Chapter 99 — The Medicine Bearer Through the Chaos

First Medicine Season

Two years had passed since Te Sinh Duong officially opened, and on an early autumn morning, when the beds of medicinal plants in the garden had reached their first harvest, the whole restaurant was filled with an unusually busy atmosphere. Tinh Yen, along with a team of students now numbering nearly twenty people, were all busy harvesting, drying, and classifying each type of medicinal herbs according to what they had learned over the past two years.

The girl who made a strong impression on Tinh Yen in the first exam had now become one of the best students, able to accurately identify dozens of herbs just by scent and leaf shape, making even Ngan Ba Thuyen nod in endless praise.

"If this keeps up, she'll surpass me in a few years." He spoke to Tinh Yen, his voice both joking and serious, as they both stood and observed the young student meticulously sorting a batch of freshly picked mint leaves.

"That's exactly what I wanted when I started this place." Tinh Yen replied, smiling proudly. "Not to create copies of yourself, but so that each student can go beyond what he has achieved, carrying this knowledge even further."

Te Sinh Duong had now become a familiar address not only to Lach Dua villagers, but also to the wider Dong Hai region. More and more sick people from faraway villages came, not only for treatment but also to learn simple disease prevention methods that Tinh Yen and her students regularly disseminate in public teaching sessions held periodically at the village communal house yard.

Nhuoc Lan now took on the role of deputy medical clinic manager, in charge of daily medical examination and treatment so that Tinh Yen had more time to focus on teaching and compiling additional documents for Bach Thao Chan Kinh, based on practical experiences accumulated through each new case in this land. Ton Ba Nghi, despite being completely discharged from the army, continued to take on the role of security and logistics manager for the medical clinic, and became a basic martial arts teacher for older students, so they could protect themselves on long medical trips.

Baby Tep, now thirteen years old, officially became Te Sinh Duong's first and longest-standing resident student, demonstrating a special talent in acupuncture, often being personally tutored by Tinh Yen in more complicated cases. Sometimes, looking at the child's intense concentration while practicing acupuncture on a wooden acupuncture point model, Tinh Yen could not help but remember herself back in the year, under the strict but warm teaching of Mrs. Khue.

In the middle of the harvest morning, a family from a fishing village further away came, bringing with them a little boy who had a seizure due to a sudden high fever. The child's parents' faces were white with panic after a long, hurried journey. Tinh Yen immediately dropped what she was doing and, together with her best student, quickly brought the child into the clinic.

"Watch carefully here." She told the girl, as she quickly inserted needles into the acupuncture points to cool the child's fever and signaled another student to prepare a cold wet towel and apply it all over the child's body the same way Mrs. Khue had taught. "Convulsions caused by high fever in young children need to be treated in the first moment, cannot wait. Cool down first, find the cause later."

The young student followed each step with great concentration. Even though her hands were still young, they had begun to have remarkable stability after two years of practice. In just a moment, the child's convulsions gradually subsided, his breathing returned to normal, making both his parents and those around him breathe a sigh of relief.

"What method is this combined with, Master?" The girl asked, when everything was calm, her eyes full of desire to learn.

"Acupuncture to reduce fever is an orthodox medical technique I learned from master Lieu Nguyen." Tinh Yen replied, wiping the sweat from the child's forehead who was gradually regaining consciousness. "But how to apply a cold towel in the right position and at the right pace so as not to cause a child's body to go into sudden heat shock, that's what my grandmother, a traditional medicine man from a fishing village who never stepped foot in any official medical institute, taught me when I was younger than you are now. Both are equally important, remember that well."

The child's parents bowed their heads in gratitude, unable to hide their tears of happiness when they saw that their child was safe. Tinh Yen kept the child under observation for another night before allowing the family to take him home, meticulously advising him of the signs to pay attention to in the following days — a process that had become an indispensable habit at Te Sinh Duong, where each patient left with not only restored health, but also the knowledge to take better care of themselves in the future.

That afternoon, when the harvesting work was temporarily completed, a letter from Yen Phung capital arrived, carrying news from Kinh Ba Van - he reported that the model of combining folk medicine and orthodox medicine that Tinh Yen initiated had begun to be applied on a pilot basis at three other military hospitals along the northern border, based on the notes and methods she had sent back over the past two years.

"The path you have chosen now does not stop at a small medical shop by the sea anymore." The letter wrote. "It has begun to spread throughout the kingdom, just as you wished for in that public debate. I am more proud of you than anything I have ever taught in my entire career."

Tinh Yen read the letter in the gentle afternoon sunlight, her heart filled with a quiet but profound happiness. She closed the letter, looked out at the medicinal garden turning golden in autumn, at the young students who were still diligently working, and even further, at the vast ocean where her childhood had begun.

Thanh Phong, now completely settled in his new position in the Dong Hai area, regularly visits the medical shop whenever work allows, sometimes just to have dinner with the group, sometimes to lend a hand with the heavy work that the medical staff does not have enough manpower to undertake. That afternoon, he was also present, carrying a basket of fresh fish he had just bought from the village market.

"I heard that today is a big harvest day." He said, putting down the fish basket, looking around the garden with satisfied eyes. "I think, a more sumptuous dinner than usual would be a worthy congratulation to the whole hospital."

Tinh Yen smiled, clearly feeling the warmth of a life that had found a balance that she had never dared to dream of during the years of war - where work, love, and an entire community were growing together, blending into a complete picture, not absolutely perfect but true and sustainable, built day by day by the hands that had experienced too much loss to understand the true value of peace.

That night, when dinner was over, the whole group sat together in the front yard, under the light of an oil lamp hanging on the porch, listening to Ngan Ba Thuyen tell old medical stories, mixed with the laughter of the young students. Tinh Yen sat quietly in a corner, looking at that scene, clearly feeling that this was the most complete image of what she had always wanted to build - not just a place for healing, but a real home, where knowledge and compassion are nurtured and passed down through each generation.

Late that night, after everyone had gone back to their rooms to rest, Tinh Yen lingered alone in the clinic, checking one last time on the condition of the child who had just been cured that afternoon. It was sleeping soundly, its breathing was regular, its face was rosy again, completely different from the panicked convulsions when it was first brought to it.

She sat down beside the hospital bed for a moment, the small oil lamp illuminating the child's peaceful face, and in that quiet moment, she suddenly realized that this image - a physician sitting and watching a child's sleep under the light of an oil lamp - had been repeated countless times throughout her life, from Mrs. Khue's small house in Lach Dua, to the Ben Lau refugee camp, to the military hospital on the front line, to the small house in Go Say where she found Thanh Phong, and now at the very hospital she built.

Each of those lights, even in different places and different times, carries the same meaning - a reminder that, no matter how dark times are, there are always people willing to stay up all night to keep another life going, and that small light, when passed from person to person, will never truly go out in the end.