Many of the educated youth from the Agricultural Reclamation Group had signed up to work on the reservoir construction, and Yunyi and the others consequently became very busy. It seemed that every day, either someone crushed their foot, or someone else had their shoulder rubbed raw from pulling a cart. To have one’s shoulder chafed raw even through a padded jacket—it was astonishing to imagine the immense effort required.
One day, as Yunyi was busy, a woman stumbled in, carrying a child and wailing, "Doctor, save him, please!"
Yunyi looked up, her brow furrowing instantly as she recognized the person—it was the aunt of the boy who had injured his neck with glass a few days prior. "What happened to the child?"
No sooner had she asked than she saw the woman remove the thin cover from the child, revealing his clothes were completely soaked and his small face was alarmingly pale. Yunyi quickly finished with the patient she was attending to and stood up. "Bring the child over here."
While examining the child, she said to the woman, "Hurry back and fetch a set of clean clothes for the boy. He needs to be changed out of these wet ones immediately." After speaking, she took the child, placed him on the examination table, and covered him with the thin blanket she had just removed. Seeing the woman still standing there, stunned, Yunyi urged, "What are you waiting for? Go now!"
Hearing Yunyi’s call, the woman finally snapped out of her daze. "Doctor, you must cure him." The conflicted expression on the woman’s face surprised Yunyi.
However, by the time Yunyi had completed the child’s examination and given him medicine, the woman had still not returned. Yunyi couldn’t bear to see a child suffer, so she found an excuse to go home. She entered her interdimensional space and rummaged through a pile of items acquired from the Shen Family, eventually finding clothes suitable for the child. After checking them for any distinguishing marks, she packed them and left the space.
When she returned to the clinic, the woman was still not back. The child was a bit drowsy but hadn’t fallen asleep. Yunyi carried him, still wrapped in the thin blanket, to a ward at the back. "Do you have the strength to change your clothes yourself?"
The boy nodded, then shook his head. "I don’t have any clothes to change into."
He had heard Yunyi telling his aunt to go home and get clothes. He’d waited for so long, and she still hadn’t returned. His aunt’s in-laws must have forbidden her from bringing them. His small face was etched with dejection.
Yunyi sighed softly. "I found a set for you from somewhere else. Change into these for now. You’re already unwell; you can’t keep wearing wet clothes." With that, Yunyi left the ward, as there were still patients waiting out front.
Initially, whether it was the educated youth from the Agricultural Reclamation Group or commune members from nearby villages, most sought out Doctor Qiu, considering the young Yunyi unreliable. However, as time went on, several patients who had been on medication for years showed significant improvement under Yunyi’s treatment, and her reputation grew considerably. Furthermore, people from Songling Village who were visiting relatives also spread word of Yunyi’s medical skills. Consequently, a steady stream of patients had been arriving at her door in recent days, keeping Yunyi incredibly busy.
As it neared closing time, the woman who had gone to fetch clothes still hadn’t returned. Yunyi approached Doctor Qiu to ask about the little boy. "Doctor Qiu," she began, "that little boy’s mother still hasn’t come back. What’s their family situation?"
Doctor Qiu looked momentarily perplexed. It took him a moment to realize whom Yunyi was asking about, and then Guo Anyi came to mind. "The boy’s name is Guo Anyi," he said. "The woman who brought him is his aunt, Guo Shuiyu. The old woman who brought him in the other day when he injured his neck is his aunt’s mother-in-law. Guo Shuiyu’s husband, Zhang Chunshan, is a demobilized soldier whose hometown is Zhang Family Village, not far from our Hua’an Farm Reclamation. After being demobilized, he became a driver for the Hua’an Farm Reclamation’s motor pool." As he spoke, he glanced towards the door. "Guo Anyi was sent here by his family two years ago. Parcels arrive for him every month. Publicly, the Zhang Family doesn’t let their children bully him, but privately, I’m afraid he endures quite a bit of mistreatment." For more chapters visit novel·fire·net
The implications of his words were grave. Yunyi asked, "Doesn’t Zhang Chunshan, his uncle, intervene?"
Doctor Qiu chuckled and shook his head. "Zhang Chunshan is the second son in his family. He has an older brother, a younger brother, and a younger sister, plus two sons and a daughter of his own. With such a large extended family living together, even if he wanted to step in, he’d be powerless to do much."