Ai San first took Liu Zhengliang for an initial rinse, letting him soak briefly before giving him a scrub. Then he led Liu Zhengliang to the dining area for some barbecue. After eating, they would proceed to the sauna, sip tea and chat. Once done with the sauna, they’d get a shoulder massage and back walk, then rinse off once more—only then was the bath considered complete. In the winter, everywhere in the Northeast was blanketed in ice and snow, but inside the bathhouse, it felt like spring all year round.
While washing, Ai San stole a few glances at Liu Zhengliang. Software required continuous maintenance and updates, but hardware was hard to modify. Ai San noticed that Liu Zhengliang, a tall and slender young man, had decent hardware, and he secretly curled his lip in mild disdain.
After rinsing off, they went to eat grilled meat. As they ate, Liu Zhengliang wanted to talk to Ai San: "Let’s chat while we eat."
Without even pausing his chewing, Ai San raised a hand in a stop gesture, chewed for a while with his back teeth, swallowed the bite, and only then said to Liu Zhengliang, "Eat first. We’ll talk after we finish."
Once they had eaten their fill, Ai San picked his teeth with a toothpick. The two sat in the sauna room drinking tea, and only then did Ai San speak to Liu Zhengliang: "I think you’re talented, but I also have my doubts. Do you really intend to stay cooped up in a small place like Fushun? So many people here want to venture out but can’t—they don’t have what it takes. But you do. My daughter isn’t getting any younger, and we can’t afford to delay another two or three years. Who knows—one day you might fly away, and if she’s left here after being strung along for years, she might never recover from it."
Liu Zhengliang lowered his head and remained silent for a while before saying, "I really am not content. After studying for so many years, all I can do back here is work as an emergency room doctor. To grow in this profession, you need a large number of patients and cases to build experience, and on the other hand, you need research projects. Although I’ve felt quite accomplished in the more than a year since I returned, the more accomplished I feel, the more a sense of crisis grows. When I was in Beijing, you could feel how the industry was filled with top talents. You could randomly meet a renowned doctor and learn from them things you couldn’t figure out on your own even after years of pondering. But here, it feels like I can already see what I’ll be like in my fifties or sixties."Ai San said, "I understand you. Working as a doctor in a place like Fushun, you can pretty much predict what kind of funeral you'll have someday and who'll deliver your eulogy. In a small town, there's only so much room to climb. Those who become district chiefs or mayors are usually the smooth talkers, not necessarily the most capable. The truly skilled and technically proficient often don't get promoted because you're good at what you do—if you leave, there's no one else to take over, so you end up stuck in your role. As a leader, I leverage the expertise of professionals like you to build my own achievements. But let me tell you, believe it or not, there might come a time when something big suddenly happens, and it's the professionals who have to step up. In critical moments, it's the technically skilled who hold the line. No matter how well you can talk, when there's a fire, it's the firefighters who rush into the flames; no matter how persuasive you are, when a major case breaks, it's the detectives who solve it; no matter how eloquently you argue, during an epidemic, it's the doctors who perform the surgeries. Under the clear sun and bright sky, I tell you, nothing seems obvious in ordinary times, but when trouble strikes, it's the moment to separate the wheat from the chaff, to see who's truly capable. So, don't feel too stifled here. Do you think the country would let honest people always get the short end of the stick? At the end of the day, knowledge is the most valuable asset, brains are the most precious, and skills are the most worthwhile. In such a vast nation, it's impossible for one profession to always give more and receive less—over time, no one would want to do it anymore. My line of work might be highly profitable, but I can't just go to a university and start a program teaching students to sing 'Crying for Nine Packages.' What good would it do if everyone learned it? If you say there's no research here, then why not do the research yourself? No one's stopping you from studying more after work."
Liu Zhengliang said with a laugh, "How can research projects be done alone at home? They require teamwork, extensive clinical trials, and data analysis. These kinds of research need to be approved by the state—our hospital doesn't have that capability. But recently, I've been looking into cervical and lumbar spine diseases. Coincidentally, a good friend of my mother's has this condition and asked me to help find a renowned doctor in Beijing. While searching, I came across a rather interesting theory and started studying it just for fun. I've been in this field since before I graduated, and it's been ten years now. The medical profession is different from many others; we spend our whole lives learning. If I relied only on what I learned in college to get by, I'd start feeling uneasy inside."
Ai San sighed, "From the looks of it, once you catch your breath, you'll still have to go out and make your mark, won't you?"
Liu Zhengliang said, "Most likely. I need to show my teacher that I'm not going to muddle through life aimlessly. Even if it's just to prove a point, I want him to regret underestimating me. Besides, heaven gave me this brain and allowed me to learn this skill—I have to make some noise with it to feel worthy of myself."
Ai San said, "Actually, our family isn't short on money. If you and Ai Chen got together, you wouldn't have to worry about food or shelter—cars, houses, you'd have it all. You could live comfortably without having to venture out. In this life, no matter how much money you make, you only sleep in one bed. As Zhao Benshan said, that little box is your permanent home."
