After being separated from my family, I became a darling of the military region thanks to my medical

The next morning, the sky over Qingyun County had a grayish-white hue characteristic of the industrial era, and in the distance, the chimneys of textile factories were slowly emitting white rings.

In the shady archives room of the county hospital, the light was still dim. Ye Zhen sat at the peeling desk, clutching the telegram she had retrieved from the post office, her fingertips repeatedly stroking the rough paper.

Gu Zheng.

She murmured the name to herself, and her back teeth throbbed with pain again. This man's thought process was so complex that even the most advanced CT scan couldn't capture the depths of his cunning and scheming mind.

"Knock knock knock!"

The wooden door to the archives was pounded loudly, accompanied by the head nurse's distinctive, penetrating voice.

"Dr. Ye!"

Ye Zhen put away the telegram, her expression instantly returning to its usual cold, surgical-table-like demeanor. She stood up, smoothed the wrinkles in her white coat, and replied calmly, "Come in!"

The head nurse pushed open the door and said, "Dr. Ye, Old Li says he's not in pain anymore. Not only is he not in pain, but he also says he feels a warm sensation seeping into his bones! He insists that you cast a spell on him!"

Immortal arts?

Ye Zhen raised an eyebrow, thinking about the warmth produced by the re-infusion of blood vessels. But in a county town in the 1980s, this miracle of "resurrection of dead flesh" was practically indistinguishable from divine magic.

In the corridor, even before the ward rounds were held, the entrance to ward 302 was already packed with people. Patients' family members, who were fetching water or delivering meals, were all craning their necks to peek inside.

As soon as Ye Zhen appeared, the crowd parted as if Moses had parted the sea.

"Here he comes! The legendary doctor who has returned from the capital is here!"

"So young! Look at that air about him, no wonder Dean Zhao has to serve him food."

The murmurs were like a tidal wave, but Ye Zhen kept her eyes straight ahead and walked straight into the ward.

Li Dazhu was squatting by the hospital bed when he saw Ye Zhen. He jumped up and accidentally knocked over the enamel basin next to him with a loud crash.

"Dr. Ye!" Li Dazhu's eyes were red like rotten peaches, and his lips trembled as he couldn't utter a word for a long time. His old mother, whose face was full of wrinkles, slid to the ground without saying a word, wanting to kneel down before Ye Zhen.

Ye Zhen reacted quickly, grabbing the old woman's arm. She looked frail, but her strength was as steady as a needle holder on an operating table.

"That's not acceptable," Ye Zhen said calmly.

"Girl, that was a life-saving favor!" The old woman cried, tears streaming down her face. "My husband said his legs had been as cold as ice for the past six months, but after waking up just now, they were warm! He felt like he could use his strength again!"

On the hospital bed, Old Li's eyes were much clearer. He tried to sit up by supporting himself on the bed, but Ye Zhen stopped him with a look.

"Don't move it. The gaps in the bone have just been cleaned. If you want to move the newly implanted bone fragments, feel free to do so."

Old Li immediately froze like a stone statue, not daring to breathe.

Ye Zhen lowered her head and, with remarkable professionalism, lifted a corner of the sterile gauze and pressed on the edge of the wound. The skin temperature was normal, and blood circulation was good.

At the door, Zhao Haifeng walked in, rubbing his hands together: "Dr. Ye, I brought several attending physicians here to observe. It would be a shame to miss such a textbook-level case."

Behind him stood a circle of doctors, each holding a red notebook, their eyes filled with fervor as if they were looking at a great savior.

Ye Zhen straightened up: "The recovery is going well. Dean Zhao, about the hospital fees we talked about yesterday..."

"Free! Not only is it completely free, but the hospital will also cover the subsequent treatment costs!" Zhao Haifeng waved his hand, displaying an extremely arrogant attitude.

Director Yan Hua instructed last night that this kind of person is a "national treasure" and must be appeased. Ideally, she should be allowed to keep her bone-drilling decompression technique at the county hospital.

Li Dazhu's family was both surprised and delighted; they never dared to dream of such a stroke of good fortune.

"This... Doctor, we don't have anything good..." Li Dazhu's face turned purple, and he rushed out of the ward. A moment later, he ran back carrying a large woven bag.

As soon as the bag was untied, a jet-black hen with a bright red comb popped its head out with a "flutter." The hen's wings were tightly bound with straw, and its feet were tied with red ribbons. Its big, beady eyes were fixed on Ye Zhen.

"Doctor! This is a three-year-old speckled hen from my family. It lays a double-yolk egg every day, without fail!" The old woman insisted on shoving the chicken into Ye Zhen's arms. "Take this home and nourish yourself. You're so thin. This chicken is rich in fat; it's the most nutritious!"

Everyone in the ward held their breath; in the 80s, this scene represented the deepest sentiment.

Ye Zhen stared at the pointed mouth that was almost touching her nose and remained silent for two seconds.

"Take it back." Ye Zhen's voice returned to its cold indifference. "The rooster's crowing is too noisy and will interfere with the surgeon's hearing. I need absolute silence."

The old woman looked bewildered: "Huh?"

Ye Zhen didn't explain. She bent down and picked out the largest dark-colored pecan from the basket next to her, then put it into the pocket of her white coat.

"Walnuts are good for the brain, improve memory, and are beneficial for high-intensity brain function," Ye Zhen said calmly. "I'll accept this gift. Take the chicken."

The reason was so compelling that no one could refute it. Hu Dazhi was trying so hard not to laugh that his stomach hurt—this Dr. Ye really didn't have a shred of temper.

That afternoon, the wooden door to the archives was almost worn down by the crowd.

