On the morning of March 11th, the third day after the Luolin earthquake, Luolin experienced a minor aftershock lasting just a few seconds. The military had detected and given advance warning, so there were no casualties or major impact. Rescue efforts continued, with medical teams having recorded over 1,000 deaths and an unknown number of missing persons.
The hastily set up medical center kept having injured carried in. Ambulance after ambulance rushed critical patients to hospitals outside the disaster area. The medical personnel on site were like a tireless spinning top, shuttling nonstop between the wounded. The once pristine white coats were stained with blood and filth, covered in dust.
Ruan Mian was at the medical center in the morning and followed the medical team to the scene in the afternoon, busy until 9 at night when she returned to the medical center with the last patient.
After a quick meal back, Doctor Meng Fuping gathered the personnel from Union Medical College Hospital out to the open ground outside the center for a meeting. Ruan Mian hurriedly pulled her white coat back on and rushed out.
Meng Fuping said, “The rescue teams will be organizing the evacuation of disaster zone residents and some medical team members starting tomorrow. Those here who are only children can apply to be transferred back.”
There were over a dozen people from their training group. Most were only children, but after waiting 10 minutes, Meng Fuping didn’t see anyone raise their hand to leave.
Ruan Mian stood quietly in the crowd, hands tucked into her white coat pockets. The starry sky overhead, ruins underfoot, her heart calm.
After a long while, Meng Fuping laughed and shook his head. “Alright, I underestimated you all. Since everyone doesn’t want to leave, then do your best. Don’t embarrass our Union Medical.”
Some soldiers resting in the shadows applauded at Meng Fuping’s words. The group turned back, weary yet determined smiles on each face.
After the meeting, everyone returned to their posts—checking on patients, preparing for surgery, taking inventory of medicine supplies. Everything proceeded orderly.
At 1 am, hurried footsteps suddenly sounded outside the medical center. Several injured soldiers were rushed in, bleeding profusely from head wounds.
Vice Director Zhou, the leader on duty that night, urgently arranged surgery for four with heavier injuries.
“Take those to the treatment room for the doctors there to handle.”
Vice Director Zhou rushed towards the operating rooms. “Go call Director Jiang and Director Meng over!”
“Got it!”
The nurse hurried out to fetch people again.
Hearing the commotion outside, Ruan Mian, Lin Jiahui, and doctors from other hospitals in the treatment room hadn’t even stepped out when those less injured soldiers were carried in.
The one Ruan Mian received had forehead lacerations, but his right calf also had a very deep gash, about an inch long with the flesh split open. It looked rather shocking.
The slightly older nurse got him on an IV drip and asked with concern, “How’d this happen?”
Perhaps from blood loss, the man’s voice was somewhat weak. “We were rescuing at the civilian housing in the southern district when secondary collapse occurred. Everyone was inside saving people and couldn’t get away in time. I got lucky being in charge of receiving at the entrance. When the wall collapsed, our captain pulled me away, but my teammates…”
His voice already carried restrained sobs at this point, eyes reddening.
“Don’t worry, they’ll be fine.”
Ruan Mian put on gloves and pulled over a chair to sit down, lowering her head to start treating the wound. She gently asked, “What’s your name?”
“Yu Zhou.”
“How old are you?”
“Twenty.”
He was the youngest of them to come this time. Everyone had been intentionally looking out for him during rescue.
“Quite young.”
Ruan Mian first cleaned his leg wound. “This might hurt a bit.”
“It’s fine, I’m not afraid of pain. Go ahead, doctor.”
Yu Zhou bit down on his cheek as his entire right leg shook uncontrollably.
Ruan Mian had the nurse go over to hold his shoulders and chat to distract him. Her hands kept moving. For a time, the entire treatment room was filled with various sounds of gritted teeth and sharp inhales.
Outside, the others who had brought these soldiers stood in the hallway, alternating between checking on the operating room and running back to peer into the treatment room, extremely anxious.
One rather tall named Lin Sui spotted a figure walking through the lobby and quickly went up to meet them. “Captain, were those kids rescued?”
Four children had been buried beneath that collapsed residential building, under layers of heavy cement boards. Machinery was useless so they could only send people down below.
Chen Yi had been about to go in last after just putting on gear when the building started collapsing again, disrupting the entire rescue.
Later, Shen Yu’s side brought people over to drag out these buried soldiers before Chen Yi and the rest continued rescue efforts on site.
“They were rescued.”
Chen Yi brushed the dust off himself and heavily asked, “How are those kids?”
“Xiao Zhou and the other four buried deeper are still in the operating room. The rest are in the treatment room getting treated.”
Lin Sui’s voice choked up a bit as he glanced to the side.
Chen Yi patted his shoulder. “I’ll go take a look.”
Despite its name, the treatment room was just a small area sectioned off with some medical screens and a few beds placed inside.
Walking up to the screens, Chen Yi was able to look straight inside due to his height advantage. Seeing him, Yu Zhou tilted his head over with a grin.
Chen Yi smiled back, his gaze naturally falling to the side on the doctor bending over Yu Zhou’s leg treating the wound. He only looked once before withdrawing his line of sight, just about to leave, when he suddenly felt the ground sway underfoot.
