Chapter Three: A Small Test of Skill

"Yancheng, I just realized, you know how to perform acupuncture?" Zhou Guotao asked with some curiosity.

"Mm-hmm." Li Yancheng’s heart skipped a beat, but he nodded without any visible change in his expression.

The two of them had seen one patient each among the two who had arrived earlier. The one Li Yancheng treated was a middle-aged farm woman who had twisted her ankle that morning. It seemed she had sprained the ligaments around the ankle joint; it was slightly swollen, but the bones felt fine upon examination.

He had decided to test his skills, using the techniques he had inherited in his mind to insert five needles, wanting to see if the acupuncture methods from his memory were actually effective. It was his first time performing acupuncture on someone else. Even with the assistance of the knowledge in his memory, his movements were hesitant and disjointed, and he had worked up a sweat by the time he finished the five needles.

However, the results were remarkable. Within two minutes of the needles being inserted, the woman’s pain had vanished. After fifteen minutes, when he removed the needles, not only had the visible swelling subsided, but the woman had also walked back and forth in the clinic without feeling any pain at all. Still, to be safe, Li Yancheng told her to avoid walking and to return on the same cart she came in on, advising her to rest for two days before doing any manual labor.

Taking a bite of the bean-flour pancake in his hand and then eating some of the boiled cabbage, radish, and vermicelli from his bowl, he continued, "I learned a little from my grandfather back in the day. When I saw that her ankle was swollen, I figured the acupuncture I learned as a child might help her recover faster, so I gave it a try. The results turned out pretty good."

Zhou Guotao raised his eyebrows upon hearing this. "Pretty good? That was excellent!"

He didn't probe further, though, and lowered his head to wolf down his food. There were even pork cracklings in today’s boiled vegetables, which made him feel so happy he could cry, having not tasted meat for over a month.

Seeing that Zhou had stopped digging, Li Yancheng secretly breathed a sigh of relief and buried his face in his own meal. He had been soul-transmigrated for two days now, and the hardest thing to adapt to was the lack of meat. For someone like him in his previous life who couldn't enjoy a meal without it, this was a catastrophe. Not to mention anything else, without a little fat to grease the digestive tract, even the daily trip to the latrine was agonizing.

Today, he had finally seen a bit of pork crackling in the vegetables, and after finishing the meal, he licked the bowl cleaner than his own face. Sigh... there was no helping it. That was the state of things; year-round, most people couldn't get their hands on more than a few pounds of meat.

It wasn't that it was expensive—a pound of pork cost only seventy or eighty cents, and the neighborhood committee issued meat ration coupons to each household. Aside from the "three difficult years" when supplies were truly scarce, most households could now count on about half a pound of meat coupons per month, and good workplaces occasionally issued a bit more.

But sometimes, even with money and coupons, you couldn't buy anything at the market. In Li Yancheng's memory, every time the original owner went to the local market for meat, he had to wake up at five in the morning. If he arrived even a little late, he wouldn't even be able to buy the scraps.

After finishing his meal and washing his bowl, Zhou Guotao returned to the dormitory for a nap, while Li Yancheng headed over to see Director Liu at the health center.

Though called a "director," the Mulin Town Health Center only had four staff members: Director Liu Guangbin, who was also a physician; another physician named Ma Quanhu; a nurse who also handled the medicine dispensing; and the gatekeeper. As for the canteen, it didn't belong to the health center but to the Town Finance Office next door; they just housed it here because they lacked the space themselves.

Truly, when Li Yancheng first arrived and learned from his memories that the health center was this small, he found it hard to believe. In his previous life, any government-funded unit, regardless of how many people actually worked there, would have at least a dozen people in leadership roles—directors, deputy directors, chiefs, deputy chiefs, section heads, and so on. To have only four people total was quite a rarity.

When Li Yancheng reached Director Liu’s office, the man hadn't even finished his meal.

"Oh, Director Liu, you're still eating. My apologies for the interruption; I'll come back later."

"No trouble, no trouble at all. Sit, Dr. Li, sit. I'm just on the last bite." Director Liu shoveled the remaining vegetables into his mouth, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and gestured to a chair in the room.

"Look at me, Director Liu, I’m truly sorry!" Li Yancheng apologized profusely, pulling a pack of Da Qianmen cigarettes from his pocket and flicking one out to offer him.

"Eh, it’s really no bother." Director Liu waved his hand dismissively with a smile, took the cigarette, lit it with the match Li Yancheng held out, and asked, "Is there something you needed, Dr. Li?"

Liu Guangbin was in his forties and was a practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine. He hadn't learned his skills in a school; it was a family trade. The other physician, Ma Quanhu, was in the same situation. They were called TCM doctors, but in reality, when treating patients, they mostly prescribed painkillers or administered injections of Chaihu for fevers or Gentamicin for diarrhea. There was no helping it; their level of expertise was simply limited.

This was the problem facing town health centers across the country: a desperate shortage of professional medical personnel. In fact, this remained true even decades later, as everyone flocked to big cities and large hospitals. Despite constant directives from above about tiered medical care and the need for professional staff to settle in community hospitals, the reality was that while cities might be better off, rural areas still lacked skilled professionals, even in these state-funded town health centers.

"It’s like this, Director Liu. I’d like to ask for a day off. I have something to take care of at home, so I’d like to head back tomorrow for one day. Also, I’d like to borrow a bicycle tomorrow morning."

"Is that all? No problem." Director Liu agreed readily. Li Yancheng wasn't officially his staff anyway, and since it wasn't a busy time, there was no reason to offend him.

Director Liu pulled open a drawer, took out a small key, and placed it on the table. "This is the bike key. The shuttle from the county to the city leaves around 8:30, so you’ll need to be up by five at the latest. Don't oversleep and miss your ride."

It was over twenty kilometers from Mulin Town to Yishun County; even riding a bike without stopping would take over two hours, so leaving early was a must.

"Thank you, Director Liu. I understand. I'll leave you to your rest then."

"Eh, no worries. Travel safely tomorrow morning."

"Thank you!"

With the bicycle key in hand, Li Yancheng left the director's office in high spirits. He went to inspect the bike; both tires were inflated, and the brakes were working fine. He even took it for a spin around the road. It was his first time riding this kind of 28-inch bicycle. He would have to remember to bring a flashlight tomorrow morning; otherwise, with the roads being dark and poorly maintained, he was worried about taking a nasty spill.