Medical Aid

Xu Yaqing’s background check this time was mainly to accompany the medical aid team from the Gland Department of Capital Second Hospital to remote regions for medical assistance.

The Gland Departments of Capital Second Hospital and the Provincial Hospital were both famous departments dedicated to studying gland diseases. The Second Hospital focused primarily on genetics and was leading the country in fetal gland genetic testing, while the Provincial Hospital was stronger in treating difficult and complicated gland disorders.

Glands had only appeared in the course of human evolution a short time ago; in total, they had existed for just over a hundred years. Some remote areas had low levels of education and lacked medical resources, so they did not place much importance on glands, and gland diseases often threatened lives and health.

Major hospitals all had their own medical aid teams. Hua Yu went out every year with the Provincial Hospital’s team, but this year the Provincial Hospital’s aid work had already ended. If Xu Yaqing wanted to investigate, she could only follow the Second Hospital team.

“Didn’t I say there was no need to be so polite?” Xu Yaqing had a strip of white cloth wrapped around her head. Braving the raging wind and sand, she knocked on the car window and said, “I can contribute to the medical aid team’s funding.”

Yu Tiantian sat in a sturdy jeep. The window cracked open a little at Xu Yaqing’s knock, and through that gap she smiled at her. “It’s all already been arranged. We didn’t know you were coming in advance, or we definitely would have left you a chance to show off.”

“What bad timing,” Xu Yaqing said, pretending not to hear the insinuation in her words. “But I can help with the work. I won’t take money; I can contribute labor.”

Yu Tiantian nodded with a smile. “Suit yourself.”

With that, the last crack in the car window snapped shut again.

Xu Yaqing turned around and snorted. Under the blazing sun, she went to help carry the medical equipment.

“Dr. Zhang, don’t do it yourself,” Xu Yaqing called when she saw something and rushed over in a few quick strides. “I’ll carry it!”

Zhang Rong smiled and did not insist. She put down the detector in her hand, wiped the sweat from her forehead, and said, “There are too few people in the hospital. Thank you for making the trip with us.”

“Don’t be so polite with me,” Xu Yaqing said as she lifted the instrument, and on the way she even picked up Zhang Rong’s bag before heading out of the Gobi. “When I came, my cousin gave me a long lecture and especially emphasized that I had to listen to Dr. Zhang. From now on, for menial tasks like carrying things, just boss me around.”

Zhang Rong’s eyes curved with amusement, and she did not stand on ceremony with her either. She said plainly, “Then thank you. I really can’t carry it.”

She was six years older than Xu Yaqing in nominal age. An omega and one of Hua Yu’s senior schoolmates, she had not dealt much with complicated interpersonal matters because she was devoted to academia. She had a certain straightforward kindness, the heart of a healer, and her face looked much younger than others her age; she did not look at all like someone already in her thirties.

In Xu Yaqing’s eyes, doctors like her were cultured people who couldn’t lift or carry heavy things, precious and delicate. How could they be expected to do this sort of rough work?

“Your hands are treasures; keep them for surgery,” Xu Yaqing said. “Are there a lot of surgeries at the Second Hospital lately?”

Zhang Rong smiled with her eyes. “Hua Yu does more surgeries. I specialize in genetics. I came this time to do fetal genetic screening for pregnant women, and incidentally treat some simple gland conditions.”

“Oh right, my brain,” Xu Yaqing paused. “Sorry, I don’t understand any of this.”

In Xu Yaqing’s eyes, having a gland disease and having a problem with gland genes were basically the same thing. She only had the most basic knowledge in this area.

“It’s not complicated,” Zhang Rong said, following behind Xu Yaqing and looking at her earnestly. “It’s pretty easy to understand.”

Xu Yaqing had not expected her to explain it to her. She paused. “Really? I feel like my brain probably isn’t enough.”

Zhang Rong shook her head. “It’s simple. I’ll explain it to you.”

