Father Gao quickly learned about Gao Yuan's return. He didn't bother with his work points anymore and rushed home, stumbling as he ran, losing one of his shoes in his haste. But when he reached the doorway, he slowed down.

Seeing Gao Yuan waiting at the entrance, Father Gao merely glanced at him before walking over slowly.

Gao Yuan looked at his father and called out, "Dad."

"Yeah," Father Gao responded gruffly. Perhaps sensing the heavy atmosphere, he added, "You're back, huh?"

"Yes," Gao Yuan nodded.

Father Gao walked to the side of the house, fetched a stool made from a tree stump, and sat down. He reached for his waist to get his pipe but realized he had left it in the fields in his rush to come home.

He took off his remaining shoe, banged it on the ground to shake out the dirt, and called to Gao Jun, "Jun, go to the fields and bring back the stuff, including my pipe. My shoe fell into the ditch; grab it when you head over."

Gao Jun coughed a few times, rubbed his sore shoulders and neck, and silently left the house.

As dusk fell, Mother Gao prepared dinner, trying to eat while there was still some daylight left. Otherwise, they'd have to light the oil lamp, which would waste precious oil.

Gao Yuan made a bowl of scallion and fermented soybean soup for his brother Gao Jun to help him sweat out his cold.

"Drink this," Gao Yuan said as he handed the soup to Gao Jun.

Gao Jun silently took the bowl.

Dinner was simple: sweet potatoes and a porridge made from mung beans and mixed grains.

After the meal, Gao Yuan stood in the courtyard. The chilly mountain breeze at night stirred his thoughts.

"Yuan, it's windy in the mountains. Put on a coat," Mother Gao said, bringing out a jacket.

"Okay," Gao Yuan took it and draped it over himself.

Mother Gao gazed at her son, as if she could never look enough. After hesitating for a while, she asked cautiously, "Yuan, what really happened with that incident? How could you have betrayed anyone?"

Gao Yuan’s grip on the jacket tightened slightly, and the memory of that rainy night and the face of someone he once knew well flashed before him.

"Gao Yuan, Gao Yuan, are you there? Open the door quickly!"

"What’s wrong?"

"Someone from my family came; they said my dad fell and is in critical condition. I have to rush him to the hospital."

"Huh?"

"Is the car key still with you?"

"Yes, I haven’t handed it over yet."

"Let me borrow it."

"But… that requires approval."

"I’m begging you."

"Hey, don’t kneel! Get up. Fine, I’ll give it to you. Saving a life is more important. I’ll handle the paperwork tomorrow."

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"Thank you, thank you."

"Why are you still standing here? Hurry back!"

"Goodbye... goodbye."

...

"Yuan… Yuan…" Mother Gao nudged him, snapping him out of his thoughts.

Gao Yuan turned to look at her.

"Are you alright?" she asked with concern.

Gao Yuan shook his head and avoided his mother's gaze. "I'm fine. Mom, you should rest."

Mother Gao looked at her son, her voice trembling. "Yuan, this past year, I was scared to death. I haven't had a single good night's sleep. How could this happen to a good person like you?"

Seeing his mother so worn and frail, Gao Yuan didn't know how to respond.

Mother Gao wiped her tears, took a deep breath, and said, "Forget it. As long as you're safe. You've always been stubborn, even as a child. At 16, you went off to join the army without a word, saying you wanted to liberate the whole country."

"War is dangerous, but no matter how much we tried to persuade you, you wouldn't listen. After Beijing was liberated, you went to university, and later you became a cadre. We finally felt some relief."

"Then this happened... You... You…" Her tears fell again as she cried, "I don't need you to be rich or bring glory to the family. I just want you to live a good life. If something happened again, what would I do?"

Gao Yuan felt a sharp pain in his heart, as if it were clamped by an iron clamp. He turned away from her and said, "Mom, I won’t let anything happen to me again."

Mother Gao looked up at her son, now a head taller than her.

"I promise," Gao Yuan said earnestly.

As he watched his mother return indoors, Gao Yuan thought back to when he was 16, still in school. It was just because of a sentence: "The Chinese people are suffering; we have a responsibility to save them." And another, "To die for the benefit of the people is as heavy as Mount Tai..."

Without finishing his studies, he resolutely enlisted in the army.

After the liberation of Beijing, his superiors noticed his higher education and recommended him for university. Passing the entrance exam, he joined the Literature Department, becoming an enviable intellectual. Yet fate had another twist in store.

After that man fled, everyone, especially Gao Yuan, who had provided him with the car, was investigated.

A year later, they finally found him, but it was a corpse, leaving no one to prove Gao Yuan’s innocence.

He was eventually released from investigation, tainted and disgraced, and returned home.

Thinking he would spend the rest of his life this way, he hadn't expected to encounter another upheaval years later.

With such a record, there was no good outcome.

Reflecting on that turbulent period, Gao Yuan felt a deep sense of powerlessness.

He exhaled heavily, looking into the vast darkness, remembering his past life.

During that period of his life, he was not accepted back into the community and could only take odd jobs at a cooperative clinic. It was this path that steered him toward traditional Chinese medicine. After ten years of hard work, he became the top physician in the county. Even after being imprisoned again, he was often brought out to treat patients.

He knew that in the early years of the People's Republic, healthcare was in a dire state. Life expectancy was only 35 years, with a mortality rate over three percent.

Plagues such as plague, cholera, measles, smallpox, typhoid, dysentery, typhus, dengue fever, and diphtheria continuously threatened public health. Yet medical resources were extremely scarce.

Most hospitals and doctors were concentrated in big cities, and even then, only within city centers.

In their county, there was just one hospital and two cooperative clinics.

In their rural township, there was only one cooperative clinic with four doctors.

For a population of over 10,000 people in their township, with two neighboring towns having no clinics at all, that meant three townships—more than 40,000 people—shared four doctors.

In some even more remote townships, there wasn't a single doctor.

Such was the state of healthcare in this era.

Before the 626 directive, rural healthcare was woefully inadequate. Now, it was still nine years away from being implemented.

"Maybe I'm meant to do something," Gao Yuan thought as he looked at the night sky. He had thought he would waste away in prison, but unexpectedly, life had given him another chance—a miraculous opportunity.

"The Chinese people are suffering; we have a responsibility to save them." Gao Yuan softly recited the words that had once changed his fate. The ambition and pride of his 16-year-old self seemed to reappear.

"The people."

Saying those two words, Gao Yuan felt a stir deep in his soul.

It was these two words that had transformed his once mundane life.

And in the future, only these two words could rewrite his tragic fate.

He knew to survive the coming turmoil, he had to rely on the people.

In that era, no connections, no leaders could be trusted.

Only the people remained constant.

Gazing at the star-filled sky, he felt his heart surge.

"The people!" Gao Yuan murmured again.

He knew that only a spirit of wholehearted service to the people could shine forever in this sky!

It was the people who would testify to his loyalty and cleanse his stained name.

In this life, he vowed to become the people's doctor!