The best season to tour the border province would be autumn. This was the season of fragrant melons, all sorts of grapes, and so on. Back when Zhang Fan was living in S Province, he only knew about horse breast grapes 1, but he now understood that there were countless different types of grapes only after he came to the border province.
The cantaloupes and pears were incredibly sweet. The pomegranates were more troublesome to eat, so most people simply crushed the pomegranates into juice. There would also be an incredible number of figs and peaches. Actually, the pears that the border province sold to inland China weren’t the best pears. The best pears would be sold to Europe in exchange for euros.
Shao Hua’s parents were both farm workers. The farm they worked at had a gigantic vineyard. Every autumn, Shao Hua’s father would purchase some wine grapes from the farm and make his own red wine.
Chasu City was still a relatively small city compared to the big cities of China. There was less pressure here, and the standard of living was better than average. People here wouldn’t need to consider whether or not they had earned enough money for the mortgage every day. Actually, the border province was renowned in China for having a much higher than average lifespan. What would help you live a long life? Eating vitamins and minerals like Westerners would tell you to would actually be useless! The most important factors for living a long life would be a good mentality and good habits.
Shao Hua finally finished purchasing all of the necessary new furniture for moving into Zhang Fan’s apartment. However, the apartment still wasn’t ready for moving in after all of the new furniture was placed in it. No matter how cheap or expensive the furniture, the apartment would need to be aired out first. Otherwise, all sorts of chemicals from the new furniture would enter your body. Humans were just like mini vacuum cleaners, after all! Inhaling these chemicals would cause all sorts of chronic illnesses.
It was common for there to be zero surgery patients for many days in a row in the cardiothoracic department, but any surgeries that did arrive would often be major surgeries, such as for lung cancer! Lung cancer was the most common type of cancer among men. Pollution in China, dust and fine particles in factories, and smoking were all important factors that could contribute to developing lung cancer.
Some people were the carefree type and could laugh in the face of death! Meanwhile, others were incredibly scared of diseases. Maybe a person would catch a minor disease that shouldn’t have been a problem at all, but the person would literally scare themselves to death from worrying too much! Why did placebo effects sometimes work in medicine? Mentality was truly important!
What was cancer? Without talking about cells or various other factors, to describe it in the simplest layman’s words, cancer would be what happened after inflammation developed. If an inflammation wasn’t cured for a long period of time, it would then stimulate the body and then suddenly transform into cancer.
Maybe a person would have a lot of rotten teeth, but would feel that it was fine as long as the teeth didn’t hurt! Stimulating the mouth too much like this would likely cause tongue cancer. Such problems would always be considered minor things in daily life not worth paying attention to. However, terrible consequences would always await.
As China developed, Chinese people’s quality of life began to greatly increase. The most obvious example of this was how government employees and major companies’ employees would have free physical checkups paid for by the government! Although the checkups could only be performed at the government’s chosen hospital, this was still better than not having free checkups!
Liu Wenli was an advanced mathematics teacher for a high school in Chasu City. He was in his early 40s, already bald, and wore thick eyeglasses. He often squinted his eyes while talking, which made others feel like he was sleepy. However, he was truly skilled at teaching math. He had even taught two students who participated in the international Math Olympiad contest.
In a smaller city like Chasu City, such a teacher would truly be revered. Countless parents would try and place their children into his math class. The parents of children already in his math class would always try to think of ways to get him to pay extra attention to their children.
Liu Wenli was quite a responsible teacher. His high school’s system was such that he would teach the same group of students for three years consecutively at a time 1. Over the years, Liu Wenli had successfully taught countless students who went on to attend top-level colleges. The more glory that he obtained, the more pressure there would be. Some people would bravely face the pressure and rise to even higher heights, while others would be crushed to death by their own glory!
Liu Wenli was an incredibly hard worker who often stayed up extremely late into the night, preparing his lessons for his students. For his normal routine, he would go to sleep at three a.m. while waking up at six a.m. every day, sleeping only for three hours per day. He was also a smoker and coffee drinker, relying on those to stimulate his central nervous system. Over many years of working like this, he was now completely bald, always had dark bags under his eyes, and his body was in very poor condition despite only being in his early 40s!