Along the way, Zhang Rong talked about some basic gland knowledge, focusing especially on her and Hua Yu’s research directions. “Generally speaking, medical research and practice on glands come down to these two areas. Hua Yu and I could be said to be walking different roads toward the same destination, or the same road leading to different ends.”

From kindergarten onward, Xu Yaqing had been a capital-S failure in academic subjects. She knew her brain wasn’t enough, so in her heart she always unconsciously respected and trusted people like Hua Yu and Zhang Rong.

She had originally thought she would not understand these professional topics, but Zhang Rong’s examples were simple, clear, and easy to grasp; she explained things from the shallow end to the deep end. Before long, Xu Yaqing was completely engrossed, and by the end she already had a basic framework and impression of gland medicine.

“It’s getting late. I’m starting the consultations now,” Zhang Rong said, standing outside a small dirt house being used as an exam room. “Do whatever you want.”

“Okay. I’ll stay here; call me if you need anything.”

Zhang Rong was the main physician for this medical aid trip. Every day she had more patients than she could see, and once she got busy, she had no time to think about anything else.

While Xu Yaqing visited the pastoral households and investigated the public acceptance of Yu Tiantian’s three projects, she also kept worrying about whether Zhang Rong had eaten, whether she was having trouble with daily living, and whether anything needed coordination. She ran back and forth between both sides.

The people from Yu Tiantian’s company were investigating roughly the same things as Xu Yaqing, but the two groups never acted together. Occasionally, when they ran into Yu Tiantian at the inn, she would ask about progress in a perfunctory way. Xu Yaqing would always laugh and gloss over it. “I’m only one person. How could I possibly outrun an entire team of investigators like yours?”

Yu Tiantian would then sigh, invite Xu Yaqing to join them, and promise that they could share materials. After Xu Yaqing turned her down, she would leave satisfied.

Not long after, Li Leran arrived too.

She was as delicate as Yu Tiantian, if not more so. As the team leader, Yu Tiantian would occasionally show her face when the weather and her mood were good, building a bit of presence, and she would also direct project progress from inside the room.

Li Leran got off the car and went into the inn, and then never came out.

After five straight days of medical aid, Xu Yaqing arranged for a pile of food to be transported from a nearby city and treated everyone in the department to a meal.

“Dr. Zhang, you should really get some rest. You haven’t slept well these past few days, have you?” Xu Yaqing handed Zhang Rong a bottle of milk and sat down beside her.

Tonight the wild wind had gone gentle, and the night sky was clear. They sat on a big stone at the edge of the village, enjoying the moon.

Beside them was an open flat stretch of ground, where a group of medical staff and company employees were having a barbecue gathering.

Zhang Rong looked up at the night sky, her expression calm and warm. “There are patients every day who don’t even get a number.”

Xu Yaqing said yes, but still advised her, “You can’t see every patient. Your body isn’t made of iron. First you need to take care of yourself. These past few days, you haven’t been off work before ten, have you?”

“Do you know,” Zhang Rong said, turning her head and lowering her voice, “when I get off work and push open the door, there’s always a row of patients waiting outside who haven’t gotten a number yet. Some of them came from very far up in the mountains; some are holding children and carrying bedding. The expressions on their faces are all the same: hope, longing, timidity, and suffering. Every time, I tell them to wait for me tomorrow, to definitely wait for me. I’ll be here at six. But when I look again the next day, there are always people who’ve left.”

“Maybe among them are people who’ve been tormented by illness for years, so long that they’ve come to think pain is normal. They finally gather a little courage and want to treat themselves, to make plans for themselves for once. When they hear there’s medical aid, they come. But if they can’t get a number, that bit of courage dissipates in the misery of everyday life. Then they leave; they trek home in the middle of some night, and spend the rest of their lives continuing to endure the pain. Suffering and suffering, and before they know it, their whole life is gone.”

