath, his face trembling. He'd hit himself far too hard.
But the slap had knocked his head completely clear.
His right cheek twitched slightly. He forced himself to offer an explanation. “I… was swatting a mosquito…”
The others exchanged looks.
“Is there a mosquito?” They frowned and began looking for it. People in this era were serious and earnest. If you said you were swatting a mosquito, there must be a mosquito!
Evan looked at them, puzzled. Did none of them know that tired old joke?
“Wait. Why am I here?” He hurriedly closed his eyes. The system was still there in his mind, displaying:
Renowned Physician Mentorship module — Chinese Medicine Gynecology Inheritance
Year: 1978
Location: Xiyuan Hospital
Time limit: One year
Time remaining: 364 days, 23 hours, 55 minutes, 34 seconds
Evan stared.
Xiyuan Hospital?
What the hell?
1978?
Dr. Qian?
Chinese medicine gynecology?
He quickly turned to the young doctor in glasses beside him. “Hey, is this Xiyuan Hospital?”
“If it isn't Xiyuan Hospital…” the young man whispered.
“Huh?” Evan was taken aback.
The young man gave him a strange look. “…where else would it be?”
Evan was speechless for a moment. “Do people in your era all leave half the joke hanging like that?”
“What?” The young man had no idea what he meant.
Evan looked around in bewilderment and touched the thick wooden tabletop. Everything he knew about science told him this couldn't exist. Everything he could feel told him it was real.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Enough whispering among yourselves,” Dr. Qian said from the front. “Pay attention. Under our mentorship program, each senior doctor of Chinese medicine will take one junior doctor. There are five of you, so we've arranged for five senior physicians. I'm one of them. I'll now announce the hospital's assignments.”
The young doctors held their breath, tense. The man beside Evan had gone red in the face. Doctors of Chinese medicine were the same in any era: who you studied under could determine your entire future.
A mentor? He had another chance to learn under a mentor?
He'd had no one left to study under. Now the system had brought him to Xiyuan Hospital in 1978, just as they were pairing junior doctors with senior physicians. He had another chance—and Dr. Qian was one of the mentors.
Dr. Qian was a physician of the highest national standing, foremost among the eight great modern specialists in Chinese medicine gynecology.
He had been born during the reign of the Guangxu Emperor of the Qing dynasty. Three generations of his forebears had practiced medicine, all renowned physicians in Wuzhong. A true medical family. As a boy, he'd studied under the son of a Qing imperial physician, then under his own father. At twenty-two, he began practicing medicine to serve the people and soon made his name throughout Suzhou. In 1955, he'd been transferred to Beijing.
Evan had always thought his future had been settled the day he was fired. His life was over. He'd never imagined he could still have an opportunity like this.
He'd said that if he ever had another chance to learn under a mentor, he would fight for it with everything he had. And that mentor might be Dr. Qian. Dr. Qian!
What hospital of Chinese medicine could possibly offer him anything like this?
Dr. Qian began reading out the assignments. “Grace Xu, your mentor will be Dr. Li Yuan. Gao Huifen, yours will be Dr. Niu Yixiang…”
No. He couldn't just accept the assignments. What if he wasn't assigned to Dr. Qian? Evan tensed and called softly, “System! System, can you arrange it?”
Nobody paid him any attention.
Neither did the system.
He looked up at Dr. Qian, who was still reading the list, and grew more anxious. “System!” he whispered urgently. “Hey, internet star! Android! Can't you pull a few strings?”
Still no answer.
Only the doctor in glasses turned to give him an odd look. He had no idea what Evan was muttering about.
Evan couldn't wait any longer. He sprang to his feet and called out, “Dr. Qian… er… Director…”
Dr. Qian stopped and looked at him, puzzled. “Young Comrade Xu, what is it now?”
Evan's thoughts raced. “I… I… I think I need to study under you!”
Everyone stared. In this era, the collective came first. You obeyed the organization and accepted its assignments; you didn't put your own interests first. How could someone ask outright to study under the department director?
Dr. Qian's expression darkened slightly. “Comrade Xu, you must accept the organization's assignment! Think of the collective's interests. You can't make demands for yourself.”
“I… I'm asking this for the collective!” Evan said hastily.
They all looked at him in confusion.
“The amount of water a wooden bucket can hold depends on its shortest stave,” he explained. “And I'm the weakest of the five of us. That's why I need to study under the director. Our collective needs to strengthen its weakest member.”
“I'm not doing this for myself. I'm doing it for the whole collective.” Thinking of the misery of the past six months, Evan was suddenly overcome with grief. His eyes reddened, tears welling in them.
Everyone stared, dumbfounded.
He clenched his teeth, stamped his foot and flung out his arm. So much for dignity. “I know I'm useless. But I can't disgrace our collective… And I certainly can't disgrace our hospital… I have a duty to the hospital, and an even greater duty to our patients. I'm a doctor, after all! So I have to study hard!”
He'd said he would fight with everything he had if he ever got another chance. What did a little shame matter?
The sincerity on his face moved them all.
A fine young man, admitting his shortcomings without regard for his dignity, all so he wouldn't hold the collective back. He wanted to improve so badly that he'd cried!
That young man took such pride in the collective!
People in this era were still rather innocent. They valued the collective, sacrifice and service. They'd rarely seen anyone put on such a shameless performance.
Dr. Qian stared at him for a moment, then let out a small breath. “All right. Whatever the case, you still have to accept the collective's assignments. Sit down.”
“Yes,” Evan said miserably. Had it still not worked?
Dr. Qian glanced at him again and resumed reading. “Ma Fengqin, your mentor will be Dr. Wang Dezhi. Oliver Liu… your mentor… will be Dr. Thomas He. Evan Xu… will study under me…”
Evan looked up at once.
Dr. Qian folded the sheet and put it in his pocket. His original plan had been to take Oliver himself and assign Evan to Dr. He.
With the assignments announced, the meeting ended.
The weight on Evan's heart finally lifted. Beside him, the young doctor in glasses, with his fondness for jokes that stopped halfway through, rubbed his eyes and turned to him, deeply moved.
“Dr. Xu, you… you care so much about the collective. I really… I was moved by what you said…”
Evan felt a little embarrassed. Young men in this era were so innocent. “Oh, I don't deserve that. I really don't. It's all for the collective. May I ask your name?”
“Oh, I'm Oliver Liu.”
“Oh.” Evan nodded and turned to look for Dr. Qian. He would be learning under him now.
“Wait. Oliver Liu!” He whipped around and stared at the young man.
Oliver jumped.
Evan's eyes widened. The face before him matched the one in his memory, except that this one was far too young.
He stared, utterly stunned. A Changjiang Scholar… recipient of a special government allowance from the State Council… a nationally honored physician of Chinese medicine… professor at Qi Province University of Chinese Medicine… one of the country's foremost specialists in Chinese medicine gynecology… Dr. Qian's most prized student…
Oliver Liu!