200: Chapter 200 Heading to the Provincial Capital Hospital

On the eleventh day, the phone finally rang.

It was the same young female voice, but her tone was more formal than last time.

"Comrade Lin Yue, hello. Your application has been approved by the project team. Next, we need you to come to the military general hospital in the provincial capital for a pre-surgery assessment. I will text you the specific time and location."

Lin Yue gripped his phone, his fingers trembling slightly.

"Okay," he said, his voice calmer than he had imagined. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. Oh, right, Comrade Lin Yue..."

"Yes?"

"There will be many tests on the day of the assessment, and some might be a bit uncomfortable, so please be mentally prepared."

"Okay."

After hanging up the phone, he sat on the sofa, stunned for quite a while.

Then he stood up and walked to the window, leaning on his crutches. Outside the window was the cement road in the village, with houses on both sides, their walls dusty and grey, firewood and farm tools piled by the doors. In the distance were the fields, empty after the rice harvest, with only short rice stubble remaining.

It was a very ordinary scene. He had looked at it for over twenty years and had never thought there was anything special about it.

But today was different.

Today, he felt that this land was beautiful. The dusty houses were beautiful, the firewood piled by the doors was beautiful, and the distant rice fields were beautiful too.

Everything was beautiful.

On the day of departure, it was still dark before dawn.

His mother had risen even earlier than him and was busy in the kitchen. By the time he finished washing up and came out, breakfast was already set on the table: congee, steamed buns, pickles, and two boiled eggs.

"Eat plenty," his mother said. "You have several hours of travel ahead."

Lin Yue sat down, picked up a steamed bun, and took a bite.

The bun was one his mother had steamed herself; it was soft and fragrant, carrying the sweet taste of wheat.

"Mom, you don't need to see me off," he said. "I can go by myself."

His mother didn't speak, just peeled the shell off an egg and placed it in his bowl.

"I can peel it myself," Lin Yue said.

"I know," his mother replied. "I just want to."

Lin Yue didn't say anything more and lowered his head to eat the egg.

After finishing breakfast, his mother walked him to the entrance of the village. The sky was just beginning to brighten, the fog was thick, and the peaks of the distant mountains were invisible.

The old locust tree at the village entrance was just a blurred shadow in the fog, like a stroke of ink bleeding out in a traditional painting.

"Call Mom when you arrive," his mother said.

"Okay."

"Cooperate well with the doctors, don't be afraid."

"Okay."

"If... if it doesn't work out, don't be discouraged."

Lin Yue paused, looking at his mother. Her hair had turned much whiter, and the wrinkles on her face had deepened, but her gaze was still the same as when he was a child—gentle and quiet.

"Mom, it will pass," he said.

Then he turned around and boarded the bus to the county seat.

As the bus started moving, he looked back. His mother was still standing at the entrance of the village, not very clear in the fog, just a blurry shadow. The old locust tree was beside her, also blurry.

He turned back, leaned against the seat back, and closed his eyes.

Outside the bus window, the sky was gradually brightening. The fog had dispersed a little, and the outlines of the distant mountains were revealed.

The sun hadn't come out yet, but the eastern sky was already turning fish-belly white, pale and soft, as if washed by water.

Lin Yue watched that light and suddenly remembered the days of his childhood, sitting on a stone at the village entrance watching the sky.

The sky back then was very blue, so blue it didn't seem real.

Now he thought, regardless of whether this assessment passed or not, he wanted to take a good look at the sky. Whether it was blue or not didn't matter. As long as he could stand and look at it.

The provincial capital was larger than he had imagined.

Exiting the station, his eyes were filled with high-rise buildings and traffic. He stood in the square, leaning on his crutches, unsure for a moment which way to go. People were coming and going in the square, everyone walking hurriedly, as if the whole world had things to do, and only he was superfluous.

His phone rang; it was someone from the Veterans Affairs Bureau.

"Comrade Lin Yue, have you arrived?"

"I have."

"We are waiting for you at the exit, the one wearing a black jacket."

Lin Yue looked around and found the person. It was a young man, wearing glasses, looking very gentle, holding a sign that read "Veteran Reception."

"Comrade Lin Yue, right?" The young man walked up to him. "Hello, my name is Xiao Li, and I'm responsible for taking you to the hospital."

"Thank you," Lin Yue said.

Xiao Li helped him with his luggage, led him to the parking lot, and they got into a black business van.

There were already three people in the car, all men around his age.

The one by the window was missing his left arm, his sleeve tied in a knot. The one in the middle was in a wheelchair, both legs gone, and the one by the door had a long scar on his face, extending from his forehead to his cheekbone.

Everyone looked at each other, not saying much.

The car started moving, and Lin Yue leaned against the window, watching the streets outside. The streets of the provincial capital were very wide, the trees on both sides were tall, their leaves half-yellowed, rustling down whenever the wind blew.

"Are you all here to participate in that prosthetic limb project?" Xiao Li asked.

Several people nodded.

"Me too." The one missing his left arm spoke up, his voice a bit hoarse. "My name is Zhao Guoqiang, I used to be an engineer."

"Zhang Yong," the one in the wheelchair said. "Infantry."

"Wang Lei," said the one with the scar. "Special forces."

Several people looked at Lin Yue.

"Lin Yue," he said. "Scout."

After saying these four words, a strange feeling suddenly welled up in his heart. He hadn't used the word "scout" to introduce himself in a long time.

After retiring, he was "that Lin Yue who lost his legs," "Lin Yue the disabled person," or "Lin Yue who collects subsidies."

But the identity of "scout" seemed to have always remained.

The car continued to drive forward, and voices gradually filled the car.

Zhao Guoqiang said that after retiring, he opened a small convenience store; business was okay, but it was inconvenient to move goods by himself.

Zhang Yong said he learned computer repair and opened a shop in town, barely making ends meet. Wang Lei spoke the least, saying only "working as a security guard" before falling silent.

Listening to them talk, Lin Yue suddenly felt that he was not alone.

For the past two years, he had always felt like he was alone. There was no one like him in the village, nor in the town. Every time he walked on the road leaning on his crutches, he was the only one.

But now, these people in the car were just like him.

They understood the things he didn't need to say.

The car drove for about forty minutes, and the surrounding buildings gradually became sparse. There were fewer high-rises, more trees, and walls and barbed wire fences began to appear along the road.

"We're almost there," Xiao Li said.

Lin Yue looked out and saw a complex of buildings appear ahead: white buildings, tidy roads, and sentries standing guard at the gate.

The car stopped in front of the main gate. A sentry walked over, leaned down to look at the people in the car, then saluted and signaled for them to pass.

The gate opened slowly, and the car drove in. The space inside was much larger than Lin Yue had imagined. Several buildings were arranged neatly, with green belts in the middle, planted with some trees whose names he didn't know.

The air had a faint smell of disinfectant, exactly like a hospital corridor.

The car stopped in front of a five-story white building. Xiao Li led them out of the car and into the lobby.

The lobby was very spacious, the floor covered with light grey tiles, polished spotless, reflecting their figures.

Two nurses sat at the front desk, wearing light blue uniforms. Seeing them enter, they stood up and nodded with a smile.

"Please follow me," one nurse said, leading them inside.

The corridor was very long, with white doors on both sides, metal signs hanging on them with words like "Examination Room."

The corridor was very quiet, with only the sound of their footsteps and the rolling of the wheelchair.

Walking to the end of the corridor, the nurse pushed open a door, revealing a room the size of a conference room.

In the center of the room was a long table, with several stacks of documents and a few laptops on it.

Standing opposite the long table were two people.