"Doctor Lin, just tell me."
Lin Zhilan said, "When you recover, I'd like to order some crabs from you. I have a use for them."
"You don't need to pay for them. Once I'm better, I'll catch a few baskets and give them to you." Grandpa Yan knew that Doctor Lin had always taken good care of his grandson, and he had nothing else to offer in return.
If he still took her money, he would be completely heartless.
"So," Lin Zhilan smiled, "if you want to give me crabs, you have to get better as soon as possible."
Grandpa Yan offered an embarrassed smile and agreed.
Lin Zhilan turned to glance at Su Lang.
Su Lang understood. He stepped into the room, "Uncle Yan, I'll carry you to the hospital on my back."
"Ah, thank you, Commander Su."
Lin Zhilan helped Grandpa Yan onto Su Lang's back. After they went out, she turned back to Yan Yuan and said, "Xiao Yuan, pack your grandpa's toiletries and two sets of clean clothes. Bring two sets of clothes for yourself as well."
Yan Yuan agreed and turned to rummage through the cabinet.
After he finished packing, Lin Zhilan took his hand and followed behind Su Lang.
Along the way, Yan Yuan didn't make a sound.
He secretly looked up at Lin Zhilan.
Aunt Lin's hair was blown slightly messy by the sea breeze, with a few loose strands clinging to her cheeks. The silhouette of her profile looked very gentle in the moonlight.
As the sea breeze blew over, Yan Yuan could smell the faint scent of medicine on Aunt Lin—cool, refreshing, and gentle.
For a moment, Yan Yuan truly envied Jiang Chengzhou and Linlin.
It wasn't the first time Aunt Lin had helped him.
Yan Yuan wished he could grow up instantly, becoming a strong and independent adult.
So that his grandpa would no longer have to worry about him, and he would have the opportunity and ability to repay Aunt Lin.
By the time they got Grandpa Yan to the hospital, his face was deathly pale and he was trembling from the pain.
The traditional Chinese medicine department currently had no inpatients, so no one was on the night shift.
Lin Zhilan opened the door and let Su Lang place the old man on a hospital bed.
A gout attack was extremely agonizing.
It wasn't just an ordinary ache, but a severe, burning pain.
The phrase Lin Zhilan most often heard from such patients in the past was that it hurt so much they wanted to saw their leg off.
It was a credit to Grandpa Yan's endurance; an ordinary person would have been crying out to the heavens by now.
Lin Zhilan took out her silver needles, wiped his afflicted area with an alcohol cotton ball, and directly made a quick, shallow prick in the swollen and painful spot, twisting the needle a few times.
She left the needle in for a moment before pulling it out.
This was the treatment for the acute phase of a gout attack, used to clear heat and relieve pain.
As soon as the needle went in, Grandpa Yan immediately felt the piercing pain ease by half.
After a few more needles, in less than a few minutes, the old man's tightly furrowed brows relaxed.
He even dared to gently move the foot he previously hadn't dared to budge.
"It feels much better," Grandpa Yan said repeatedly. "Doctor Lin, you are truly amazing."
Lin Zhilan smiled as she packed up her things, "I told you to come earlier. Enduring all that pain wasn't worth it, was it?"
Hearing this, Grandpa Yan nodded continuously.
Lin Zhilan took a small scale to the medicine cabinet to fetch herbs. Yan Yuan followed her and said, "Aunt Lin, I can brew the medicine myself. You and Uncle should go back and rest early."
Yan Yuan had done odd jobs in the traditional Chinese medicine department before, so he knew how to brew medicine.
Lin Zhilan poured the weighed herbs into a medicine pot, then looked up at him, "There's no rush. Once your grandpa's medicine is brewed, you can come back with us and sleep with Chengzhou, okay?"
Yan Yuan shook his head, "No need, Aunt Lin. I'll stay here and watch over Grandpa."
Lin Zhilan thought for a moment, "That works too. Then you can sleep on the bed next to your grandpa's. The nurse sisters wash these sheets regularly, so you don't need to worry about getting them dirty."
"Okay, thank you, Auntie."
Lin Zhilan rubbed his head and reminded him a few times to make sure he put out the fire once the medicine was done brewing, before she went out with Su Lang.
Yan Yuan stood at the door of the department, watching the figures of Lin Zhilan and Su Lang gradually blend into the night.
He waited until their shadows completely disappeared around the bend in the road before turning back to brew the medicine.
The medicine brewed for about an hour. Yan Yuan filtered out the dregs, poured the medicinal soup into a bowl, let it cool for a while, and brought it to the bedside.
Because of the gout attack, Grandpa Yan hadn't slept through the night for several days.
After drinking the medicine in one gulp, he mumbled a few words and fell asleep again.
Yan Yuan stood by the bed for a while, making sure his grandpa was sleeping soundly, before extinguishing the fire on the coal stove. Holding a flashlight, he quietly slipped out the door.
He was very familiar with the island's roads; he could walk them with his eyes closed.
Returning home, he grabbed his flashlight, a bamboo basket, and a crab hook, and headed to the mudflats.
The tide had receded, revealing large expanses of mudflats.
Even though it was late at night, Yan Yuan wasn't the only one out on the mudflats.
In the distance, the silhouettes of a few other beachcombers could be seen.
The miner's lamps on their heads bobbed up and down.
Yan Yuan took off his shoes and stepped barefoot into the mud.
He thrust the crab hook into the mud, tied the hook rope around his waist, and slowly waded forward.
As the hook dragged along the bottom, he would lift it slightly whenever it hit something hard.
Yan Yuan had good luck today; after taking just a dozen steps, a mud crab snagged on the crab hook.
He skillfully pinched the back of the crab's shell, detached it, and tossed it into his basket.
He didn't know how much time had passed, but when the bamboo basket was nearly full, Yan Yuan finally put away the crab hook and walked back with the basket on his back.
By the time he got home, the sky was already faintly bright.
Yan Yuan placed the bamboo basket in the yard, fetched a basin of clean water, poured out the crabs one by one, and carefully scrubbed them clean with a brush.
After finishing this, he drew water to take a bath, changed into clean clothes, and returned to the hospital.
When Lin Zhilan came to work in the morning, Qin Qing was the first to arrive.
"Master," she pointed into the ward and whispered, "Yan Yuan is asleep in there. Is that his grandpa next to him?"
"Yes, Uncle Yan had a gout attack, so I brought him to the hospital yesterday."
"Oh, oh." Qin Qing pulled her behind the shelf by the door and pouted her lips toward it, "Master, look, what's this?"
Lin Zhilan looked over. Behind the door sat a basket of crabs, still blowing bubbles.
They definitely weren't there last night...
She sighed in her heart and said softly, "Neither of them slept well last night. Let's keep our voices down and let them sleep a bit longer."
Qin Qing nodded silently.
Yan Yuan still didn't sleep for long.
As soon as a patient came outside to see the doctor and the noise got a little louder, he woke up.
Lin Zhilan nodded at him, gesturing for him to go outside and wash up.
Once she finished seeing the patient at hand, she called Yan Yuan alone into her office.
"Where did you go last night?"
Yan Yuan lowered his head, his gaze fixed dead on the floor.
Lin Zhilan sighed, "Xiao Yuan, your grandpa held out and refused to come see the doctor. Do you think he did the right thing?"
Yan Yuan looked at her and shook his head.
"Then you are just as foolish as your grandpa." Lin Zhilan poked his forehead in exasperation, "Look at the bigger picture. Your most important task right now is to grow up well and study hard."
