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

6:30 a.m., Beijing.

The streetlights on Chang'an Avenue had just been turned off. In a small conference room on the third floor of the Ministry of Health compound, the smoke was so thick it could choke mosquitoes.

Four groups of people were seated in front of the long oval solid wood conference table.

Foreign Affairs Department of the Ministry of Health, Civil Aviation Administration of China, Protocol Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and General Administration of Customs.

The heads of these four departments, who usually arrive at work right on time, were dragged out of bed before dawn by a series of urgent phone calls from Vice Minister Li.

"Bang."

Vice Minister Li slammed the chipped stainless steel thermos onto the table, getting straight to the point.

"The British government is chartering a plane to send twenty-three British children with congenital heart disease to our Beicheng Military Region General Hospital for treatment."

The entire room fell silent.

Old Chen from the General Administration of Customs, sitting opposite me, had just struck a match to light a cigarette when the matchstick burned his finger. With a hiss, he shook his hand, threw the match away, and looked utterly astonished.

"Old Li, are you kidding us this early in the morning? Foreigners coming here for medical treatment? Or is it a chartered plane?"

"An urgent, top-secret telegram sent back from the Chinese Embassy in Britain in the middle of the night."

Vice Minister Li grabbed a red-headed document from the table and slammed it down in the center: "This is Mrs. Thatcher's personal signature. It's in black and white; the British Treasury will fully cover the costs, and they specifically requested our Chinese experts to take the lead!"

The heads and deputy heads of the four departments peeked over and saw the bright red seal on the document; their expressions changed drastically.

For over thirty years since the founding of the People's Republic of China, we've always been the ones begging and pleading to buy equipment and learn technology from abroad. And now foreigners are chartering planes in droves to China for medical treatment and to save lives?

This is unprecedented!

"This can't be done according to the old almanac," said Lao Liu, deputy director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, clicking his teeth and tapping the table with his knuckles. "The charter flight is a Boeing 747, right? If Beijing Capital International Airport wants to receive such a behemoth, the runway needs to be cleared three days in advance. And the control tower, for a special plane fully loaded with medical equipment and critically ill patients, our control tower simply doesn't have a complete set of foreign language contingency plans for diversion and reception."

"If there's no contingency plan, write one on the spot! If the runway is blocked, delay other flights!"

Vice Minister Li remained unyielding, his eyes wide with determination: "This is a major power diplomacy opportunity delivered right to our doorstep! Even if the civil aviation authorities have to sweep the runway into sparks, they will ensure this plane lands safely!"

Old Chen had recovered by now, and his brows were furrowed into a tight knot.

"Old Li, stop banging on the table. These twenty-three critically ill children are coming, and the accompanying emergency equipment and imported medicines will require several truckloads. How will we handle the customs procedures? Without import permits from the Ministry of Health and tariff slips from the Ministry of Commerce, according to the strict rules, these things absolutely cannot get in!"

Customs, the gateway to the nation, has always been the most strictly controlled.

"Make it a special case." Vice Minister Li looked directly at Old Chen. "Use it as medical relief supplies and let it pass through the inspection-free channel."

Old Chen panicked: "What if they've smuggled contraband? This would be a huge blunder; customs can't afford the responsibility!"

"I'll take responsibility."

Vice Minister Li was decisive and efficient: "If the Ministry of Health issues a guarantee letter of the highest level, and something goes wrong, I'll take off this job and go back to farming."

The room fell silent for a moment.

The young section chief of the Protocol Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who had been taking notes with his head down, stopped writing. He looked up, his expression extremely solemn.

"Vice Minister Li, the supplementary explanation in the telegram just now mentioned that in addition to Sir Williams, the British side also included the current Health Secretary, Clarke."

The section chief closed his notebook.

"This is a ministerial-level official's visit abroad. According to the principle of reciprocity in foreign affairs, we not only have to provide the same level of reception, but we also must immediately report to the State Council. What's more troublesome is that if a British child were to die on Chinese soil, this would be an extremely serious international diplomatic incident!"

