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

Late at night.

The Gu family compound fell completely silent, with only the chirping of crickets at the base of the courtyard wall, one chirp after another, monotonous and drawn-out.

Gu Zheng sat on the sofa in the living room, flipping through a military briefing, the rustling sound of the pages turning very softly. Every now and then he would glance up at the direction of the inner room, where a halo of orange light shone through the crack in the door.

Ye Zhen had been sitting at her desk for three hours.

The manuscript paper in front of him was crumpled into three balls and thrown into the wicker wastebasket at his feet, where it piled up to the brim.

The first draft was too academic, full of technical terms and data, and she found it boring to read.

The second draft was too vague, full of grand principles, like a newspaper editorial, dry and lifeless;

The third draft was too didactic. She got annoyed with it halfway through, threw down her pen, and crumpled the paper into a ball.

Gu Zheng put down the briefing, got up and walked to the wastebasket, bent down and picked up a crumpled piece of paper, unfolding it.

The handwriting was somewhat messy, and only a few lines were barely legible: The essence of medicine is the combination of science and humanities... Doctors need to possess superb skills and a compassionate heart...

He crumpled the paper up again and threw it back.

A sigh came from the inner room, very soft, almost inaudible through the door.

Gu Zheng walked over and pushed open the door.

Ye Zhen leaned back in her chair, rubbing her temples with one hand, while the manuscript in her other hand trembled slightly between her fingertips.

"Aren't you going to sleep yet?"

Ye Zhen didn't look up: "Mm."

Gu Zheng walked to her side, took the pen from her hand, and casually placed it on the pen holder.

"If you can't write it down, don't force yourself to. Go to sleep."

Ye Zhen looked up at him, her eyes already showing fine red veins.

Gu Zheng looked at her like this, remained silent for a few seconds, and then suddenly spoke.

"What would you most like to hear when you turn twenty?"

Ye Zhen's fingers stopped.

She looked up, her gaze momentarily blank.

"Twenty years old?"

"Um."

Ye Zhen did not answer.

She stared at the green-shaded table lamp on the corner of the table, the warm yellow light shrinking into two small dots in her pupils.

Twenty years old.

In her past life, she was a sophomore in medical school, spending every day in the library and laboratory, staying up all night memorizing thick anatomical atlases until she got nosebleeds. Once, in a regional anatomy class, the professor asked them to manually separate the blood vessels of a cadaver teacher. Her hand holding the hemostat trembled violently for the entire class.

After class, the white-haired old professor walked up to her and asked her a question in a calm tone.

Are you scared?

She nodded.

The old professor said, "Remember how scared you felt today. When you're on the operating table in the future, always remember that what's lying under your knife is a living, breathing person, not a specimen."

She remembered those words for over a decade.

It wasn't until she herself took the lead in surgery and picked up the scalpel that she truly understood the weight of those words.

Ye Zhen's breathing gradually calmed down.

She sat up straight, pushed aside the few scraps of paper in front of her, and pulled out a brand new stack of red-lined manuscript paper from the drawer.

Gu Zheng didn't bother her anymore. He turned around, went to the kitchen, made a cup of hot milk, brought it back, and gently placed it beside her.

Ye Zhen took the enamel mug and took a sip. The warm liquid slid down her throat, warming her whole body, including her stomach.

She picked up the pen again, and this time, the pen tip moved without the slightest hesitation.

The pen scratched across the paper, the sound particularly clear in the quiet night.

Gu Zheng leaned back in his chair and watched her write, without leaning over to read the contents.

About forty minutes later, Ye Zhen put down her pen and closed the cap.

She scanned the manuscript from beginning to end, and found not a single correction; the handwriting was clean and neat.

"Finished writing?"

"not yet."

Gu Zheng leaned over and took a look, only seeing the top line of text.

The characters were written very large, so forceful that they penetrated the back of the paper, taking up half the width of the sheet.

Love humanity first, then value skills.

A line of small foreign language text followed.

Sir William Osler.

Gu Zheng didn't delve into whose name it was; he just felt that the sentence perfectly captured Ye Zhen's character.

"Are you hungry?" he asked. "Shall I go make you a bowl of noodles?"

Ye Zhen shook her head, neatly folded the manuscript paper, and tucked it into a hardcover notebook.

"Go to sleep first." She stood up and stretched.

Gu Zheng stood there watching her.

Aren't you going to sleep?

"I'll go to sleep after I finish writing."

Gu Zheng stared at her for two seconds, then suddenly stretched out his long arm and picked her up in his arms.

