It was not yet seven o’clock in the morning when Li Dagen and his family arrived at Fang Yuan’s residence in an ox cart pulled by a donkey.
Fang Yuan’s family was eating breakfast. Fang Xiaoqin warmly welcomed them inside. Li Dagen handed over a sack of freshly picked bayberries. After the family entered the house, they kept their hands close to themselves and appeared rather reserved.
Fang Yuan noticed that Yinghua had one hand pressed against her abdomen, her face tense as she endured the pain. She immediately picked up her bag and took them all to the county hospital.
Li Dagen had borrowed the donkey cart from the production team. They had set out from home before dawn. Yinghua’s mother said worriedly that Yinghua had been suffering from relentless abdominal pain since the previous day. Fang Yuan reassured her and said she would arrange the surgery as soon as possible.
When they arrived at the hospital, outpatient registration had not yet begun. Fang Yuan brought Yinghua’s family to her office and asked them to rest there while she went to find Doctor Jiang.
After meeting with Doctor Jiang, she explained Yinghua’s condition. Doctor Jiang instructed that Yinghua undergo an examination first. If the diagnosis confirmed an imperforate hymen, Fang Yuan would be the one to perform the surgery.
After thanking Doctor Jiang, Fang Yuan took Yinghua for a gynecological examination. The operation was ultimately scheduled for ten o’clock that morning.
During the surgery, nearly six hundred milliliters of retained blood was drained. Afterwards, the abdominal mass also disappeared. Fang Yuan originally recommended that Yinghua stay in the hospital for a day to recover before returning home. However, Li Dagen worried that gossip would spread through the production team, and he also did not want to pay for a night’s hospital bed. He immediately wanted to take his wife and daughter home.
Feeling helpless, and worried that Yinghua’s body had just undergone surgery and would not be able to endure the rough ride in the donkey cart, Fang Yuan arranged for Yinghua to rest on an unused emergency ward bed for half a day and told them to wait until evening before returning home.
At noon, she brought meals from the hospital cafeteria and delivered them to the family. Li Dagen’s face flushed red as he repeatedly declined, saying they had already brought flatbread from home. Fang Yuan told him that the food had already been purchased and that she could not finish it herself. The weather was hot, and if they did not help eat it, it would spoil and have to be thrown away. Tears welled up in Yinghua’s mother’s eyes as she held Fang Yuan’s hand, not knowing how to express her gratitude.
That afternoon, the surgery department held a meeting for a consultation regarding Liang Youtian’s condition. The examination results had come back, confirming early-stage stomach cancer, requiring the removal of two-thirds of his stomach. Because it was a major operation, both Hospital Director Lin and Director Chen attended the meeting. The surgery was ultimately scheduled for the morning of the day after tomorrow. Doctor Jiang would be the lead surgeon, while Fang Yuan would participate as his assistant.
After the meeting, Fang Yuan was in an excellent mood and returned to her office smiling brightly the entire way.
She had just sat down and finished a cup of water when Yao Hongying walked over and took two pieces of peanut candy from her pocket, offering them to her.
“No, no, you should keep them for yourself,” Fang Yuan declined.
“I still have more. These came from my grandmother’s home. I’m an only child, do you think I’d ever run short of snacks?” Yao Hongying sat down on the chair opposite Fang Yuan’s desk.
Yao Hongying was a town resident. Both of her parents were factory workers, and she was their only daughter. It was said that her mother had nearly died giving birth to her and was never able to conceive again. As the family’s only child, she had been doted on since childhood. Now all three members of her family earned salaries, so they were considered quite well off. She currently lived in a two-person staff dormitory assigned by the hospital and only went home on weekends.
“How come you have time to drop by this afternoon? Isn’t your department busy?” Fang Yuan gently brushed the pot of balsam flowers on her desk. Their brilliant blossoms brightened the otherwise dull office. She looked up and asked.
“I heard you stole business from our department, so I came to hold you accountable,” Yao Hongying joked. She also noticed the balsam flowers and asked curiously, “Did you bring a pot of flowers from home?”
Fang Yuan shook her head. “I don’t know who left it on my desk.” Still, the flowers really had put her in a good mood.
“Could it have been from a secret admirer?” Yao Hongying leaned closer and whispered mysteriously.
Fang Yuan shushed her. “Don’t talk nonsense.”
Covering her mouth, Yao Hongying secretly glanced at Fang Yuan and chuckled.
“By the way, weren’t you here to hold me accountable? What happened?”
“Didn’t you bring a young woman to our obstetrics and gynecology department for an examination today? So why was the surgery arranged through your surgery department instead?” Yao Hongying recalled the matter and glared at Fang Yuan.
“Hehe, because she’s from my hometown, and they were uncomfortable with a male doctor performing the operation, so I did it myself.” Fang Yuan smiled awkwardly.
“Sigh, I could have done a minor operation like that too. I wonder when it’ll finally be my turn to be the lead surgeon.” Yao Hongying sighed.
“You’re assisting Doctor Tian right now. Obstetrics is so busy, and once your skills are solid enough, it’ll soon be your turn to operate independently.”
“Have you heard? We received instructions from higher authorities today that our hospital has to send a group of doctors to rural grassroots areas for medical inspections. I wonder if they’ll choose us.” Yao Hongying glanced around before lowering her voice.
Fang Yuan frowned slightly. “I heard the hospital only sent two specialists out last month. Are they transferring more doctors to the countryside again so soon? Every department is already short on staff.” She had only recently returned to the county and did not want to be sent elsewhere so quickly. Hearing the news made her feel somewhat anxious.
