Flip the table and divide the family property! Take his wife and daughter into the mountains and eat

The gate was open.

With the sound of wheels rolling over the terrazzo floor, Director Chen was the first to walk out of the emergency room.

He ripped off the blue medical mask, which was speckled with blood, revealing a face covered in fine sweat. After performing surgery for over an hour, his eyes were bloodshot, and he rubbed his throbbing temples as he walked, his exhaustion palpable.

The men in the corridor all swarmed around him at once.

Old Hei rushed to the front, his voice hoarse with anxiety: "Doctor, how is he?"

Director Chen let out a long sigh, stopped in his tracks, and said with a grim expression, "His life has been saved."

His stern gaze swept over the group of mud- and blood-soaked, disheveled men, his tone laced with barely suppressed anger: "That cut was deep; the flesh inside was completely exposed. It almost became infected and highly contagious. If you had been brought here half an hour later, even a miracle couldn't have saved you! I remember you were all workers at the Red Star Machinery Factory, right? You seemed quite well-behaved before; most of the people coming to the hospital throughout the year were workers with minor scrapes and bruises, the most serious being a finger caught in a lathe. How come you've all changed so much in just a few years?"

"They're either gunshot wounds or severe injuries inflicted by deadly attacks; just the other day, they even brought in someone who was completely dead!"

Director Chen was so angry that his chest heaved. He simply stuffed the medical gloves he had taken off into his pocket: "Just half a month ago! That guy from your department named Dazhuang, his injury hadn't even healed yet, and he insisted that he had some urgent business, so he pulled out his IV needle and ran away! Our department's doctors and nurses had to run around like crazy looking for him, turning the whole building upside down!"

He slapped his thigh in anguish and pointed to the end of the corridor, cursing, "What kind of mess is this! A perfectly good large factory with thousands of employees, how did it turn into this chaotic mess! What exactly did your factory manager, Liang, do? Go, call him over here, I want to ask him face to face!"

The monkey huddled in the crowd, swallowed hard, and muttered under its breath, "Director Chen, Factory Director Liang... was dismissed by the higher-ups half a month ago, and he's not in charge of the factory anymore."

Director Chen's reprimanding voice came to an abrupt halt.

His expression froze abruptly, the anger in his eyes vanished instantly as if doused with cold water, replaced by a look of astonishment and confusion.

The corridor was deathly silent, with only the whistling sound of the draft blowing in through the window cracks.

Director Chen stared at the group of disheveled men for a long time, swallowing back the rest of his sentence that was stuck in his throat.

He sighed heavily and shook his head helplessly.

"Just messing around."

"Why are you making things difficult for an old man who has worked hard for the factory for decades and is about to retire..."

He waved his hand wearily, his once straight back slumping slightly: "Do whatever your factory wants, I can't control your messes. Just be more careful in the future, and don't end up in the ER all covered in blood."

Zhao Shanhe straightened up, bowed slightly to Director Chen, and said in a sincere and steady tone, "We will pay attention in the future. Thank you for your hard work today."

Director Chen sighed and waved his hand: "Providing emergency medical care is our duty."

He pointed towards the emergency room and casually instructed, "After he's brought back to the ward, his diet should be light. For the first few days, he can only drink millet porridge and absolutely no meat. Internal injuries are different from external injuries, so don't let him move around too much. As long as he gets through these few days without developing a fever, he can rest quietly in bed for a month or two and be fine."

Zhao Shanhe nodded: "I've got it."

After giving these instructions, Director Chen turned around and dragged his heavy steps back to his office.

They had only taken a couple of steps.

His gaze inadvertently swept across the crowd and suddenly landed on the big, dark-skinned man hiding in the back.

Director Chen's rubber-soled shoes came to an abrupt stop on the terrazzo floor.

"Hey, you, yes, it's you!"

He raised his hand, pointed at the tall, dark-skinned man standing like an iron tower in the corner, and strode straight over: "I was just talking about you with the people from your factory! What exactly happened to you two weeks ago? You didn't even say goodbye, just pulled out your IV and ran away!"

Dazhuang shuddered, startled by the sudden roll call, and took a half-step back. Like a student who had done something wrong, he lowered his head and stammered, "I... I really had something urgent to do at the time, and I couldn't take it anymore, so I just left..."

"Nothing is more important than your health!"