It happened in an instant. All of them outside rushed in while the doctors inside instinctively threw themselves over their patients to shield them. Ruan Mian was no exception.
But as a soldier, Yu Zhou’s first duty was to protect them. Almost as soon as he sensed the anomaly, he wanted to stand, but his injured leg rendered him unsteady. Before he could get on his feet, Ruan Mian had already pushed him back down.
“Don’t move!”
Ruan Mian pressed Yu Zhou’s shoulders while bracing herself against the nearby table with her left hand. Chen Yi at the bed foot used his foot against the wheels below to brace it while his other hand steadied the bed opposite.
Seconds later, the aftershock passed again and everything slowly calmed.
Yu Zhou had been startled by Ruan Mian’s shout earlier, taking a good while to speak again. “Doctor Ruan, I’m a soldier. My first duty is to protect all of you. If this happens again, you don’t need to shield me. It’s too dangerous.”
“Out there, your duty is to protect us.”
Ruan Mian straightened up to look at him. “But in here, you’re my patient. As a doctor, my first duty is to protect my patient. There is no dangerous or not. Would you not save someone because it was dangerous during rescue?”
Yu Zhou was rendered speechless but also moved by Ruan Mian’s words. Chen Yi listening in at the bed foot glanced back again. The speaker wore a mask so he couldn’t see their looks, only that they had long hair casually tied back. Their figure was slender and tall.
Perhaps sensing his gaze, Ruan Mian subconsciously raised her head to look around. Right then, someone outside ran in. “Captain Chen, Captain Shen is asking for you.”
Chen Yi withdrew his gaze and headed out. Over ten people swarmed out after him. Despite being so close, Ruan Mian could only glimpse his retreating figure. She didn’t pay it much attention, bringing her focus back.
The nurse picked up the fallen equipment and threw it in the trash before taking out new sterile ones. Ruan Mian continued treating Yu Zhou’s wound.
The entire process took over an hour. Ruan Mian removed her gloves and had the nurse wipe Yu Zhou’s sweat, instructing, “Don’t go out these next few days for now. Infection here would be very serious.”
Yu Zhou exhaled sharply. “Alright, thank you Doctor Ruan.”
Ruan Mian gave an “Mm”, jotting down some medical instructions on his bedside chart before putting away her pen and leaving.
The others were still in surgery. The hallway was empty as Ruan Mian walked to the registration counter in the lobby. Unable to find any extra stools, she just stood there filling out the medical records.
Some time later, Lin Jiahui also came out from the treatment room and got two cups of hot water, giving her one.
“Thanks.”
Ruan Mian didn’t stop writing, reaching out her other hand to take it and drink a sip. “Is Vice Director Zhou still in the OR?”
“Mm, I heard from the nurses it’s quite serious.”
Lin Jiahui sighed after drinking some water.
By then, it was past 3 am. Rescue efforts had temporarily slowed. On the east side of the lobby, there were patients’ family members and some less injured people sleeping every which way.
In the silent late night, any movement would be especially clear.
The pen glided across the paper. Ruan Mian heard hurried, chaotic footsteps behind her and thought more injured had arrived. She stopped writing and turned back. Several soldiers were running in from outside.
Perhaps it was the lobby lighting, but Ruan Mian actually felt the one at the front looked a bit familiar, her heart inexplicably skipping a beat. Yet she also felt it unlikely.
The figures drew nearer and nearer.
The man’s silhouette gradually became clear. Dust covered his face, but his eyes were exceptionally profound and sharp, just as striking as when she’d first seen them—unforgettable. “Excuse me, regarding just now…”
His words halted abruptly as his gaze landed on something. It shifted from the name tag pinned above the left chest pocket on Ruan Mian’s white coat to her face.
Both saw astonishment and disbelief in each other’s eyes.
In the two years right after high school graduation, Ruan Mian would occasionally get tidbits about Chen Yi from Meng Xinglan, good and bad. She took it all in.
Later when both led busier lives, Ruan Mian didn’t keep in frequent contact with Meng Xinglan either, so Chen Yi essentially vanished from her life without a trace.
He kept moving forward while she slowly learned to forget, sincerely wishing him a bright future yet no longer holding any feelings.
But on many a late, sleepless night, Ruan Mian had still imagined countless scenarios of running into Chen Yi again, though she’d never expected it to be like this—her haggard and disheveled in a dirty white coat while he was just as unsightly covered in dust.
She watched as he ran towards her. So familiar yet also foreign. He was no longer the youth of winds and moons in her memories, nor the gentle, refined scholar she had imagined. The man standing before her now wore a military uniform with a neat, clean crew cut. His features were sharp and distinctive.
Nine years.
Truly too long.
So long that aside from his eyes, Ruan Mian could no longer find any similarities between this man and the boy in her memories.
Mere seconds felt like eons capsizing in upheaval.
Ruan Mian pressed down the momentary churning waves in her heart and addressed him as one would an old friend not seen for ages—polite yet distant. “It’s been a long time.”
She was no longer the girl who had chased after him, striving to get him to notice her. Over these years, she had stumbled learning to forget him.
Though he still occasionally crossed her mind, she had long passed the age of staking life and death on a word from him.
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