Chapter 2: Origin

Mount Daqing, with its eighteen hairpin turns, saw a single off-road vehicle winding its way through the winter landscape.

"Dr. Qi, why didn't you stay in the city for the night and head up the mountain tomorrow morning?" The driver was a young man, dark-skinned and lean. Being a child of the mountains, he was quite talkative.

He drove with ease, glancing at the woman in the passenger seat from time to time.

The woman wore a white down jacket, her hair permed into large curls and tied back at the nape of her neck. She wore light makeup and no accessories like hairpins or earrings, yet in the young driver's eyes, even the most fashionable women from the city's theater troupes didn't have her kind of... charm.

She really was from a big city; even her very bones seemed different.

"A patient is waiting for surgery. I’ve gathered the supplies, so if I go back today, they can be used first thing tomorrow morning. Otherwise, he’d have to wait another day." Qi Yue withdrew her gaze from the window and smiled at the young driver.

She had an oval face with large, bright, dark eyes, and two dimples appeared when she smiled.

"How old are you this year, Dr. Qi?" The young driver blurted out. As soon as the words left his mouth, he felt it was too abrupt and blushed with embarrassment.

"Me? I'm old," Qi Yue said with a smile, looking at the driver with her eyes curved into crescents. "When I was your age, I was only a junior in college."

The driver did some quick mental math. Although he had been in the military, his younger sister was in college. Freshman year is eighteen, so four years of study would make her twenty-two. At most, she was...

"Only twenty-two or twenty-three! You can't call that old!" He grinned.

Qi Yue pursed her lips and smiled, knowing the boy had just done the math.

"Am I that young?" She laughed, reaching up to rub her face. "The university I attended was an eight-year program."

The driver let out an "ah" and turned to look at Qi Yue.

"I'm already twenty-seven," Qi Yue said with a smile.

The driver chuckled.

"That's still not old, definitely not old," he said. "Dr. Qi, you're married, right?"

As soon as the words were out, the young driver wanted to slap himself.

What was wrong with him today? Always asking questions he shouldn't, and he wasn't even close with Dr. Qi...

Qi Yue had already turned her head back to look at the scenery outside the window. Hearing this, she smiled and shook her head.

"Not yet," she replied, showing no signs of annoyance.

"With someone as wonderful as Dr. Qi, you really have to be picky..." The young driver hurriedly complimented her with a smile.

Qi Yue smiled but didn't speak.

The young driver didn't dare say anything more, secretly sticking his tongue out and focusing on the road.

Qi Yue watched the cliffs flashing past the window. The driver's mention of marriage had stirred up her thoughts.

At twenty-seven, in the county where this driver lived, she was not young. But in her social circle, marriage at this age wasn't something that needed immediate consideration. Of course, for those with boyfriends, marriage was usually on the agenda—before thirty, at least.

However, she couldn't say for sure now. Her boyfriend was getting married, only the bride wasn't her.

She never thought she would one day be the subject of that cliché advertisement line.

Qi Yue sniffled, shifted her position in the seat, and leaned her head against the backrest.

"Yue, why do you have to go there?"

"...You studied in Yanjing, your clinical internship was in Yanjing, and you stayed in Yanjing after graduation. You've been a resident for two years. Director Guo values you and even let you lead surgeries. I believe in less than three years you'll be able to perform surgeries independently..."

"...You want to learn, and I didn't stop you from pursuing further studies. There were spots abroad, so why must you go to a remote mountain area? What can you learn there?"

"...Going abroad for further study is gilding your resume. What is going to this remote mountain area? What are you learning? How to treat illnesses with herbs? You have a good foundation and talent, but don't waste your time. You'll be in the countryside for three years. Three years! It's like rowing against the current; if you don't advance, you fall back. Yue, even if you come back, your future will be ruined..."

"...Your father had an accident, his future is ruined, and you're still listening to him, talking about how true skill is honed at the grassroots level! What kind of nonsense is that! Don't you want a future either? Don't think that supporting the countryside for a few years will give you a political future. In our line of work, we rely on skill to eat, this empty reputation is useless..."

"...You're becoming more and more unreasonable. Let's end this here..."

Qi Yue closed her eyes and let out a breath, turning her head toward the window. The car emitted a lonely roar on the mountain road.

Actually, after all he said, the final sentence was all that really mattered.

Just a year ago, Qi Yue's father had caused a patient to become paralyzed due to a surgical error. This medical accident ended both his medical practice and his political career.

That was the nature of social competition; you have to compete not only with your own abilities but also with your family background and your father...

Qi Yue smiled self-deprecatingly. Marrying that woman was indeed more suitable for her boyfriend...

What did five years of love matter? These days, everything is expensive, except for feelings, which are the cheapest thing of all.

Damn it, I should have added something to that coffee I spilled on him back then...

Sigh...

"Dr. Qi? Dr. Qi?"

The driver's cautious inquiry interrupted Qi Yue's thoughts. She turned her head.

"Are you carsick?" The driver looked at her complexion with concern.

Qi Yue hurriedly shook her head and smiled.

"No, no, I'm fine," she said, pulling herself together.

"This car is newly equipped with satellite TV... Our County Magistrate Zhang loves watching TV. Why don't you watch something?" The driver said happily, not waiting for Qi Yue to refuse before turning it on.

Watching such a small screen would probably make someone carsick even if they weren't already.

Qi Yue was grateful for the young man's kindness, thanked him with a smile, and said nothing more.

The sound from the TV filled the cabin. With the extra noise, Qi Yue felt her empty heart being filled.

