Who are they making trouble for? Surely not me!

As it turned out, no matter how scattered the disaster relief sites were, people who were bound to cross paths still would.

It was almost dark when Song Ning and the others reached Gao Ping.

Compared with the day before, the resettlement site was noticeably more crowded. As soon as they entered the village, several groups of soldiers stopped Han Xiao to discuss matters.

Song Ning said she could return to their quarters on her own. Han Xiao and Chen Liang took her at her word, told her to get some proper rest, and immediately threw themselves into the rescue work.

As she approached the house requisitioned by the medical team, she saw Zheng Chang'an pacing anxiously outside the door, peering inside from time to time.

"Doctor Zheng, you're back in Gao Ping too?" Song Ning called to him from a distance.

The moment Zheng Chang'an saw her, he hurried over. He took her by the arm and looked her up and down before speaking.

"Doctor Xiao Song, are you all right? They said you jumped into a debris flow! It nearly scared the life out of me!"

"I'm fine! A close call, that's all! Couldn't be better!"

Song Ning sounded so calm and casual that she hardly seemed like someone who had narrowly escaped death in a debris flow.

Zheng Chang'an scratched his head, wondering whether he had spent the whole day worrying for nothing. He even questioned whether his tone just now had been too dramatic, and whether Song Ning might look down on him for it...

Song Ning had no time to concern herself with his reaction. She was exhausted and hungry, and all she wanted was to go inside and rest her feet.

"Let's go inside first!"

She asked Zheng Chang'an, "What were you pacing around outside for?"

Only then did Zheng Chang'an glance back inside and nervously pull her aside.

"How about you go somewhere else for a bit?"

Song Ning had no idea what he meant.

Zheng Chang'an lowered his voice. "Someone's making trouble over the treatment!"

"Trouble over the treatment?"

Song Ning's eyes widened despite herself. Hearing something like that in this remote mountain village was certainly a novelty!

"Who are they making trouble for? Surely not me!" Song Ning almost laughed.

Zheng Chang'an frowned. "Why don't you believe me?"

As he spoke, he pulled Song Ning close to the doorway and motioned for her to listen...

Doctor Feng happened to be speaking inside, his cautious tone tinged with helplessness.

"Comrade, that's not fair! Given yesterday's emergency, we provided the patient with the most appropriate treatment possible. As you can see, the resources here are extremely limited..."

"Limited resources are no excuse!"

The speaker was a woman, her voice shrill and furious. "This shows an appalling lack of responsibility toward your patient! If your resources were limited and your medical skills inadequate, you should have promptly sent him somewhere properly equipped, rather than giving him this slapdash treatment. This could have a tremendous impact on the rest of his life..."

Song Ning looked back at Zheng Chang'an. "What's going on?"

Zheng Chang'an whispered, "It's... the man with the injured leg last night. He's been running a fever all day. His family came and insisted it was our fault, saying we hadn't treated him properly!"

Song Ning flared with anger the moment she heard that. She straightened and walked inside, raising her voice.

"You're his family, right? I'm the one who treated him. If you have a complaint, take it up with me!"

Song Ning's arrival brought the heated exchange inside to a halt.

Compared with yesterday, her white coat was so filthy its original color was unrecognizable, and its soaking had left it badly wrinkled. Her hair, which had barely had a chance to dry, clung damply to her scalp... Yet despite her disheveled appearance, her gaze was sharp and unwavering, and her voice rang with confidence!

The people in the room froze for a moment.

"Well, well! So you're that incompetent doctor? You finally dare to show your face!"

The woman inside immediately turned her attack on Song Ning.

When Song Ning saw her, she was rather surprised-

The woman throwing a fit inside was actually a female military doctor wearing an army cap and a white coat!

Beside her stood another woman dressed the same way.

The two stood in the middle of the room, ignoring the row of patients lying nearby as they glared at a roomful of doctors much older than themselves, their manner aggressive and confrontational.