Director Chen interrupted him with a stern face, his tone harsh: "Do you think you can get rid of all that mess outside? If the wound had become infected and inflamed, it would have been a real problem!"

While scolding him, he grabbed Da Zhuang and ripped open the collar button without saying a word.

Director Chen pulled open the collar of the coarse cloth gown and, in the dim light of the corridor, took a closer look at the old wound on his chest.

After examining him for a moment, Director Chen's tightly furrowed brows finally relaxed.

He released his grip, then gently pulled up Dazhuang's collar, his tone softening considerably: "Young people are definitely better off; they're physically stronger, and the wound has already healed completely. If it were an old man like me, it probably wouldn't have scabbed over even after another half month. Be more careful in the future; your life is your own, don't gamble with it."

Dazhuang nodded repeatedly like a rattle-drum.

Director Chen put his hands into the pockets of his white coat and turned to walk towards his office.

He had only taken two steps when he seemed to remember something and stopped again.

Director Chen turned around, looked at Dazhuang who was still standing there, and cleared his throat.

"By the way, there's something I need to tell you."

Director Chen looked at the honest, tall man, his tone unusually gentle, like that of an elder: "There's a woman in our unit named Liu Mei. She's a very nice girl, and a hard worker. She really likes you. You ran off without a word, and she was frantic, crying in the corridor. I think you're a decent young man; if you're not married yet, you might consider her..."

As he was speaking, Director Chen's gaze inadvertently fell downwards, and he saw that Da Zhuang's two large, fan-like hands were tightly gripping a clean enamel lunchbox.

Director Chen paused for a moment, his eyes darting between Da Zhuang's flushed black face and the lunchbox, and then he instantly understood.

"Well, it seems I was worrying for nothing."

Director Chen pointed to the lunchbox, sighing with a mixture of exasperation and amusement: "That Xiao Liu..."

As he spoke, he couldn't help but laugh heartily. Without lingering any longer, he shook his head with a smile and strode away down the corridor.

Until Director Chen's figure completely disappeared around the corner.

The tense atmosphere in the corridor finally eased. The monkey grinned, just about to yell at Da Zhuang to start a fight.

Factory Director Liang came running up, panting, carrying several bulging net bags filled with steaming meat buns and white flour steamed buns.

The monkey, with its sharp eyes, immediately stepped forward to take the net, its mouth still open, grinning as it chimed in, "Director Liang, you've come at the right time. You didn't see Brother Dazhuang earlier..."

"Alright, stop making a scene!"

Director Liang, drenched in sweat and still catching his breath, shoved the net into the monkey's arms, interrupting him abruptly.

His expression was unusually serious. He turned to look at Zhao Shanhe, who was leaning against the wall, and called out in a low voice.

"Shanhe, Director Li is here!"

Zhao Shanhe paused, his fingers holding the cigarette.

The relaxed expression that had just appeared a second ago vanished instantly.

The amiable warmth in his eyes quickly faded.

He threw the cigarette butt on the terrazzo floor, stomped it out, and strode two steps toward the stairwell.

The men in the corridor sensed that something was wrong and quickly stopped joking around, instinctively straightening their backs.

Before everyone could put their nets down properly, a steady sound of footsteps came from the corner of the stairs.

Two plainclothes police officers went upstairs first and quickly scanned the corridor.

Immediately afterwards, Director Li strode up from behind.

He was wearing a dark jacket, unbuttoned, clearly having rushed over from his bed in the middle of the night after receiving the news.

The dim light from the corridor ceiling shone on his face, and Zhao Shanhe recognized the person who had come in, his gaze narrowing almost imperceptibly.

After not seeing him for more than half a year, Director Li had become so thin that he looked almost unrecognizable.

Her once square face now has deeply sunken cheeks, prominent cheekbones, and even the lines of her chin have become somewhat sharp.

He had dark circles under his eyes, and his eye sockets were filled with crisscrossing red blood vessels. A deep sense of fatigue emanated from the corners of his eyes.

Even though he was visibly exhausted, he still walked with a brisk pace.

When those eyes swept over the crowd, they were still sharp enough to scrape off a layer of skin, exuding a steady and commanding presence.

Director Li walked to the center of the corridor and came to a steady stop.

Looking at Zhao Shanhe's stiff appearance, he raised the corners of his chapped lips into a familiar smile.

"Comrade Zhao Shanhe, it's been a long time since we last met."