Ye Zhen exclaimed in surprise and instinctively wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Gu Zheng! What are you doing?"

"Let's sleep with my wife in my arms." Gu Zheng carried her steadily and strode towards the bedroom. "If Expert Ye goes out with dark circles under her eyes tomorrow, it will be a disgrace to the Gu family."

"Put me down."

"I won't let go."

"Gu Zheng!"

"Yes, I'm here."

He kicked the bedroom door open and then slammed it shut with his heel.

The lights went out.

……

The next day, Ye Zhen did not stay at home to continue revising her speech.

At nine o'clock in the morning, she had Gu Zheng drive the Jeep to Changping County Hospital in the suburbs of Beijing.

It was a poorly equipped grassroots hospital. The outpatient building was only a two-story gray brick building with large patches of peeling paint on the walls. Long queues formed in front of the registration windows. Ye Zhen, dressed in casual clothes and wearing a mask, walked slowly down the corridor.

She looked at the patients crammed onto the peeling wooden benches in the outpatient hall; at the rows of army-green cots that had been added to the crowded corridors of the inpatient department; and at the family in front of the payment window, whose abacus beads were clicking away, yet who were so anxious that they were shedding tears because they couldn't afford the few dollars needed for medical expenses.

She stopped outside the pediatric clinic.

A rural mother dressed in coarse cloth was squatting in a corner, holding her child. The child, about three or four years old, had a fever and his face was flushed. He didn't even have the strength to cry and was listlessly leaning on his mother's shoulder, panting.

Ye Zhen stood there, staring at the scene for a long time.

Gu Zheng followed silently behind her without urging her on.

On the way back to the city, Ye Zhen sat in the passenger seat without saying a word.

Gu Zheng didn't ask any more questions, but simply drove the car more smoothly.

As they approached the gate of the compound, Ye Zhen finally spoke.

"I know what to say tomorrow."

Gu Zheng turned and glanced at her.

Ye Zhen's gaze fell on the rapidly receding shadows of the sycamore trees outside the car window. Her voice was soft, yet it carried an unwavering resolve.

"I know what those students want to hear, and I know what this era is lacking."

After dinner, Ye Zhen sat down at her desk again.

This time, she completed a one-and-a-half-page lecture outline in just forty minutes.

The handwriting remains neat and legible, without a single correction.

After finishing writing, she closed the pen cap, exhaled a long breath, and leaned back in her chair in a relaxed manner.

Gu Zheng leaned in from behind, resting his chin naturally on her shoulder.

"Finished writing?"

"Um."

"let me see."

Ye Zhen handed him the notebook.

Gu Zheng took it, turned to the first page, and his eyes fell on the first line of text.

It's different from yesterday's row.

This line reads:

Medicine is an art, and its transmission is through love.

It was followed by a line of foreign language text.

Theodor Billroth.

Gu Zheng didn't ask who said that.

He closed the notebook and steadily handed it back to Ye Zhen.

What time are we going to Peking University Health Science Center tomorrow?

Nine o'clock.

"I send you."

Ye Zhen took the notebook and carefully tucked it into her military green handbag.

"No need, I can go by myself. It's not easy for you to come home, so you stay home and chat with your grandparents."

Gu Zheng raised an eyebrow.

"Peking Medical University isn't close to here. How do you plan to get there? By that old-fashioned bicycle?"

Ye Zhen thought for a moment.

"Squeezing onto a bus."

"Comrade Ye Zhen." Gu Zheng straightened up and looked at her seriously. "You are now a founding member of the Global Cardiovascular Experts Committee, a medical giant whose medal was personally awarded to you by the Director-General of the World Health Organization. Are you planning to take the No. 104 bus to give a lecture?"

Ye Zhen was amused by his tone.

"So what do you want?"

"I'll drive you to the school gate in my jeep," Gu Zheng arranged matter-of-factly. "Then I'll go in and sit in the last row."

Ye Zhen turned to look at him.

"What are you going to do?"

"To attend the lecture," Gu Zheng answered matter-of-factly. "My wife is giving a lecture, so as her husband, shouldn't I go and keep things in order?"

Ye Zhen shook her head, too lazy to argue with him anymore.

She tidied up the things on the table and turned off the table lamp.

The room darkened, with only the moonlight streaming in through the window, casting a silvery sheen on the terrazzo floor.

Ye Zhen walked to the window and pushed it open a crack.

The night breeze, carrying the rich fragrance of locust blossoms, wafted in, feeling cool and refreshing.

Tomorrow will be a good day.