Ha ha

"Good morning doctor, here is your outpatient schedule for today." Ethan walked into the door and handed a timetable to the woman who was writing something at the desk.

"Thank you." The elderly female doctor took the form, pushed her glasses, and carefully read the name registered on it, "Oh, there is an international patient today."

"Yeah, it's a big day," Ethan joked.

Ethan has been working as a nurse in his home hospital for two years, but this is the first time he has received international patients.He was very curious about the visitor, and he didn't want to make any mistakes. Seeing that the agreed time was approaching, he stood early and waited at the hospital gate.

Ethan had studied Chinese in college, so the hospital did not hire another interpreter to accompany him.Although the other party also said in the contact email that he does not need translation, Ethan feels that even the people of his own country may not understand all the professional vocabulary related to diseases and medicines, so he may still need to play by himself.So a few days ago, I checked the Chinese of some common words and practiced the pronunciation a few times, for fear of losing the chain at the critical moment.

He didn't stand for long before waiting for the patient who arrived on time.When he saw that figure from a distance, he raised his eyebrows in surprise—the other person came by himself, and there was no one behind him to help push the wheelchair, so he looked rather bleak. Ethan walked up to him quickly and said, "Mr. Bai? Hello, my name is Ethan, and I'm a nurse here."

The patient looked at his right hand, which was outstretched in mid-air, and shook it politely: "It's a pleasure to meet you." The palm of that hand was cold.

"It must be tiring to fly all the way from China. Is it smooth to find here?"

"It's okay, thank you for your concern."

Not only is the palm of the hand cold, but the voice also has a cold taste.The other party is obviously not a person who likes to chat, but his temperament is quite gentle, coupled with that face with a rather oriental beauty, it is easy to fall in love with him.

Ethan withdrew more greetings, took the initiative to hold the wheelchair handle, and pushed him all the way into the single consultation room.

"We need to confirm some questions about your physical condition first." Ethan took out a survey form and urged, "If there is anything you don't understand, you can ask me at any time. I can speak some Chinese."

The patient nodded.But Ethan soon found that his previous homework was in vain.The other party spoke in barely audible English, and the fluency of the conversation made Ethan even doubt his identity as an international patient.The questions listed on the form were quickly filled with answers, and Ethan stood up and said, "Just a moment, the doctor will be here soon."

He walked out of the consultation room, took the door behind him, and handed the form to the doctor.

"Very well, let me take a look..." The doctor bowed his head and read for a while, "Wait——Ethan, is there any obstacle in your communication?"

"Not at all. What's the matter, is there something wrong?"

"No..." The doctor went to look at the above data carefully, and said to himself, "It's just that the injury shouldn't be so serious. Of course, everyone's physique is different, but it's still...forget it, I'm going to talk to him personally."

She picked up the form and went to the consultation room. Ethan curiously recalled the data provided by the other party, but unfortunately, he didn't have enough professional knowledge to see what it was.

The doctor stayed inside for a longer time than usual before coming out. He didn't give much explanation. He just asked Ethan to take the patient to take a film as usual, and then go to the rehabilitation center to experience a course of treatment first.

The hospital has been promoting its own rehabilitation program since it recently invested heavily in rebuilding its rehabilitation center. Ethan pushed people into the rehabilitation room to look around at the equipment, and skillfully introduced the details of the project to him.

"Although the effect varies from person to person, word-of-mouth is generally very good. If you haven't read the statistics and customer reviews on our website, you can search them when you have time." Ethan concluded by saying, " Any questions?"

The patient fell into a brief thought.

His expression was indescribably subtle, as if mixed with a hundred kinds of contradictory emotions, Ethan couldn't help staring at it a few more times, the more curious he looked.

Finally, the other party asked: "Are there any cases where it didn't work at all?"

"That depends on what your definition of effect is. Like I said, everyone's physical and mental situation is different. Of course we can't guarantee that any one person will be back to normal, but as long as you have confidence in yourself, you can There will be a sort of…”

"Are there any cases where it didn't work at all?" The other party asked again without changing a word.

There was a dry, cracked silence for a few seconds. Ethan was stared into the hair by those black eyes, and felt inexplicably oppressed by being put on a lie detector.

"...Of course there have been, but the probability is equivalent to stepping on dog shit on the street." Ethan felt that this question was unfair. "Extreme cases exist objectively. Treatment time has passed too long, or there are other serious diseases ... but these do not apply to you."

Seeing that the other party was silent, Ethan showed a signature nurse smile: "Listen, I am not unfamiliar with your feelings. Every once in a while we will encounter a patient like this, during the previous treatment. Frustrations, more than once, more than twice, enough to make him lose heart before he even started—you know what I'd say to him?

"You don't have to trust yourself, or even us, just trust that it can't get any worse. There's nothing to lose anyway, so why not just give it a go? You can just pay for a week, Think of it as a weird club event, come have some fun."

This reassurance has always been very effective, the other party paused for a moment, and then responded with a very faint smile. Ethan was satisfied, although the reaction wasn't as enthusiastic as he'd hoped.

Sure enough, the patient paid a week's fee in advance. Ethan took him back to the gym again, and asked before entering the door: "Are you coming alone in the future? If you are accompanied by relatives and friends in the future, I will teach them what they must pay attention to."

The other party thought about it again, and said: "I will be alone for a few days, in the future...it will depend on the effect."

Ethan didn't understand his logic.What kind of story does this person have?

"Let's get started." Ethan didn't ask further.

He pushed the wheelchair and walked towards the rehabilitation equipment, not noticing the patient's white knuckles clutching the armrests.

Two hours later, Ethan pushed the same wheelchair out the door.

Even though the air conditioner was turned on early in the room, his clothes were still sticking to his back, and he was soaked in sweat.But it was nowhere near as good as the other.The other person looked like he had just been fished out of the water, his eyes were half covered by his wet black hair, and he looked extremely embarrassed.

Ethan went to the water dispenser to get two glasses of warm water and handed him one.The other party took it with trembling hands, and almost splashed the water with his weak fingers.

"You don't need to exercise so much for the first time." Ethan couldn't help persuading, "Rehabilitation is a very slow process, and it is impossible to have obvious results in a day or two..."

"It's not that there is no obvious effect, it's that I can't move."

Ethan choked for a moment before saying, "Actually, your muscle atrophy is quite serious, and it's normal to be unable to move for a while..."

"It's not that I can't move temporarily. It's that I can't move."

"..."

Before Ethan could say some standard encouragement, the other party had already finished drinking the water, and he controlled the wheelchair to turn around.

"Ah, wait, I'll send you out." Ethan chased after him responsibly, "You're giving yourself a psychological hint, dude, did you do the same thing before? Remember to treat it like a club—ah! "

The other party stopped the wheelchair without warning, and Ethan almost fell into it.

"You know what, nurse?"

The patient didn't look back, only a voice mixed with a hundred flavors came over, "No matter how bad the situation is, it can get worse. Even a person like me has something to lose."

He walked away unhurriedly. Ethan stayed where he was and squinted at the back, only to feel that the meager gentleness of the other party was wiped out all of a sudden, and the private bubble swelled to a radius of ten meters, and it would be courting death if he followed up.

Probably because this scene is too dramatic ending, Ethan is sure that the other party will never appear again.Unexpectedly, on the second and third day, he would arrive on time again, recover step by step, and try his best to carry out every instruction he gave.

It was as if nothing had happened—and indeed nothing had happened.

No matter how best the doctors, nurses and psychologists tried their best, the legs never moved a millimeter from top to bottom, from inside to outside.

A week later, the patient disappeared without a word.