Chapter Summaries

Song Ning gave Zheng Chunzhi a courtyard home as her bride price, then arranged Song Wang and Chunzhi’s wedding as Jinghe Hospital’s renovation, recruitment, and equipment preparations advanced. The hospital’s outpatient building was ready, while work continued on staffing and the inpatient and research facilities.

• Song Ning gave Zheng Chunzhi a courtyard-home deed in her name, and Song Wang promised to treat Chunzhi well.
• Song Wang and Zheng Chunzhi registered their marriage on the fifth day of the first lunar month, and Song Ning began preparing their wedding banquet with help from Li Suying, Yu Qiuye, and Chen Liang.
• The outpatient building’s renovation was completed, and the hospital opened recruitment for professional staff under retired medical experts’ assessments.
• Song Mei and Song Lan led staff in checking and sorting equipment, medicines, and supplies left by Fuwai Hospital.
• Yu Zhengyang and his team continued renovating the inpatient building and modifying its lower levels for the research center.

Song Ning prepared Jinghe Hospital for its trial opening, showcasing its imported equipment and patient-focused service training to government officials. The hospital opened the next day, while Song Ning teased Han Xiao about his frequent trips to the storeroom and canteen.

• Song Wang and Zheng Chunzhi held their wedding, and Zheng Chunzhi's second uncle and his wife were turned away from the courtyard.
• Imported medical equipment arrived at Jinghe Hospital, where Song Ning's team installed it and arranged training for technicians and staff.
• Song Ning showed government officials the hospital's advanced equipment and explained its nurse etiquette and patient-service training.
• Jinghe Hospital prepared to begin trial operations on March 6, 1980, with specialists and foreign technicians helping staff train and maintain the equipment.
• On her day off, Song Ning teased Han Xiao about visiting the hospital storeroom and noted that Chen Liang went to the canteen even more often.

Song Ning reviewed the hospital’s opening preparations while discussing surveillance of the Zhou and Tian families and the poison that had recurred in Lu Changqing. The chapter ended with Jiang Chengshi arriving for lunch and complaining that Song Ning had given him too much work as vice president.

• Song Ning teased Chen Liang and Han Xiao about their possible interest in Yu Qiuye, while both men stayed quiet.
• Han Xiao and Chen Liang reported that Zhou Yuanhang and Tian Mingfeng had shown no suspicious contact, and that Tian Mingfeng was under surveillance pending stronger evidence.
• Han Xiao explained that the toxin in Lu Changqing had been a derivative capable of multiplying, and Song Ning concluded that his poisoning had been intended to kill him eventually.
• Song Ning asked Chen Liang to arrange a chance for her to speak with Gu Zheng, then checked the hospital’s opening plans and cooked lunch.
• Jiang Chengshi hurried to Song Ning’s home for a meal and complained that she had kept him too busy after making him vice president.

Song Ning assigned Zheng Chang'an and Jiang Chengshi as Jinghe Hospital's vice presidents and discussed Gu Zheng's classified mission and her fear that it involved her grandfather, Song Jinnian. After Jiang Chengshi left to handle preparations, Song Ning wrote down the alias Cheng Yuan, the name of an expert who had died in her grandfather's case.

• Song Ning appointed Zheng Chang'an and Jiang Chengshi as vice presidents after both refused the presidency of Jinghe Hospital, assigning them medical and personnel duties.
• Jiang Chengshi resigned from his university teaching post, and Principal Li approved an exchange professorship so he could work at the hospital and supervise students.
• Jiang Chengshi reviewed Song Ning's opening preparations, agreed to handle them, and urged her to stay home and rest.
• Song Ning told Jiang Chengshi that Gu Zheng's classified mission might involve her grandfather, Song Jinnian, who had helped complete the Dawn Project.
• After Jiang Chengshi left, Song Ning wrote Cheng Yuan's name on a blank sheet, recalling that it was the alias of an expert who died in her grandfather's case.

Song Ning welcomed Li Yanzhou and Liang Lichuan after they finished a phase of their confidential project and agreed to give their university Chinese-language documentation for her hospital’s new equipment. Li Yanzhou recognized the painting in her room as a copy of an award-winning work, giving Song Ning a lead to investigate, then asked to keep the paper bearing the name Cheng Yuan.

• Song Ning reunited with Li Yanzhou and Liang Lichuan, who had just been released from months of work with the Project Group.
• Li Yanzhou and Liang Lichuan discussed Song Ning’s hospital and research work, and promised to visit the hospital during its trial run.
• Song Ning agreed to send the university a set of Chinese-language documentation for her hospital equipment.
• Li Yanzhou identified the painting in Song Ning’s room as a copy of the first-prize winner from the Fifth National Art Exhibition and told her where the original was displayed.
• Li Yanzhou picked up Song Ning’s paper bearing the name Cheng Yuan, praised the name, and asked her to give him the sheet.