Xu Yaqing listened silently and did not interrupt. After Zhang Rong finished, Xu Yaqing thought for a moment, then laughed brightly. “What’s so hard about that? Everyone who comes here is registered; name, address, contact information. If they didn’t get called, just check the records and you’ll know. I’ll get a list of these people and make a trip. Wouldn’t that solve it?”

Zhang Rong froze. “You’d make a trip?”

Xu Yaqing put her hands behind her head and leaned back against the stone, smiling faintly. “Yeah. I’m going to be staying here for a while anyway. It’s just that I can’t examine patients, so I’ll video call you then. Remote consultations—Dr. Zhang, don’t get annoyed with me.”

“Okay. That’s very good, that’s wonderful. I won’t be annoyed,” Zhang Rong said immediately, saying several rounds of “okay” before pausing. “But would that… be too much trouble for you?”

“It’s not trouble. I’ll be doing household visits for the survey anyway; we each get what we need,” Xu Yaqing said with a smile. “It’s just that a simple consultation can’t solve everything. The follow-up medical conditions here still need to keep up. Take the simplest example: prenatal checkups, blood tests, and testing the baby’s gland levels—none of that can be done here.”

Zhang Rong nodded along. “You’re right. People’s thinking needs to catch up, and medical resources do too. But through video consultations, I can usually get a good idea of most conditions. If there are truly difficult and complicated cases, I can also suggest they go to the provincial capital for treatment.”

Xu Yaqing smiled at her. “Mm. In that case, Dr. Zhang can rest easy?”

Zhang Rong nodded, then felt a little embarrassed. “Though I’ve seen all kinds of patients, people who can come to Capital Second Hospital to register can at least receive decent treatment. Every time I see people who can’t get care during medical aid trips, I end up saying things like this… Don’t laugh at me.”

“No, no,” Xu Yaqing said immediately, serious. “Having a healer’s compassion is a wonderful thing. These past few days you’ve been working overtime, writing reports, applying for supplies on their behalf, and when you get back you’ll still have to be bothered by my video calls. This isn’t just a few casual comments. As the saying goes, judge a gentleman by his deeds; is that how it goes? With such a good doctor as Dr. Zhang, if it were me, I wouldn’t be done admiring you yet. How could I laugh at you?”

Zhang Rong felt embarrassed hearing this; the praise was far too much. But Xu Yaqing sounded sincere, and Zhang Rong couldn’t bring herself to brush it off with modest little evasions. That would have been too polished, too perfunctory.

So after thinking for a long time, she remembered what Xu Yaqing had been busy with these past few days and asked, “You’ve been saying you’re out here doing a survey. What kind of survey?”

At the question, Xu Yaqing scratched her head awkwardly. “It’s the same as the company’s—about those three projects. A household gland detector, a medical heat-relief device, and a medical laser massage device.”

“You’re doing the same survey as the company?” A look of confusion flashed through Zhang Rong’s eyes, and then she seemed to understand something. She smiled. “Then what did you find?”

Xu Yaqing rolled over and sighed with a troubled face. “I wrote a whole pile of survey reports and planned to take them back for Hua Yu to decide. As for my own opinion… forget it, I won’t say it.”

Zhang Rong looked down at her, her voice gentle and pleasant in the cool night air. “Tell me.”

“Fine, I’ll say it,” Xu Yaqing sat up with a sudden spring, blurting out, “I think none of them are reliable. I don’t know what Hua Yu is thinking. Yu Tiantian wanted to bring her in as a shareholder and use her connections to make this happen; how does Hua Yu not see that?”

Zhang Rong gave a soft laugh. She did not comment on Hua Yu. She only said, “I’ve looked over those three projects. If you’re going to do any of them, my advice is: the third one absolutely should not be done.”

“Laser massage?” Xu Yaqing thought about it. “Why?”

She thought the three projects were unreliable based on a simple market instinct.

Glands were such sensitive, precious things; even the smallest technical improvement had to go through countless clinical trials. The cycle was long, and safety had to come first.

