Chapter 34 "So...did you do anything to me, Doctor Chu?"

Zhou Ai's impromptu performance brought the atmosphere of the long table banquet to a climax, with applause and cheers lasting for a long time.

Zhou Ai, a smile on his face, jumped down from the platform with a swift and graceful movement. He pushed through the crowd and walked towards Chu Yi.

However, before he could get close, a little girl about seven or eight years old, with two small pigtails and wearing a brand new Miao skirt, ran timidly to Chu Yi.

The little girl's face was flushed, her little hands were tightly holding something, her head was tilted back, and her big eyes were blinking as she looked at Chu Yi.

"Brother," the little girl's voice was soft and thin, with a strong accent. She raised her hands high and handed over a handicraft made of colorful silk threads, which was in the shape of an intricate butterfly and a small flower. "Here...here."

This is obviously another way for Miao children to express their love. Perhaps it does not have the clear meaning of expressing love like tying a flower belt, but the closeness and goodwill between them are self-evident.

Chu Yi was stunned for a moment, looking at the little girl in front of him who was not even as tall as his legs, and the small gift in her hand that was full of innocence and thoughtfulness.

He squatted down so that he was at eye level with the little girl and took the small, delicate handicraft. "Thank you, it's beautiful."

When the little girl saw that Chu Yi accepted it, she immediately smiled shyly, revealing her missing front tooth. Then she turned around and ran back to her mother, hiding behind her skirt, only showing her eyes to secretly look at Chu Yi.

The scene was warm and cute, and the adults around laughed kindly.

Zhou Ai, who had just walked over, happened to take in the entire scene. He paused as he watched Chu Yi squat on the ground, holding the colorful gadget in his hand, and giving the running girl a gentle smile.

He raised his eyebrows, his eyes moving back and forth between Chu Yi's softened profile and the small handicraft, and the flamboyant smile he had just shown gradually faded.

He walked a few steps to Chu Yi, who just stood up.

Zhou Ai's eyes fell on the small handicraft that Chu Yi was still holding in his hand. "Tsk, Doctor Chu really is... popular with people of all ages."

His voice was not loud, but just loud enough for Chu Yi to hear clearly.

Chu Yi glanced at Zhou Ai calmly, carefully placed the small handicraft in his hoodie pocket, and replied without emotion, "It can't compare to Teacher Zhou's boundless charm, whose single song moves the entire village."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Ai was not annoyed, but laughed softly, seeming to be very satisfied with Chu Yi's words which contained a slight counterattack.

He moved closer. Due to the height difference, he needed to lower his head slightly to look at Chu Yi. He lowered his voice, a little hoarse from having just finished singing, and said, "So...did you do anything? Doctor Chu, what about you?"

His breath was warm and brushed against Chu Yi's earlobe.

Chu Yi's body stiffened imperceptibly, and he subconsciously took a half step back, creating some distance between them. He looked at Zhou Ai expressionlessly, "Teacher Zhou, the fever-reducing medicine seems to be working well. You even have the energy to joke around."

After saying this, he did not give Zhou Ai any more opportunities to continue discussing the topic and turned to walk towards Dr. Li.

Zhou Ai looked at Chu Yi's hurriedly leaving back, touched his forehead, and whispered to himself, his smile deepening: "Well, it is quite useful."

———

The excitement of the long table banquet gradually died down, and the villagers began to clear their dishes, but the atmosphere of hospitality still lingered over Gaduo Village.

The executive director of the program clapped his hands, picked up the loudspeaker, and refocused everyone's attention.

"Dear teachers and fellow villagers, thank you for the warm hospitality of Gaduo Village! Next, we will begin our real mission this afternoon!"

The director said in a resonant voice, "We will follow Dr. Li into the village, visit several elderly patients who need long-term care, and truly experience the daily life of a rural doctor."

He paused, then turned his gaze to Chu Yi. "And Doctor Chu, you have a very important independent mission. During your visit, led by Doctor Li, please focus on observing, inquiring about, and collecting statistics on the most common and prevalent diseases in this village and the surrounding area. I hope you can combine your professional knowledge with the actual conditions here to ultimately provide us with targeted, practical, and professional advice on disease prevention and initial response. This will be of great significance to our program and to the local community!"

As soon as this task was announced, everyone realized its importance. This was no longer a simple experience, but required the output of tangible professional contributions.

Chu Yi nodded, "Okay, I understand. I will record it in detail." He immediately took out a notebook and pen from his medical bag and got to work.

Doctor Li also smiled and nodded, "Doctor Chu asks detailed questions and knows a lot. With him around, he'll definitely be able to clarify many of the issues we were previously confused about!"

Soon the team set off again.

