Lin Zhai city of Guizhou province was a city in a remote mountainous area in Southeast Huaxia.
Just like Nanjiang, Guizhou was vast with abundant resources, and there were numerous places that had not been developed yet. Hence, the jurisdiction of every city covered a wide range of areas. However, given the lack of development in this province, such a provincial city was less than half the size of first-tier cities in other provinces.
The reason why such a situation occurred was that it was located in a remote place. It was so distant that it was nearly unreachable by the central government. Not only was it difficult to manage this place, but it was also arduous to implement many policies related to urban construction and poverty alleviation here. If the government didn’t put enough effort to alleviate poverty, it wouldn’t make a difference at all. However, if it made great efforts, it would cost a considerable amount of money.
There was a small town in Lin Zhai, which was called Shanli.
Fang Qiu saw the name of this town on Weibo.
Strangely, there were numerous people who mentioned Lin Zhai and Shanli on Weibo. Many of them even specifically explained why Fang Qiu had to go there.
“Lin Zhai is a remote city. There are only four subordinate counties comprised of plenty of villages. Many ethnic minorities lived there. According to the news, countless people got flu in Lin Zhai a month ago. The news media is still following this matter now.”
Seeing this comment, Fang Qiu immediately searched for keywords such as Lin Zhai, Shanli, and flu.
As he searched, he saw several news reports.
Only after reading these news reports carefully did Fang Qiu know that there was indeed a flu pandemic there. It had been going on for more than a month, which wasn’t cured yet.
After reading the news, Fang Qiu decided to go to Lin Zhai!
As Fang Qiu made up his mind, he immediately searched for the phone number of Lin Zhai Chinese Medicine Hospital on the computer. He then took out his phone and made a call.
“Hello, Lin Zhai Chinese Medicine Hospital. What can I do for you?” When the phone was connected, the voice of a nurse at the front desk came.
“Hello, I’m Fang Qiu,” Fang Qiu didn’t hesitate and immediately said, “I hope I can see patients in your hospital for a day. If possible, can you help me reach your director?”
“Fang Qiu? Okay, hold on, please. I’ll transfer your call to the director right away,” the nurse responded in excitement.
“Beep, beep…” After the transferring sound rang twice, the phone was picked up.
“Hello?” A slightly deep voice came from the other end of the line.
“Hello, I’m Fang Qiu,” Fang Qiu said, “I saw the news online that there is a flu pandemic in your city. It just so happens that I’m about to have a consultation this month, so I wonder if I can see patients in your hospital.”
“Yes, of course, you can!” Hearing that, the director immediately became excited and hurriedly said, “When will you come? I’ll try my best to arrange everything.”
“The day after tomorrow,” said Fang Qiu.
“Okay, no problem.” The director immediately nodded without any hesitation as if he was catering to Fang Qiu instead of the other way around.
“Thank you. See you the day after tomorrow.” Fang Qiu expressed his gratitude and hung up the phone.
After answering the phone, the director of Lin Zhai Chinese Medicine Hospital was ecstatic.
He thought to himself, “Fang Qiu is coming. He actually wants to come to this small city. Regardless of whether his medical skills are good or not, at least he’s very famous. Moreover, with him here, the patients have a good chance of surviving. Even if he can’t cure them, his reputation will definitely cause the media to report it on TV. At that time, there will definitely be more experts coming over.”
At the thought of this, the director didn’t hesitate, immediately picked up the phone on the desk, and said, “Call all the seriously ill patients immediately and ask them to come over the day after tomorrow.”
The person on the other end of the line asked, “What about the patients without phones?”
The director said firmly, “Go pick them up.”
“Director, you know the geography here. Besides, many patients live in remote mountainous areas. If we go to pick them up, we must set off now so that we can bring all of them here,” the person smiled wryly on the other end of the line.
“Then go get them now,” the director immediately responded and said, “No matter what, we must bring all the patients who are seriously ill here the day after tomorrow.”
“What happened? Why are you in such a hurry?” Asked the person on the other end of the line.
The director said in excitement, “It’s Fang Qiu. Fang Qiu is coming.”
“Fang Qiu? Really?” The person on the other end of the line also cried out in surprise and then immediately said, “I’ll do it now. Don’t worry. I’ll definitely bring all the patients here!”
After confirming where he would have the consultation, Fang Qiu did not announce the consultation address on Weibo as before. This time, he was only going to see the condition of the flu. It would be inappropriate if he attracted patients from other regions after announcing it. After all, that was a remote mountainous area and the people there needed help more urgently.
Meanwhile, the director of Lin Zhai Chinese Medicine Hospital did not make any publicity, nor did he inform the media to publicize it.
Everything was patient-oriented.
On the third day, Fang Qiu came to the gate of Lin Zhai Chinese Medicine Hospital early in the morning because he got on the plane in the middle of the night.
When he got out of the car, he still found it rare while looking at the empty hospital gate in front of him.
