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

Ye Zhen asked Lao Tian to borrow a door panel.

Old Tian went to two different places and carried back an old bed board that had been dismantled, with the marks of the bamboo mat still on its surface.

Liu Xiaolan spread the quilt on the door panel, and Gao Haiping helped tuck the four corners in tightly.

Ye Zhen squatted down by the kang (a heated brick bed) and adjusted Tian Xiaobao's position, making him lie on his side with his knees close to his chest.

"Sister-in-law, put his thickest clothes on him. It's windy on the road, so make sure his hands and feet are covered."

With trembling hands, Cuihong pulled out an old cotton-padded jacket with three patches and put it on her son.

Tian Xiaobao woke up, his big eyes looking timidly at the extra person in the room, the bluish-black on his lips even more distinct in the sunlight.

Ye Zhen touched the child's forehead with the back of her hand and then squeezed his fingers.

"Don't let him cry. Getting emotional increases oxygen consumption and can easily trigger a reaction."

She turned to Gao Haiping and explained.

"I'll walk alongside the stretcher on the way. You keep an eye on the pulse, checking it every twenty minutes. If the color of the lips darkens or the breathing becomes rapid, stop immediately."

Gao Haiping nodded.

Tian Gensheng came out of the inner room carrying a cloth bag containing two changes of clothes and half a bag of fried noodles.

He tied the cloth bag around his waist and walked to the front of the door. Cuihong had already asked a strong young man from the neighborhood to help carry the stretcher. Tian Gensheng and the young man grabbed the edge of the board and lifted the stretcher together.

Ye Zhen glanced at the sky; the light on the mountain was already starting to dim.

"Which direction is the nearest highway?"

Luo Yushan pointed to the east.

"After crossing that ridge, go downhill to the riverbank, and there's a dirt road that can be used by hand tractors. Follow that road east for two miles to connect to the provincial highway."

"How long will it take?"

"It takes a normal person an hour and a half to walk, but carrying a stretcher would probably take more than two hours."

Ye Zhen didn't say much, but bent down to help Cuihong carry the child from the kang (a heated brick bed) to the door panel.

Tian Xiaobao was frighteningly light; a four-year-old child, he was as light as a bundle of firewood when picked up.

"Walk."

When the stretcher was carried out of the village, the villagers who had gathered around automatically made way for it.

An old woman came out shakily and stuffed a boiled egg wrapped in an old towel into Cuihong's hand.

"I'll feed the kid on the way."

Cuihong held the eggs, tears streaming down her face. She couldn't speak, but kept nodding to the old lady.

The group climbed the ridge, and the wind picked up, blowing the withered grass close to the ground.

Ye Zhen walked on the left side of the stretcher, holding onto the edge of the door panel with one hand to prevent it from swaying, and occasionally reaching out with the other hand to touch Tian Xiaobao's fingers.

After walking for about twenty minutes, Gao Haiping said, "His pulse is okay, a bit more stable than before. The road is very bumpy, so be careful he doesn't throw up."

Ye Zhen glanced at him, said nothing, and first called out to Tian Gensheng, who was carrying the board in front.

"Take steady steps, don't rush, it's better to be slow than to sway."

Tian Gensheng responded and shortened his stride.

When the stretcher was carried down the mountain ridge, the slope was steep and the path was slippery. There was moss on the rocks, so every step had to be carefully considered.

Ye Zhen bent down and glanced at Tian Xiaobao's lips.

The color did not darken, and the breathing was shallow but even.

She secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

But before he could even catch his breath, Liu Xiaolan's voice came from the back of the line.

"Dr. Ye, someone is catching up with us!"

Ye Zhen turned around and saw three people hurrying towards her on the path behind the mountain ridge.

She recognized the man in the lead; he wore a gray-blue jacket and had his hair neatly combed.

Section Chief Sun.

Two young men wearing red armbands followed behind him.

Section Chief Sun walked to a spot about ten steps behind the stretcher and stood there. His forehead was covered in sweat, and he bent over, panting heavily for several breaths before speaking.

"Stop, everyone stop."

Tian Gensheng turned to look at Ye Zhen.

Ye Zhen shook her head.

"Keep going."

The stretcher didn't stop.

Section Chief Sun quickened his pace, circled around to the side of the line, and blocked their way.

"You took away a child from a local resident without the county health bureau's transfer permit or the town government's consent. What kind of behavior is this?"

Tian Gensheng stopped in his tracks, his face turning pale.

Seeing his hesitation, Section Chief Sun raised his voice even higher.

"Tian Gensheng, have you thought this through? If you go with outsiders and something happens, the county won't take any responsibility. What if something happens to the child on the way? These people will just pack up and go back to Beicheng. Who will you go to then?"

