180 Degrees

Care

In the countryside, every day was as peaceful as it could be.

Farmlands were spread far to the distance; sometimes earthy brown, sometimes lush green, sometimes ripe yellow. The sky was clear and blue, shadows of the mountains stood tall on the horizon as if protecting the little towns and villages standing at their feet. Roosters crowed in the morning, chickens would cluck, cows mooed, and goats would bleat every now and then throughout the day alongside the merry chirping of various birds flying low under the clouds.

Gong Jun could still recall how fresh the air was in his hometown. The smell of earth and trees permeated the atmosphere; when he departed to school, he could still see morning dew dripping from the tip of leaves onto the ground.

Everyone knew each other in that little town. One's neighbor was as good as their extended family. They might quarrel and squabble sometimes but came the next day, the aunty next door would knock on his family's door to invite them for a hotpot, and his grandfather would chat and laugh with the uncle who lived across from them while smoking like chimneys.

Once schoolwork was done, Gong Jun and the other kids in his neighborhood would go out and play until sunset. They would fly kites, play tag, hide and seek, or fish in the river. His father also frequently brought him when he had to work on the farm. From a young age, Gong Jun had been taught how to care for the farmland and their cattle. His favorite thing was when he was told to herd the sheep to and from the meadow. Because then he could play to his heart's content with their family's herding dogs, among which one was an adorable big Samoyed that he shared an especially close bond with.

But of course, nothing in this world was perfect.

Though it was calm and peaceful, public facilities in a small countryside town could never compare to the modern big city. Once, his grandmother suffered a stroke. The family was frantic; the closest hospital from where they lived was at least an hour's drive by car. Fortunately, they were able to make it in time. Yet there was no guarantee they would be as lucky the next time, and the fact that his grandmother was saved didn't mean others had it as good as them. After all, he was no stranger to stories from people in his neighborhood who lost family members due to minimum public health facilities in the small town where they lived.

Call it naivety or idealism, but after hearing these unpleasant stories far too many times, Gong Jun eventually decided that once he grew up, he would become a doctor and establish his own medical practice in his hometown. He did not dream of owning a large hospital; as long as he could make the townspeople's lives a bit better, he would be more than happy.

So he studied hard, he saved up, all for the sake of pursuing this single goal. He couldn't even begin to describe how happy he was when he received a scholarship to a prestigious university in the big city, knowing that he wouldn't have to trouble his parents with tuition anymore. It was exactly with this joyful heart full of hope that he left his peaceful hometown to start a new life in the metropolis.

Naturally, he did not expect that life in the city would be the same as how it was in the countryside. But it was fair to say that he received a "culture shock" during the first few months of his arrival. People in the city were colder and more suspecting. There was barely a single tree in sight, only an expanse of iron forest separated by perpetually busy roads covered in asphalt. When someone fell on the street, nobody would bother to help them as each was focused on taking care of themselves.

Still, Gong Jun did his best to adapt. He managed to make some friends, he managed to find a part-time job that he loved, surrounded by good-natured colleagues, and he was able to proceed smoothly with his studies. But if there was one thing he could never get used to, it was the blatant outbreaks of violence frequently occurring around him. The existence of entities more powerful than the government was something so far out of reach for someone like him who grew up far from the intricate conspiracies of the metropolis. He thought it was utterly senseless that those people could do whatever they wanted, beat people up on the street, shoot them in broad daylight, and still get away with it somehow.