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

The young woman lying on the door panel was Liu Erzhu's wife.

Lying next to her was a five or six-year-old boy, his face pale, his eyelids tightly closed, his arms hanging limply at his sides, as if he were asleep, but would never wake up again.

Several men and women were kneeling nearby, some pounding the ground and wailing, others holding the young woman's body and shaking her.

One of the elderly women was crying so hard she could barely breathe, crying out, "My daughter, how could you be so foolish?" Her voice was hoarse.

They are probably all the young woman's family members.

Chen Ping stood outside the crowd, his gaze shifting from the young woman's face to the child's face, and then back to the young woman's face.

He noticed the color of the young woman's lips and nails, typical signs of drowning, with traces of foam around her mouth and nose.

He then looked at the child next to him. Although the child's lips were also purple, his face was paler than if he had drowned. There was a faint bluish tinge under his eyelids, and his fingers were curled up in an unnatural way.

The child's stiffness is not the natural relaxation that comes after drowning, but rather the stiffness that comes after losing consciousness before death.

His heart sank suddenly.

The child was already dying before jumping into the river, or rather, he had already passed away.

"Dr. Chen is here! He's a miracle doctor! Let him see if there's any hope!"

At this moment, someone recognized Chen Ping and suddenly shouted loudly.

Upon hearing the shouts, the crowd parted to make way, and several of the bride's family members who were kneeling on the ground raised their heads, a glimmer of hope that had never existed rekindled in their eyes.

The elderly woman scrambled to her feet, grabbing Chen Ping's clothes, her voice hoarse and urgent: "Dr. Chen, please save them! Please save them! My daughter is so young..."

Liu Erzhu and his mother also looked at Chen Ping at the same time, their eyes full of pleading and hope.

They also hoped that Chen Ping could save the woman and child.

Chen Ping didn't say anything, but walked straight over, squatted down, and placed his hand on the young woman's carotid artery.

The skin was cold and there was no pulse.

He examined her eyelids again; her pupils were dilated and fixed, showing no reaction to light.

He placed his hand on the child's wrist again, and there was still a deathly silence; the skin was already ice-cold.

"Why……"

Chen Ping sighed, stood up, and shook his head.

The woman who was clutching his clothes froze, her fingers slowly loosening their grip on his sleeve, and then she collapsed as if her last breath had been sucked out.

People nearby quickly helped her up.

The woman's family rushed back to the two bodies on the ground, their cries rising several pitches higher than before, so shrill they seemed to lift the roofs off the entire alley.

Then someone made a move.

The young woman's brother rushed forward first. He was a burly man with bloodshot eyes. He grabbed Liu Erzhu by the collar and punched him in the face.

Liu Erzhu was knocked back two steps and his back hit the door frame. Before he could regain his balance, the other two members of his wife's family rushed up.

Some pulled his hair, others slapped him, and fists rained down on Liu Erzhu and his mother.

Liu Erzhu's mother was sitting on the ground wailing when someone pushed her on the shoulder, causing her to fall to the ground at the bottom of the steps.

Liu Erzhu was beaten so badly that he curled up in the corner, covering his head, without uttering a sound.

Dozens of neighbors stood around; some turned their heads away, some sighed, and some muttered "serves them right," but no one stepped forward to break up the fight.

Several elderly women stood watching from a distance, clutching the corners of their aprons in their hands. Their lips moved but then closed again; none of them stepped forward.

Chen Ping stood outside the crowd for a moment, then turned and walked away.

Wang Tao followed behind him, and the two of them walked through the crowd of onlookers to the old bicycle at the entrance of the alley.

Chen Ping bent down, kicked the bicycle stand aside, straddled the seat, and pedaled. The bicycle wobbled onto the road.

Wang Tao jumped onto the back seat and sat on the metal frame, surprisingly without complaining about the discomfort.

Neither of them spoke on the way back.

The wind blew in from the wheat field, carrying the scent of moisture and earth, and felt cool on my face.

The bicycle rolled over the gravel on the dirt road, and the tires made a rustling sound.

The mountains in the distance are still the same mountains, and the village is still the same village, but the lingering sense of oppression in the air just won't dissipate.

At this moment, Chen Ping felt depressed and guilty. If he had been more assertive and kept the child, perhaps this wouldn't have happened.

"Master, Liu Erzhu's wife is ruthless enough. The child was so small, yet she jumped into the river with him in her arms. Even tigers don't eat their cubs."

Wang Tao, sitting in the back seat, sighed.

"The child didn't drown," Chen Ping replied calmly.

"Not drowned?" Wang Tao was taken aback.

"The child must have been infected, and ultimately died from a fever because there was no treatment. Liu Erzhu's wife couldn't bear the shock, so she jumped into the river with the child and went with him."

Chen Ping explained.

Hearing this, Wang Tao fell silent. After a long while, he gritted his teeth and said, "Liu Erzhu and his mother deserve to die."

Chen Ping didn't say anything. There were plenty of people who deserved to die, but that's just how the world is.

Good people don't live long, but evil people live for a thousand years...

Chen Ping pedaled the bicycle very fast, venting his frustration.

When we got back to the health center, it was already lunchtime.

Chen Ping leaned his bicycle against the wall, didn't say anything to Wang Tao, and walked straight towards the cafeteria.

Wang Tao followed behind, and the two entered the canteen one after the other. The food was already on the table. Aunt Li had made braised pork ribs, garlic water spinach, and a pot of winter melon soup today, and the aroma filled the room.

Everyone was already seated and had just picked up their chopsticks when they saw Chen Ping come in. Zhao Guosheng greeted him, "Sit down and eat quickly," but as soon as the words left his mouth, he realized something was wrong.

Chen Ping's expression was unlike his usual one; it was tense and heavy, as if something was pressing down on him, and it was clearly visible even across half the table.

He didn't talk to anyone as usual. He sat down in the main seat, picked up his bowl and started eating rice, without picking up much of the other dishes.

He stuffed mouthful after mouthful of rice into his mouth, chewing very quickly, as if he were trying to force something down his throat.

The people at the table exchanged glances, but no one spoke, and even the sound of chopsticks was quieter than usual.

Li Fang couldn't hold back any longer. She put down her chopsticks, looked at Wang Tao, and asked in a low voice, "Wang Tao, what happened when you went to Daliushu Village with your master? Why is Dr. Chen acting like a completely different person when he came back?"

Wang Tao put down his bowl and recounted the events of Daliushu Village from beginning to end.

He tried to keep it brief and didn't go into too much detail, but when those key words popped out one by one, the atmosphere at the table completely changed.

The child died, the woman jumped into the river with the child in her arms, and when they were pulled out, they were both dead. Liu Erzhu and his mother were beaten until their faces were covered in blood, but no one helped them.