Reborn in 2000 as a scholar

Mr. Xu is quite a celebrity in this area. Maybe the young people don't remember this thin old man, but all the old men and women here know Mr. Xu. - They have two comments on Mr. Xu, one is that Mr. Xu is "living well"; the other is that Mr. Xu is a "good man".As long as he can have such a reputation in the neighborhood and the countryside, he knows that this person is definitely not a bad person.However, because of Mr. Xu's "living well", Mr. Xu also suffered a lot in the early decades.It's just that everyone around has been well received by Mr. Xu, perhaps his father, and grandfather, so although those days were difficult, they survived anyway.

Mr. Xu used to be a "Mr. Yin and Yang", that is, the person who helped the mourner to send the deceased to the last journey in many places in China.In fact, due to his family background, Mr. Xu is not only a "Mr. Yin and Yang", but also a "Mr. Earth Master".That is to say, Mr. Xu will help the deceased to choose a cemetery in addition to helping the bereaved family preside over the funeral.Of course, with the continuous improvement of China's spiritual civilization, occupations like Mr. Xu have gradually been eliminated.Except for those old people who still firmly entrusted their children to invite Mr. Xu after their death, whenever they talked about the funeral presided over by Mr. Xu, the old people showed a look of longing.In their view, if they can enjoy such a decent funeral after their death, it is really worth living for themselves.

Although Mr. Xu's work has decreased, Mr. Xu does not completely rely on those skills to live now. In the 1980s, Mr. Xu contracted a guest house with the house saved by his family. Although the conditions were not as good as those later business hotels, he was still very famous in the small circle.However, this guest house is not where ordinary people come back to live.No one else, because the hostel is full of a group of terminal cancer patients who were abandoned by their families.

Mr. Xu also doesn’t remember why his hostel became a place where a group of terminal cancer patients who were abandoned by their families gathered together to keep warm. He only knew that the places less than 1 kilometer away from his hostel were several famous big hospitals in the city. Among the places where people get together, a hospital named XX Tumor is even more famous.Some people joked that other hospitals can still come out after entering, but this cancer hospital does not know whether they can come out after entering.Moreover, the inpatient departments of several other hospitals next to the cancer hospital have tacitly made the windows facing the cancer hospital into frosted glass or the kind of curtains that are not opened all year round.Whenever someone asked the nurse why, the nurses just sighed and said nothing.

And the local old people know that because every now and then, there are patients in the cancer hospital who can't stand it and choose to commit suicide. Over time, patients in the inpatient departments of other nearby hospitals will also start to think wildly.Therefore, there is this little tacit understanding that the cause is not good.Although the cost of hospitalization in the cancer hospital is nothing compared to the huge treatment expenses, for these patients who are struggling on the verge of life and death, saving a fortune is a fortune.Many patients will eventually choose to move from the inpatient department of the cancer hospital to nearby private houses, but because many landlords think it is too unlucky to rent out to cancer patients, so in the end, Mr. Xu's guest house is left to take them in.

These patients who come in usually pay an extra sum of money to Mr. Xu, and said with a slightly cautious and ingratiating expression: "Mr. Xu, I will leave the rest to you. The money is not much, so don't dislike it."

"Professor Zhang, are you sure the place we are looking for is here?" A fashionable blonde followed by a white-haired old man and two young men appeared in this somewhat dilapidated alley.Compared with the hustle and bustle outside the alleys, time seems to have stopped here.Whether it is the buildings or the old people living here, the girl has the illusion of going back to the past.The girl is one of the directors of the Horizon Biotechnology Company in the United States. Her appearance is to promote the review process of cancer genetic testing and cancer targeted drug treatment in China as soon as possible.At present, this process has been stuck in the clinical testing stage, so the US is also somewhat helpless.Because clinical tests require relatively large samples, but the number of samples that relevant testing institutions can provide is only so many, and it is not so easy to find samples that meet targeted drug therapy.Fortunately, someone proposed a method that is not a method. Although some of them wandered in the gray border area, such a case was not the only one, so under the decision of the girl, this plan was implemented.

Both the old professor and the two young students are from a university here, and there is a nearby hospital that belongs to the university's affiliated hospital.When Professor Zhang heard that Horizon Biomedicine hoped to cooperate with him in genetic testing and targeted therapy, he immediately understood what the other party meant.In any country, before a treatment or drug is approved, it must go through clinical testing, a process that takes anywhere from three to seven years.

The reason why it takes such a long time is, on the one hand, to collect enough samples, and on the other hand, to carry out follow-up testing.Because the toxicity of some drugs has a latent period, it may break out after many years.In order to avoid this situation, the launch of new drugs is actually one of the most troublesome and cumbersome things.

