Lin Feng had been feeling quite down lately.
Not being able to afford a house was one thing, and being unable to find a girlfriend he could temporarily endure, but what Lin Feng couldn't stand was how incredibly busy it got every time he was on duty!
Being extremely busy was also bearable, but the main issue was that over the span of a week, during Lin Feng's shift, there were either patients bleeding profusely or patients dying. In just a short week, three patients had died!
In a hospital, a few deaths weren't much to talk about, since fate and fortune are beyond one's control. However, three deaths in a week, all in the same department and on the same doctor's shift, made things look very different.
Just a while ago, Lin Feng had been called in for a talk by the chief director. Although the director knew these three patient deaths were not related to Lin Feng, he couldn't withstand the immense pressure from the medical office and the hospital, and so he had to go through the motions to avoid any blame.
At the moment, Lin Feng sat in the doctor's office with a gloomy face, staring blankly at the computer screen in front of him.
"Doctor Lin, you look so down. What's wrong?" Nurse Shen Mei happened to pass by the doctors' office, saw Lin Feng in a daze, and came over to ask.
Lin Feng glanced at Shen Mei, this nurse was born in '86, but she had been working for five years already, which was one year longer than himself. The two of them generally had a good relationship.
"Oh, what else could it be? Isn't it because three people died on my shift recently? The chief director just talked to me."
"Did the chief director reprimand you?"
"No, that didn't happen. This was never my issue to begin with. It wasn't my mistake that the patients died; it was due to their conditions worsening, and the resuscitation failed. Besides, there are several senior doctors above me! The chief director was just giving me some encouragement." Lin Feng briefly explained.
Shen Mei immediately understood what Lin Feng meant. Such things happened from time to time. Even though the chief director didn't criticize Lin Feng, Lin Feng definitely had some knots in his heart.
"Forget it, don't be upset! I'll treat you to a meal someday!" Shen Mei said with a smile, "But I think your luck has been really bad lately. Why don't you go burn some incense? Maybe it will change your fortunes, turn the tide for you!"
"Burn incense? I think I'll pass! You believe in that kind of thing?" Lin Feng dismissed it with a laugh.
Shen Mei stood up and walked out of the doctor's office, saying as she went, "Since you've been feeling down lately, why not take a trip to a temple in the suburbs, burn some incense, pray to Buddha? It's not a loss, think of it as taking a break!"
"Go to the suburbs for a break?" Lin Feng mulled over Shen Mei's words, then shook his head and chuckled self-deprecatingly.
In the following days, Lin Feng was as busy as ever, like a dead pig. Naturally, it's expected for a hospital to be busy, but the key issue was that Lin Feng's colleagues in his department all seemed relaxed, while his shifts were always exceptionally hectic!
On this day, Lin Feng had his day off. When he got up in the morning, he saw that the weather outside was overcast with not a breeze in sight, which gave a suffocating and oppressive feeling.
Feeling irritable, Lin Feng logged onto the internet but found it utterly uninteresting. Suddenly, he remembered Shen Mei's words from the other day and felt a stirring in his heart.
"I've got nothing else to do, might as well go for a change of scenery!" With that thought in mind, Lin Feng started looking up travel routes online.
It is said that the most effective place to burn incense locally is Longzhe Temple.
Thinking this, Lin Feng didn't hesitate and chose Longzhe Temple.
Longzhe Temple had a long history, rumored to be over a thousand years old, but Lin Feng wasn't interested in that. He just wanted to burn incense and pray to Buddha to cleanse his bad luck.
After paying a fifty yuan admission fee, Lin Feng stepped into Longzhe Temple. Due to the weather, there were evidently fewer visitors today compared to usual.
At this moment, tiny raindrops began to fall from the sky. The few tourists on the road quickly vanished without a trace. Lin Feng was there for a breath of fresh air, and the drizzle only seemed to add to his melancholy. Longzhe Temple was known for its ancient trees, with famous ones like thousand-year-old gingko trees, bodhi trees, cypresses, and Magnolia denudata. At the end of the central axis stood a pavilion-style structure called the Pilu Pavilion, which housed many Buddhas.
Longzhe Temple had become commercialized, so visitors were not allowed to burn incense in the main halls or side halls. They could only symbolically bow with the incense in hand. Due to the weather conditions, there seemed to be no one inside the Pilu Pavilion but Lin Feng himself.
Suddenly, Lin Feng saw among the many Buddhas one particular statue of the Medicine Master Lapis Radiance Tathagata, also known as the Great Medicine Buddha. At that moment, something stirred within him. He quickly approached the Medicine Buddha, bowed earnestly, and murmured in a low voice, "Oh, great Master, I'm just a small doctor, earning money isn't easy. I'm purely in it to make a living, and I've never thought about getting rich off this profession. Let's not even talk about buying a house, I haven't even found a significant other yet! I'm already so pitiable, can't you have some mercy on me, making my shifts at work a little easier?"
No sooner had Lin Feng finished speaking than "Boom!" a loud thunderclap sounded in the sky!
The thunder shocked Lin Feng immensely!
"Really? I was just complaining a bit, not wanting to work so hard. Even if you're not pleased, was it necessary to scare me with thunder? Fine, since you're unhappy, let's pretend I never said anything. You can continue your rest, and I'll be on my way!" Lin Feng wasn't an atheist but didn't believe in the actual existence of Buddhas. However, out of a sense of innate reverence, Lin Feng still bowed several times before standing up and heading outside.
Lin Feng didn't bring any rain gear, and the rain was just a light drizzle. So he decided to hurry to the bus stop. Once on the bus, he wouldn't have to worry even if the rain got heavier.