"...Audience friends, this archaeological discovery is an unexpected joy. No one expected that an ancient tomb was buried under such a mound. Judging from the site, the burial mound is intact. According to experts, this should be a tomb of a noble..."

"They found treasure!" The driver was very excited. "I love watching grave-robbing shows..."

Qi Yue felt a headache coming on, but her gaze involuntarily drifted to the small screen. On the screen, an excited female host was squeezed next to several experts who looked as if they had been injected with adrenaline. They were in a tomb passage, with a blue stone gate at the end as the background.

"...In a moment, we will witness the opening of the tomb with our own eyes... Professor Liu, why don't you tell us..."

The car stopped abruptly, and Qi Yue was caught off guard, nearly bumping her head.

"We're here." The driver grinned.

They had reached the end of the mountain road; further ahead was a path impassable by car. Standing halfway up the mountain and looking out, one could see scattered houses in the distance. A clearly newly-built house stood out on a flat piece of land.

That was the township health center, the place where Qi Yue was providing aid.

Since she arrived, people from other townships and even the county seat had traveled over mountains to be treated by a doctor from the big city. The once-deserted hospital had become bustling. The few rooms used as inpatient wards weren't enough, so the old director simply contributed his own office. The villagers no longer lamented that the money used for poverty alleviation had been wasted on such a nice building.

Qi Yue jumped out of the car, and the young driver helped her take the medical kit from the back seat.

"Dr. Qi, can you carry it yourself? There's still a bit of a walk..." The driver asked, looking at the first-aid kit in her hand and then at the very steep path.

"It's fine, I'll take a shortcut. I'll be there if I go straight down from here," Qi Yue said, looking at the sky. The weather today was gloomier than usual, and faint ice pellets were falling. "It's snowing, you should go quickly. The mountain road won't be easy to navigate once it gets dark."

To keep the driver from worrying, Qi Yue started walking as soon as she finished speaking.

The driver watched her until she descended the slope before getting back into the car.

He started the engine, and the sound from the small TV filled the cabin again.

The driver hummed a tune while driving quickly along the mountain road.

"...It's opening..."

The driver hurriedly glanced at the TV, waiting for the moment a miracle would appear.

"...I don't accept gifts for the holidays this year..."

"Damn it," the driver cursed. Unwilling to give up, he had to patiently wait for one commercial after another to pass.

It was just that today's commercials were exceptionally long...

At the other end of the TV, the female host looked at the group of dejected experts, her expression also very ugly.

"How could there be nothing?"

A gray-haired man was pacing around the tomb chamber, looking somewhat crazed.

"Looking at the structure of this tomb, it is undoubtedly the tomb of a wealthy and powerful family?..." The others were also confused. "How could there be no burial goods?"

After all that effort, there was nothing. The female host was also furious; this was playing the audience for fools, and her job was definitely on the line.

"Could you have been mistaken? It's not the tomb of a duke or a high official, or maybe grave robbers have visited it before..." she interjected.

"How could we be mistaken? If you don't understand, don't talk nonsense!" Challenging their authority made the old experts furious. Even if it was a beautiful host, they glared at her without hesitation.

"Then how could there be no burial goods in a tomb of a noble family!" The female host had never been treated like this, and she snorted back unceremoniously.

That's right, how could there be none? The experts suddenly deflated...

"Teacher, the coffin is opening!" A student busy at the main coffin shouted.

This sentence made everyone rush over, and the camera lights followed.

Inside the coffin lay a skeleton, lying on its side.

The clothing had long since decomposed. The female host covered her mouth and nose and leaned in to look. There were no jade, gold, or silver artifacts scattered about as seen in other ancient coffin openings. Aside from the bones, there was nothing...

It was over. This time, it was truly a wasted effort.

"Live broadcast time is up, we can't delay any longer..." someone urged from the side.

"Broadcast what? There's nothing here," the female host said irritably.

As soon as her voice fell, she heard an expert let out a shout. She hurriedly turned around and saw an expert picking up an object from under the skeleton's crossed arms.

"What is this?" he muttered, holding the object up to his eyes.

The ice pellets finally turned into snowflakes. After the last turn, the car drove steadily onto the plain, and the driver breathed a sigh of relief, allowing himself to focus slightly on the small TV.

On the TV, several experts were busy cleaning something, and the female host was chattering away.

"...Alright everyone, look, this is what was taken from under the skeleton..."

The driver couldn't help but widen his eyes, watching the camera zoom in on a tray holding an instrument.

"Huh?" The driver couldn't help but rub his eyes. "Isn't this... a scalpel or something?"

The driver hadn't seen one before, but when he picked up Qi Yue in the county seat, he saw her organizing her first-aid kit, and it contained these things.

The question also came from the female host on the screen.

"So, expert, what exactly do you think this is?"

The expert looked conflicted, picking it up with gloved hands.

After cleaning, the instrument returned to its original appearance. As the expert turned it, it shone brightly under the camera lights.

"This is... a scalpel..." the expert muttered, "and it's German-made..."

"German?" The female host and the driver exclaimed simultaneously.

"Damn it..." the driver cursed. "Even an archaeology show has turned into 'Approaching Science'... I really can't watch this anymore."

He snapped the TV off, cutting off the female host's silly giggles and her unfinished sentence.

"...Teacher Zhang is joking... But in any case, we can see that this must have been the owner's favorite possession... To have nothing else, only this as a burial object... and it seems to have been held in their arms. They've been holding it for a thousand years..."