Song Ning prepared for Capital City Jinghe Hospital’s trial opening while learning that Li Yanzhou faced a difficult choice about joining a long-term confidential project. The hospital opened to public attention, and its doctors began receiving the first patients.

• Song Ning watched Li Yanzhou leave, then retrieved the crumpled paper and studied the name Cheng Yuan written on it.
• Song Ning asked Chen Liang to arrange contact with Gu Zheng and requested a renewed investigation of the exhibition hall connected to Zhou Xiaotang’s painting.
• Capital City Jinghe Hospital began its trial operation on March 6, 1980, with officials, reporters, and crowds attending the opening ceremony.
• Zheng Chang'an delivered the hospital’s speech, and Song Ning joined the officials for the group photograph despite her worries about affecting history.
• Song Ning led officials through the hospital, where clear signs and public price lists impressed them.
• Jiang Chengshi paced anxiously through the consultation rooms until Director Liu sent him away to let the doctors begin seeing patients.

Song Ning’s hospital began its trial opening, but the day’s routine consultations were interrupted when Li Yanzhou and Liang Lichuan rushed in with Feng Yujuan, who was suffering a dangerous labor. Song Ning took charge of the emergency operation, while Kong Jianming arrived and was confronted by Li Yanzhou; Feng Yujuan’s fate remained uncertain.

• Song Ning showed officials and reporters how patients received care, then reviewed a busy morning of routine consultations after they left.
• Li Yanzhou and Liang Lichuan carried Feng Yujuan into the hospital after she fell, began bleeding, and was transferred from a community hospital in critical condition.
• Song Ning sent Feng Yujuan to the operating room, asked Han Xiao to notify Kong Jianming, and reviewed the medications the community hospital had given her.
• Li Yanzhou and Liang Lichuan waited anxiously outside the operating room as staff brought in medication and blood bags.
• A military comrade brought Kong Jianming to the hospital, where Li Yanzhou punched him and accused him of neglecting Feng Yujuan.

Kong Jianming signed the risk acknowledgment for Feng Yujuan’s emergency treatment and remembered how he had abandoned her after she became pregnant. Song Ning saved Yujuan for now, but she still faced a critical twenty-four hours, while reporters gathered at the hospital.

• A nurse brought out Feng Yujuan and Kong Jianming’s newborn daughter and said the baby needed oxygen for a few days.
• Song Mei told Kong Jianming to sign the risk acknowledgment, and he accepted responsibility after recalling how he had betrayed Feng Yujuan.
• Song Ning emerged from surgery and said Feng Yujuan was alive but had to survive the next twenty-four hours to be out of danger.
• Xu Yang told Song Ning that reporters were waiting to cover the hospital’s first emergency patient, and she went to address them.
• Song Ning sent Song Mei to take Li Yanzhou and Liang Lichuan to her office and told them to wait for her.

Song Ning briefed reporters after saving a mother and her baby, then gave Li Yanzhou and Liang Lichuan comprehensive free health checkups. She took them to the hospital’s underground Research Center, where they discovered that leading faculty and students from Qingbei had joined her team and the Military Medical University’s best team was expected to arrive.

• Song Ning told the reporters that the mother and baby had survived, then allowed two representatives to photograph them through the door without disturbing the patient.
• Song Ning sent Jiang Chengshi to the Laboratory Department and Research Center after discussing something with him in private.
• Song Ning took Li Yanzhou and Liang Lichuan through a comprehensive free health checkup, explaining that the hospital planned to promote preventive examinations.
• Song Ning brought Li Yanzhou and Liang Lichuan to the underground Research Center, where a medical student recognized Li Yanzhou and revealed that Professor Jin was there.
• Song Ning said the Research Center had attracted top teams from Qingbei and that the Military Medical University’s best team would join later.

Song Ning brought Li Yanzhou and Liang Lichuan to donate samples at the research center, then told Jiang Chengshi she feared Li Yanzhou might become the expert Cheng Yuan, who had died in her grandfather’s case. She resolved to prepare to save him if he joined the confidential project, while Jiang Chengshi agreed to manage the hospital.

• Song Ning took Li Yanzhou and Liang Lichuan to the research center, where Professor Jin’s team collected blood, hair, saliva, and nail samples from them.
• Li Yanzhou offered to help cover Feng Yujuan’s medical costs, but Song Ning said the hospital and her father’s work unit would help and that she would handle Kong Jianming’s responsibility for the baby.
• Song Ning told Jiang Chengshi that Li Yanzhou had been chosen for a confidential project and was drawn to the name Cheng Yuan, the alias of an expert who had died by poisoning in her grandfather’s case.
• Song Ning feared Li Yanzhou would join the seven experts working with Gu Zheng and remain unidentified if the project failed, so she planned to analyze his samples and ensure he survived.
• Jiang Chengshi agreed to take charge of hospital affairs, then wondered whether he would have to keep running the hospital for decades if Song Ning returned.