Liu Zhengliang replied, "I grew up poor, so I can handle being poor again. I can endure hardship, but what I fear most is a life without purpose."At this point, Ai San began to feel somewhat panicked. When Ai Chen had her puppy love earlier, he was still in prison. By the time he got out, he hadn't properly disciplined his daughter. But this time, he could sense that his daughter hadn't chosen the wrong person. However, although this man appeared refined and amiable on the surface, he wasn't the typical Northeasterner—not the kind who acts tough and fierce outwardly but is actually soft-hearted inside.
Later, when Ai San was drinking with his buddies at the shop, they asked, "You went to meet your future son-in-law? Did the father-in-law approve?" Ai San replied, "When we Northeasterners fight, after knocking the other person down, we still ask if they admit defeat. If they don't, we let them stand up and keep fighting; if they do, we stop. That's the Northeastern character—seemingly reckless, just wanting to save face, but soft-hearted inside. But this kid isn't like that. I'm afraid that one day he might harden his heart and say, 'Screw this, with my skills, I can live well anywhere. Why should I work my ass off here for just three or four thousand a month?' Once a capable person starts thinking like that, it's over—no one can stop them. What can my daughter do? We have no education, no special skills. Sure, she's pretty, takes after her mom. But as Ai Chen's biological father, I have to say, who can stand looking at the same face every day? There will come a time when they get tired of it. If he hardens his heart and leaves for Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, or Hangzhou to make money in the south, how could my daughter follow him? How much common ground can two people have after a long time?"
From then on, Ai San started subtly discouraging Ai Chen from time to time. Whenever Ai Chen wanted to go see Liu Zhengliang, he would assign her tasks. You can't outright forbid your daughter from contacting such a good young man—and you have no valid reason anyway—so you assign tasks. Maybe after this infatuation phase cools down, her feelings will naturally fade.
Not long after, something happened with Chen Junnan.
At the time, five or six vocational school girls got into a fight. These fifteen- or sixteen-year-old girls were learning how to operate lathes and process sheet material at the workshop. A group of teenagers who usually didn't get along—hot-tempered youths who rubbed each other the wrong way—ended up brawling. One of them grabbed a screwdriver and stabbed another girl several times, then kicked her toward the staircase, sending her tumbling from the third floor all the way down to the first.
When the girl was brought to the hospital, she was still alert—just some scrapes on her face, a few bumps on her head, some bruises on her body, and several pinprick-sized wounds on her thighs and arms from the screwdriver stabbings.
That day, Liu Zhengliang was on leave, accompanying Ai Chen to Tieling to purchase lumber. Che Mingming had also been dispatched to a rural hospital for visits. Only Chen Junnan and a few nurses were on duty in the emergency room.
The girl was still clear-headed, so Chen Junnan asked, "Where are you injured?"
Like a tomboy, the girl pointed all over her body and said, "Everything hurts. They stabbed me several times on the thighs."
Seeing that she was only fifteen or sixteen, Chen Junnan proceeded with a physical examination. He checked her entire body and found that aside from the other minor injuries, the screwdriver wounds weren't in critical areas. After examining her fully undressed, only her underwear remained.
Chen Junnan asked, "Do we need to remove your underwear?"
The girl immediately shook her head vigorously like a rattle-drum.Chen Junnan thought to himself: I'm a grown man, and she's an underage girl. There's no major injury, no visible blood - it would be completely inappropriate for me to remove her underwear, spread her legs, and stare intently at that area. So he didn't have the child remove her underwear for examination.
He just prescribed some anti-inflammatory medication for the child, bandaged the wound, and placed her in the observation room to wait for her parents. Once they signed the paperwork, she could pretty much be discharged.
Chen Junnan even told the young girl: "If you feel your physical condition isn't good, you can continue staying. After all, someone else is paying for it, so don't be polite."
The girl replied: "Don't worry, I won't be polite. I've finally found them a place to spend money - at the very least it'll be minor injury. Anyway, I'll just say I'm feeling dizzy. You should conduct whatever examinations you need to, make their families bleed some money, spend as much as possible on my medical treatment."
Chen Junnan said with a laugh: "Oh, you're quite knowledgeable about the law."
The girl said: "These days, if you don't understand some law, how can you get by in society?"
Chen Junnan said: "Then you rest in the observation room, I need to attend to other patients."
In his busyness, Chen Junnan forgot about the girl.
After a while, police officers arrived to check the situation. If necessary, they would need a forensic doctor to examine the injuries. The deputy police chief also mentioned that whether it was minor injury or slight injury would determine different case handling procedures - slight injury only leads to detention, while minor injury requires judicial procedures.
The head nurse brought the deputy police chief to see the girl. After lightly patting her a couple of times with no response, the head nurse thought it was strange - she'd been sleeping for two hours, that shouldn't be the case. Upon closer look, she was unconscious.
Chen Junnan rushed over to check, wondering if she had hit her head. A brain CT scan showed no cerebral hemorrhage, hematoma, or other issues. When they examined her abdomen, they discovered massive internal bleeding. Soon her breathing stopped, and her blood pressure dropped extremely low.
Chen Junnan panicked and immediately began emergency treatment. Even after administering 2000ml of type B blood, her blood pressure continued to plummet.
When he checked her heartbeat again, it had already stopped.
Prying open her eyes to check the pupils - they were fully dilated.
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