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

Ye Zhen stood by the earthen bed, her gaze falling on Old Liu's belly, which was swollen like that of a pregnant woman.

His skin was stretched so thin it shone, and you could even see the bulging, bluish veins underneath, like greedy nets tightly strangling the old man's life.

"Director Yan."

Ye Zhen's voice was very soft, but it shattered all the illusions in the room.

"Late-stage cirrhosis, portal hypertension, massive ascites, severe hypoalbuminemia, and multiple organ failure."

She turned her head, her clear, cold eyes showing no evasion, only an almost cruel honesty.

"Even a god couldn't save him."

The air seemed to have been sucked out instantly.

Yan Hua swayed and steadied himself against the dusty doorframe. Zhao Haifeng sighed deeply and turned his head away.

The woman who had been sitting blankly on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed) didn't even raise her head when she heard this.

They probably already knew.

In this village, getting this disease is like waiting to die. Getting it sooner or later just means suffering a few more days.

"but……"

Ye Zhen suddenly changed the subject.

She ignored the dejected adults and instead focused her gaze on the little girl huddled in the corner, secretly licking the candy wrapper with her tongue.

"It can alleviate some of his pain."

Ye Zhen reached into her portable medical kit.

A soft "click" sounded.

That was the sound of a metal latch popping open, sounding particularly crisp in the deathly silent earthen house.

She took out a sealed puncture kit, a bottle of iodine, and a pair of sterile gloves.

The pristine white packaging bag and amber-colored medicine formed a stark contrast with the surrounding blackened walls and greasy bedding.

Ye Zhen tore open the glove packaging, her slender fingers skillfully sliding into the latex gloves.

She had done this action countless times.

Whether in Harvard’s top-notch sterile operating room or in this mud-brick house filled with the smell of urine and decay, her movements carried an almost sacred sense of ritual.

She walked to the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed) and suddenly stopped.

The little girl stared wide-eyed at the long puncture needle in Ye Zhen's hand.

The needle gleamed coldly and was several centimeters long.

Ye Zhen turned to the side, subtly blocking the little girl's view with her back.

"Turn around."

She spoke to the little girl in a tone that was not harsh, but carried an unquestionable command: "Go count how many strings of chili peppers are hanging on the wall. Don't turn around until you've finished counting."

The little girl was startled, timidly turned around, and actually started counting towards the corner: "One, two..."

Ye Zhen turned her head, her eyes instantly becoming focused.

The left thumb and forefinger are used to stretch the skin of the elderly man's abdomen, while the right hand holds a syringe.

position.

The lower left abdomen, at the junction of the middle and outer thirds of the line connecting the umbilicus and the anterior superior iliac spine.

"Grandpa, it will hurt a little, just bear with it."

Before she could finish speaking, Ye Zhen flicked her wrist with remarkable speed and precision.

Local anesthesia was administered, and then Ye Zhen picked up the puncture needle.

"puff."

The faintest muffled sound was the sound of the needle piercing the taut peritoneum.

Take over, redirect traffic.

The movements were fluid and fast, almost too fast to see clearly.

A murky, pale yellow liquid flowed down the transparent drainage tube and into the old washbasin under the kang (a heated brick bed).

"this……"

Yan Hua covered her mouth.

That's not water.

That was the culprit that weighed on this old man, making him unable to breathe, unable to sleep, and living like a ghost.

As the liquid flowed out, Old Liu's tightly furrowed brows miraculously relaxed.

His rapid, bellows-like breathing gradually subsided.

His cloudy eyes opened slightly, looking at the dark beams above his head. His lips trembled as he exhaled a long, stale breath.

"Ugh...that feels...that feels better..."

The sound was very soft and indistinct.

But to Yan Hua, it sounded like a heavy hammer blow.

This was probably the first time in months that the old man could breathe evenly and that his belly no longer felt like it was about to burst.

I added 600 milliliters.

Ye Zhen closed the adjusting clamp, removed the needle, covered it with gauze, and secured it with adhesive tape.

She took off her gloves and threw them into the yellow trash bag she carried with her, then took out a handkerchief and gently wiped away the cold sweat seeping from the old man's forehead.

"I'm not lying to you."

Ye Zhen leaned down and whispered in the old man's ear, "The illness can't be cured. But we'll leave this tube in. If it feels bloated, we'll let some out. At least you can lie flat and get a good night's sleep."

Two murky tears rolled down Old Liu's cheeks.

It flowed down her deeply lined cheeks and into the dirty pillow.

