The Young Urban Doctor

While Luo Ziling was in the mountains picking herbs, he heard a thundering roar coming from afar. Not long after, he spotted a helicopter in the sky, zooming from one end of the valley to the other before disappearing amongst the forest. Its whirring sound remained in the air.

Despite seeing a helicopter flying over, Luo Ziling was not surprised.

Although the village in the mountains was secluded, there were occasional visitors from time to time and even airplanes flying overhead.

It was likely a pathway that crossed the village’s airspace.

While the helicopter zoomed over, its whirring sound did not vanish but remained in the air.

Things just did not feel right, and something crossed his mind.

He stopped his herb hunt and quickly traversed across the cedar forest and ran toward the village. He even dropped his bamboo basket, leaving them temporary in the woods.

He ran fast for the entire time, almost at the speed of a hundred-meter sprinter.

By the time he arrived at his house, he was panting heavily, and the sound of the helicopter’s whirling had faded.

As he panted for breath, he pushed through the door and rushed to the woman’s bed.

There was no commotion, only that the woman was no longer there.

Luo Ziling felt a sudden wave of dejection. He felt like he had just lost something important, like a treasure, as he sat at the door.

The woman was cold and quiet. Nevertheless, for someone who rarely had a companion since he was young, he enjoyed spending his time with her.

Having someone, who was the same age as him, gave him the comfort that he was not alone.

His grandfather treasured him but just being with his grandfather failed to enable him to enjoy his time of youth. He could only feel young again when he spent his time with someone his age.

There were other kids in the village, yet his grandfather forbade him to play with them. He did not like to play with them either, although he could not explain why.

When he was young, there was someone there with him, a beautiful girl who was only one and a half years older than him.

He could not remember why she came to the village, but he remembered the two months they spent together.

She was dressed in beautiful clothing, attitude akin to a princess. She started off cold yet he still enjoyed playing with her. Whenever she was with him, he felt happy, no longer lonely.

The two then became friends fast.

He would take her to the back of his house and up the mountains to play. He would teach her about plants as well as herbs. He would take her to forage fruits and had even captured a wild rabbit with her.

One time when they were playing together, she had sprained her ankle and could not walk. He had massaged it and applied simple medication using the herbs he had found. He then carried her down.

In the end, she left the village and he had never seen her ever since.

Luo Ziling believed that once the woman whom he had treated left, she would never come back again.

His heart tightened at the thought.

Instead of going out to pick herbs, Luo Ziling sat in the courtyard all day.

He was depressed.

He had spent a number of days with the injured woman yet he did not know who she was or even her name.

Everything was confusing… unsatisfying.

Earlier when Luo Ziling was sprinting like a hundred-meter sprinter back to his own house, two women and a man were standing at the top of the mountain a few hundred meters away from the village. They stood still when they were about to cross to the other side of the mountain.

The tallest of the three gestured to the other two let her stand on her own. She turned around to face the far, yet still clear sight village, focusing on the house that was situated at the edge of the village.

Just then, she noticed a figure dashing towards the house. At that moment, she knew what happened. She saw the figure running down the slope of the mountain. When she saw how the man did not even care to open the gates as he made an impossible jump over the fence and entered the house, the corner of her eyes felt a little warm.

After looking for a while more, she stood still, facing the direction of the house and brought her hand to her forehead for a salute.

“I owe my life to you. Thank you for saving me,” she muttered.

…

Two days later, Ziling’s grandfather, Luo Liansheng returned home.

Luo Ziling had cleaned the house, removing all traces and evidence of the injured woman.

He had not thought his grandfather would bring back news that shook him greatly.

“What? Grandfather, you want me to go to school?” Luo Ziling was stunned after he received a letter of admission from Yenching University of Medicine from his grandfather who had just returned.

As he held the letter in his hands, Luo Ziling could no longer believe that his grandfather was just a reclusive old man.

He believed that his grandfather, when he was younger, did many things, visited many places. He believed that his grandfather must have had magnificent experiences.

However, he had another thought. Perhaps someone else was responsible for this and not his grandfather.

“Don’t ask so much. If I allow you to go, you should go,” Luo Liansheng said as he looked at his grandson lovingly.

“Some questions, you need not ask me. In future, you will figure out the answer on your own. Do you understand?”

“Grandfather, I only wanted to know whether it was you or someone else who had gotten me enrolled.” Luo Ziling thought about it and expressed his doubts anyway. “Are you the one who wanted me to go to Yenching University? Or was it someone else?”

The old man, whose hair was white, froze at his grandson’s question. He shook his head and smiled without answering the question directly. He simply said, “You can’t stay in this secluded village anymore. By hook or by crook, it is time for you to see the outside world.”

Upon listening to his grandfather, Luo Ziling somehow understood what was going on. He immediately felt utmost gratitude swelling up in his heart, in addition to excitement, partly because of a woman, and another life.

He pondered for a while and came up with another query.

“Grandfather, you once said that I have already mastered medicine from you. As long as one has the experience, one is a doctor. If that’s the case, why would I need to attend a medical school?”

This was a great mystery to Luo Ziling.