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

The ward door was ajar.

Zhou Guoan raised his hand and tapped twice lightly.

The door opened from the inside, and the secretary peeked out, giving them both a once-over before frowning slightly. "Who are you looking for?"

Li Shufen quickly forced a fawning smile and handed over the net bag in her hand: "Young comrade, I am Li Shufen from the Finance Department of the Light Industry Bureau. I heard that Director Sun was hospitalized, so I came with my husband, Lao Zhou, to come and see him."

The secretary didn't take the gift, but turned to look at Sun Dechang on the hospital bed.

Sun Dechang leaned against the rocking hospital bed, a thin military green blanket draped over his legs, flipping through a medical science booklet. Hearing the noise, he raised his eyelids, his gaze lingering on Li Shufen's face for a moment, clearly not recognizing her at all.

"From the finance department?"

"Yes, yes, yes! I share an office with Accountant Zhang. Last year at the end of the year, when the bureau distributed those ribbonfish and apples, I even helped you move the cardboard boxes onto the Jeep!"

With a forced smile, Li Shufen took the opportunity to step across the threshold with small, quick steps.

Sun Dechang went through his mind for a moment, and although he had a vague impression of it, or perhaps he couldn't remember it at all, he didn't want to directly offend the old comrade within the system, so he nodded slightly.

"Come in and have a seat."

With the director's words, Li Shufen's courage was completely emboldened. She turned around and pulled Zhou Guoan, and the two of them got close to the hospital bedside.

The secretary pulled out two folding iron pipe chairs next to him.

Li Shufen sat up halfway, straightened her back, and respectfully placed the bright red apples in the net bag on the bedside table.

"Director, these apples were obtained through connections from an orchard in Miyun. They're crisp and sweet; please try them."

Sun Dechang glanced at the apple, politely grunted an "Mmm," and barely moved. He had just suffered a bout of angina and had only recovered after taking a nitroglycerin tablet. His chest still felt slightly tight, and he had absolutely no interest in this kind of ingratiating socializing with low-level employees.

Seeing that the director looked unhappy, Li Shufen figured it was because the poor conditions of the lousy hospital had upset him, so she quickly started talking.

"Director, why did you end up in this hospital? The conditions here are so rudimentary! Look at that, the light bulbs in the corridor are only 25 watts at most, casting a dim, yellowish light. Who are you? Even if you weren't staying in the VIP ward at Peking Union Medical College Hospital, you should at least go to Xuanwu Hospital! This kind of military hospital has inadequate facilities, and the doctors' skills are even worse. When I went upstairs just now, I even saw a puddle of water on the corner of the stairs that no one had wiped up!"

The secretary's hand holding the thermos suddenly paused, her lips moved as if she was about to say something to stop him.

Sun Dechang glanced at Li Shufen with little expression, but remained silent.

Zhou Guoan felt that his wife had laid enough groundwork, so he cleared his throat and followed up on the conversation.

"That's right, Director. You might not believe it, but this hospital not only has terrible conditions, the people there are even more absurd! My son, Zhou Ming, a top student in the clinical medicine department of Peking University, was originally assigned to Xuanwu Hospital for his internship. A perfectly good, secure job, a prestigious reputation, but he was tricked into tearing up his letter of introduction and running off to this military general hospital to work for a female doctor named Ye Zhen!"

He shook his head, his face contorted with deep sorrow.

"My husband and I just came from Heping Alley behind here, and guess what I saw? My son, who's always holding a scalpel, was squatting on the ground nailing a stool to the ground, being treated like a carpenter's apprentice! Chief, what kind of nonsense is this?"

Upon hearing the name "Ye Zhen," a crisp "clang" rang out as the thermos cap in the secretary's hand slammed heavily against the rim of the teacup.

Startled, he looked up sharply, glanced at Sun Dechang, then stared at the Zhou couple as if they were dead, his lips twitching violently.

Li Shufen thought she had hit the nail on the head. As soon as her husband made it clear, she immediately perked up, straightened her back, and raised her voice by half an octave.

"That's right! It's not just our Mingming; dozens of top university students, all promising talents sought after by major hospitals, were all brainwashed and kept by that Ye Zhen with her sweet talk!"

"Chief, you be the judge! What does a young, inexperienced girl know about mentoring students? I think she's just using her smooth talk to prey on college students with no social experience! How is she any different from a charlatan selling quack medicine under a bridge or a swindler who cheats people out of money?"

At the height of her emotion, she slapped her thigh, filled with righteous indignation: "This kind of person's reckless actions will inevitably lead to a major medical accident sooner or later! When that happens, not only will it waste the lives of the university students the country is nurturing, but it will also be a matter of time before human lives are lost!"

The words had barely left his lips.

A deathly silence fell over the small ward.

Two or three seconds later, Sun Dechang slowly closed the booklet he was holding.

He looked down, his gaze falling on the lower left corner of the blue cover. There, neatly printed in small black characters, was: [Editor-in-Chief: Ye Zhen, General Hospital of Beicheng Military Region].

The secretary beside him was deathly pale. The thermos flask froze in mid-air, unsure whether to put it down or not, and a bead of white sweat instantly broke out on his forehead in his anxiety. Behind the director's back, he frantically winked at Li Shufen, his right eyelid blinking wildly as if in a spasm.

But Li Shufen was completely immersed in the excitement of "eliminating harm for the people" and thought her secretary had sand in her eyes.

"So I discussed it with Lao Zhou. Since we're here today, let's find the hospital's leaders and ask Ye Zhen face-to-face why she's holding onto such a valuable national talent! Does she have teaching qualifications? Has she been approved by the Ministry of Education?" The more she spoke, the more convinced she felt she was on the side of justice. "Director, to be fair, shouldn't this lawless black sheep be thoroughly investigated and punished by the higher-ups?"

"Snapped!"

A loud bang.

Sun Dechang slammed his broad palm heavily on the iron pipe rack at the head of the hospital bed, making the enamel water cups on it rattle and clatter. The sound was like a thunderclap in the ward, making everyone's eardrums tingle.

Li Shufen's witty remark, which she hadn't finished, caught in her throat, and her smile froze instantly. Her hand instinctively reached for the edge of the folding chair, but her nails slipped, and she almost fell on her bottom.

Sun Dechang's face, which had been pale, turned bright red, and the hospital gown on his chest heaved violently with his heavy breathing.

He extended his trembling index finger and pointed it at Zhou Guoan and Li Shufen's noses from a distance, his voice being squeezed out one word at a time, bitten through his teeth.

"Shut up."

"Do you two think I, Sun Dechang, am blind, or a fool?!"

Li Shufen was so intimidated by this official's imposing manner that her scalp tingled, her lips trembled, and she shook her head frantically like a rattle-drum. Zhou Guoan gasped, his face turning as white as if smeared with plaster, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down, unable to utter a single word.

The secretary put down the thermos as if granted a pardon, exhaling a long breath of stale air, only then realizing that the back of her shirt was completely soaked.