A gland detector, a heat-relief device, and a laser massage device all sounded either useless or unsafe.

She had not expected Zhang Rong to single out the laser massage device.

“Different wavelengths of laser have different effects on the human body, but without exception, they can easily cause disorders in the immune system,” Zhang Rong said lightly. “Even if there are safety tests, there’s no way to guarantee the safety rate. This is a technology that has to be matured through massive amounts of data.”

“Okay,” Xu Yaqing said; she did not understand the specifics, but she could still tell that Zhang Rong was implying the technology was not easy to mature. “I’ll tell Hua Yu.”

After finishing her bottle of milk, Zhang Rong stood up and walked back toward the inn with the wind at her back. She tilted her head and smiled at Xu Yaqing. “We’re heading back tomorrow. Go to bed early, Yaqing.”

When Xu Yaqing saw Zhang Rong’s smile, she felt a little dazed, and the corners of her mouth curved up unconsciously. “Okay. Good night.”

-

Inside the inn, Li Leran looked shocked, certain she had heard wrong.

“You want me to go ask Xu Yaqing for information?”

Yu Tiantian sat upright on the sofa, her expression sincere. “Leran, these three projects are very important to me. I’m not at ease with Xu Yaqing following us. She’s also close with the people from the Second Hospital. I had the company staff interact more with the medical staff from the Second Hospital, but no matter how much they mixed, they still didn’t get very familiar. If I don’t know her investigation results, I can’t stop worrying.”

“Well then you shouldn’t have let her come along in the first place,” Li Leran said, baffled. “You invested money in this medical aid trip, right? Bringing someone or not is just a matter of one sentence.”

“You don’t understand all these twists and turns,” Yu Tiantian sighed. “Hua Yu’s parents have a lot of standing in the medical field. If she wants to put someone in, then let alone me contributing only part of the funding; even if I funded the whole thing, even doubled it, I still wouldn’t be able to decide.”

If this had been before, Li Leran might have been shaken. But just recently Xu Yaqing had come to her door and threatened her. If Yu Tiantian hadn’t called her over under the name of “travel and fun,” and hadn’t informed her in advance that Xu Yaqing was here too, she would never have come.

She had met Xu Yaqing on the very first day, and the fright had kept her from going out these past few days.

“She’s only one person; let her investigate then,” Li Leran said, her whole body radiating resistance. “What could a top failure like her even find out? I don’t want to see her.”

Yu Tiantian’s face darkened for a moment. Then she controlled her expression and forced out a bitter smile. “These past few days she’s been getting close to Zhang Rong from the Provincial Hospital, and she’s been running outside all the time. Who knows whether Hua Yu has linked her up with other people to help. Leran, these three projects are all my life’s work. Please, just help me, don’t let all these years of effort go to waste, okay? I’m begging you.”

“Why are you begging me for this…” Li Leran leaned back, her expression full of discomfort as well. “My relationship with her isn’t good; you know that.”

Yu Tiantian stared at her. “It’s fine. Xu Yaqing doesn’t strike people who smile. Weren’t you two on pretty good terms before? If you go find her, she’ll definitely remember the old days.”

Li Leran really couldn’t refuse any longer and reluctantly agreed. “Fine, but let me say this first: I can’t guarantee I’ll get anything out of her. And if Xu Yaqing… if she lays a hand on me, you have to back me up.”

Yu Tiantian immediately showed a pleased expression. “Mm, I will.”

Li Leran went out with a face full of misery, while Yu Tiantian shut the door behind her. The expression on her face vanished at once.

Her phone chimed; it was a message from her college class monitor, saying that Wei Yin had definitely confirmed she would attend the class reunion.

Yu Tiantian replied expressionlessly, “Thanks. I’ll treat you to a meal next time.”

She stared at the words on the screen with a look almost sharp with spite, and a calculating light flashed through her eyes.