Liu Zhengliang said, "This isn't dirt—it's aluminum oxide. Aluminum plants produce electrolytic aluminum, and this kind of dust easily forms during the calcination process."
Ai Chen asked, "Is this stuff particularly polluting?"
Liu Zhengliang replied, "This isn't too bad. Wearing a mask can pretty much protect you. What's really concerning is the hydrogen fluoride produced during electrolysis—that stuff is highly toxic. During industrial aluminum smelting, there's still a small amount of water vapor in the furnace. When water vapor reacts with fluoride salts at high temperatures, it produces hydrogen fluoride gas. Even though I haven't been in Fushun for years, I know the number of people in aluminum plants who've gotten skeletal fluorosis, lung cancer, and bone cancer is countless. People back then didn't understand protection. As soon as they saw they could make money, they neglected safety measures. Saving one protective mask a day meant they could buy a piece of clothing by the end of the month. By their thirties and forties, all these breadwinners fell ill. In occupational disease hospitals, Fushun patients mainly fall into two categories: those with chronic hydrogen fluoride poisoning from aluminum plants, and those with silicosis from steel mills. I suspect Su Jing's husband got lung cancer because of this."
Ai Chen asked, "Why can salt react with water?"
Liu Zhengliang explained, "Not table salt—fluoride salts react with water to produce hydrogen fluoride, which is an acid with the chemical formula HF. This pollutant enters the human body through breathing or contact with skin and mucous membranes. If you ask the elderly living around aluminum plants, few don't have rhinitis or bronchitis. Over time, many workers develop skeletal issues—aching arms and legs everywhere, deformed joints, difficulty walking, bedridden for years, eating and relieving themselves in bed. These people are now in their seventies and eighties, many have passed away in the last decade, and only a few remain. Things are better now—production processes and protective equipment have improved, unlike before when people essentially traded their lives for money. That's why older folks always tell their children to study away and not return. What would they do coming back? They'd just end up in workshops, sick for life."
Ai Chen said, "Now that you mention it, I remember how it was over a decade ago. There wasn't a community without someone bedridden from occupational diseases. But what you said about that salt—I didn't understand it. All my schooling went to waste. I didn't retain anything, didn't learn anything. I'm not educated. If you think about it, look at me—I have no culture. If we were really together, we wouldn't have common topics to talk about all day. Eventually, you'd find you had nothing to say to me. You might say I'm good-looking—plenty of men approach me—but no matter how pretty, after seven or eight years, everyone ages. No one can find you attractive forever."
Ai Chen said this with a hint of melancholy. This educated man before her was someone she greatly admired, yet she felt she couldn't reach his level.
Liu Zhengliang asked, "What about that civil servant from the Development and Reform Commission your father introduced to you? Didn't that go further?"Upon hearing this, Ai Chen's tears immediately fell. She sobbed, "My father has a criminal record—intentional assault. The matchmaker said it would affect our children's political screenings in the future. If our child wants to join the military, the Party, or pursue any advancement, they’d check the family background and find a convicted ex-convict. Three generations would be affected. People say they don’t care about the bride’s family conditions, but at the very least, they want a decent family. Otherwise, why do you think I’m still single at thirty-two? Am I only fit for settling with someone mediocre? I want to find someone I truly like—someone smart, who understands things better than I do. I’d gladly be the simple-minded one and spend my life with him, have a chubby baby, and live a happy, harmonious life. That’s all I aspire to."
Liu Zhengliang didn’t know how to comfort her. Gently patting her shoulder, he said, "Look, I’ve made mistakes too. I almost lost my professional license."
Ai Chen wrapped her arms around Liu Zhengliang’s neck, burying her face in the crook of his neck, a faint smile playing on her lips.
Liu Zhengliang had never experienced this kind of love in his life—a clingy, unreserved affection. But he quickly regained his composure, gently moving her away from his shoulder, and said, "Calm down. Let me calm down too."
Ai Chen retorted, "Calm down? What for?" and planted a kiss on him. An ordinary woman’s kiss might touch your heart, but a kiss from someone like Ai Chen goes straight to your head.
After kissing for a while, Ai Chen said, "Can we find a clean, quiet place to talk? This dump has no atmosphere and no scenery."
Ai Chen drove Liu Zhengliang to the long embankment by the Hun River to sit for a while. Throughout the drive, she gripped the steering wheel, suppressing a smile. She asked Liu Zhengliang, "How much does a capable doctor like you make in a month?"
Liu Zhengliang replied, "I take home a little over four thousand. Our department head makes six thousand."
Ai Chen said, "That’s way too little. You studied for over twenty years, and you only make a thousand more than a waiter opening beer bottles in a restaurant. If you count their performance bonuses for opening bottles, they might even make a thousand more than you. But let me tell you, this is temporary—it can’t stay like this forever. I may not be educated, but I know that if more education meant less pay, no one would study. If the streets were full of uneducated people, who would treat the sick?"
Liu Zhengliang said, "First, we need to solve the issue of doctors always being bullied. Only when knowledge is respected will people want to become doctors or study medicine. Back when we were in school, what did we think of medical school? We saw it as a path to drastically improve our family’s quality of life. Now, if any kid asks me what major to choose for college, I wonder if I should talk them out of it."
