At Daqing Mountain, with its eighteen winding turns, a lone SUV meandered through the mountain road on a winter day.
“Dr. Qi, why didn’t you stay overnight in the city and come up the mountain tomorrow morning?” The driver was a young man, dark and thin—a child from the mountains who was quite talkative.
While driving with ease, he glanced at the woman in the passenger seat.
The woman wore a white down jacket, her hair permed into large curls and tied back, with light makeup. She wore no hairpins or earrings, but in the young driver’s eyes, even the most fashionably dressed women from the city theater troupe couldn’t match this woman’s… well, charm.
People from big cities really were different, even in their bones.
“There’s a patient waiting for surgery. I gathered the supplies and am returning today so they can be used first thing tomorrow morning. Otherwise, he’d have to wait another day,” Qi Yue said, withdrawing her gaze from the car window and smiling at the young driver.
She had an oval face with large, bright black eyes, and when she smiled, two dimples appeared.
“How old is Dr. Qi this year?” the young driver couldn’t help but blurt out. After the words left his mouth, he realized how abrupt it was and blushed with embarrassment.
“Me? I’m old,” Qi Yue said with a laugh, sizing up the driver with twinkling eyes. “When I was your age, I was only a junior in college.”
The driver quickly calculated in his mind. Though he himself was from a military background, his sister was in college. Freshmen were eighteen, so after four years of study, that would be twenty-two, which meant at most she’d be…
“Only twenty-two or twenty-three! How can you say you’re old!” he grinned.
Qi Yue smiled with pursed lips, knowing the young man had just done some mental arithmetic.
“Do I look that young?” she laughed, rubbing her face. “My university program was eight years.”
The driver exclaimed and turned to look at Qi Yue.
“I’m already twenty-seven,” Qi Yue said with a smile.
The driver chuckled.
“That’s still not old—you can’t say you’re old,” he said. “Dr. Qi is married, right?”
As soon as the words left his mouth, the young driver wanted to slap himself.
What was wrong with him today, always asking inappropriate questions? He wasn’t even that familiar with Dr. Qi…
Qi Yue had already turned back to look at the scenery outside the window. Upon hearing this, she smiled and shook her head.
“Not yet,” she replied, showing no displeasure or offense.
“Someone as wonderful as Dr. Qi should choose carefully…” the young driver quickly offered flattering words with a smile.
Qi Yue smiled but said nothing.
The young driver didn’t dare say anything more, secretly sticking out his tongue and focusing on driving.
Qi Yue looked at the constantly passing cliffs outside the window, her thoughts stirred by the driver’s question about marriage.
Twenty-seven years old—for someone in this driver’s county, that was quite old, but in her living environment, marriage wasn’t something worth considering at this age. Of course, for someone with a boyfriend, marriage would be about ready to go on the agenda—before thirty, anyway.
However, she couldn’t be sure now. Her boyfriend was indeed getting married, just not to her.
This clichéd advertising slogan—she never thought she’d have occasion to use it herself.
Qi Yue sniffed and shifted position in her seat, resting her head against the backrest.
“Yue, why must you go there?”
“…You studied in Yanjing, did your clinical internship in Yanjing, stayed in Yanjing directly after graduation, and have been a resident doctor for two years now. Director Guo values you and has already let you assist in surgeries as the primary surgeon. I believe in less than three years you’ll be able to perform surgery independently…”
“…If you want to learn, I didn’t stop you from pursuing advanced studies. There are overseas opportunities too. Why must you go to a remote mountain area? What can you learn there?”
“…Going overseas for advanced studies is gold-plating, but what’s the point of going to a remote mountain area? What will you learn? How to treat diseases with herbal medicine? You have a good foundation and talent, but don’t waste time. If you go to the countryside, it’ll be three years—three years! Like rowing against the current, if you don’t advance, you retreat. Yue, even if you come back, your future will be finished…”
“…Your father’s career is ruined, his future is over, and you still listen to him, talking about ‘real technical training is at the grassroots level!’ What nonsense! Don’t you want a future either? Don’t think that supporting the countryside for a few years will give you political prospects. In our profession, we rely on technical skills to make a living—this empty reputation is useless…”
“…You’re becoming increasingly unreasonable. We’re finished…”
Qi Yue closed her eyes and sighed, turning her head toward the window as the car made its lonely rumbling sound on the mountain road.
Actually, after saying all that, what he ultimately wanted to say was just that last sentence.
Just a year ago, Qi Yue’s father had made a surgical error that left a patient paralyzed, and this medical accident ended both his medical practice and political future.
Social competition was like this—you had to compete not only on personal ability but also on family background and connections…
Qi Yue smiled self-mockingly. For her boyfriend, marrying that woman was indeed more suitable…
So what if they’d been together for five years? These days, everything was expensive except feelings, which were the cheapest.
Damn it, she really should have put something extra in that guy’s coffee when she threw it at him…
Sigh…
“Dr. Qi? Dr. Qi?”
The driver’s cautious inquiry interrupted Qi Yue’s thoughts, and she turned her head.
“Are you carsick?” the driver asked with some concern, looking at her complexion.
Qi Yue quickly shook her head and smiled.
“No, no, I’m fine,” she said, gathering her spirits.
“This car has a new satellite TV system… our County Magistrate Zhang loves watching TV. Why don’t you watch some TV?” the driver said happily, remembering something. Without waiting for Qi Yue to refuse, he turned on the television.
The small screen would probably make you carsick even if you weren’t already.
Qi Yue appreciated the young man’s kind intentions, smiled her thanks, and said nothing more.
The sound from the TV filled the car interior, and with more noise, Qi Yue felt her empty heart being filled.