Chinese teachers often had poor lungs to begin with due to all the chalk dust they would usually have to inhale. Liu Wenli also always stayed up late, and was a smoker as well. As a result, a major problem was discovered with his body when he came for a checkup at Ma Wentao’s hospital. Although Ma Wentao had used his government connections to send as many people as possible to his hospital for checkups, Ma Wentao had no intention of scamming anyone. His hospital wouldn’t make anything up on the physical examination report, nor would his hospital do anything such as draw blood then throw it away without even testing it, which some illegal unlicensed Chinese private hospitals would do, giving Chinese private hospitals a bad reputation.
For every checkup, Ma Wentao’s doctors would properly perform the physical examination and say whatever the results were without making anything up. The respiratory department director at Ma Wentao’s hospital instantly knew that something major was wrong with Liu Wentao’s lungs when he saw the physical examination report for this patient.
“The nature of this problem has yet to be determined. Please get a professional clinical opinion,” he typed on the report.
“There’s a little problem with your lungs. However, our hospital’s medical equipment isn’t very good, and we can’t determine it clearly. You should get a medical opinion from Chasu City Hospital, and show them your scans,” the respiratory director spoke in a roundabout manner while giving Liu Wenli his scans.
China had laws which clearly stated that the patient had the right to know their own condition. However, social customs in China were far too deeply ingrained despite what the law said. In most cases where a patient had a severe problem, the doctor actually wouldn’t tell the patient the truth about what was wrong with them. The doctor would instead only inform the patient’s family members, or tell the patient to go get a second opinion at a better hospital!
Liu Wenli had been feeling really uncomfortable recently. He always lacked energy, lacked appetite, and often coughed. As he was an outstanding advanced mathematics teacher, he was highly intelligent! He instantly understood from hearing the respiratory director’s words that something had to be seriously wrong with his body.
Liu Wenli went by himself to Chasu City Hospital without saying anything to his family. He went to the cardiothoracic department. When cardiothoracic Director Liu saw Liu Wenli’s scans, he said, “You should hospitalize yourself! This will require surgery!”
“Doctor Liu, just what problem do I have with my lungs?”
“It’s just a tumor which is in a bit of a troublesome spot. This will absolutely require surgery. You should hurry and prepare for it, and have your family help you with the paperwork for surgery.” Director Liu Boyan also spoke in quite a roundabout manner. Although both men were surnamed Liu, they weren’t actually related. Liu was simply a common last name in China.
Liu Wenli immediately knew that this was bad. “Doctor, just tell me directly. Is it cancer? Do I still have a chance? How much longer can I live?”
“Oh! Pathological tests haven’t been done yet, so I can’t say conclusively that it’s lung cancer. You shouldn’t just imagine things by yourself. Don’t worry, and just receive treatment at our hospital!” Director Liu was forced to admit, in the Chinese roundabout manner, to Liu Wenli that it was likely lung cancer. He only did so because the patient was asking him so directly!
“Alright, I understand!” Liu Wenli’s reply sounded rather lonely. He already seemed old for his age to begin with, but now he seemed especially pale and zombie-like!
Death! Was death scary? Of course it was scary! Liu Wenli didn’t want to leave his son who was almost 10 years old, his aging parents, and his wife who was getting skinny with worry! He also didn’t want to leave his current batch of students who were currently in their third and last year of high school!
Liu Wenli went over to his son’s elementary school, hid behind a tree, and secretly watched his son who was having fun running around. “You need to hurry and grow up! Daddy won’t be able to accompany you anymore! Daddy won’t be able to watch you grow up! You need to be mature! You need to understand your mom!”
Liu Wenli went out shopping and went wild with spending money, buying the newest LCD flat screen TV that his father wanted but didn’t want to spend the money for, a new wheelchair for his mother, and lots of new clothes for his wife. What good would money be at the end of life? Money would be nothing more than some paper! He felt that money wouldn’t be able to bring him health or life!
In his math class, the students were currently quietly self-studying. He had spent three years with these students! Liu Wenli had a very good understanding of these students’ personalities and abilities after three years. The pudgy boy sitting in the farthest back row loved to eat snacks and play video games. With some strict management, it would be possible for him to get into an alright college.
The pretty girl sitting in the front row was a student talented enough to get into Beijing University or Tsinghua University, the two best universities in all of China.
‘All of you, work hard! Try your very best! Your teacher is leaving soon! I won’t be able to watch over you!
‘I’m so sorry!’
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