Ai Chen asked, "Do you miss Peace Hospital?"
Liu Zhengliang said, "To be honest, I’m still thinking of ways to go back. There’s a certain atmosphere there that you can’t find anywhere else."
Ai Chen asked, "What kind of atmosphere?"Liu Zhengliang said, "Take local hospitals, for example. While most people are upright, doctors aren't saints either. Things like professional title evaluations, competing for research projects, deciding who leads the study—these interest-driven matters. You definitely won't see how department heads bully professors with research projects, how professors bully attending physicians, how attending physicians bully graduate students, and how graduate students bully the more vulnerable ones. These issues exist wherever there are people—where there are people, there are left, middle, and right factions, and there is struggle. Whether it's evaluating professional titles or selecting outstanding workers, everything follows a hierarchy of seniority and status. With my personality, I definitely couldn't last a day in such an environment. But fortunately, Heping Hospital doesn't have these problems. Heping Hospital has a respect for professional competence, and that sense of happiness from gaining knowledge every day is what I cherish the most."
Ai Chen asked, "Intellectuals can be the most cunning when they play mind games. Did you get bullied at the Second Hospital?"
Liu Zhengliang said, "I never planned to stay there long anyway. Besides, this small hospital has no research projects or scientific studies, so interpersonal relationships are actually simpler. I find it quite enjoyable."
The two chatted until past nine in the evening before Ai Chen reluctantly saw Liu Zhengliang home. When the car pulled into the courtyard, Liu Zhengliang's mother saw everything.
As soon as Liu Zhengliang entered the house, his mother asked, "Was that Ai San's daughter? Are you trying to kill me with anger or what? Do you plan to rot in Fushun for the rest of your life? Don't you know that if you two get married, your future children will have fewer opportunities than others? They'll be born inferior—do you understand? Your father and I scrimped and saved to provide for you to this extent, and now you're going to make us die of anger, is that it? Let me tell you, if you keep seeing her, don't bother coming through this door again."
Furious, Liu Zhengliang turned around and went to his grandfather's place to stay the night, riding a small motorcycle clattering across the entire city in the late evening. The old man, being older and needing less sleep, saw his grandson looking upset and asked what was wrong. Liu Zhengliang told him everything about Ai Chen.
The old man said, "What's the big deal? When a man chooses a wife, why overthink it? Is the girl pretty? Pretty? Then that's enough. Social status, family conditions—it's all nonsense. Look at me and your grandmother. My father was a Nationalist prisoner—could your pressure be greater than mine? I saw her, I liked her, and I knew I wanted to spend my life with this woman. She's beautiful, and I never get tired of looking at her. A real man shouldn't hesitate too much. If you like someone, go for it. As long as you don't regret it. Heaven will help balance things out."
Liu Zhengliang could always connect with his grandfather. After their talk, he lay on the bed in the bedroom where the movie star Li Xianglan had once stayed, holding his phone and scrolling through Ai Chen's social media feed.
Suddenly, he saw a post from his ex-girlfriend from Hubei: "A glass of wine, two people." The picture showed two wine glasses and a bottle of wine, with a beach as the background and two pairs of faintly visible feet.
Liu Zhengliang gave it a like and thought for a long time about commenting something like "The scenery is beautiful" just to make his presence known. But while he was typing, the post became unavailable.
He had only given it a like, and yet he was blocked from viewing her social media feed.
Chapter 13People in Fushun love to drink. After drinking, all their worries vanish, and they sleep soundly through the night until dawn. Middle-aged men often envy young men in their adolescence—their minds can rest whenever they want, and their bodies are ready for action at any moment. But for middle-aged men, it’s a different story. Sleep depends on their mood, and action depends on the atmosphere. If they’re in a bad mood, they toss and turn, unable to sleep. If the atmosphere isn’t right, no matter how hard they try, it’s all in vain.
Just then, an ambulance brought in a patient reeking of alcohol, vomiting uncontrollably. As the ambulance came to a stop, the nurse rushed out first, feeling nauseous for a while. The man had vomited again in the ambulance.
Che Mingming hurried over to take a look, glancing at the mess out of the corner of his eye. "He didn’t eat much, did he? Just drank on an empty stomach. How much did he have? Even a plate of peanuts would’ve kept him from getting this bad."
Chen Junnan asked the nurse, "What’s the situation?"
The nurse replied, "Fifty years old, chest pain, constant vomiting. He’s made a mess of the ambulance."
Chen Junnan’s eyes lit up immediately. "Damn, the guy drank himself into a myocardial infarction. Quick, let’s handle this. Was an ECG done?"
The emergency nurse answered, "We did it in the ambulance. ST segment elevation with upward convexity."
Acute myocardial infarction generally presents in two ways. One is a complete collapse, with ST segment elevation on the ECG. The other possibility is a localized myocardial infarction, where the ST segment is depressed. Clearly, based on the ECG, Chen Junnan made his judgment right away. This is basic knowledge taught in undergraduate studies, part of a doctor’s fundamental skills—there’s no room for error.
With that judgment made, the subsequent examination and treatment plan began to take shape. First, draw blood for tests to check myocardial enzyme levels, then look at troponin.
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