Song Ning stayed up all night writing research findings for medicines that could help her family and herself, then handed them to Professor Jin to develop. She left the hospital to go home and sleep, while the research projects began their formal process.

• Song Ning called Lei Ming to arrange for Meng Yu and Lei Hongyuan to come to the hospital, then spent the night writing down pharmaceutical research findings.
• Zheng Chang'an found Song Ning still working at dawn and urged her to protect her health; she finished writing and asked him to send Professor Jin to her office.
• Song Ning ate breakfast with Zheng Chang'an and asked Yu Qiuye to bring her mother to the hospital for treatment.
• Song Ning gave Professor Jin four research documents, including three completed findings and one research direction, and asked his team to prioritize them.
• Professor Jin promised to lead the research and development team in verifying the findings, and Song Ning went home to catch up on sleep.

After leaving the hospital to rest, Song Ning met Song Shaoyang, director of the Third Ring Pharmaceutical Factory, who proposed an exclusive manufacturing partnership. She learned his factory hoped to become Huansu Pharmaceuticals and that his cousin Su Tong had encouraged him to approach her.

• Song Ning left the hospital with Han Xiao and Chen Liang after explaining the costs and procedures for its free medicine program.
• Song Ning and Chen Liang recognized a young man and woman from the Qin Family outside the hospital, then returned to the Siheyuan Courtyard so Song Ning could sleep.
• Song Shaoyang visited Song Ning at home and proposed that his factory secure exclusive manufacturing rights to her hospital's research results.
• Song Ning agreed to read Song Shaoyang's factory materials and visit the factory before deciding about a partnership.
• Song Shaoyang revealed that his cousin Su Tong had suggested the partnership and named his factory Huansu Pharmaceutical Factory.

Song Ning considered partnering with Huansu Pharmaceutical Factory, agreed to help Regiment Commander Lei persuade Meng Yu to stay in the hospital, and arranged care for Su Ying’s difficult pregnancy. Chen Liang’s investigation found no meaningful link between Zhou Xiaotang and the painting Looking Up, while Zheng Chang'an fled after Song Ning hinted he might become hospital director.

• Song Ning reviewed Huansu Pharmaceutical Factory’s proposal and decided she was willing to partner with it if it met production requirements.
• Dong Yuan told Song Ning that Meng Yu resisted hospital admission and that Su Ying was suffering from severe pregnancy symptoms; Song Ning promised to help both women the next day.
• Chen Liang reported that Zhou Xiaotang had attended two lectures by Looking Up’s artist, Du Song, but Du did not know her and investigators found no other suspicious clues.
• Song Ning arrived at the hospital on time and praised Zheng Chang'an’s hard work by suggesting she could hand him the director’s position.
• Zheng Chang'an nearly fell over, then announced he was going back to Bijie to apologize to his mother.

Song Ning struggled to handle the sudden influx of pregnant patients at Jinghe Hospital and welcomed Meng Yu and Little Hongyan, arranging treatment for Meng Yu’s condition. The chapter left Meng Yu agreeing to surgery and Hongyuan expected to return from the grasslands for treatment.

• Song Ning dragged Zheng Chang'an into her office after he tried to leave, insisting he keep working.
• Newspaper coverage of Jinghe Hospital’s opening and its emergency delivery brought a surge of heavily pregnant patients before the obstetrics department had officially opened.
• Song Ning worked through exchange applications to find more staff, then welcomed Meng Yu and Little Hongyan to her office.
• Song Ning told Meng Yu that she needed a minor operation and persuaded her to be admitted and undergo surgery soon.
• Little Hongyan told Song Ning that her brother Hongyuan was coming back from the grasslands and insisted that she was his older sister.

Song Ning rapidly built Jinghe Hospital’s obstetrics and gynecology team while its trial opening drew more patients. A week later, Professor Jin completed three research projects, and Song Ning told him to credit the researchers who carried them out as the hospital began seeking approval and production.

• Song Ning treated a surge of complicated obstetric cases and helped an associate chief physician from Xiehe Hospital take over patients through the night.
• Two more associate chief physicians and four attending physicians arrived, completing Song Ning’s high-caliber obstetrics and gynecology team.
• Jinghe Hospital’s trial opening maintained strong outpatient numbers as admissions rose and patients recognized the credentials of its doctors.
• Professor Jin presented Song Ning with reports on three successfully developed products after the research teams followed her procedures.
• Song Ning refused to claim developer credit and asked Professor Jin to list the researchers who performed and verified the work.
• Professor Jin agreed to pursue fast-track approval for the hospital’s projects as Song Ning prepared to contact manufacturers.