In addition to submitting this kind of clinical test to drug regulatory agencies, pharmaceutical companies can also entrust third-party qualified scientific research institutions to do it.It just so happens that Professor Zhang's university has this qualification, and their university has an affiliated hospital, so many pharmaceutical companies cooperate with them.As the vice dean of the medical school, Professor Zhang seldom dismissed these pharmaceutical companies, but this time it was an exception.According to Professor Zhang, this may have something to do with what happened five years ago.

One day five years ago, Professor Zhang, who was the vice president of the medical school and the director of the hospital's internal medicine department, was getting off the bus stop and walking slowly towards the hospital.But the moment he entered the hospital, a teenager bumped into Professor Zhang, and then Professor Zhang found that his wallet was missing.He immediately understood that the boy was a thief.Professor Zhang immediately chased after him. Even though Professor Zhang is over fifty at this time, he has been exercising for a long time and his physical strength is similar to that of a middle-aged man in his 40s or [-]s.

What makes Professor Zhang feel strange is that the young man in front of him should be in the most agile age of human beings. Why is his running speed worse than that of an old man in his 50s?When Professor Zhang caught the boy, he found himself in a dilapidated guest house that clearly had the style of the 70s and [-]s.The guest house was extremely quiet. Although there were people walking around from time to time, everyone was very quiet.But Professor Zhang has been working in the hospital for so many years, and he can tell at a glance that these people are all seriously ill, and many of them are probably in the late stage.

Just when Professor Zhang was surprised, a voice rang out, "Xiao Maozi, what did you do today? Did you steal money again? What did I say about you?"

A thin old man came out, stared at the panting young man and said.He looked at Professor Zhang who was following the young man, bowed and said, "Sir, I will ask Xiao Mao to return the money to you. Can I let it go for the sake of the child?" The old man laughed along with him. Said, "The child is still young, if it is sent to the police station, it will be destroyed, and I will ask him to kowtow to you?"

The boy reluctantly returned the wallet to Professor Zhang, and knelt down to kowtow.Professor Zhang quickly stopped him, "I won't pursue the matter anymore, so don't kowtow. It's just that you are young, why don't you go to school?" Professor Zhang is not only a doctor, but also a teacher.Seeing the boy's thin appearance, and then looking at the boy's messy blond hair, he felt a little displeased. "Old man, what about the parents of this child? It's the father's fault whether he raises or not. I don't care about the child, but I have to talk to his parents. Such an older child should study hard in school, not It doesn't matter if you ask."

The teenager didn't want to talk about his parents, and Professor Zhang also knew that it would be a bit embarrassing to ask further.Now that I got the wallet and promised not to pursue the boy's theft, Professor Zhang and Mr. Xu exchanged a few words and left.After leaving this weird guest house, Professor Zhang always felt that he missed something.After returning to the hospital, Professor Zhang also took this incident as a piece of knowledge and chatted with the head nurse.As a result, the head nurse was quite surprised and said: "Director Zhang, you actually know about Lao Xu's guest house? Well, the people living there are a bunch of poor people, and that child is probably quite pathetic."

Professor Zhang heard that there seemed to be something in the head nurse's words, so he couldn't help asking.Under the introduction of the head nurse, Professor Zhang found out that Mr. Xu's guest house has been open for almost 30 years, but 20 of those years have been opened to entertain those cancer patients.These cancer patients are basically middle and advanced patients, and their families are poor or simply abandoned by their families, so living in Lao Xu's guest house is basically waiting for death.If these patients felt that they were dying, they would give Lao Xu a sum of money and ask Lao Xu to help with their affairs.

Old Xu is said to be from Mr. Yin Yang, and he hasn't been greedy for a penny in the past twenty years.Regardless of the amount of money, he promised to give the deceased a decent funeral and try to send them back to their hometown for burial.And there is a tacit understanding among the other patients living in the old Xu guest house, that is, once someone "leaves", anyone who can move and does not conflict with the deceased's zodiac sign will come to help.At the same time, Lao Xu will also designate a few people to be the "filial sons and grandsons" of the deceased, and throw basins for the deceased when they are on the road.Because everyone was abandoned by the "family", they voluntarily formed a new family here.No one refuses to help because they don't know each other, because you don't know if someone will help you when you leave.After coming and going, there were no ordinary guests in Lao Xu's guest house.

"I only found out when I heard some young nurses chatting. Now the doctors and nurses in several nearby hospitals will donate some money to Lao Xu's guest house from time to time. It can be regarded as helping him open a hospice center for us." The head nurse said, "I reckon that the child you mentioned is also a patient. Since he lives with Lao Xu, I don't think he will have a good life for a few days."

"Not at all, that's just a child." Professor Zhang said in disbelief.As a doctor, he certainly added many examples of children and teenagers who had to bid farewell to the world due to various diseases, although he also warned himself to face all these indifferently.But every time something like this happened, Professor Zhang still felt a little uncomfortable.

