Great Doctor Ling Ran

Yun Hua City.

Centurial Beach Sanatorium.

Centurial Beach Sanatorium was located at the southern suburbs of Yun Hua City. The back of the sanatorium faced the mountains, and its front faced the sea. There was a gentle stream flowing from the top of the mountain into a small river, and there was also a breakwater[1] blocking the waves with the purpose of protecting the beach.

The sand on the beach had been shipped in from foreign lands. In the early years, the sand came from Beidaihe District[2]. And after the country had money, they started to import Philippine sand before they moved on to buy Macao sand.

The glittering, fine, golden sand spread from one end of Centurial Beach to the other, forming a beach as long as 1.6 miles. With the addition of some loungers and parasols laying around on the beach, it looked like a holiday island used for leisurely purposes for nine months of the year.

The old cadres of the sanatorium were concerned with the quality of the beach. Whenever there was a slight imperfection, or the cleaning crews were found to be slightly slacking off in their cleaning duty on the beach, there would always be someone who would charge into the office and rebuke the admin. The beach had become as important as the walking trail, the Banpo[3] tea house, the backyard garden, the chess lounge, the courtyard with its manmade lakes, the infirmary, and the canteen. They were the eight most valued places in the sanatorium.

The old cadres actually rarely set foot on the beach. One had to be at least fifty-five years old to be eligible to live in the one-hundred-year-old sanatorium. The youngest person in the sanatorium currently was also fifty-five years old, and he was an academician from the Academy of Sciences. These old cadres only spent ten days and a half in the sanatorium throughout the entire year. The older cadres would suffer aches in their legs and backs when they exposed themselves to the wind. How could they actually sit on the beach and enjoy the sea breeze?

However, the young people who came to the sanatorium were very fond of Centurial Beach. Some people stayed there for ten days to half a month once they arrived. They would spend those days with the elderly, sunbathe on the beach, post statuses within their friend circles, and would be incredibly happy doing so.

Some young people would bring their children to the one-hundred-year-old beach on weekends for a vacation. During those few days, the beach would become extraordinarily merrier.

In order to attract the attention of the children, the sanatorium had renovated the former dock, which handled river cargo and coal. The three newly-added fishing yachts were able to sail to the open sea and return with their catch to the beach for a barbecue. This greatly heightened the charm of the sanatorium.

The health inspection team organized by the Health and Welfare Committee Organization went to the Centurial Beach Sanatorium on Thursday. There were still five to six children yelling in the sanatorium, and there were more than twenty adults standing around to watch while chuckling.

Doctor Zhou showed up as part of the health inspection team, to the surprise of no one. He dragged in a twenty-four-inch suitcase and introduced the place to Ling Ran like he was utterly familiar with it. “This is the courtyard, and you’ll notice that it’s surrounded by houses. It leads to all directions. If you get lost in the sanatorium, just search for the courtyard. Let it serve as your landmark. Once you locate the courtyard, you’ll be able to find your way back.”

Ling Ran nodded in agreement.

“Don’t stroll around in the courtyard whenever you’re unoccupied. You will be questioned if you’re ever seen by a leader, and you’ll feel awkward. If you want to rest, just go to the beach or go hiking. Even though the mountain behind the one-hundred-year-old beach isn’t famous, the stairs on the hiking trail have been repaired. They are wide and big. There’s also a small driveway at the back of the mountain. It’s just good to climb the mountain to get your sweat out sometimes.” Doctor Zhou explained to Ling Ran, as though he was very familiar with it. He shared his valuable experiences without showing even the slightest notion to hide anything.

Ling Ran looked at the internal medicine doctors who came along with them. There was a resident doctor in the same department as Ling Ran in the team as well. But Ling Ran was so unfamiliar with him to the point that he still could not recall the resident doctor’s name. Ling Ran could not help but scratch his head and say, “We have so many doctors here. We only need to perform a medical inspection. Won’t that be done in one day? Do we really need to stay here for a few days?”

“The sanatorium is very pleased with us for coming over to stay for a few days.” Once Doctor Zhou said this, he paused for a moment before he continued to speak in a reminiscing tone, “Don’t think that health inspection is just about performing clinical examinations. We need to provide the old cadres with a further medical plan. We need to propose a plan on whether a person needs to stay in the hospital, whether a person needs to change his or her prescription, whether a person needs to rest quietly, and so on. Do you have any idea how many questions the old cadres are going to ask throughout this process? The sanatorium will be eased of their problems when we solve these issues. Furthermore, we can send the patient back to the hospital straight away if we discover problems in them much earlier. By doing so, we can also lighten the sanatorium’s burden.”

Ling Ran nodded, appearing to understand and not understand at the same time. Actually, he did not really care about the reason Doctor Zhou gave. He merely found it a little waste of time.

“The hospital is also very willing to do this.” The resident doctor with a face so ordinary that no one could remember his name came over from the side where he originally stood. He chuckled and said, “I remember when I first came here, old cadres would always rush over to snatch a spot in the cadre wards. They would get angry if we said the ward was full…”

“Centurial Beach is the largest sanatorium that Yun Hua has. We’re here at the sanatorium to perform a proper health inspection. We can also reduce the heavy burden on the hospital.” Doctor Zhou took a deep breath of fresh air. He looked like he was going to a banquet to grace it with his presence.

