Sent to the countryside, I turned the health center into a top-tier hospital.

About an hour later, after seeing an elderly woman off in the clinic, Chen Ping stood up and went out again.

This time, as he walked to the door of the accounting office, he was saying something while tapping numbers on the calculator with his fingers, and the cardigan on his shoulder slid down a bit.

Cui Ying stopped and was about to pull it up when Chen Ping went in and helped her drape her coat over her shoulders.

"You go about your business and stop coming here all the time." Cui Ying looked up at him, her tone sounding like a reproach, but the smile on her lips was unmistakable.

Chen Ping didn't say anything, turned around and left.

As I passed the pharmacy, Li Fang was leaning over the window wrapping medicine. She folded the paper package neatly in her hand after turning it a couple of times.

She looked up and saw Chen Ping walking over from the accounting office. He grinned and spoke in a voice that was neither too loud nor too soft, just loud enough for everyone in the corridor to hear.

"Oh, Dr. Chen, you've gone to see Cui Ying again? This is the second time already, and it'll be the third soon. If you're worried, you might as well move your consultation room to the accounting office, so you don't have to run back and forth."

Wang Jianguo was carrying a water cup out of his clinic to get some water when he heard this. He paused for a moment, a meaningful smile appearing on his face. Without saying a word, he walked past Chen Ping with his water cup.

Chen Ping ignored her and went straight back to the consultation room.

In the corridor, Wang Tao was squatting on the ground taking a child's temperature, but he wasn't talking to the child. Instead, he turned his head and kept talking to Zhou Jie, who was organizing medical records next to him.

"Zhou Jie, what do you want to eat for lunch? Did you have the braised pork that Aunt Li made yesterday? If you didn't have enough, you can have mine. I don't really like meat."

Zhou Jie smiled slightly, revealing two dimples on her face, but didn't reply, continuing to organize the medical records.

Sun Xiaoyan stood to the side, holding a blood pressure monitor in her hand. She glanced at Wang Tao expressionlessly, her eyes as cold as knives.

Wang Tao shrank back under her gaze, but then turned to Zhou Jie and said, "If you're thirsty, I'll get you some water. There's some fresh tea in the clinic."

Before Zhou Jie could speak, Li Fang leaned out of the pharmacy window and shouted down the corridor, "Wang Tao! Come at me!"

Wang Tao reluctantly stood up and walked to the pharmacy window. "Sister Fang, what's up?"

Li Fang shoved two packets of medicine into his hands with a smile, "Go, take these to that old man in ward number three. Don't just hang around that young girl, get to work."

Wang Tao blushed, took the medicine packet, and left.

As soon as lunchtime arrives, the aroma of food wafts out of the cafeteria.

As everyone entered the canteen, Aunt Li had already set the food on the table: braised pork ribs, water spinach with garlic, stir-fried green peppers with pork, cucumber salad, and a large bowl of winter melon meatball soup.

Zhou Jie and Sun Xiaoyan helped serve the dishes and set the table. Wang Tao quickly went over to help, took a plate of stir-fried green peppers and pork from Zhou Jie, put it on the table, and then turned around to take the plate from Sun Xiaoyan.

Sun Xiaoyan glanced at him, put the plate in his hand, said nothing, and went to get her chopsticks.

Chen Ping helped Cui Ying into the cafeteria, with Zhou Xiaohe following behind.

Cui Ying sat down in the chair, still in the same posture, her back straight.

Aunt Li glanced at her again, then came over and added a soft cushion to the chair next to Cui Ying so she could lean against it.

Just as everyone sat down and picked up their chopsticks, before they even had a chance to eat, the sound of a tractor suddenly came from outside the courtyard.

The sound grew louder as it approached. The muffled roar of a diesel engine stopped at the entrance of the health center, followed by the sound of someone jumping off a tractor, and then a man's voice, urgent and hoarse, as if he were calling for help.

"Doctor! Is there a doctor here? Someone come quick!"

Chen Ping put down his chopsticks and walked out, and everyone else stood up and rushed out of the cafeteria in a swarm.

A hand-operated tractor was parked in front of the health center. A floral cotton quilt was laid out in the back of the tractor, and a young woman was lying on the quilt.

The woman was heavily pregnant, her hair was completely soaked and stuck to her face, and her lips were bitten until they turned white.

Her pants and blankets were soaked; the amniotic fluid had completely saturated the blankets.

The man driving the tractor was in his early thirties, wearing a dark blue cloth shirt with torn cuffs. His face was covered in sweat and dirt, and his legs were trembling as he jumped off the tractor.

He rushed towards the doctor in the white coat, grabbed Liu Wei at the front, and cried out in a trembling voice, "Doctor, my wife is about to give birth! Quick, please take a look!"

Zhao Guosheng's expression changed when he saw this scene.

He stepped forward, patted the man on the shoulder, and said, "Your wife is about to give birth, why didn't you take her to the county hospital?"

The man was so anxious he kept stamping his feet. "I was planning to go to the county today. She still has a week until her due date. Who knew she would start having pains this morning? I was thinking of getting her there as soon as possible, but she couldn't go far with the tractor and was screaming in pain."

"It's almost a two-hour drive to the county seat. I'm worried she might give birth on the way, which would be even more difficult, so I thought I'd bring her to the local clinic first and have you deliver the baby!"

Li Fang squeezed through the back, glanced at the pregnant woman in the truck bed, and gasped, "You're letting a woman who's about to give birth ride on a tractor? This awful mountain road is so bumpy, she'd be thrown out of labor by now!"

The man shrank back, his lips trembling, unable to utter a word as she scolded him.

Zhao Guosheng quickly ordered people to carry the pregnant woman into the ward.

Liu Wei and Wang Tao each lifted one side of the truck, dragging and pulling the quilt and the pregnant woman out of the truck bed, and half-carried and half-lifted them into the ward closest to the gate.

In the ward, the pregnant woman lay on the bed, sweating profusely from the pain, biting the blanket and making muffled groans.

Zhou Jie quickly went up to measure her blood pressure and heart rate. Sun Xiaoyan stood helplessly to the side, clutching a towel in her hand, unsure of where to hand it to.

Zhao Guosheng pulled Chen Ping into the corridor and lowered his voice, "This is troublesome. Our health center doesn't have an obstetrician, and these girls have never delivered a baby before. Do you know how?"

Chen Ping looked at him. "Yes. But will you let me answer it?"

Zhao Guosheng understood what he meant.

It hadn't been long since the last palpation incident, and he still clearly remembered the scene of that young man chasing Chen Ping around the yard with a chair.

This time it's childbirth, which is more sensitive than palpation. It's not uncommon in Siping Township for men to value their face more than their lives.

Zhao Guosheng gritted his teeth, walked into the ward, pulled the man aside, and whispered, "To tell you the truth, our health center doesn't have an obstetrician. The only one who can deliver babies is this Dr. Chen, but he's a man."

"If you think it's okay, let him deliver the baby right away; if you don't think it's okay, I'll contact the county hospital right now and have them send an ambulance, but it will take at least an hour. I can't guarantee whether your wife can hold on until then."