Lu Jun’an kept trying to recall the other person’s appearance, his fingers unconsciously tightening until the pain from his wound made him realize he was gripping too hard.
Finding his savior would have to wait. The most urgent matter now was that the owner of this room was not his “savior.”
That made the entrance to the basement highly suspicious.
His gaze fell to the foot of the bed, where he saw the clothes and pants that had been cut into rags on the floor. Lu Jun’an felt somewhat speechless.
With great difficulty, he moved his legs off the bed and stood up steadily. Using his uninjured hand, he opened the wardrobe against the wall. Fortunately, there were two sets of clean men’s clothes inside. Though plain and not a perfect fit, they were better than nothing.
Half an hour later, Lu Jun’an was picked up by his companions, and the secret of the basement in this room was taken away with him.
As for the room’s owner, the next morning when everyone arrived for work, armed soldiers directly arrested him in the office without leaving a single word of explanation.
It was only known later that the distillery underwent a major upheaval. Almost everyone in a position of authority was either arrested or replaced.
Even several leaders from government units were implicated.
Of course, Su Mi paid no attention to all this, nor did she have the spare energy to care. Moreover, those were events for later.
The next day, after a good night’s sleep, Su Mi woke up, washed up briefly by the sink at the guesthouse, and checked out.
She then went to the state-run restaurant and breakfast shop to buy all the available pancakes, steamed buns, rolls, and other breakfast foods, storing them in her Dimensional Space with the help of her backpack.
Afterward, she went to the hospital to wait for the remaining candidates to finish their assessments. When the results came out, no one expected that the only woman among the 36 examinees would rank first in both the written exam and the clinical skills test.
However, since the exams were conducted openly and fairly, everyone accepted the results without any objections.
Su Mi received her graduation certificate, which also served as her “medical practice license.”
With this certificate, she could legally practice medicine.
For coming in first, she was also rewarded with an enamel mug, a towel, and a notebook.
The hospital director even offered Su Mi a job at the hospital, but she declined. She didn’t even need to come up with an excuse—as an educated youth sent to the countryside, it wouldn’t be appropriate to seek employment and become a “city dweller” right after being sent down for re-education.
Upon learning she was an educated youth sent to the countryside, the director said no more, exchanged a few polite words, and left on the pretext of work.
Finally, Su Mi also obtained some common medications and simple medical equipment from the health center and returned to Niu Family Village. All the items added up to a large box.
Of course, having only a medical license wouldn’t allow her to freely obtain medications from the hospital. This was all made possible by the stamped documents Village Chief Niu had prepared in advance. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have given her the supplies.
After finishing her business, Su Mi naturally didn’t walk back. Instead, she bought a bicycle and rode it home.
She was lucky—the bicycle had just arrived yesterday. If she had been half a day later, someone else would likely have bought it.
Although bicycles were expensive and the required purchase coupons were hard to come by, they were still in high demand. Many people were willing to buy them, and supply consistently fell short of demand. People went to great lengths, using all kinds of methods, to get their hands on one.
It was already noon when she left. Su Mi went to the state-run restaurant again and bought dishes like sweet and sour pork, dried eggplant stewed with meat, potatoes braised with green beans, pickled cabbage with pork and vermicelli, and stir-fried shredded potatoes. She packed them into lunchboxes and stored them in her Dimensional Space to enjoy slowly later.
Now, on the surface, the original owner’s money and ration coupons were truly spent.
But with her Dimensional Space, Su Mi wasn’t worried about food and drink. Besides, in the countryside, as long as you had the skills, there was no shortage of ways to get what you needed. As for other items, she had everything she needed for now and didn’t need to worry.
“Educated Youth Su is back!”
“Educated Youth Su rode a bicycle back!”
“Young Educated Youth Su bought a bicycle herself and rode it back!”
Before Su Mi even reached the village entrance on her bicycle, the children who spotted her started shouting.
Some ran to the roadside to wait and see the novelty, while others ran back to tell the adults. These children kept shouting as they ran.
So by the time Su Mi rode her bicycle to the tree at the village entrance, a crowd had already gathered there.
Auntie Fatty even grabbed the back seat of the bicycle, touching it here and there.
“This really is a hunk of iron, huh!”
“Just these two wheels, you sit on it, pedal with your legs, and off it goes—runs really fast.”
“This thing is so expensive. You hardly see any in our town.”
“Look at you all, acting like you’ve never seen anything. Haven’t you seen bicycles in town?”
“Educated Youth Su, how much did you pay for this?”
“Yeah, it must be expensive! We hardly ever see any around here.”
“Quiet, everyone! Educated Youth Su, the village chief said you went to take that doctor’s certification exam. How did it go?”
“Yeah, is that thing easy to pass? If not, you can always try again next time.”
“What do you mean ‘try again’? A young girl like her, how easy could it be to pass?”
“If she doesn’t pass, she can just work in the fields! There’s always a way to survive.”
Everyone chattered away, their eyes practically sparkling as they looked at the bicycle. Of course, some were also curious about what was in the box tied to the back seat.
Su Mi felt that their questions for her were just incidental—looking at the bicycle was the real focus.
Later, the topic shifted to the barefoot doctor certification exam, and the tone turned less pleasant, like someone had twisted their ankle.
“My parents were worried I wouldn’t adjust well to life in the countryside, so they gave me money and ration coupons to buy a bicycle. It makes going to town more convenient. Besides, I’ve already passed the ‘Medical Practitioner Qualification Exam’ and am now a certified doctor. I also brought back medicine from the town hospital, so if anyone has a headache or fever, they can come to me for medicine. But let me make this clear upfront: the medicine isn’t free like before. I can’t afford to give it away for free—it’s all public property. Every time a medicine is used, I have to record it and settle the accounts with the public. We’re all neighbors here, so we shouldn’t take advantage of public resources.”
As she spoke, Su Mi glanced at the few aunties who were known for taking advantage of others, but she quickly looked away.
Leaving no room for anyone to catch her.
“Of course, of course.”
“Exactly, we can’t take advantage of public resources. That’s like digging at the foundation and could lead to punishment.”
“Right, right. We’re not the type to take advantage either. Now our village has a doctor, so seeing a doctor will be much easier.”
“Exactly, and you from the Li family, was that even human talk just now? I saw you took quite a lot of the insect and snake repellent powder that Little Su Zhiqing gave us to use against lice and fleas. How can you turn around and badmouth her right after benefiting from it?”
This was the advantage of a good reputation. Some things Su Mi only needed to do for herself, and when someone went against the crowd, there were always those who fit in to handle them.
After dealing with those enthusiastic aunties and grannies, it was already half an hour later by the time Su Mi returned to her own small courtyard.