Ever since he knew about Lao Xu's guest house, Professor Zhang would always bring his graduate students to help when he had time.Since most of the people living here are already in the terminal stage of cancer, most of the drugs have no effect on them, so Professor Zhang can only do his best to make them live as comfortably as possible in the last days, and at the same time, try to choose some Domestic drugs to ease their pockets.With Professor Zhang's help, Lao Xu's guest house once had some warmth in the world, but Xiao Mao has always been reluctant to meet Professor Zhang.Professor Zhang got the case of Xiaomao from Lao Xu, "advanced rectal cancer".Professor Zhang suddenly didn't know what to say. Although he is not a doctor in the oncology department, he also knows how terrible the pain that rectal cancer brings to patients.This kind of pain is enough to destroy a grown man, let alone a child.

"Old Zhang, I'm not suitable for you. If you really want to, you usually take care of them when they go to the hospital; if it's not good enough, you can just ask your students to come over and help me clean up. Don't come here at your age." On a rare warm winter day, Mr. Xu said to Professor Zhang, "Look at your appearance! You have only come to help me for two months, right? Your face It's almost like the people who live here. I know you sympathize with them, but don't put yourself in it. Everyone accepts your sympathy, otherwise they wouldn't tell me, let me remind you to pay attention to your body. "

"Really?" Professor Zhang touched his face, "Looks like I'm getting old and I can't bear it anymore. Old Xu, I don't think Xiaomao is quite obedient? Why did he sneak in last time?" Someone's wallet? That's not a good thing."

"I knew you couldn't let go of this lump in your heart." Mr. Xu said calmly, "The child knew that his days were numbered, but he found that he only had a photo of his student ID card that he took when he first entered high school. The child hated this The photo is not like myself, saying that my posthumous photo can’t be so ugly, so I want to take a good posthumous photo of myself. I don’t know where this child came from, and you also know that I don’t ask about these things. If they want to tell me, They will tell me of course. After all, who knows if there are other bad things behind this? Everyone is running out of time, why bother? The child's rent is earned by "working" for me, and his medical expenses are all The group of young doctors and nurses tried to find a way to raise money, reduce or reduce their expenses, and saved up bits and pieces. Therefore, he has extra money to take pictures of his death."

Professor Zhang suddenly didn't know what to say. He was already in his fifties and hadn't even thought about taking a photo of his death. As a result, this child who hadn't grown up was actually thinking about taking a photo of his death.Professor Zhang wanted to speak, but felt that something was blocking his throat and he couldn't speak.Finally, he took out 1000 yuan in cash from his wallet and handed it to Mr. Zhang, "Take that child to have his hair cut, buy a good dress, and take a photo according to his ideas." Words are spoken.

After half a year, Professor Zhang received a call from Mr. Xu in the middle of the night, and Mr. Xu said on the phone, "Xiao Mao is dying." Then Professor Zhang got up from the bed immediately, took a taxi and went to Xu's Go to the guest house.When they arrived at the shabby guest house, the lights that had been turned off early were all on now.Professor Zhang walked in, and Old Xu shook his head.

After all, Xiaomao's condition deteriorated, and he had bleeding symptoms after dinner today.When emergency doctors arrived, he was pronounced dead at the scene.Since Xiao Mao was a terminal cancer patient, the emergency doctor did not suspect other causes of death.But people don't know whether it is gratifying or regrettable that Xiaomao's parents found here after the emergency doctor left, and they are crying bitterly in Xiaomao's room now.According to Mr. Xu, Xiao Mao was not abandoned by his family, but he "escaped" because he didn't want to drag his family down.During the two years when Xiao Mao ran away from home, Xiao Mao's parents were looking for their children while working part-time.About a month ago, Xiaomao probably felt that he could not hold on any longer, so he told Lao Xu about his family affairs.With the help of several kind-hearted people in society, Xiao Mao's story quickly made the news.But it took time for the news to spread. After Xiaomao's parents got the news, it was too late.

"Do you want to go in and see that child?" Old Xu knew that Professor Zhang had a different feeling for Xiao Mao.Perhaps because of the fate formed that morning, Professor Zhang felt like his own nephew towards Xiao Mao, so Old Xu suggested.

"I won't go, it will only add to the sadness." Professor Zhang looked very lonely, "By the way, is there anything in his family that needs help? Nothing else can help, at least let this child live decently. .”

"Don't worry about it. I have rules here. Since the child entrusted the matter to me in the end, it's my business." Mr. Xu said, "Why do you say there is no cure for this cancer?" What about it? When a person is sick, wouldn’t it be enough to take medicine? It’s okay to have a knife or something. But for this cancer, I tried all kinds of methods, and the person still left.”