Doctor Li walked in front, carrying the heavy medicine box on his back. Chu Yi followed closely beside him, asking questions as they walked: "Doctor Li, which type of illness should we start with? For example, respiratory infections? Gastrointestinal diseases? Or strain-related problems like joint pain?"

Dr. Li led the way while answering, "Ah, there are many! The mountains are very humid, with a big temperature difference between morning and night. Children and the elderly are most likely to catch colds and coughs, which can turn into pneumonia. Although drinking water is better than before, habits die hard, and sometimes, if you don't pay attention, you'll get diarrhea. And then there are the elderly, who have spent their lives climbing mountains and working, and they suffer from back and leg pain..."

Chu Yi listened carefully and quickly wrote down the key words in his notebook.

They first came to a wooden building where there was an elderly man suffering from chronic bronchitis.

Chu Yi carefully inquired about the patient's medical history, medication, and frequency of attacks, and listened carefully to the patient's breathing sounds. He affirmed Dr. Li's existing treatment plan and added some suggestions for daily care and prevention of acute attacks.

Next, he visited an elderly man who suffered from severe lumbar disc herniation due to years of hard work. Chu Yi examined the man, assessing his pain level and limited mobility, his brow furrowed.

The conditions here are not suitable for effective treatment, only pain relief. He demonstrated in detail to the family and Dr. Li several massage techniques to help the elderly relieve pain and the postures they need to pay attention to in their daily lives.

Zhou Ai, Xie Mo and others followed by, mainly responsible for accompanying the elderly, helping to measure blood pressure, distributing some basic medicines, and doing some auxiliary work within their capacity.

Zhou Ai leaned against the door frame with her arms folded over her chest, watching Chu Yi explaining the dangers of high blood pressure to an old lady in the simplest terms possible.

The sunlight filtered through the cracks in the wooden window, falling onto his focused eyelashes, as if gilding them. Zhou Ai's gaze remained fixed on him for a long time, his previous playful and teasing thoughts gradually fading, and a more complex emotion surged in his eyes.

After visiting several households, Chu Yi's notebook was already densely packed with information. From time to time, he would whisper a few words with Dr. Li, or pull out his phone to check the latest primary care diagnosis and treatment guidelines.

Zhou Ai seemed to walk to Chu Yi unintentionally and handed him a bottle of freshly opened water.

Chu Yi was concentrating on his notes. He took it without raising his head, took a sip, and then continued writing and drawing.

Zhou Ai looked at his focused profile and suddenly asked in a low voice, her tone unusually serious: "Is the situation more troublesome than you imagined?"

Chu Yi's hand paused while writing before he realized that it was Zhou Ai who had just handed him the water.

He raised his head and rubbed his brow, his face showing a hint of fatigue, but more of a solemn expression. "Yes. Chronic disease management, infectious disease prevention, relief of overuse injuries... There's a lack of medicine, equipment, and even more of a lack of systematic health education. Many of these problems wouldn't have developed to such a serious level if proper intervention had been made early on."

Zhou Ai listened silently, his eyes fixed on the dense handwriting and professional symbols in Chu Yi's notebook. "What can I do?"

When Chu Yi heard Zhou Ai's question, the hand holding the pen paused slightly.

He raised his eyes to look at Zhou Ai. The other person's expression was rare and serious. In those peach blossom eyes that always contained a playful look, the dense handwriting on the notebook was reflected at this moment, as well as an almost pure inquiry.

Chu Yi was silent for a few seconds, as if considering his thoughts. His gaze swept across the simple surroundings and the elderly man staggering in the distance, then returned to Zhou Ai. "Your influence is the best medicine."

Chu Yi paused, "You don't need to perform professional medical operations. But if you can use your platform, whether on the show or outside of it, to let more people see the real situation here, understand the difficulties faced by primary healthcare, and identify those who are truly in urgent need of help... perhaps it will be more useful than us visiting here for ten days or a month."

Chu Yi's gaze passed over Zhou Ai's unusually earnest peach blossom eyes as he spoke, and he continued slowly, "If even a little bit of this attention could be directed to the daily lives of Dr. Li and his colleagues, to these cabinets that are short of medicine, and to these elderly people whose treatment has been delayed due to the difficult mountain roads...it would be a huge help."

Zhou Ai listened quietly, not answering immediately. He glanced at the back of Dr. Li, who was laboriously carrying his medicine box to the next door, and then at the heavy notes in Chu Yi's notebook.

After a while, he suddenly spoke, his tone returning to his usual lazy tone, but the content of his words was completely different. "Okay. Then, Doctor Chu, I accept your medical advice."

He didn't say what he was going to do specifically, but the cynicism in his eyes had faded, replaced by a kind of understanding and commitment.

At this time, the executive director invited everyone to go to the next house.

Zhou Ai didn't say anything more. He just raised his hand and gently touched the page of Chu Yi's still open notebook with the joint of his index finger in a very natural way, making a very light "click" sound, then turned around and caught up with the team.

