Chapter 51 Dr. Maria's best time is from April to May...
Yao Xiaoyu, heartbroken by her friend's distrust, was difficult to comfort. Tao Erniu had to use all her persuasive skills and promise to come to Yao Xiaoyu first if she encountered a similar situation again before the matter was barely resolved.
Time flew by, and Yao Xiaoyu finally unlocked her beloved Dr. Maria by increasing her favorability with the doctors and nurses. After spending some time together, she earned the nickname "Little Lily." However, she hadn't yet decided when to approach Dr. Maria.
Until one day, the sun shone through the pharmacy window into the room, and Yao Xiaoyu looked at that dazzling golden light and suddenly felt that the time had come.
...
"Dr. Maria."
Yao Xiaoyu knocked on the door, came in and sat down. Maria glanced at her, then put down her pen after writing the last few words.
"What problems are there today?"
Maria looked at the little lily who had finally learned how to dress herself and asked in a good mood, "My job is not easy, but Yao Xiaoyu is a sensible girl who never bothers me when I'm busy. The two of us are always very relaxed when we're together."
Yao Xiaoyu fiddled with the moon-white silk flower at the end of her hair, hesitated for a moment, and finally spoke:
“Dr. Maria, I heard you’ve performed foot-setting surgery?”[1]
Maria's eyes sharpened instantly, but Yao Xiaoyu simply met her gaze calmly—the most important reason she chose this hospital, besides the easy work and ample heating, was that it had Dr. Maria.
A skilled female doctor who has control over the hospital and has successfully performed foot-setting surgery.
"My mother needs to have this surgery. When would be the most suitable time?"
Yao Xiaoyu looked intently at the doctor in front of her. Maria remained silent for a moment, without explaining the surgical procedure and risks, and instead asked:
Does your mother know about this?
Maria has lived in the world of flowers for a long time and can distinguish between different words. The fact that Little Lily uses "need" instead of "want" already tells a lot.
"The hospital has experienced anesthesiologists, and I paid for both the surgery and nursing care."
Yao Xiaoyu skillfully avoided the topic, but her answer was essentially the same as stating it explicitly.
Foot surgery is a must. Now, and for a long time to come, China is not a peaceful place. Yao Xiaoyu cannot guarantee that Wenrou can live in a stable environment. A pair of feet that can walk normally, and even run and jump, is often the guarantee of survival.
In this era of frighteningly high random mortality rates, Yao Xiaoyu couldn't give Wenrou a bit more luck, so she could only try her best to fix the weakest link. In this regard, she neither intended nor planned to ask Wenrou for her opinion!
...
"The best time to schedule the surgery is between April and May. High temperatures can easily cause wound infection, while cold temperatures can affect the healing time."
After Maria finished speaking, she realized something was amiss and added:
"This is a calculation based on the international calendar. If we use your lunar calendar, it should be..."
Maria glanced at the calendar beside her, looking somewhat troubled. Yao Xiaoyu, not wanting to embarrass the doctor, chimed in:
"According to the Western calendar, is it okay for me to bring my mother for surgery on April 1st?"
Converting calendar dates won't take much time; the important thing is to set the surgery date first, as female doctors who can perform surgery are in high demand!
"If the sun comes out that day."
Maria blinked. Yao Xiaoyu stubbornly pleaded to extend the date to three days. She refused to believe that she could be so unlucky as to not get a single sunny day out of the three options!
Satisfied with her goal achieved, Yao Xiaoyu left the office, thoughtfully closing the door behind her. Hearing the barely concealed joyful footsteps, Maria was reminded of the past.
Mary, in the religious context, means the Holy Mother, but she didn't choose this name to promote anything. Rather, it's because "Mary" in Aramaic means "bitter," which perfectly reflects her initial feelings when she involuntarily came to plant flowers.
Before Maria was given this name, before she graduated from university, she felt that she lived in a perfect family—a gentle mother, a strict father, a sunny brother, and a big golden retriever as a family member, a standard template of happiness.
Even their wealth is just right: not enough to arouse the covetousness of others, but enough to afford a nanny, enough to pay for insurance, enough to go to college without taking out a loan, and even enough to provide their children with a small start-up fund after graduation.
Her brother was admitted to the law school at university and went on to work on Wall Street after graduation, with a bright future that was clearly visible to the naked eye; while she was also admitted to medical school, and her teachers directly promised her that she would be employed after graduation.
Everything was so perfect, if only she hadn't woken up in the middle of the night to drink water and overheard her parents plotting how to sell her for a good price after graduation.
Maria couldn't quite remember what happened back then, but the emotions she felt now were enough to make her understand the despair she had felt at that time. This was why she didn't write back to her family even once—to forgive them now would be to bully the helpless self she had been in the past.
What happened next... Oh, she pretended to know nothing, and through persistent pleading, she got the startup fund ahead of schedule. She asked her teacher for help to graduate early, and by the time the wedding car stopped at the school gate, she was already on a transoceanic ship.
She stumbled her way to China, changed her name, became Maria in Shanghai, and opened a small clinic that wasn't doing too well, learning about her family's situation through letters sent from overseas by her teacher.
My father lost his job, the family moved to a smaller place, my mother started learning to do housework, my brother's boss hinted that he should give gifts, but the family had no money, so what was originally a smooth road began to become rugged and difficult.
Her departure seemed like the first hole in the sandcastle, appearing to have no impact at first glance, but as time went on, everything gradually worsened... But what did things abroad have to do with Maria in Shanghai? When they wanted to send her up as a gift, they showed no mercy.