Professor Zhang didn't know how to answer, although he knew that many authoritative documents could prove how difficult cancer is to cure.But as a doctor, if he can't cure the disease, isn't it his own incompetence?

After experiencing this incident, Professor Zhang took "curing cancer" and "Old Xu's Guest House" very seriously.Although Professor Zhang is the director of the internal medicine department, he has put in a lot of effort in the oncology department recently, and it is said that he is able to publish papers.This surprised the director of the oncology department, who thought that Professor Zhang was planning to change his professional field to make a breakthrough just before he retired.It's true that Professor Zhang didn't tell anyone what he thought, he was just for the obsession in his heart.It is a pity that the progress of medicine is far from what Professor Zhang expected, until the Regulus Laboratory on the other side of the ocean announced that they proposed "cancer gene detection" and "targeted drug therapy" based on genetic detection methods, Only then did Professor Zhang see a glimmer of light.But soon Professor Zhang was shocked by the testing and treatment fees. According to his understanding of American pharmaceutical companies, it is difficult for this new life-saving drug to be sold to developing countries such as Huaxia if it does not spend five years in the European and American markets. National market spread.Of course, he also knows that the other party will definitely apply for listing testing in China, but the price is definitely not affordable by ordinary people.This really echoes the saying, "Exchange money for life".Thinking of this, Professor Zhang couldn't help but sighed deeply.

However, what Professor Zhang never expected was that he had the opportunity to meet people from Horizon Biopharmaceutical Company, and at the same time, the projects he came into contact with were genetic testing and targeted drugs, which he had dreamed of as a cure.In addition to routinely sending "voluntary application assistance" to cancer hospitals and other hospital oncology departments, Professor Zhang also thought of Lao Xu's guest house.In fact, Professor Zhang disdains this kind of directional search for samples. Strictly speaking, this is a kind of academic misconduct.But from a procedural point of view, this is in line with the regulations.Therefore, whether to do it or not is purely to see the "intention" of the operator.In the past, Professor Zhang would never take this kind of method, but this time he couldn't help being selfish.

"Old Zhang, tell me the truth, how many people can be cured by this foreign devil's treatment method?" After listening to Professor Zhang's introduction, Mr. Xu was silent for a while, and couldn't help asking.He also knew that some people in his hostel had indeed participated in some drug testing experiments, in exchange for a small subsidy to maintain his subsequent treatment.

"If you want to say that the cure rate is 100%, it is definitely impossible." Professor Zhang said, "But the targeted drugs they have developed so far have a very high cure rate for specific cancers. It is said that the early cure rate is close to 100%; The cure rate in the advanced stage is also close to 70%. If some factors such as complications are discarded, their cure rate is really close to 100%. However, they also emphasized that targeted drugs are very sensitive to cancer types, which is only true for specific cancers. High cure rates. Not so for other cancers, and they don't prevent second recurrences and so on."

"That's not bad." Although Mr. Xu has no higher education, but the hostel has been open for a long time, and he has been in contact with these cancer patients for a long time. His understanding of some basic knowledge of cancer is no less than that of ordinary people. "But how to calculate the cost of testing and treatment? If it is excluded from the experiment, how should it be calculated?"

"The specifics may be for them to read the agreement themselves, but what I know is that testing and treatment are free, which also includes hospitalization expenses and basic living expenses during the treatment period. Basically, they are responsible for food, accommodation and medicine. Some special patients They are also responsible for the cost of nursing staff. If it is a patient who is excluded during the testing stage, it seems to provide a fee of less than 500 yuan; if the patient is excluded during the treatment period, a subsidy of up to 50000 yuan can be provided. But they also have many According to the regulations, if the patient violates their regulations and is excluded, then they will not pay compensation." Professor Zhang told Lao Xu what he knew, "If you are not at ease, I will pay you Go hire a lawyer, you get a lawyer to review these agreements and see if there is any problem. If this clinical trial passes, then this drug will be on the market just around the corner. Although I heard that this drug will not be too cheap, it is always a hope Is not it?"

"Come on, I'll try my best to cooperate with you here. But I'm just helping you to inform the big guys. As for whether you are willing to take the test, I will not interfere. I also hope that people on your side will not force them. Some people really I have already lost confidence, and I just want to live the last days in peace." Mr. Xu thought for a while, and finally agreed. "If you disturb them, I have no choice but to ask you to leave here." Mr. Xu added at last.

Thanks to the cooperation of Mr. Xu, Professor Zhang also quickly persuaded the representatives of Horizon Biopharmaceutical Company.So in addition to routine operations, they also sent people to Lao Xu's guest house to investigate the actual situation.Professor Zhang brought the blonde girl to Lao Xu's guest house, and Lao Xu still greeted everyone coldly.The blond didn't mind too much and just asked where the patient they needed to test was.