He struggled to raise his withered hand, as if trying to grab Ye Zhen's sleeve, but it fell limply down halfway up.

That was gratitude.

It is the gratitude of an old farmer who was regarded as a "useless person" and a "plague god" at the end of his life, when he was treated as a "human being".

Yan Hua turned her back and secretly wiped her eyes.

Zhao Haifeng stared at the basin filled with half a basin of yellow water, his throat tightened, and he couldn't utter a single word.

Ye Zhen did not try to be sentimental.

She turned around and took the hand of the taciturn woman.

Those hands were as rough as a file, and there was black dirt under their fingernails.

Ye Zhen didn't find it offensive; she held those hands and placed them on the switch of the drainage tube.

"Watch carefully. Pushing it up turns it on, and pushing it down turns it off."

"Add water every two days, and only 1000 ml each time, about half a basin. Adding too much will cause dizziness and even shock, understand?"

The woman stared blankly at Ye Zhen, then looked at the switch.

"Doctor... thank you..."

The woman's suppressed sobs finally erupted in the dimly lit room.

Ye Zhen didn't try to persuade her.

In situations like this, it's better to let her cry it out than to hold it in.

She quietly packed up her medical kit and took all the medical waste with her.

Before leaving, she took out two "big unity" bills from her pocket.

That's twenty yuan.

In the rural areas of that era, it was enough to feed a family for half a year.

She placed the money under the broken bowl filled with incense ash water on the stove.

Without saying a word, he turned and left.

Outside, the wind was freezing.

The oppressive and stench that filled the room seemed to dissipate somewhat as the cold wind blew in.

Yan Hua walked ahead, trudging through the mud, without saying a word.

She suddenly stopped when she was almost at the jeep at the village entrance.

"Zhao Haifeng".

Yan Hua didn't turn around. His voice was a little hoarse, but it carried a fierce edge. "That report doesn't need your name anymore. Write my name, Yan Hua."

Zhao Haifeng immediately panicked upon hearing this: "Director! This responsibility..."

"It's precisely because the responsibility is so great that I have to shoulder it!"

Yan Hua suddenly turned around, his eyes red-rimmed, and stared at the two of them. "If the province blames us, I, as the bureau chief, will take the fall!"

She pointed to the lifeless village behind her.

"I, Yan Hua, am from Qingyun County. I cannot watch my fellow villagers rot in the mud like livestock!"

After saying that, she turned and got into the car.

"drive."

"rule!"

Yan Hua gritted his teeth and slammed his fist on the car window frame. "We'll sell everything we own to cure this! We'll turn the whole county upside down to get rid of this plague!"

The jeep roared out of the muddy bay, belching out a plume of black smoke.

The wheels crushed the frozen soil, breaking the silence that had gripped the area for over a decade.

A war officially began inside this bumpy jeep.

It was already evening when we got back to the county.

Ye Zhen declined Yan Hua's invitation to dinner and went straight back to her dormitory.

She is so tired.

It's not just physically tiring, but mentally even more exhausting.

Pushing open the door, the room was dark and deserted.

Ye Zhen didn't turn on the light, but threw herself onto the bed without even taking off her shoes.

In the darkness, that familiar feeling of loneliness returned.

She instinctively reached out to touch the headboard.

empty.

There was no warm embrace, nor that roguish "wife."

Ye Zhen turned over and buried her face in the pillow.

Having not slept well for two days, she fell asleep quickly.

The next day, Ye Zhen received an envelope.

The envelope was bulging, with three large characters written on it in a flamboyant and powerful style, exuding an air of arrogant dominance.

"To my daughter-in-law."

Ye Zhen was stunned for a moment, then couldn't help but laugh.

These characters were clearly written by Gu Zheng.

She opened the envelope.

With a "whoosh".

A bunch of colorful tickets fell out.

National grain coupons, cloth coupons, meat coupons... and even a few extremely rare foreign exchange certificates.

Among that pile of tickets and certificates, there was a thin piece of letter paper.

There are only a few lines of text above:

"When you're out and about, don't go hungry."

If anyone bullies you, just say my name.

If I think about you so much I can't sleep...

"You're allowed to look at this photo; it's the most handsome one I've ever taken."

Ye Zhen picked up the black and white photograph.

In the photo, Gu Zheng is wearing a training uniform, standing in front of a tank, smiling broadly, his big white teeth shining in the sunlight.

As she looked at it, Ye Zhen's eyes suddenly welled up with tears.