By Yu Dan

There Will Never Be Ample Time in Life

By Yu Dan

I t happened on a weekend night after I began my duty as class head master in university.I was doing the roll call of my students and accidentally sprained my ankle.I went through a medical checkup in Xuan Wu Hospital and was diagnosed as bone fracture on my right ankle and therefore needed to be hospitalized at once.I didn’t inform my parents of this matter,fearing that they worried about me.

A director of orthopedics performed the checkup with his staff and said to me,“Your ankle can be treated either with a conservative treatment or a surgical operation.If with the former one, you will bear less pain,but in future your ankle joint may get loosened due to a sequela.

I protested,“Conservative treatment just won’t do.I had once an injury on my knee-joint of the left leg,and I have to count on my right leg.Now I have no child.If I am pregnant in future,I’ll have to bear more weight; besides,the calcium in my body will lose away as I grow older.So you’d better have a surgical operation on me just in case.”

The director stared at me in a bit of surprise and said,“I seldom met patients who willingly asked for a surgical operation.Most of them would preferconservativetreatment.Anyway,if you insist,you will have to wait until next week.”

I objected,“Today is Friday,and it will be two or three days before next week comes.It’s better to have the operation today.”

“Who will sign the operation agreement then?We’ll have to wait for your family members.”

“No need to wait.I’ll sign it by myself.”Then Isignedthepaper while sitting on the ward bed.

After I signed my name,the director said to his doctor,“Please change my shift with others.I will do the surgery for the girl.”

His family name was Zhang.His hands left me with a deep impression, as they were the nicest male hands ever inmymemory--long,slimand straight.I joked,“Director Zhang,it’s really a pity for your hands not to play the piano.”

He laughed,“So I take a scalpel instead.”

I was injected with a bit more anesthetic during the operation.Director Zhangaskedme,“areyoustill awake?”

“Sure,I’m.If you don’t believe,I will recite a poem by Li Bai to you.”

“Ok,howaboutQuietNight Thought?”

“That’s too simple.I will recite Hard Roads in Shu.”All the present medical staff were amused by me.

After my operation Director Zhang was on duty the whole week.He would visit me and chat with me for a while every day.When he finally changed fresh dressing for my operation cut,I was amazed to find that there was no stitch trace around it.I asked him,“was it glued?”

He replied,“For a lively girl like you,I won’t allow an ugly scar left on your ankle,so I sewed your wound with catgut.Once it’s healed,the catgut will be absorbed by your body. I set two nails into your ankle to fix the two bones so that they grow well as if not broken.But,remember,you need to come back to me again in a year to take the nails out.”

We became friends after I left the hospital.Only then did Director Zhang tell me,“You know?I was not on duty that week.I just changed my shift. It seemed that you were my patient during the week,but actually you were my doctor when I chatted with you. Your optimistic spirit could help people recover.”

Time flied,and three years had passed imperceptibly,during which I lived a hustling and bustling life.Director Zhang kept reminding me,“You should have an operation to take the nails out as soon as possible,or it will be too late.”I was too busy during that period and was always on business trips.I even wondered,“How could it be late to take out the nails? After all,they won’t get rusty.”So I went to Nanjing on business again.

Four days later,after I came back from Nanjing,I heard the tragedy that Director Zhang had passed away.People all gathered around the gate of Xuan Wu Hospital to see him off.

I was overwhelmingly shocked at that moment.A living person who still chatted with me a few days ago,cheerfully and jokingly,disappeared all of a sudden.Four days ago,the last message he left with me was still the same as before,“I will take out your nails as soon as you come back,or it will be too late.”

That day,at the gate of Xuan Wu Hospital,I wailed.The running cars and crowds on the streets faded out at dusk.That moment,I understood distinctively a truth:There will never be ample time in life.

Now the appearance of Director Zhang has blurred in my mind.But his hands always come into my mind. Those long and slim fingers,just like the ones of a pianist.It was the pair of hands that sewed my wound seamless.

Director Zhang was one of the people who I came across in my life but didn’t get along with deeply.However,it is he from whom I learn to cherish my relationships with others,because I come to realize that once we misssomething,therewillbeno chance forever.

(FromSimple Pleasure Is the True Sense of Life,Changjiang Literature andArtPress.Illustration:Liang Baigeng)