The moment those words were spoken, the air in the conference room seemed to drop to freezing.

Director Wang of the Foreign Affairs Department immediately became restless and waved his hands repeatedly.

"The risks are just too high! Who dares to guarantee a 100% success rate for this kind of international critical care surgery? If even one of the twenty-three critically ill patients dies, all of China Heart's previous achievements will be ruined! The international media, which has always looked down on us, could drown us in their spittle!"

Director Wang looked at Vice Minister Li: "My opinion is that we should find a legitimate reason to decline it."

Vice Minister Li stubbed out his cigarette and stood up abruptly.

He placed his hands on the table and stared intently at Director Wang.

"The fact that they've swallowed their pride and come to us for help proves that they've reached a dead end in Europe."

"If we close the door now out of fear of taking responsibility, then in the eyes of the world, it will be an admission that Comrade Ye Zhen's previous achievements were just a fluke!"

Vice Minister Li's voice was firm and resounding: "If we're going to win, we have to win openly and honorably! The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will handle the formalities, Customs will stamp the documents, and Civil Aviation Administration will clear the runways! I, Li, will take the brunt of any consequences!"

……

At the same time.

Duty room on the first floor of the administration building of the Beicheng Military Region General Hospital.

Dean Zhou Hai sat imposingly on the edge of the hard bed. On the long table in front of him was a floor plan of the main hospital building.

The head of the logistics department, the head of the general affairs section, and the director of the nursing department stood in a row, ramrod straight.

Zhou Hai held a red and blue pencil in his hand and drew a large red circle heavily on the third floor of the main building.

"Three days."

Zhou Hai looked up, his eyes bloodshot, staring at the head of the logistics department.

"The three floors of the main building have been completely vacated. The original general patients have been properly relocated to the second and fourth floors. All the beds have been fitted with new sheets, and oxygen cylinders and electrocardiogram monitoring equipment have been neatly arranged one after another for me."

"Put up a sign; this floor is called the 'International Patient Specialty Ward'."

The logistics director's face turned pale, and sweat was pouring down his forehead.

"Dean, three days? Our main hospital's inventory of oxygen cylinders and monitors is simply not enough! With so many critically ill foreign guests, and the need for 24-hour uninterrupted power supply, there's just not enough time..."

"If it's not enough, borrow it! Borrow from other hospitals! If you can't borrow it, take my note and shamelessly ask the military region's logistics department for it!"

Zhou Hai slammed his hand on the table, making the enamel mug on it shake violently.

"These guys are from the British Empire, coming all the way to our Chinese territory begging for help! They're bringing honor to our country! If a hospital bed collapses, we'll carry it on our shoulders; if there's no electricity, we'll use flashlights! If we're missing even one piece of supplies, you, the logistics director, are fired!"

The logistics director stood at attention, saluted, and roared, "Mission accomplished!"

But the head of the nursing department was so anxious that he kept rubbing his hands together, and he reluctantly stepped forward.

"Dean, supplies are easy to get; we can always scrape together some if we keep trying. But people are a different story! There are twenty-three critically ill British children, plus dozens of accompanying family members and foreign specialists. Our hospital's nurses are excellent at giving injections and caring for patients, but these foreigners are speaking gibberish in foreign languages—who can understand them?"

"If a mistake occurs during preoperative consultation or postoperative medication due to language barriers, it could be a fatal medical accident!"

Zhou Hai's hand, which was holding the red and blue pencils, froze in mid-air.

When it comes to logistical supplies, the main hospital can scrape together whatever it has. But foreign languages ​​aren't something you can learn just by shouting slogans. If you borrow a translator from outside, they won't understand the complex medical terminology and will still be clueless on the operating table.

Where can I find someone who understands medicine, is fluent in foreign languages, and is available whenever I need them?