Sent to the countryside, I turned the health center into a top-tier hospital.

Hearing footsteps approaching, the couple looked up sharply and were stunned when they saw that it was Chen Ping. They quickly got up to greet him.

"Dr. Chen! What brings you here?"

The girl's father's voice was hoarse and dry, with an undisguised tremor.

"I happened to be in the city, so I stopped by to see the kids."

Seeing their haggard appearance, Chen Ping's heart sank slightly. He asked softly, "How is the child now?"

Mentioning her daughter, the girl's mother's eyes instantly reddened, and she nodded, forcing back tears: "Much better, Dr. Chen. Her life has been saved. She's been transferred out of the ICU for three days and has woken up, but... but she just won't speak."

"No matter how we called her or talked to her, she didn't respond. Her eyes were just staring straight at the ceiling, and she rarely even blinked."

Upon hearing this, Chen Ping felt a heavy weight in his heart.

Physical wounds can be healed with medicine, but psychological wounds are the hardest to heal.

"I'll go in and check on her."

The couple quickly stepped aside to make way and carefully led Chen Ping into the ward.

Lin Xiaoran stood quietly at the door, not following them in, considerately leaving them some space to be alone.

The ward was quiet, with the rhythmic beeping of the medical equipment echoing softly.

The girl lay flat on the hospital bed, her face so pale it was almost transparent. She was connected to a simple monitoring device, and her eyes were wide open, staring blankly at the ceiling.

Those once clear and lively eyes are now devoid of any sparkle, like a lifeless, dry well, utterly still.

He would only blink mechanically after a long while, his whole being like a puppet that had lost its soul.

Chen Ping walked slowly to the bedside, bent down to carefully observe her complexion and pupils, then raised his hand to gently touch her forehead and examine her eyelids.

His physical functions are indeed steadily recovering, and his external injuries are slowly healing, but his mental state is extremely poor.

This is a typical case of severe post-traumatic stress disorder, where the individual completely shuts themselves off and refuses to communicate with the outside world.

He sighed softly, straightened up, looked at the couple behind him, and said in a solemn tone, "The physical recovery is good, but the psychological trauma is too severe. Psychological intervention is necessary to help them heal gradually. We can't rush it."

The couple nodded vigorously, tears finally streaming down their faces, but dared not utter a sound of sobbing, for fear of disturbing their daughter in bed.

Chen Ping paused for two seconds, suppressing the bitterness in his heart, and asked, "Has the police opened a case? Have the people who bullied her been caught?"

The moment those words were spoken, the ward fell into complete silence.

The couple, who had been forcing themselves to stay composed, froze simultaneously. They exchanged a glance, then both lowered their heads, their faces filled with helplessness and humiliation. Neither dared to utter a word.

The cold light from the corridor fell on their gray hair, both glaring and heartbreaking.

Chen Ping's heart tightened, sensing something was wrong, and his tone became more serious: "What exactly happened? Speak up."

After a long silence, the girl's father finally raised his head, his eyes bloodshot, his voice hoarse as if sandpaper had been rubbed against them: "Dr. Chen...we...we've dropped the case."

"Withdraw the case?"

Chen Ping's pupils suddenly contracted, and he froze for a moment. Then, a surge of overwhelming anger welled up from the bottom of his heart and rushed to the top of his head. His tone suddenly became sharp, "Why was the case dropped?!"

"The child was clearly driven to suicide by long-term bullying; the circumstances may even have been that he was forced to push him. The nature of the crime was so heinous, how can you just back down like that?!"

He simply couldn't understand it.

A precious human life, a child's life, was almost completely ruined.

The perpetrators are at large, the victims lie in hospital beds like puppets, and in the end, the victims' families take the initiative to withdraw the case?

Faced with Chen Ping's questioning, the girl's father's face was full of bitterness, his shoulders trembled slightly, and every word he uttered revealed the humility and despair of an adult: "Dr. Chen, we didn't want to either... we were forced."

"The child's serious injury, the surgery, monitoring, rehabilitation, and medical expenses are astronomical."

"We are just ordinary workers with meager savings. We've already exhausted our resources and borrowed money everywhere, but we still can't afford the follow-up treatment."

"The school has told us that as long as we insist on investigating the students who bullied us and holding the school accountable for its supervision, the school will not bear any of the subsequent medical and rehabilitation expenses and will completely wash its hands of the matter."

"But if we drop the case, stop pursuing it, and stop causing trouble, the school will cover all treatment costs in full and will also be responsible for the child's subsequent rehabilitation and school transfer."

As he said this, his throat tightened, his eyes reddened, and he was filled with helpless guilt: "We can't do anything, Dr. Chen."

"Seeing our child lying in the hospital bed every day, needing long-term treatment and rehabilitation, and we can't afford it, are we really just going to watch her stop medication and give up treatment because we can't afford it?"

"We'd rather suffer in silence and swallow our anger than let our child go without treatment and suffer in vain..."

The mother beside her was already sobbing uncontrollably, covering her mouth and weeping, but she didn't dare to let out a sound.

"When the child woke up and learned that we had dropped the case and would not pursue those people, he was stunned on the spot."

"From that day on, I never spoke another word. I just lay there with my eyes open, completely still..."

"She hates us, she hates this world, and she hates those who bullied her, but she can't do anything about it, and neither can we..."

Every word was like a boulder crashing down on Chen Ping's heart.

An overwhelming sense of anger, frustration, and powerlessness instantly swept over him.

He had practiced medicine for many years and witnessed countless deaths and separations, as well as countless human sufferings, but he had never been so enraged as he was now.

It felt like a raging fire was burning inside his chest, causing his internal organs to ache.

It is clearly the perpetrators' fault, clearly school bullying and dereliction of duty, yet in the end, it is the children who have suffered so much and the most innocent parents who have to pay the price, compromise, and swallow their anger.

The perpetrators remain unharmed, continuing their studies and lives, while the victims are left lying in hospital beds, physically and mentally scarred.

They were forced to swallow all their grievances and couldn't even get a word of justice.

It's ridiculous.

It's so absurd it drives you crazy.

Chen Ping's chest heaved violently, his face turned ashen, his fists clenched tightly, and his whole body exuded an extreme, suppressed rage, as if he was about to explode on the spot at any moment.

Standing at the door, Lin Xiaoran keenly sensed that he had completely lost control of his emotions.

She had never seen the usually calm and composed Chen Ping reveal such a ferocious and repressed appearance, with his murderous aura almost uncontrollable.

Her heart tightened, and without thinking, she quickly stepped forward, grabbed Chen Ping's arm tightly, and gripped it firmly with her fingertips.

She leaned against Chen Ping, her voice very low, "Chen Ping, don't get agitated, this is a hospital room, calm down."

"Getting angry now won't solve anything; it will only create more trouble."

The warm touch traveled up his arm, a gentle yet powerful pull that instantly brought Chen Ping back to his senses, which were on the verge of losing control.