Ye Zhen had intended to use the excuse of "seeking peace and quiet" to organize her list of commonly used medicines from the 1980s in that small, two-meter-wide cubicle. However, she clearly underestimated the uproar that the "bone-drilling and bloodletting" surgery had caused at the county hospital.

Outside the crack in the door, a row of breaths could be heard, each held in its own accord.

"Knock knock".

This time, it was Old Wang from the internal medicine department who knocked on the door. He was almost fifty years old this year, clutching a crumpled X-ray film in his hand, looking as anxious as a student waiting for his report card.

"Dr. Ye, busy?" Old Wang pushed open the door and poked half his body in, his face full of wrinkles from smiling, holding a box of Hongmei cigarettes he had just bought from the supply and marketing cooperative.

Ye Zhen didn't look up; the nib of her pen slid across the paper, making a scratching sound.

"Take away the cigarettes, no fires allowed in the archives. Put the film away."

Old Wang chuckled, quickly put away his cigarette, and respectfully placed the film on the table.

"It's an emergency. The patient was brought in last night, saying there was something stuck in his throat and it hurt terribly to swallow. We did a barium meal, but the scan was... as clean as if it had been washed, we couldn't see anything. The head doctor said it was psychological and told him to go home and rest."

Ye Zhen put down her pen, picked up the dark film with her fingertips, and waved it in the morning light streaming through the window.

In the film, the esophagus was filled with barium, making it appear completely white, and no obvious foreign object could be seen.

A few young internal medicine doctors were huddled by the door, whispering, "They've already done the barium meal, and Dean Zhao personally reviewed the scans. What could be wrong?"

"Barium cannot hold the barbs."

Ye Zhen's voice suddenly rang out, carrying a cold quality.

She extended her long, slender, jade-like fingers, and traced a circle with the tip of her nail along the edge of an extremely subtle shadow at the entrance of her esophagus.

"The soft tissue shadow here is incorrect. A normal person's tracheal space would not have such a slight curvature after being compressed. This is a fish bone that has completely embedded itself in the esophageal wall and may even have touched the thyroid cartilage."

Old Wang was dumbfounded. He leaned closer to look, practically pressing his eye against the film, and only then could he see a tiny, almost negligible, dark color at the edge of the white barium.

"You...you can tell from that?"

"This is basic skill." Ye Zhen put down the film, her tone as calm as if she were saying "one plus one equals two." "Barium will cover up tiny foreign objects and conceal the truth. This location can be removed by an ENT specialist using a laryngoscope."

Old Wang was overjoyed and ran off with the film in a flash.

The line outside the archives didn't disperse; in fact, it grew even longer. Not only internal medicine doctors, but orthopedic surgeons even brought a stretcher and blocked the road.

"Teacher Ye, could you please take a look at this patient?" Dr. Liu from the orthopedics department quickly changed his address, even calling him "teacher."

A middle-aged man lay on the stretcher, sweating profusely from the pain, groaning, "My back... my back is broken..."

Dr. Liu lowered his voice: "A classic case of lumbar disc herniation. We tried traction, but it didn't work, so we recommended surgery. But this patient's family runs a trucking business; they can't eat without the steering wheel, so he absolutely refuses to have surgery."

Ye Zhen stood up from behind her desk, walked around a pile of old and worn-out files, and went to the stretcher.

She didn't look at the thick medical records or touch the lumbar spine; instead, she stared at the patient's feet for a while.

"Get out of bed and walk a few steps."

"Teacher Ye, he's in so much pain..."

"Get down to the ground," Ye Zhen repeated, leaving no room for argument.

The patient gritted his teeth and stood up with the help of two nurses. The moment his left foot touched the ground, he instinctively tiptoed, and his body lurched to the right.

"No surgery needed." Ye Zhen glanced at it only once before turning back to her desk. "It's not a problem with my lumbar spine either."

Dr. Liu was taken aback: "Not the lumbar spine? His symptoms—leg numbness and lower back pain—are all signs of nerve compression!"

"His gait is wrong." Ye Zhen picked up a red and green ink pen and casually sketched a fan-shaped muscle structure on the paper. "People with herniated lumbar discs tend to shift their center of gravity to the affected side when walking to compensate. He was just tiptoeing to avoid the pressure on the greater sciatic foramen. This is piriformis syndrome, where a muscle spasm is blocking a nerve. This kind of misdiagnosis should be quite common here."

"Piriformis muscle?" Dr. Liu was completely bewildered. At that time, the county hospital's anatomy was still focused on bones and a few large muscles; these deep, small muscles were rarely studied.

"Lie down. Internally rotate the affected lower limb."

The patient did as instructed, but before he was even halfway through the procedure, he let out a scream: "It hurts! Right here! It feels like I'm being electrocuted!"

"Verification complete." Ye Zhen sat back down in her chair. "Go to the pharmacy and get two milliliters of procaine. Give me a nerve block injection, and I can go back to driving in three days. Why bother with surgery? It's a waste of anesthesia."

The doctors who had been watching exchanged bewildered glances. Had she seen through the "stubborn problem" that had plagued the orthopedics department for a whole week in a single moment?

At this moment, Hu Dazhi arrived at the door. Behind him followed an old soldier who was limping.

"Dr. Ye, I'm so sorry to disturb your rest," Hu Dazhi said. "This old man's leg has had countless X-rays taken in the provincial capital, and they all say the bones are fine, but he's in so much pain he can't walk. Could you take a look?"

Ye Zhen glanced at the old soldier. The old soldier was wearing an old military uniform, and although he was limping, his spine was still straight.

"Take off your shoes."