Chapter 22 — The Medicine Bearer Through the Chaos

The man with the cloth shirt asked to go to the hospital

The room inside the military hospital mansion was darker than Tinh Yen expected, with only a small window shining light down on a desk covered with papers and medical records stacked in tall, neat piles to the point of being almost rigid. The man sitting behind that desk was about fifty years old, his beard and hair were gray, wearing a dark blue official uniform with a silver badge shaped like a needle and a medicine cup attached to his chest - Army Medical Lieutenant Ky Ba Nghiem.

He didn't look up as soon as she entered, just continued to write down a line of text, leaving Tinh Yen standing there, in the middle of the room so quiet that she could clearly hear the sound of a pen scratching on paper.

"Who are you? Come in and see me, what's your matter?" He finally spoke, his voice dry, his eyes still not leaving the page.

"Bam Do Lieutenant, my name is Do Tinh Yen, I studied medicine with master Thich Lieu Nguyen, who just passed away last week after curing the military camp during the recent epidemic." She bowed her head, her voice steady even though her heart couldn't help but tremble. "I'm here to ask to join the military hospital and become an official medical doctor."

Ky Ba Nghiem frowned slightly, put down his pen, and for the first time looked up and looked straight at her - the eyes of someone who was used to examining and evaluating from head to toe in just one glance. "I have heard of Monk Lieu Nguyen. He has good skills, strange temperament, does not accept royal salaries, and goes everywhere practicing medicine without following any rules. Are you his disciple?"

"Yes, Captain."

"Do you have any diploma from any official medical clinic? Have you received a rank or practice certificate from any district?"

Tinh Yen choked for a moment. "I don't have a degree, Captain. I learned the profession from my grandmother, a traditional medicine man in a fishing village, then followed master Lieu Nguyen for more than a year, practicing medicine at refugee stations and battlefields."

"So that means nothing." Ky Ba Nghiem said, his voice was not harsh but cold enough to be even more annoying than harshness. "This military hospital is not the place to accept anyone who claims to know how to cure diseases. I have seen many people learn a few folk remedies and pretend to be doctors, causing more harm to soldiers than helping. You are also a female - the military hospital has never had a precedent of accepting female medical students on the official payroll."

"Captain, I understand your concerns." Tinh Yen replied, not backing down. "But I didn't come here empty-handed. My master, before he passed away, gave me this thing."

She opened the red cloth package, placed half a piece of jade talisman engraved with a white crane on the condemnation letter in front of Ky Ba Nghiem.

The Captain's face changed color for a brief moment - too short for Tinh Yen to be sure he wasn't mistaken - before he picked up the piece of jade, turned it back and forth under the light from the window, his fingers brushing the engraved pattern of a flying crane's wings.

"This is..." He stopped, his voice suddenly lowered. "Do you know what this is?"

"Master said this is a token from the Imperial Hospital, confirming his identity as a Royal Physician in the court." Tinh Yen replied, carefully observing every fleeting expression on his face. "He said, my master used to be a royal physician many years ago, but had to leave everything for a reason that he couldn't fully explain before he passed away."

Ky Ba Nghiem was silent for a long time, placing the jade piece on the desk but not immediately pushing it back. His eyes looked far away as if he were searching for an old memory in his mind. "I have been in the army for twenty-five years, and have served under three different generations of generals. I heard rumors that many years ago, there was a royal physician in the Imperial Hospital who suddenly disappeared without a trace. Some said he was sick and died, some said he was murdered. But those are just old rumors, I'm not sure if it has anything to do with your monk or not."

"So... what does this token mean to you right now?" Tinh Yen asked, trying to keep her voice calm even though her heart was beating rapidly.

"It proves that your master once had a real identity in the Imperial Hospital, there is no doubt about that - no one can fake such a delicate piece of jade talisman." Ky Ba Nghiem replied, pushing the jade piece back to her. "But it doesn't prove that you have enough skills to become an official physician in my military hospital. A token is not a pair of hands that know how to hold a needle to sew a wound or know how to pick the right medicine."

He stood up, walked around the desk, and stood in front of Tinh Yen with the appearance of someone who was used to giving orders and not used to being argued back. "If you really want to go to the hospital, I will give you a chance - but not the chance to rely on this token, but based on your own hands. Three months of probation, do the lowest jobs in the hospital: wash instruments, change bandages, clean the isolation area, help other doctors - do not arbitrarily dispense medicine, do not arbitrarily diagnose, do not touch any patient without orders. If after three months I find you worthy, I will reconsider. If No, you must leave the military hospital, and that token will only be a souvenir to remember your deceased teacher."

Tinh Yen clenched her fists, swallowing down the anger rising in her heart. She had saved the lives of hundreds of people right outside this wall, had held a tourniquet to stop the bleeding from deep wounds in the midst of the most chaos of the battle, but now had to start over from washing tools like a child just learning the trade.

But she also remembered her master's words: principles are not something that is only applied when it is convenient.

"I accept." She said, bowing deeply.

"Good." Ky Ba Nghiem nodded, returned to his desk, and considered the meeting to be over. "Go find Quyen Nhuoc Lan, she will guide you in your work in the western quarantine area."

Tinh Yen walked out of the mansion, the bright afternoon sunlight made her have to squint her eyes for a while to get used to it again. She stood there, took a deep breath, trying to suppress the feeling of both relief and bitterness swirling in her heart, before walking towards the designated quarantine area.

The person who welcomed her there was a girl about her age, small but agile, her sleeves rolled up to reveal old burn scars on her arms - traces of careless medicine preparations during her early apprenticeship.

"Are you new? I'm Quyen Nhuoc Lan." The girl said, her voice was straightforward, without beating around the bush. "The captain has already told me. I heard that you have a token from the Royal Hospital and still have to do chores like us?"

"That's right." Tinh Yen replied, not hiding it.

Nhuoc Lan laughed, a short but sympathetic laugh. "At least you're honest. I've been here for two years now, still on probation, because my father is just a lowly medicine man in a small district, with no money or connections to get me on the payroll faster. Follow me, I'll show you how to sterilize the tools first - if you do this wrong step, the patient could die from infection, not from the wound."

As soon as the two passed through the quarantine tents, a younger man, wearing worn-out medical clothes, was sharpening a scalpel, looking up at Tinh Yen with unsympathetic eyes.

"Is this the person carrying the Royal Hospital's token that the whole camp is talking about?" The young man said, his voice sarcastic. "I'm Vu Khac Tuan. I studied here for three years before I was able to touch a small surgery. Do you think having a piece of jade can leapfrog all the rules?"

"I don't think so." Tinh Yen replied directly, her eyes not avoiding. "The Admiral gave me a three-month trial like anyone else, doing the lowest job first. If you don't believe me, just look at what I can do after three months."

Vu Khac Tuan snorted softly and did not say more, but his eyes still held something between suspicion and challenge, as if waiting to see how long this cloth-clothed girl would last before giving up or revealing her true nature.

Nhuoc Lan pulled Tinh Yen's hand and continued, whispering when she was far enough away that Tuan couldn't hear. "Don't pay attention to him, he's just jealous because it took three years to get a little recognition. Now seeing you come with such a big token, it's just annoying. Just do your job well, everything will be fine."

Tinh Yen nodded, looking around the quarantine area, which was still cluttered with unwashed tools, old bandages piled up waiting to be processed, and the strong smell of disinfectant in the air - a much more humble beginning than she had imagined when she decided to bring the token to present. But she knew that this was the path she had chosen, and she would follow it completely, step by step, even if it had to start with cleaning a bloody scalpel.