After visiting the last house, the sunset had dyed the sky orange.

After more than three hours of high-intensity work, everyone in the program crew felt a little tired, but they gained more and were touched.

Chu Yi's notebook was full of notes. He had already compiled a preliminary list of urgently needed common medicines and several of the most critical and most urgently needed medical science knowledge points and handed them over to the director.

"These are basic and urgently needed," Chu Yi said seriously. "I hope that through the program team, we can provide feedback to the relevant departments. Perhaps we can actually improve the medication conditions here."

The director took it solemnly and said, "Don't worry, Doctor Chu, we will definitely report this to the authorities!"

As we set out on our return journey, everyone's steps were much heavier than when we came, but the atmosphere was more harmonious.

After the in-depth visit in the afternoon, the guests of the program team had a more intuitive understanding of the difficulties of rural medical care, and they also developed a stronger comradeship with each other because they completed this meaningful work together.

The mountain road was winding, the sky gradually darkened, and sparse stars began to dot the dark blue sky.

The night in the mountains is quiet and mysterious, with only the sounds of footsteps and occasional insects.

"Huh? What is that?" Qin Yaoyao, who was walking a little ahead, suddenly exclaimed in a low voice and pointed at the grass beside the road.

I saw a bright green light light up silently, draw a graceful arc in the air, and then disappear into the darkness.

"It's fireflies!" Zhou Jiashu replied excitedly.

Soon, the second, the third... more and more fireflies flew out from the grass and woods on both sides of the road.

"Wow! It's really beautiful!" Qin Yaoyao couldn't help but admire.

"I only saw so many fireflies when I was very young on the ridges of the fields in my hometown," Xie Mo said with emotion and nostalgia. "I didn't expect to see them here again after so many years. It's like a dream."

Everyone was attracted by this natural wonder and slowed down their pace. Some even took out their mobile phones to record it, but found that the light was too dim to capture the effect.

Chu Yi also stopped and looked up at the dancing fireflies. He was lost in thought, taking in the tranquility and wonder of the mountain night.

Just then, he caught a glimpse of a figure stopping in front of him from the corner of his eye.

Before he knew it, Zhou Ai had already walked up to him.

Chu Yi subconsciously looked up and met Zhou Ai's gaze.

The sky had almost completely darkened, with only sporadic flashlight spots and fireflies flying all over the sky providing faint light.

In the dim light, Zhou Ai's facial features appeared somewhat blurred, only his eyes seemed to reflect dots of green, and were exceptionally bright.

He stood in front of Chu Yi, his hands slightly clasped together, holding something mysteriously, with a faint smile on the corner of his mouth, looking at Chu Yi.

Their eyes met in the dim light, and everything around them seemed to quiet down, leaving only the subtle fluttering of fireflies' wings and the whispers of their teammates in the distance.

Chu Yi was a little confused and was about to ask "What's wrong?"

Zhou Ai seemed to have found the right opportunity, and suddenly raised his clasped hands and opened them suddenly -

In an instant, the starlight held in his palm was released instantly.

The firefly that he had carefully held in his palm suddenly gained freedom and flew up between him and Chu Yi with a bright green light.

Countless fireflies were like little stars, and the suddenly lit light balls clearly illuminated Zhou Ai's smiling eyebrows and high nose bridge, as well as his focused and gentle eyes when he looked at Chu Yi.

Under the faint and brief green fluorescence, Chu Yi could see Zhou Ai's expression clearly at a very close distance.

Without the usual banter and laziness, it is a pure sharing with a bit of childishness.

Chu Yi was completely stunned, staring blankly at the fireflies flying away from Zhou Ai's hands and merging into more spots of light around them.

His heartbeat seemed to stop at that moment, and his breathing was held. The whole world seemed to be left with only the face in front of him illuminated by the faint light of fireflies.

"Wow! Dr. Chu! Teacher Zhou! This shot is amazing!" The cameraman's suppressed excited voice suddenly sounded behind him.

Chu Yi suddenly came back to his senses, as if he was awakened. He turned his head abruptly and found that his photographer had quietly stood not far behind him, with the camera facing them, obviously capturing the entire scene.

A sudden warmth rushed up Chu Yi's cheeks, but fortunately it was dark at night and no one noticed.

He coughed lightly, feeling a bit awkward, and looked away, not daring to look at Zhou Ai again. He whispered to the photographer, "...There's nothing worth photographing."

Zhou Ai seemed to be unconcerned. Instead, he smiled lazily in the direction of the photographer. Then his gaze fell back on Chu Yi's slightly red earlobe. He whistled in a very good mood and turned to catch up with the main group.

Only Chu Yi was left standing there, looking at the fireflies still dancing in the sky before him—

My heartbeat, belatedly, was pounding.