Tian Gensheng's hands trembled on the door panel. He looked down at his son lying on it, and then at Section Chief Sun.

Cuihong lunged forward and grabbed his arm.

"Dad, what should we do?"

Ye Zhen walked out from beside the stretcher and stood in front of Section Chief Sun.

"First, transferring critically ill children is an emergency medical procedure and does not require approval from the county health bureau."

Section Chief Sun opened his mouth to refute.

Ye Zhen didn't give him a chance.

"Secondly, the child's transfer was requested voluntarily by the family, and the family has the right to make medical decisions for underage patients, a right that no administrative department has the right to interfere with."

She paused for a moment, looking into Section Chief Sun's eyes.

"Third, you've stopped a four-year-old child who could suffer a sudden oxygen deprivation attack at any moment. If you manage to stop him and something happens, who will be responsible?"

Her voice didn't rise, but every word was delivered with full force.

"Is it you who's responsible, or the person behind you who sent you here?"

Section Chief Sun's face turned a deep purplish-red. He pointed at Ye Zhen for a long time, unable to utter a single complete sentence.

A young man behind him took a step forward and reached out to pull on the door panel.

Tian Gensheng stepped forward to block him.

He pulled the door panel behind him, put his arms on either side of the panel, and bent over to protect his son behind him, his eyes glaring red.

"If you dare touch my child, I'll fight you to the death!"

The voice was so rough and hoarse, like a stone crushing sand; it sounded like the throat was splitting.

The man who had been hesitant in the house, not even daring to accept a red card, suddenly refused to acknowledge any relief food or year-end quotas.

The young man took a step back and withdrew his hand.

At the edge of the woods, the tall man and the short man were already standing on the slope.

Section Chief Sun glanced at the two men and shrank back.

He ultimately didn't make another move, only managing to squeeze out a single sentence through gritted teeth.

"Fine, you can leave. Don't blame me if anything happens."

After he finished speaking, he turned around and whispered a few words to the young man behind him.

The young man nodded, turned around, and hurried along the ridge towards where the jeep was parked—there was a radio in the car.

Li Hong saw it clearly and leaned close to Ye Zhen's ear.

"Teacher Ye, that person must have gone back and used the radio to send a message. If they had notified the county hospital in advance that they wouldn't accept Xiaobao, even if we carried him there, we wouldn't be able to get in."

Ye Zhen glanced at the retreating figure, then turned back to the stretcher.

"Let's go, speed up, we have to get to the highway before dark."

The stretcher was lifted again, and footsteps crunched on the gravel.

---

In the provincial capital, more than 400 kilometers away, the lights were blazing in the conference room on the third floor of the gray office building of the Health Department.

Qian Dehou is explaining to Vice Minister Li.

"This is a map showing the coverage of initial screening for congenital heart disease in mountainous areas of our province. Green represents townships that have completed screening, and yellow represents those that are still being implemented. As you can see, green has already covered more than 70% of the area."

Ma Guoliang sat to the side, adding information as needed.

"Minister Li, the situation in the mountainous areas is indeed complex, and some townships have extremely inconvenient transportation, but our comrades have been overcoming difficulties to make progress, and the people's satisfaction is very high."

Vice Minister Li held his teacup, his fingers slowly circling the rim.

His secretary, Xiao Chen, strode in from the door, bent down and whispered a few words in his ear, while handing him a yellow telegram.

Vice Minister Li glanced down at it.

His finger hovered over the edge of the telegram for three seconds.

Then he folded the telegram in half, placed it next to his teacup, and looked up at Qian Dehou, who was still talking incessantly.

"What about the data for Qingshan Town?"

Qian Dehou turned to the next page, his facial expression perfectly controlled.

"Qingshan Town is a remote town at a high altitude with a small population. The mountain people are relatively healthy, and the initial screening results showed no suspected severe cases, which is consistent with the population characteristics."

Ma Guoliang continued.

"Furthermore, Minister Li, our comrades in the north may not be familiar with the specific conditions in our mountainous areas in the south. Some standards that are applicable in plain cities need to be adjusted according to local conditions when applied to mountain villages at an altitude of over 1,000 meters."

Vice Minister Li put down his teacup.

"I'm very interested in the part about public satisfaction; could you elaborate?"

Qian Dehou nodded, turned to the next page, and began to describe how the epidemic prevention stations in various townships organized publicity and how they went deep into the masses to conduct health education.

Ma Guoliang chimed in from the side, his voice growing increasingly confident.

At one end of the conference table, the folded yellow telegram next to Vice Minister Li was damp in one corner by water stains at the bottom of his teacup.

The thin paper is translucent, and the writing on it is faintly discernible.

Qingshan Town, no screening, one case with a red card.