Song Ning appointed Qi Shiyuan vice president and reassigned hospital duties before leaving for a planned pharmaceutical factory inspection. Han Xiao then told her Zhou Yunzhi had died in an accidental fall, and Song Ning hurried to the hospital to see her body.

• Song Ning arranged an inspection of the Third Ring Pharmaceutical Factory with Zheng Chang'an.
• Qi Shiyuan arrived from Shanghai, and Song Ning appointed him vice president, redistributing work among him, Jiang Chengshi, and Zheng Chang'an.
• Song Ning sent Jiang Chengshi to the factory visit in her place after Han Xiao reported Zhou Yunzhi's death.
• Tian Juying and Zhou Yuanhang found Zhou Yunzhi dead in the backyard, with a pool of blood beneath her.

After Zhou Yunzhi died from a fall, Song Ning and Han Xiao learned that the Zhou Family had reported her death to Public Security, which was investigating the case. Song Ning suspected the fall might not have been accidental and wondered what Zhou Yuanhang had wanted to learn from Zhou Yunzhi.

• Song Ning and Han Xiao paid their respects to Zhou Yunzhi and offered condolences to Elder Zhou and Professor Yang.
• Chen Liang reported that Doctor Huang found Zhou Yunzhi had died from a fatal head injury and fractures after falling from the roof.
• Chen Liang told Song Ning that Elder Zhou had reported the death to Public Security, and Song Ning said they should wait for the investigation's raw findings.
• On the drive home, Song Ning recalled that Lin Xiaoming had likely tried to kill Zhou Yunzhi before, then suspected Zhou Yuanhang had secretly tried to revive her.
• Song Ning wondered what Zhou Yuanhang had wanted to learn from Zhou Yunzhi.

Song Ning suspected Zhou Yunzhi might have known about the black jadeite cases, but Chen Liang returned with the police investigation’s findings. The police concluded that Zhou Yunzhi had died by suicide after falling from the rooftop.

• Song Ning connected Zhou Yunzhi to Zhou Yuanhang and the black jadeite cases, then asked Han Xiao to take photos of Zhou Yunzhi for Chen Xiaoyu.
• Song Ning arranged Meng Yu’s discharge after confirming that her surgery wound was healing well, and planned to visit again when Hongyuan returned home.
• Chen Liang reported that the autopsy and scene evidence supported a fall, while the Zhou family’s statements described finding Zhou Yunzhi in the backyard.
• Song Ning read Tian Juying’s statement and noted that the family had planned to return to their hometown after the first lunar month.
• Chen Liang explained that brain and psychological damage could cause self-harm, and reported that the police had ruled Zhou Yunzhi’s death a suicide.

Song Ning and the others found no evidence in Zhou Yunzhi’s death, though they suspected someone had wanted to keep her in Capital City, and Han Xiao began accompanying Song Ning for her protection. At the hospital, Song Ning noticed a film event that gave her an idea for Lao Jiang, then checked on Feng Yujuan and learned Li Yanzhou had gone far away.

• Song Ning, Han Xiao, and Chen Liang reviewed Zhou Yunzhi’s case and found no evidence of foul play, but Song Ning suspected someone had prevented her from returning home.
• Han Xiao told Song Ning to keep him and the others close for protection because she was the only person still connected to the Xiaolu Mountain incident.
• Chen Liang said Regiment Commander Lei had left Capital City on a classified mission and went to confirm arrangements for his family.
• Song Ning read that Love at Cape's End would host a discussion event on March 20 and hinted to Han Xiao that spring was coming for Lao Jiang.
• Song Ning checked on Feng Yujuan and encouraged her to recover; Feng Yujuan said Kong Jianming had helped with the baby and that Liang had visited alone because Li Yanzhou had gone far away.

Song Ning investigated Zhou Yunzhi’s connections and learned that Wu Shuangshuang had once seen Zhou Xiaotang with another woman and a man. After helping Wu Shuangshuang handle a frightened patient, Song Ning prepared to ask her about what she had seen.

• Song Ning asked Han Xiao to find out whether Li Yanzhou and Regiment Commander Lei had left the capital on the same day.
• Chen Xiaoyu recognized Zhou Yunzhi from Chief Engineer Zhou’s memorial service but said she had never seen her elsewhere.
• Chen Xiaoyu told Song Ning that Wu Shuangshuang had seen Zhou Xiaotang rowing with a man and another pretty woman.
• Song Ning brought Chen Xiaoyu and the others to find Wu Shuangshuang, then ordered a frightened patient to cooperate so Wu Shuangshuang could insert his needle.
• Chen Xiaoyu introduced Song Ning to Wu Shuangshuang, who recalled that her mother had once locked her in her room to stop her from applying for a job at Song Ning’s hospital.