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

Ye Zhen's fingertip touched the table on the third page.

"A sample of 2,300 people, covering 47 counties, averaging less than 50 people per county. Dean Zhou, do you think this is screening, or just going through the motions?"

Zhou Hai stubbed out his cigarette on the enamel mug lid and, with a sullen face, flipped through the few sheets of calculation paper.

"But this data was submitted by the provincial government. It's not proper for our main hospital to directly question the data from a sister institution."

"The procedure doesn't make sense, but does it make sense for the child to die?"

Ye Zhen's voice was flat, but Zhou Hai could tell there was something tough about it.

He rubbed his temples, pulled an address book out of the drawer, and put his reading glasses on his nose.

"Okay, I'll call the ministry and report the situation to higher authorities."

"Let's fight now."

Zhou Hai glanced at her and picked up the black rotary dial phone on the table.

When the call connected, Vice Minister Li was preparing to leave work.

Zhou Hai briefly explained the situation, and there was a long silence on the other end of the phone.

"Old Zhou, are you sure there's something wrong with this data? Or is it just a difference in calculation methods?"

Zhou Hai handed the receiver towards Ye Zhen, but Ye Zhen didn't take it. Instead, she stood by the desk, pressed the speakerphone button, and her voice came through the receiver clearly.

"Minister Li, it's not a matter of reporting methods. Using the same formula and the same statistical standards, its neighboring province reported a screening rate of 7.6 per thousand, while it reported 0.3 per thousand. A difference of twenty-five times cannot be explained by reporting methods."

There was a few seconds of silence on the other end of the phone.

"Xiao Ye, I understand how you feel, but you also know that the China Heart project has just made a name for itself internationally. Dr. Maheler's annual report even featured our corridor photo on the cover; the whole world is watching. At this critical juncture, if a screening fraud scandal were to break out domestically, it would have a bad impact."

Ye Zhen placed the stack of mimeographed forms on the table, neither too lightly nor too heavily.

"Minister Li, I have a question for you."

"you say."

"Is image more important, or is a child's life more important?"

The breathing on the other end of the phone paused for a beat.

Ye Zhen didn't give him time to process her words and continued speaking.

"What's on the cover of 'Heart of China'? It's a rural mother squatting against a wall, writing the word 'thank you' in chalk. Maheler took that photo not because our corridor is so grand, but because someone in that corridor really pulled a child back from the brink of death."

"If the screening was fake, and children who should have been detected weren't, and lives that should have been saved weren't, then that photo is just a fig leaf. Minister Li, how long do you think this fig leaf can last?"

Zhou Hai stood silently to the side, but secretly he was worried for Vice Minister Li.

The sound of documents being turned over came from the other end of the phone. After a while, Vice Minister Li finally spoke.

"Then what do you suggest we do?"

"Send a review team to conduct an independent investigation; do not let the province conduct its own investigation and rectification."

"Xiao Ye, this matter needs to go through the proper procedures. I'll send an internal inquiry first, asking them to provide supplementary information. We'll review the materials and then decide on the next steps."

"Research?"

"Minister Li, this province reports 0.3 per thousand. Based on the national average, at least 300 to 400 children with congenital heart disease are not registered. Among them, the proportion of severe cases is estimated at 10% to 15%, meaning 40 to 60 children are at risk of complications at any time."

She paused for a moment.

"Minister Li, with forty to sixty lives at stake, how long are you prepared to study this?"

The office was so quiet that the only sound was the pendulum of an old-fashioned wall clock.

The sound of a chair being moved backward came from the other end of the phone, and Vice Minister Li let out a long sigh of relief.

"Alright, I'll lead the team down myself."

"I'll go too."

"You went?" Vice Minister Li's voice rose a beat. "What is your status now? A founding member of the WHO, the head of the Global Cardiac Surgery Training Center, and you went to someone's province to check data? What a commotion you've caused..."

"That's why I don't need an official identity," Ye Zhen interrupted him. "You take the official route and lead the department to conduct a formal investigation, while I'll go undercover to see what the situation is like at the grassroots level. We'll each go our own way, and when the data is compared, neither of us can fool the other."

Zhou Hai finally chimed in.

"Minister Li, I think Xiao Ye makes a good point. Having two lines of communication, one overt and one covert, to verify each other is better than going down a single line and letting the other side prepare."

There was another silence on the other end of the phone.

"When are you leaving?"

"The sooner the better," Ye Zhen said.

Give me two days to assemble a team.

"One and a half days, Minister Li."