Song Ning's first reaction was...

She's a military doctor?

How did someone with manners like these get into the army?

"What? Too afraid to speak? Do you think keeping quiet will let you dodge responsibility?" The military doctor began targeting Song Ning.

Song Ning gave a cold laugh and asked, "You're a military doctor?"

The other woman spoke up then. "Hmph! Our Yu Ting is an officially appointed military doctor."

Doctor Feng hurriedly explained in a low voice beside her, "These two only arrived a little while ago. This is Doctor Chen, and that's Nurse Zhang."

The military doctor named Chen Yuting said haughtily,

"I know most of you aren't professionals. Since you aren't, you should at least be humble and cautious. You can't treat your patients' lives as a joke."

"Professional?"

Song Ning said coldly, "As an officially appointed military doctor, you're shouting and making a scene in a room you know is full of seriously ill patients. Do you lack even that basic level of professionalism?"

"You..."

Chen Yuting looked around. Makeshift stretchers lined the walls on both sides of the main room, holding seriously injured civilians, most of them on IV drips. Her shouting had long since woken them, and they were all staring at her!

"That's my first point."

Song Ning continued, "Second, that injured comrade arrived with severe bleeding and a fracture. Anyone with a little common sense knows that you must first stop the bleeding, and that a patient with a fracture can't be moved carelessly, or you risk further injury! Tell me, then, how exactly were we supposed to 'send him somewhere properly equipped'?"

"Third, although our resources are limited, we provided the most appropriate and effective treatment. It was not slapdash, as you claim! His fever is a normal immune response following an injury. It is no excuse for you to stand here accusing everyone!"

When Song Ning finished, the surrounding patients and doctors began murmuring among themselves. This military doctor had been ranting for ages without saying a single reasonable thing. They had long since grown tired of her.

Humiliated, Chen Yuting pointed at Song Ning and lashed out.

"You're nothing but a lowly barefoot doctor! Your twisted arguments won't help! Your medical skills were inadequate, and you didn't clean the wound thoroughly enough. That caused inflammation, which is why Changqing has a fever! It's too late to cover up the truth now! I'm going to report you!"

"Yu Ting—"

A low, hoarse call came from nearby. It was the company commander from the night before, and he sounded utterly exhausted.

"Changqing-"

Chen Yuting hurried over to him, her imperious tone instantly turning aggrieved.

"Changqing! They're ganging up on me! We're not staying here for treatment! Let's go back to the military region!"

Changqing?!

Song Ning hadn't paid much attention the first time the woman called his name, but she heard it clearly the second time...

And as it happened, this man seemed to be from the communications company too!

Well, well! What a fateful encounter!

The world really was small!

Thank goodness for Director Hao's foresight. She felt... there was a very good chance she had already met the "family" ahead of time...

And they had made their entrance in the most "dramatic" way possible...

"Changqing," lying on the bed, was telling Chen Yuting,

"Yu Ting, I'm all right. You don't need to argue with them!"

"How are you all right? You've been running a fever all day! If I hadn't come, I wouldn't even have known you were this sick!"

"I'm really fine!"

After watching their tender exchange for a while, Song Ning scratched the tip of her nose and said, "Um... let me interrupt for a moment!"

Both of them turned to look at her.

Chen Yuting said disdainfully, "So you know you were wrong? Unless you give us a sincere apology and write a statement of repentance, I'll definitely report you!"

Ignoring Chen Yuting, Song Ning spoke directly to the man lying on the bed.

"Here's the thing! I need to confirm something. Your surname is Lu, as in the word for road, and your name is Lu Changqing, correct?"

The man nodded, looking puzzled. "Yes! I'm Lu Changqing!"

"From the 7th Regiment of the 13th Army in the Southwest Military Region?" Song Ning asked again.

He nodded once more.

"Good!"

Song Ning nodded and said to Zheng Chang'an behind her,

"Doctor Zheng, could you please pass me a pair of surgical scissors?"