From Nandu to Nanqiao County, the high-speed train takes four hours, then switch to a long-distance bus that bumps along mountain roads for another two and a half hours.
Li Min sat by the window, a sowhat worn black backpack resting on his knees. There wasn’t much luggage inside, just a few changes of clothes, and a stack of study notes compiled under the guidance of Professor Yang Ping. The notes were heavy, and he couldn’t bear to check them in, so he held them in his arms the whole way.
The road winds along the mountainside, bend after bend. Li Min is familiar with this road; he’s been traveling it for ten years.
The passengers on the bus were mostly dozing off, except for a few young mothers with children gently soothing the babies in their arms. The compartnt slled of a mix of instant noodles and oranges. Li Min pushed the window open a crack, letting in a breeze carrying the scent of earth.
This was the sll he knew well.
He closed his eyes, but another scene appeared in his mind.
The demonstration room of the Sanbo Research Institute, Professor Yang Ping stood in front of the whiteboard, personally giving him a lecture. The textbook was compiled by Professor Yang himself for him, sothing he never imagined he’d experience: a world-renowned dical scientist teaching him hands-on.
Then, bit by bit, his experiences of training at Sanbo Hospital played out in his mind, the care from his senior colleagues in the departnt, each departnt head personally guiding him during rotations, and every ti during case discussions, Professor Yang encouraging him to speak...
The car jolted suddenly, waking him from his mories.
The conductor leaned over: "For Guandu, are you getting off at the next intersection?"
"Yes, yes!" Li Min quickly got up and slung the backpack on his back.
The intersection on the side of the highway is the entrance to Guandu Town, and two hundred ters ahead is the town’s only main street. After getting off, Li Min didn’t imdiately head towards the clinic but stood by the roadside, staring blankly into the distance.
There, on the eastern side of the town, was once a wasteland. Now, a brand new, white eight-story building stood there. The exterior walls were lightly gray stone paint, appearing remarkably bright against the backdrop of the surrounding dull, gray residential houses. On the top of the building, in the center, were four dark red characters: Guandu Hospital.
Li Min’s throat moved a bit.
He had seen the rendering of this building in Sanbo’s news feed and had received a personal invitation from Chairman Cheng Liquan for the completion ceremony. But seeing it in person was a completely different shock. It was so big, so new, so unlike the Guandu Town Clinic he rembered, with its peeling walls, dim corridors, and only an old X-ray machine that often broke down.
He stood there for a long ti before stepping towards the clinic—no, it should be said, towards the "new hospital."
The old clinic was still at its original location. He turned into the alley he’d walked for ten years and saw from a distance the green iron gate with peeling paint left ajar, and Old Wang, the gatekeeper, squatting in the sun at the entrance.
"Old Wang." Li Min called out.
Old Wang looked up, squinting to recognize him, and suddenly stood up: "Dr. Li! Dr. Li is back!"
His voice was loud enough to startle a few sparrows sunnily perched on the wall. Then a wave of noise ca from inside the outpatient building, the sound of footsteps running, sothing falling with a crisp noise, and then the Elderly Director rushed out from the office on the second floor.
Li Min had never seen the seventy-one-year-old Elderly Director run so fast. Holding onto the stair rail, he almost took the steps two at a ti; his white gown was caught by the wind, resembling a half-worn flag.
"Director..." Li Min went up to him.
The Elderly Director stood in front of him, gasping for breath, unable to say a word. He just stared intently at Li Min’s face for a long ti. Those cloudy old eyes filled with sothing that he struggled to hold back.
Then, the Elderly Director extended his age-spotted, slightly deford hand from years of holding a surgical knife and grasped Li Min’s hand.
He didn’t speak.
Li Min didn’t speak either.
A circle of people had gathered in the corridor—Dr. Zhang from Internal dicine, Nurse Director Wang from Obstetrics and Gynecology, Sister Liu from the pharmacy, and a few young faces freshly assigned and just graduated. Everyone quietly watched this scene.
A tear slipped from the Elderly Director’s eye.
He didn’t wipe it away, but let it follow the deep wrinkles down his face, slowly flowing to the corner of his mouth.
"Good!" The Elderly Director finally spoke, his voice hoarse, "Good! It’s good to have you back."
He repeated it, as if confirming sothing: "You’re back!"
Li Min’s eyes turned red too; he knew the Elderly Director wasn’t just saying, "Li Min is back."
What the Elderly Director ant was: Finally, soone has co back.
Guandu Town in Nanqiao County, one of the most remote towns in Nandu Province. It takes two and a half hours by car from the county seat, with forty minutes of the journey on winding mountain roads without guardrails, often landsliding during the rainy season. The town has no train station, no highway exit, and the nearest bus stop is thirty-two kiloters away in the neighboring town.
Guandu Town Clinic is located at the end of such a road.
Li Min was twenty-one when he ca; the Elderly Director was sixty-one, already past retirent age, but because there was no successor, he held on and didn’t retire. The first words he said upon eting Li Min were: "It’s a hardship for you!"
Li Min replied: "It’s not a hardship!"
He stayed in the town clinic for ten years. In ten years, he sent off eight young doctors who ca to work at the clinic, seven resigned and went to the city, and one got into graduate school and never returned. In ten years, the Elderly Director’s hair turned from gray to white, and his back went from straight to hunched.
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