“This is a directive from the highest leader. The Ministry of Health is fully carrying it out. Hospitals and medical institutions in major cities across the country are now sending large numbers of specialists to rural grassroots areas. Our hospital previously transferred only two specialists, one from internal medicine and one from obstetrics, so the level of support wasn’t considered sufficient, and the hospital was already criticized during the meeting.”
Last month, the Minister of Health had reported to the nation’s highest leader on the distribution of medical personnel across the country. There were now more than one million medical workers nationwide, with seventy percent in major cities, twenty percent in county towns, and only ten percent in rural areas. Yet the rural population was more than four times larger than the urban population.
After hearing the report, the leader stood up with a stern expression and said, “The Ministry of Health serves only fifteen percent of the nation’s population, and among that fifteen percent, it mainly serves the privileged. The vast number of peasants have neither doctors nor medicine. The Ministry of Health is not the people’s Ministry of Health. It might as well be renamed the Urban Ministry of Health, or the Ministry of Health for the Privileged, or even the Urban Ministry of Health for the Privileged!”
It was from this that the directive, “Shift the focus of medical and public health work to the countryside,” was issued.
“The spirit of the directive is to send out large numbers of specialists. We’ve only just started working, so they probably won’t send us,” Fang Yuan said. Even as she spoke, she could not help feeling ashamed. As a medical worker, she should have taken the initiative to volunteer for the places that were the most difficult and most in need of help. She felt uncomfortable with her own desire to avoid being selected.
“That’s right, that’s right. Our skills still aren’t good enough. We still have a lot to learn, so they probably won’t send us.” After Yao Hongying finished speaking, she exchanged a glance with Fang Yuan. Both of them felt somewhat ashamed and quietly looked away.
Before leaving, Yao Hongying reminded Fang Yuan, “You should find out who that flower came from. You can’t just accept things from people. Otherwise you’ll get yourself into trouble.”
Reluctantly, Fang Yuan gently touched the crimson petals and nodded.
She asked several doctors in Outpatient Clinic Room One, but none of them had noticed who had brought the flowerpot. They were certain it had only appeared that morning. Unwilling to hand the flowers over, Fang Yuan moved the pot onto the windowsill outside. Looking through the glass at the balsam flowers swaying gracefully in the sunlight, she felt warmth spread through her heart.
After work, she first saw Li Dagen’s family off. She carefully instructed Yinghua on her postoperative care, told her to return to the hospital in half a month for a follow-up examination, and prescribed medicine for her to take on schedule after returning home. Li Dagen and his family repeatedly thanked her before finally departing.
Fang Yuan saw that Chen Nanfang was once again waiting outside the hospital entrance. A thought crossed her mind, and she walked over to ask, “Was it you who put that pot of flowers on my desk?”
Chen Nanfang nodded, his dark eyes fixed on Fang Yuan without blinking.
Feeling uncomfortable, Fang Yuan turned her head away. “Take the flowers back. I don’t want them.”
“Why? If you don’t like balsam flowers, I’ll bring you a different kind.”
“No, that’s not it. I… I can’t accept your gift. I don’t even know you,” Fang Yuan murmured.
A smile spread across Chen Nanfang’s tanned face. “Didn’t I ask you to treat my former leader? Just consider that pot of flowers an advance token of thanks.”
“Treating patients is our duty as doctors. We don’t accept gifts, especially when you haven’t even brought your leader to the hospital for an examination yet,” Fang Yuan said seriously.
“Maybe… I won’t be able to bring our leader here after all. But I’ve already given him your information. Once he’s free from work, he’ll come to you for treatment.” Chen Nanfang lowered his head. “I’m returning to the army immediately. It’ll be a long time before we meet again.”
Fang Yuan nodded. “Then I wish you a safe journey!”
Chen Nanfang smiled. “Thank you. May I write to you?”
“N, no, don’t write to me. If your former leader comes looking for me, I’ll certainly do my best to treat him, so please don’t worry.” Fang Yuan shook her head. Correspondence between unmarried men and women could easily give rise to misunderstandings. She did not want to invite that kind of trouble.
“…Alright.” Chen Nanfang’s smile became somewhat strained. After hesitating for a long while, he suddenly said solemnly, “Doctor Fang, perhaps you’ll think what I’m about to say is very strange, but you must remember it. If you ever work outside your hometown, whatever you do, never, ever go to Shilin Village, Lulin County, D Province.”
He repeated the address once more, wanting Fang Yuan to remember it.
Fang Yuan was completely baffled and found the man even stranger than before. She almost wanted to ask him to hold out his hand so she could take his pulse. Instead, after Chen Nanfang finished speaking, he gave her one long, deep look, then turned around and strode away.
Only after Fang Yuan had also turned and left did Chen Nanfang look back, watching her receding figure disappear into the distance.
Since Heaven had given him a chance to be reborn, he would bring his comrades back alive from that battlefield. He would also protect Fang Yuan and never let her experience the tragedy that was destined to come.
…
As Fang Yuan walked home, Chen Nanfang’s words still lingered in her mind. She regretted letting him leave so easily. She should have given him a thorough physical examination. She knew that soldiers carried tremendous responsibilities, and that immense stress and physical injuries could both lead to disorders affecting the brain. She did not know what kind of condition Chen Nanfang might have, but judging by the way he spoke and behaved, he truly did not seem like an ordinary person.
She thought that if Chen Nanfang’s former leader really came to see her, she would ask him to tell Chen Nanfang to go to the hospital for an examination. If he was ill, it would be best to receive treatment as early as possible.
She entered the house with a furrowed face. Before she had even fully stepped through the doorway, her foot struck the threshold, and she nearly stumbled. After steadying herself, Fang Yuan looked up and saw Da Mao standing there, baring his teeth in a grin as he laughed at her.