After all, every time he did consultations, any Chinese Medicine hospital he visited would be crowded with people. It was rare to see such a hospital that was not packed at all.
“It seems that this hospital is thinking of the same thing as me.” Fang Qiu nodded to himself.
“Welcome, welcome!” When he was about to enter the hospital, someone called in excitement.
He looked up.
A middle-aged man in a grayish-blue suit was walking out of the clinic hall of the hospital in surprise. He ran straight to Fang Qiu and held his hand.
“Hello, may I ask who you are?” Asked Fang Qiu politely.
“I’m the director of Lin Zhai Chinese Medicine Hospital. My name is Lin Chao,” said the middle-aged man.
“Hello, Director Lin,” Fang Qiu hurriedly greeted him with a smile.
“Nice to meet you. Shall we get in first?” Lin Chao replied and then pointed to the hospital.
“Okay,” Fang Qiu nodded.
With Director Lin leading the way, Fang Qiu walked into the hospital.
But as soon as he entered the hospital, Fang Qiu saw a large number of patients in the clinic hall. They all came with their families. Some were wearing normal clothes while others were wearing all kinds of ethnic clothes, such as the clothes of the Miao, the Dong and the Yi.
These people were significantly different from those in the city.
Their skin was a little dark. It should be the tan color that people in the city envied very much. But the tanned skin didn’t make them look handsome and muscular like what people in the city imagined. Instead, it made them look particularly withered though they already looked weary at such a young age.
Fang Qiu saw a woman holding a baby in her arms with a blue cloth. There was nothing decent on the baby’s body, only rags of different colors.
Fang Qiu also saw an old man with a bamboo basket which was nearly worn out on his back. He was sitting on a chair in the waiting area. He opened his mouth from time to time, and he lost all his teeth. His aged appearance made people sympathize with him.
There were also many different people.
Seeing these people, Fang Qiu fell silent.
Without further ado, he directly asked the director to take him to the consulting room and immediately began to see patients!
As he started to see patients, the patients who were waiting in the hospital all walked into the consulting room full of expectation. After being treated, they came out with relief.
Unlike the patients, Fang Qiu, who was sitting in the consulting room, was in a heavy mood because he found that these patients were all suffering from serious diseases.
The most important thing was that this place was remote. As he judged from their clothes, these people were not rich. These serious diseases could be cured in the city, but in such remote mountainous areas, they could only resign themselves to their fate.
This problem made Fang Qiu feel heavy-hearted!
The strangest thing was that Fang Qiu had seen many patients in a row, but he didn’t find any patients suffering from the flu, which made him very confused.
When he was searching earlier, he decided to come here especially because of the flu pandemic. However, when he started seeing the patients here, he didn’t even see any patients with the flu. It was really strange.
Although feeling puzzled, Fang Qiu did not ask but continued to treat patients.
It took Fang Qiu a whole day and night to see all the patients with serious diseases lining up in the hospital.
It was early morning the next day. After all the patients were treated and left, the director walked into the consulting room, carried a bowl of warm local food, placed it on the table in front of Fang Qiu, and personally made a cup of tea for Fang Qiu. “Come, eat something.”
“Thank you,” Fang Qiu thanked him.
“You’re being too polite. I should be the one to thank you on behalf of all the patients in our hospital.” As Director Lin spoke, he took out a thick envelope from his trouser pocket and handed it to Fang Qiu. Meanwhile, he said, “It would be great if you could stay with us. The medical conditions here are too poor.”
“What’s this?” Fang Qiu was stunned when he saw the envelope that Lin Chao handed to him.
The director said, “This is your consultation fee.”
“No need,” Fang Qiu immediately shook his head and said, “I’ve never accepted any fee. It’s a free clinic. I can’t break the rules.”
Hearing that, Director Lin fell silent for a while, then put away the envelope and said to Fang Qiu, “On behalf of all the patients, thank you again. I really hope there can be more doctors like you so that the medical conditions here will not be so bad.”
Fang Qiu smiled.
“By the way,” after taking a few bites of the food sent by Director Lin, Fang Qiu thought of the flu pandemic and asked, “I’ve seen several news reports that there is a serious flu pandemic here. Why haven’t I seen a single patient with the flu after treating so many patients here?”
“That’s because of me.” Director Lin gave a wry smile and said, “I didn’t ask them to come, and I didn’t tell anyone that you were here.”
Fang Qiu frowned.
At this moment, the nurse, who had been helping Fang Qiu for a day and a night in the consulting room, suddenly walked in from the table at the door with misty eyes and said, “Doctor Fang, don’t get him wrong. The director did this out of kindness. The patients you treated during this period are all poor people who had suffered from serious diseases for a long time. Hence, after the director knew that you were coming, he made up his mind to give priority to their treatment. After all, you only stay in our hospital for a short time. You may not come here again.
“Besides, these patients didn’t pay for their treatment. The hospital also covers their treatment fee. The director even personally asked staff in the hospital to pick up many patients in the remote areas by car.”