“…Viewers, this archaeological discovery is an unexpected joy. Who would have thought that such a mound of earth would contain an ancient tomb? From the scene, the burial mound is intact. According to experts, this should be a noble’s tomb…”
“They struck treasure,” the driver said excitedly. “I love watching shows about tomb excavation and grave robbing…”
Qi Yue’s face darkened, and her eyes involuntarily turned to the small screen, where an excited female host was squeezed among several experts who looked as if they’d been injected with stimulants, all situated in a tomb passage with a large stone door at the end of the passage in the background.
“…In a moment, we’ll witness the opening of the tomb with our own eyes… Professor Liu, please tell us…”
The car suddenly stopped, and Qi Yue, caught off guard, nearly bumped into something.
“We’re here,” the driver said with a grin.
They had reached the end of the mountain road. Going further ahead would be mountain paths impassable by car. Standing on the mountainside, they could see scattered houses dotting the not-too-distant area, with one obviously newly built house particularly conspicuous on a flat piece of land.
That was the rural health clinic, the place where Qi Yue was providing assistance.
Since she had arrived here, people from other townships and even the county town traveled over mountains and ridges to be treated by the doctor from the big city. The originally quiet clinic had become lively, and the few rooms serving as the inpatient department weren’t enough. The old director simply contributed his own office, and the local folks no longer felt sorry that the fine building built with poverty alleviation funds was being wasted.
Qi Yue jumped down from the car, and the young driver helped her take the medical kit from the back seat.
“Dr. Qi, can you manage carrying this yourself? There’s still quite a bit of road to walk…” the driver said, watching Qi Yue lift the emergency kit and looking at the rather steep path ahead with concern.
“It’s fine, I’ll take a shortcut. Going straight down from here will get me there,” Qi Yue said, then looked at the sky. Today’s sky was gloomier than usual, with snow pellets faintly falling. “It’s snowing. You should leave quickly—mountain roads are hard to navigate when it gets dark.”
To avoid making the driver worry, after saying this, Qi Yue left first.
The driver watched until she had gone down the slope before getting back in the car.
Starting the engine, the sound from the small TV again filled the car interior.
The driver hummed while driving rapidly along the mountain road.
“…it’s open…”
The driver quickly glanced at the TV, waiting for the miraculous moment to appear.
“…This year, no gifts for the holidays…”
“Damn…” the driver cursed, but unwilling to give up, he patiently waited for one advertisement after another to pass.
But today’s advertisements were exceptionally long…
At that moment, on the other end of the television, the female host looked at a group of dejected experts, her own expression also quite ugly.
“How can there be nothing at all?”
A gray-haired man paced back and forth in the tomb chamber somewhat frantically.
“Looking at the tomb chamber’s construction, it’s undoubtedly a wealthy family’s tomb…” several others also looked puzzled. “How can there be no burial goods?”
After all that effort, there was nothing—the female host was also quite angry. This was playing with the audience, and her career would surely be ruined.
“Could you have made a mistake? Maybe it’s not the tomb of some duke or high official, or maybe tomb robbers have been here…” she interjected.
“How could we be wrong? You don’t understand, so don’t talk nonsense!” Questioning their authority, the old experts immediately flew into a rage. Even though she was a beautiful host, they showed no courtesy in their anger.
“Then how could nobles and wealthy families have no burial goods!” The female host had never been treated this way and responded with equal rudeness.
Yes, how could there be nothing? The experts immediately deflated…
“Teacher, the coffin is open!” a student working on the main coffin shouted loudly.
This statement made everyone surge over, with cameras and lights hurrying to follow.
In the coffin lay a skeleton, appearing to be lying on its side based on the body position.
The clothing had long since decomposed. The female host covered her nose and mouth while peering in. There were no jade stones, gold, silver, or other objects scattered about as typically found when ancient coffins were opened—nothing but bones…
It was over. This time it really was all for nothing.
“The live broadcast time is up, we can’t delay any longer…” someone urged from the side.
“Broadcast what? There’s nothing here,” the female host said irritably.
As soon as her words fell, she heard an expert cry out. She quickly turned around and saw an expert picking up something from beneath the skeleton’s crossed arms.
“What is this?” he murmured, holding the object up to his eyes.
Snow pellets finally turned into snowflakes. After making the last turn, the car smoothly entered the plains, and the driver breathed a sigh of relief, finally able to focus a bit more attention on the small TV.
On TV, several experts were busy cleaning something while the female host provided non-stop commentary.
“…Alright, everyone look, this is what was taken from beneath the corpse…”
The driver couldn’t help but widen his eyes, watching as the camera focused on a close-up of a tray containing an instrument.
“Huh?” the driver couldn’t help but rub his eyes. “This, this looks like surgical instruments or something?”
The driver had never seen such things before, except when he was picking up Qi Yue in the county town and saw her organizing her emergency kit, which contained these items.
The female host’s questioning voice also came from the screen.
“So expert, what exactly is this?”
The expert looked conflicted, holding it with gloved hands.
After cleaning, the instrument had regained its original appearance, gleaming under the camera lights as the expert turned it.
“This is… a surgical scalpel…” the expert murmured, “and it’s German-made too…”
“German?” both the female host and the driver exclaimed simultaneously.
“I’ll be damned…” the driver cursed. “Even archaeological programs are turning into ‘Approaching Science’ now… really unwatchable…”
He snapped off the TV with a click, also cutting off the female host’s silly laughter and unfinished words.
“…Teacher Zhang is joking… but regardless, we can see this must have been the owner’s beloved possession… to have nothing else, only this as a burial object… and it seems to have been held in their arms, so they held it for a thousand years…”