Vice Minister Li gave a wry laugh on the other end of the phone.

"Ye Zhen, I find that dealing with you is more tiring than attending meetings with those foreign experts."

"Minister Li, you're too kind."

After Ye Zhen finished speaking, Zhou Hai nodded and turned to leave.

Zhou Hai took two steps after him and asked in a low voice.

"Xiao Ye, who are you planning to bring?"

"It's not decided yet."

Ye Zhen pushed open the office door, and the wind rushed in through the slightly ajar window, causing the hem of her white coat to flutter backward.

That same evening, on the third floor of the provincial health department's office building, when Director Qian Dehou hung up the phone, his expression was no longer revealing any emotion.

The streetlights outside the window shone in, casting a long shadow of the bronze pen holder on his desk.

"Old Ma."

Ma Guoliang, director of the Provincial Health Department's Epidemic Prevention Division, was sitting on the opposite sofa drinking tea. When he heard someone call him, he quickly put down his cup.

"Director, what's the phone number for the ministry?"

Qian Dehou didn't answer directly. He took out a pack of Qianmen cigarettes from the drawer, lit one, took two puffs, and then spoke.

"The ministry asked us to provide supplementary information on the screening data."

Ma Guoliang put his teacup back down halfway through.

"Additional explanation? Explain what?"

"This explains why our screening rate is more than 20 times lower than the national average."

Ma Guoliang's Adam's apple bobbed.

"Director, this data was the standard figure set by our department, and all the cities and prefectures reported it accordingly. Now the ministry is pressing us for an explanation, what are we supposed to say?"

Qian Dehou flicked his cigarette ash, his voice neither hurried nor slow.

"Old Ma, don't panic. The ministry sent an inquiry letter, not to investigate the case, but to ask us to explain. There's always a way to explain."

He stood up, walked to the window, and looked down at the empty parking lot for a while with his hands behind his back.

"What is the core issue of this matter? It's that the screening wasn't done properly. Why wasn't it done properly? Think about it, what are the conditions in our province? Mountainous areas account for 70% of the province, and township health centers don't even have a decent stethoscope."

Tomorrow morning, convene a conference call with the health bureau directors from all cities and prefectures to reach a consensus on a few key points. First, transportation difficulties in mountainous areas make door-to-door screening coverage challenging. Second, low health awareness among the local population leads to many parents refusing to cooperate. Third, insufficient special funds allocated by the provincial government are causing delays in the screening process.

Ma Guoliang took out a notebook from his briefcase and nodded as he took notes.

"What about the data? What if the department asks us to report the numbers again..."

"Report again."

Qian Dehou opened the drawer, took out a copy of last year's newborn statistics yearbook, and tossed it onto the coffee table.

"Based on the birth population data in this yearbook, we can work backwards to determine a reasonable screening range and adjust the screening rate upwards."

Ma Guoliang paused for a moment.

"Director, isn't this a bit too much of a leap...?"

"No," Qian Dehou interrupted him. "Just say that the first batch of reports were preliminary screening results, with a small sample size, and now we've supplemented them with data from the second screening. The ministry wants a respectable number, not to audit you."

Ma Guoliang closed his notebook, hesitated for a moment, and then asked the question.

"Director, I heard that this time the department that's inquiring about the data isn't the one with routine business operations, but rather it's Vice Minister Li personally involved. And the news came from the North City Military Region General Hospital, which is related to the Huaxia Zhixin Foundation."

Qian Dehou lifted his eyelids slightly.

"Northern Military Region General Hospital?"

"Yes, it's the project that Dr. Ye Zhen is working on. It's been featured in several foreign newspapers recently."

Qian Dehou remained silent for a few seconds, then lit another cigarette.

"Ye Zhen has no jurisdiction over our provincial department. She's a surgeon, not a disciplinary inspector. We just need to give normal responses to the ministry's inquiries."

He exhaled a puff of smoke and leaned back in his chair.

"However, just to be on the safe side, you should have the cities and prefectures below reorganize the household registration forms, supplementing what needs to be supplemented and filling in what needs to be filled in. Don't leave any obvious loopholes."

"Understood." Ma Guoliang stood up, stuffed the notebook into his briefcase, and turned back at the door.

"Director, what if the ministry not only sends an inquiry letter but also sends people down here?"

Qian Dehou held the cigarette in his mouth and squinted at him for a while.

"We're not afraid to send people down. Outsiders aren't used to our mountain paths."

Ma Guoliang nodded, opened the door, and went out.