“Then…”

“Then just rest. The body checks are usually done in the morning. It’s already ten. Just get ready for lunch. The vegetables in the canteen of Centurial Beach are all homegrown. Only manure[2] is applied. They don’t use pesticides. The vegetables are all healthy and uncontaminated. I can eat a lot every time…” Doctor Zhou was already rubbing his palms together.

“Could it be that they purchased the manure?”

“Of course not. If the manure’s bought in, is it still considered as manure?”

Ling Ran nodded in comprehension and said, “The manure’s produced by the sanatorium, right? But the average age of all the intestinal bacteria here’s a little old. We have no idea if the manure that’s produced is going to affect it or not.”

“There’s no difference after the fermentation process… Why am I discussing this kind of stuff with you?” Doctor Zhou’s face was a little contorted.

Ling Ran went through the courtyard, arrived at a large hall, and queued up to receive his room card.

A part of the one-hundred-year-old sanatorium was used for business purposes with the target market aimed at the general public. Different prices were offered to the general public, societies related to the sanatorium, and the families of the old cadres. The special offer given to Yun Hua’s health inspection team was a three-day-long stay in the sanatorium.

There was also a sense of hierarchy in how accommodation was allocated. Chief physicians were assigned to suites. Associate chief physicians were assigned to single rooms. Meanwhile, attending physicians and those below were assigned to double rooms.

For doctors who failed to rest during their two-day weekends, staying in the sanatorium for work purposes was almost the same as recuperating. The only thing that could compare to work was their attendance in meetings held by large pharmaceutical companies.

“You’re still an intern, I see.” The office lady, who sat in the hall and was in charge of distributing the room cards, appeared very young. However, the office worker seemed to have met many doctors from many hospitals. So naturally, the office worker had doubts about Ling Ran’s age and qualifications.

However, the young office worker actually believed Ling Ran instantly after Ling Ran responded with a simple “yes”.

It was not possible for there to be anything wrong with this situation!

There were also excellent interns!

Interns who were capable of doing their internship in Yun Hua Hospital had to be very good!

The girl had studied two years for the civil service examinations and scored herself a job in managing the retired cadres of Yun Hua City. This was despite being a part of Project 211 and going through Project 985 to obtain her Master’s Degree in Biological Sciences. She smiled at Ling Ran once those three thoughts appeared in succession. She said, “Your team has an odd number of members. One person will have to be left alone. Are you all right with having one room to yourself?”

“Sure.” Ling Ran smiled. “Thank you very much.”

“You’re welcome.” The girl smiled sweetly and thought to herself, ‘This doctor is of quality. He is truly courteous and truly handsome.’

The health inspection officially began the next morning.

Unlike the clinical examinations held for students, the health inspection service provided by Yun Hua Hospital was appointment-based, and they also conducted examinations based on how the Peking Union Medical College conducted their examinations. It was a system where the doctors moved while the patients stayed still. This enabled the doctors to provide as many convenient services to the patients as possible.

The main force in charge of the clinical examination was an internal medicine doctor whom Ling Ran rarely met ever since he joined the hospital.

A few internal medicine doctors started to operate in formation. They asked the patients about their condition while they began to perform physical examinations on the patients from head to toe. They were extremely thorough with the process.

After he looked around for a bit, Ling Ran became certain that at least four of the internal medicine doctors were better at performing physical examinations than him.

That was not strange. Physical examination was always an internal medicine doctor’s strong suit. Besides, Ling Ran was not diligent in practising this skill. Even if he practiced often, he would not be as diligent as an internal medicine doctor in practicing how to perform a physical examination.

“Ling Ran, get ready to help them,” Doctor Zhou suddenly pointed to the front and reminded Ling Ran.

Two children freed themselves from the arms of their mothers and sprinted frantically towards them. They shouted loudly while they ran, “Grandpa! Grandpa!”

The mothers smiled, relieved of their burdens. They then apologized, “I’m really sorry about that. The kids kept insisting on coming over.”

The plain, ugly resident doctor quickly walked forward and approached the kids with a smile. “Children, you can’t go farther up front.”

“You’re lying.” A child wrenched himself free from resident doctor’s grip before he ran forward at full speed.

The plain and ugly resident doctor caught one, but the other one continued to run at full speed, as though he had undergone training before.

Under Doctor Zhou’s request, Ling Ran went forward.

He was never good with children. So he just placed his hands in his pocket and stood in front of the clinical examination area.

The little boy who was running around stopped all of a sudden.

He seemed a little scared as he looked up at the tall Ling Ran. He then asked, “Are you a doctor too?”

Ling Ran nodded gently.

“I wanna see Grandpa,” the little boy said again.

“You can see him after we’re done with the body checks,” Ling Ran replied.

“Okay.” The little boy stood obediently in the same spot.

A moment later, another child came running. He made his way through all the people who were trying to stop him before he stood across Ling Ran.

Ling Ran stood with his back straight behind the line leading to the clinical examination area. He was bathed in the soft glow provided by the morning sun. A group of children stood beyond the line. All of them puffed their chests out and sucked their tummies in as they attempted to maintain the right standing posture.