Liu Zhengliang

ID f0defg@雲和

The story is set in a bleak, freezing northern town in Northeast China, centered around the Xiaoximen Community Clinic. It is an old, cash-strapped, severely understaffed grassroots clinic on the brink of being shut down. With continuous population outflow leaving mostly the elderly and children behind, the local economy is ordinary, and medical resources are in dire shortage. Major equipment is constantly missing, leaving many diagnostic tests impossible to perform locally. Without the sophisticated amenities of top-tier hospitals, the medical staff often have to improvise and make do with makeshift solutions—like using roasted sweet potatoes to keep vaccines warm, or borrowing a hearse from a local funeral shop to transfer emergency patients. Human warmth constantly tangles with harsh reality. This is an earthy, realistic world steeped in helplessness, free of high-flown medical miracles; every treatment is strictly bounded by budget, equipment, travel distance, and the mindsets of patients' families.