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

Lin Wan rushed out of the large tent in the backyard of the main hospital, the cold wind of the early spring night hitting her face. The overwhelming applause penetrated the thick canvas and followed her heels, like hundreds and thousands of loud slaps hitting her cheeks one after another.

She ran back along the cinder-strewn dirt road in the residential compound, wearing her mid-heeled black leather shoes. She tripped and fell, the tip of her shoe hitting a half-brick, the pain bringing tears streaming down her face. Ignoring the dust on her trousers, she ran crying all the way back to the Lin family's two-story red brick house.

When she pushed open the green-painted wooden door, the light in the living room was so bright that she had to close her eyes. Zhao Shuya was sitting on the fabric sofa, holding two bamboo knitting needles, knitting a crimson wool vest. Lin Weiguo, wearing his casual navy blue Zhongshan suit and reading glasses, sat on the opposite armchair, flipping through the day's "Reference News," a cup of steaming jasmine tea on the small coffee table to his right.

"I quit!" Lin Wan slammed her newly bought canvas handbag onto the floor. The small round mirror inside the bag hit the terrazzo floor with a dull thud.

Zhao Shuya's knitting needles froze in mid-air, a piece of red yarn slipping down. She quickly put her work on the sofa armrest and got up to greet her. "What happened? Why are you crying like this?" She took out a handkerchief to wipe Lin Wan's tears.

Lin Wan shoved Zhao Shuya's hand away, her chest heaving, her nails digging deep into her palm. "That lousy office is no place for a human being! Ye Zhen is deliberately tormenting me! She dumps the hardest work on me, making me answer calls from people who don't understand the local dialect. I can't even read all the words on those letters from those remote, impoverished areas, and she just lets those two women ostracize and insult me!"

"Outrageous!" Zhao Shuya's anger flared up immediately upon hearing this. She turned to her husband, who sat silently on the single sofa. "Old Lin, listen to this! That girl has grown up and doesn't know who she's dealing with anymore. We've supported her for eighteen years in the Lin family, and she acts like she owns the place, making things difficult for Wanwan in the office. You're the vice president, and she's trampling your dignity into the ground!"

Lin Weiguo put down the newspaper, took off his reading glasses, and threw them on the coffee table. He didn't yell at Ye Zhen, but instead stared intently at Lin Wan with an extremely gloomy gaze.

"You still have the nerve to mention that office?" Lin Weiguo stood up and walked up to Lin Wan. He pointed at Lin Wan's nose, his voice low and strained, filled with a harsh disappointment, "You can't do your job well, and you still have the nerve to come back and cry?"

"Dad... I'm your own daughter! You won't help me, you'll help an outsider!" Lin Wan shrieked. "That job is inhuman! Why should I suffer that kind of humiliation? I'm not going! I'd rather die than go! I'm going to Zhou Hai's place to resign tomorrow!"

"Snapped!"

A crisp, loud slap echoed in the living room.

Lin Wan turned her face to one side, and five bright red finger marks quickly appeared on her fair cheek. She covered her face, frozen in place, her ears ringing.

"Old Lin! Are you crazy!" Zhao Shuya screamed and rushed forward, shielding Lin Wan behind her. She glared at Lin Weiguo like a mother hen protecting her chicks. "Why are you hitting the child! Wanwan suffered injustice outside, and instead of seeking justice for her father, you're taking it out on your own daughter!"

Lin Weiguo's finger trembled as he pointed at the mother and daughter. He was breathing heavily, his eyes bloodshot. "I took my anger out on her? Do you know that this morning, I went to Zhou Hai to demand an explanation for her, and I almost got myself skinned alive!"

He turned around, picked up the enamel mug on the coffee table, and took a big gulp of cold tea, using the coolness to suppress the anger in his heart.

"Wanwan keeps saying that Ye Zhen hired two idle young men to ostracize her. Idle young men?" Lin Weiguo sneered, his laughter sounding somewhat eerie in the empty living room. "That Zhao Lanlan, her father is the political commissar of the Southern Military Region. And that Gu Yue, she's Commander Gu Jianguo's daughter! These two pampered young ladies, raised with the utmost care by the families of military region leaders, sit in that office without even heating, working from dawn till dusk opening mail and answering phone calls, even eating their lunch on the table."

Zhao Shuya's mouth gaped open, all color draining from her face. She stammered, "You...what did you say? That's the chief's daughter? How could Ye Zhen possibly command someone like that..."

"They're after Ye Zhen's skills! In the entire medical system now, who doesn't know that 'Heart of China' is a key project registered with the Ministry of Health? It's a gold mine that can yield astonishing political achievements!" Lin Weiguo slammed his knuckles on the table. "I shamelessly squeezed Lin Wan in, barely managing to secure a spot. As long as she stays in this office for a year, when the project concludes and awards are given, it will be a significant achievement on her resume. Whether she gets into a government agency or transfers to the Health Bureau, it will be the most solid stepping stone."

Lin Weiguo turned his head and looked at his daughter, who was covering her face and sobbing softly.

"You're threatening to resign? How am I supposed to save face? What will Zhou Hai think of me? What will those chief physicians in the hospital, who're all waiting to see the Lin family make a fool of themselves, think of me? I practically forced you in here the day before, and you're already backing out the next day? Do you think I, Lin Weiguo, am some kind of performer at the Beicheng Military Region General Hospital?!"

Lin Wan cried until she couldn't breathe. Of course, she wanted that impressive resume, she wanted to be able to hold her head high in front of others in the future. But the thought of those endless phone calls in dialect in that office terrified her.

"But I really can't do those jobs..." Lin Wan's voice weakened, pleading. "All those forms they fill out every day, things like ventricular septal defect, cyanosis, I don't even recognize the words. If I answer the wrong phone, they look down on me..."

Looking at his daughter's hopeless state, Lin Weiguo took a few deep breaths. He paced back and forth in the living room, his leather shoes making a dull thud on the terrazzo floor. Weighing the pros and cons, Lin Wan's spot absolutely could not be lost. Not only for Lin Wan's future prospects, but also to prove that his words still carried weight in the main hospital.

"If you can't do triage or mail opening, then do something else. As long as you're still on the payroll for that office, it's not a loss." Lin Weiguo stopped and put his hands behind his back.

Zhao Shuya cautiously interjected, "But... that brat Ye Zhen is impervious to both soft and hard approaches. Would she agree to let Wanwan find an easier job?"

"Sigh!" Lin Weiguo sighed deeply, "It seems I have no choice but to swallow my pride and beg her in person."

Lin Weiguo turned to look at Zhao Shuya.

"Go and find that box of Wuyi Mountain Da Hong Pao tea that your father left behind. I'll bring it to the outpatient building first thing tomorrow morning."