Maria continued her peaceful daily life growing flowers, relying on her foreign appearance. Aside from the occasional regret that she might never be able to have surgery again, her life wasn't bad. But when her career took off, nothing could stop her—
A family surnamed Qiu invited her to their home for a consultation. After she finished writing the prescription, the eldest of the triplets dismissed all the servants and asked her in a low voice if she could perform foot unbinding surgery. He even patted his chest and guaranteed that he could get any surgical tools needed. Maria recalled her scalpel and couldn't resist taking the bait.
She originally planned to have the surgery the following spring, since it would require removing four bones from one foot, resulting in eight exposed bone wounds for both feet. The cold weather would be detrimental to recovery, but the triplets insisted on having the surgery in the fall of that year.
"If we don't do it soon, we'll be getting married."
These words resonated with Maria, who gritted her teeth and went to the operating table. As promised, the triplets disappeared completely after the surgery. The disappearance of the three rival women caused a great stir in the city, but it had nothing to do with Maria.
Besides the occasional deliveries of one or a few women requesting foot binding, there was a constant increase in various medical equipment, medicinal herbs more valuable than gold, and chests of silver dollars in the basement.
As the commotion caused by her enemies gradually subsided, Maria strolled through the streets and bumped into a senior from her old school who she used to get along well with. The senior was struggling to find a reliable Western-style hospital in China. Lacking both support and money, the two hit it off immediately, and Maria Hospital was thus established.
Later, the senior returned to his country, and the hospital lost its backing. Maria was pondering whether to lay off staff or fight to the death when she discovered that the hospital had returned to peace. Upon further inquiry, she learned that the three Dragon Queen sisters, her enemies, had returned!
It wasn't explicitly stated at the scene, but that was the general idea: people in the world of fame and fortune call the Three Great White Sharks "the sisters," meaning they're ruthless and vicious, and once they've got their hands on something profitable, they won't let go. But Maria only cares about one thing: she has a powerful backer again!
The triplets stopped pretending to be shaky and languishing, and continued to shelter Maria Hospital under their wings. Anyone with a modicum of sense could figure out the trick. People watched the three sisters fighting it out in the mall without saying anything, but every now and then, a few girls would come to Maria Hospital, sometimes mixed with a few women.
Several times when Maria went out, she saw familiar faces. People who used to walk carefully were now chasing and jumping around each other like light butterflies.
The oldest person Maria operated on was a grandmother whose face... well, she couldn't tell the age of Asians at all, except for her silver hair.
"I'm already sixty-five!"
The woman sat in the chair, thin as a skeleton, but her voice was strong, reminding Maria of the land she had seen during her spring outings—dry and barren, but which, with proper care for a few years, would be full of life again.
Maria was worried about the woman's age, but the woman just stubbornly shook her head. So in the end, this grandmotherly woman still lay on the operating table. Perhaps she was too nervous, because before the anesthesia took effect, she kept rambling on about her story.
It's a very common story: a girl from a wealthy family had her feet bound when she was a few years old. However, she was exceptionally tall, so she suffered more than girls of average height, but she also enjoyed a better life during childbirth—giving birth was a little easier for girls with larger frames.
Life was going on like this until her husband got addicted to gambling. Selling the house and land wasn't enough, so he borrowed money from loan sharks. Unable to pay it back, he drowned in the Huangpu River. She went all out at her parents' house and managed to get him killed so the debts could be cleared. But she lost all her money, house, and land. This pampered young woman had no choice but to work in the fields to support her children.
People always say that foot binding brings happiness, and that three-inch golden lotuses never touch the ground. Women know from their own experience that this is all nonsense. Many people in the village have bound feet, but they still work in the fields. If they can't walk, they can do things by crawling, kneeling, rolling, or even lying down.
She gritted her teeth and worked year after year, only to be disliked by her children and grandchildren for being unable to work. Fortunately, she wasn't a fool. She put the house in her own name and sold it at a low price along with the unripe crops, leaving the village that very day.
She wandered aimlessly through the streets of Shanghai, then bumped into a friend from her youth. The woman, who had once needed assistance to walk, now walked briskly. She mustered her courage to strike up a conversation and learned that Maria Hospital could perform foot-setting surgery, so she came here.
“They all say that my inability to eat means my time is up, but I know that I just have a bad foot. Once my foot heals, I can live for many more years.”
The woman's voice gradually faded. Maria's skillful operation continued. A few months later, she saw the woman carrying a load on the street. She was a little fatter than when she had the surgery, and she took big steps.
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Author's Note: A small detail: The enemy invited Maria to their home for a consultation because they couldn't find a female doctor at the moment, and the old lady of the enemy's family was a conservative person who was more accepting of foreigners than men.
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[1] Foot unbinding surgery: Taken from the 1978 paper "Surgical Treatment of Foot Binding Deformity," which describes the bone that needs to be removed and the recovery effect. This article is set up so that Maria masters this technique due to the butterfly effect. The article "Evil Cannot Prevail Over Good: Can Bound Feet Really Be Restored to Normal? | Drama Talks About the History of Clothing," published on Sohu.com on July 16, 2018 at 08:20, by a user named "Traditional Clothing," uses some information from this paper.
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When I was writing about gentleness, I thought of that classic hellish joke: Two people, A and B, saw a bear. A was at a loss, while B was tying his shoelaces. A said that neither of them could outrun the bear, while B said that they didn't need to outrun the bear, as long as they could outrun A.
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