Chapter 1 Mysterious Bracelet

“It hurts so much! I’m dying, dying!”
Lin Anran lay on the bed in the duty room, exhausted like a deflated balloon, massaging her calves.

As a doctor, she had been busy all day. Just as she was about to get off work, an ambulance brought in a critically ill elderly man. After two hours of emergency treatment, he was finally out of danger. Unexpectedly, the old man insisted on giving her a jade bracelet to thank her.

He said it was a family heirloom, passed down only to daughters, never sons. But in his generation, there were only boys. He had hoped his sons would give him a granddaughter, but none had. When Lin Anran saved his life, he decided to give the bracelet to her instead.

Looking a little downcast, he sighed, “This jade bracelet is destined for you, so I’ll give it to you.”

When Lin Anran heard he wanted to give her a family heirloom, she quickly refused. Such a valuable gift was naturally something she didn’t dare to accept, and she didn’t think much more of it.

Just then, a nurse came to tell her there was another emergency patient. She hurried out of the ward. When that patient was finally stabilized, she breathed a sigh of relief.

Too tired, she ate a simple meal and lay down in the duty room to rest for a while. When she glanced at the clock, it was exactly 8 p.m.

But as soon as she lay down after her shift, she felt something very hard in her pocket. She took it out—surprisingly, it was the jade bracelet.

As a doctor, saving lives was her duty, and she absolutely refused to take patients’ belongings. That was her most basic moral bottom line. She thought she would return the bracelet to the old man later—what didn’t belong to her, she must not keep.

Feeling a little thirsty, she saw the apples she had bought two days ago sitting on the table in the duty room. The skin was a bit wrinkled, but she picked up a knife to peel one.

Unexpectedly, she accidentally cut her right hand. Reflexively, she pulled it to her chest, quickly searching the box for gauze to press the wound. She couldn’t find it right away and didn’t bother pressing—drops of blood slid down her palm, soaking into the pocket on her right side, seeping through her white coat, and into the bracelet.

The emerald-green jade sensed the scent of blood, absorbing it drop by drop, fusing until it became a red-and-green bracelet.

Lin Anran didn’t know the jade had already merged with her blood.

Seeing that quite a bit of blood had flowed, she hurried to stop the bleeding. After five minutes, the bleeding stopped. She disinfected the wound three times with iodine, then wrapped it in clean gauze. Completely drained, she lay down and fell asleep.

But the moment she closed her eyes, she suddenly arrived in a strange place.

Not far away stood a siheyuan courtyard, surrounded by a vast expanse of fertile land and rolling hills. At the foot of the hills flowed a clear river. Aside from looking a little desolate, this was an excellent place.

She thought, If I could live far from the city’s noise and scheming, wouldn’t that be wonderful? If I could grow what I liked, that would be even better.

Murmuring to herself, “I really like this place, I really do!”

“Yo, having a spring dream, are we? Who’s keeping you company?”

Lin Anran jolted awake, seeing Wang Tian standing in front of her. She immediately got up and met her gaze, sneering, “People with filthy hearts see filth in everything—unlike certain people who eat from their own bowl while eyeing the pot.”

Wang Tian had intended to humiliate her, but instead, she was the one who was put down.

Seeing Wang Tian’s sour expression, Lin Anran smiled and said, “Take care of yourself.” Then she shut the duty room door, leaving Wang Tian stomping her feet in frustration.

With a smirk, Lin Anran headed straight to the emergency room to check on the old man.

He lay peacefully in bed with his eyes closed. When he heard someone approach, he opened them and smiled. “Doctor Lin, you’re here.”

Looking at the kindly old man, Lin Anran suddenly remembered the matter of the bracelet.

“Grandpa, are you feeling better? I can’t possibly accept the bracelet you gave me. I’m here to return it to you—thank you for your kindness.”

She didn’t know the jade had turned red-and-green. As she spoke, she reached into her pocket, but after searching for a long while, she couldn’t find it.

Puzzled, she heard the old man’s gentle voice: “Isn’t the bracelet on your wrist?”

Lin Anran looked down—sure enough, it was on her left wrist, now red and green. She clearly remembered it had been green before.

How did it change color? And wasn’t it in my pocket in the duty room? How did it get onto my wrist? Could I have put it on without realizing?

Blushing slightly, she said awkwardly, “Sorry, Grandpa, I’ll take it off right now.”

The bracelet was obviously a size bigger than her wrist, yet no matter how she tried, it wouldn’t come off. She forced an embarrassed smile. “I’ll take it off later and bring it to you,” she said, fiddling with it again.

The old man watched her sweating in frustration and said, “This bracelet has already found its owner. You can’t take it off. Even if you force it off, it will come back to you.”

Lin Anran found his words strange. She was a firm atheist and didn’t believe in any such supernatural nonsense.

She smiled. “I’ll try using soap later and give it back to you.”

The old man just smiled without another word. As she was leaving, he said again, “You won’t be able to remove it.”

Feeling oddly guilty, Lin Anran hurried out of the ward, thinking to herself how strange the old man was—and that she hadn’t seen any of his family come visit.

She didn’t take the matter to heart and continued throwing herself into her busy work.
She treated and cared for patients with meticulous attention, and everyone praised her for being a responsible and dedicated doctor.

She kept working overtime, so busy she didn’t even have time for dinner. When she finally looked up, it was already dark. After making her rounds in the wards and handing over each patient’s condition to the night-shift doctor, she finished writing her medical records and returned to her single apartment.

By the time she arrived home, it was exactly eleven o’clock at night.

Exhausted, Lin Anran quickly made herself a bowl of instant noodles, washed up briefly, turned off the lights, and lay down to sleep.

After sleeping soundly for a while, she inexplicably dreamed of a place—a siheyuan courtyard surrounded by a vast open field with fertile soil and a clear river. The only unusual thing was that the grass on the ground grew up to her ankles. She found it very curious and thought, If only I could stay here. There was also a small, clear river and gentle hills.

When she woke, it was already 1 a.m.

Because her single apartment was located in the heart of the city, even at one in the morning it was still bustling with noise, the streets as bright as day.

She got out of bed, turned on the light, opened the curtains, and looked out at the stream of traffic below, feeling a wave of loneliness in her heart.

Lin Anran was an orphan, with no parents or siblings. She had no one but herself. Through sheer hard work and an indomitable spirit, she managed to get into the most prestigious Huazhong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in the country.

To pay her tuition, she worked part-time while studying diligently, eventually becoming the only master’s degree holder in her department. She was then assigned to work at Huazhong Hospital, where she became the most renowned doctor in the emergency department.

But as the saying goes: “People fear fame, pigs fear fattening.” Though she had never provoked anyone, she still drew jealousy—Wang Tian being one of them. But Lin Anran didn’t bother to take her seriously.

Leaning against the window sill, she felt the gentle night breeze blow through her hair, soft and calming. For the first time, she felt an unprecedented sense of loneliness.

Suddenly, a beam of light appeared before her eyes…