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Chapter 1499: Chapter 1342: The Bustling Langyu County (Please Subscribe!)
Just as Duan Zhichai and his peers started their second stage of the internship.
Huaxia.
Beijing.
301 Hospital.
Six large trucks drove into the courtyard, attracting hundreds of curious eyes from the surrounding windows. After more than three days and nights of continuous driving, the building materials of the Myanmar Medical Group finally arrived.
A total of forty-five container trucks.
Escorted by military vehicles.
It wasn’t for fear of being robbed, but rather to show the importance attached to it.
Six trucks came to General Jie’s location, while the rest were distributed among five other major hospitals in Beijing. During that week, several big hospitals cleared out rooms and, as requested by the Group’s experts, made some preparations.
The first of which was communications.
Since these medical devices could be controlled remotely.
Therefore.
For the sake of security.
All medical data would be transmitted through a dedicated line, which was not a big issue – just a matter of asking the operator to supply a core of optical fiber, while General Jie himself got one directly from the military optical cables.
The equipment on the entire medical data network.
It was strictly forbidden to connect to the external internet.
Second floor.
Many hospital leaders stood at the doors of the rooms, peering out, as the six hospitals alone had spent more than a hundred million RMB on setting up the installation environment. That amount of money could have been used to build several thirty-story office buildings.
Now.
It was merely spent on ’decoration’.
Who wouldn’t feel the pinch?
They had to see for themselves what justified the expense, only to notice workers using small trolleys to bring in massive amounts of plastic boxes, a far cry from the traditional method of using wooden boxes to house equipment.
Observing the installers operate.
"Eh, are those all security cases?"
"Seems like they also require fingerprint verification, how advanced."
"What is this? Wasn’t it said that the equipment wouldn’t arrive until the end of the month? How could it come early? We didn’t receive any notification!" Seeing a large device as tall as a person being moved out of a box, a deputy director of the hospital expressed his confusion.
"Not sure, let’s wait and see."
"..."
There was a buzz of discussion at the door.
Half an hour later.
They understood why it was so expensive.
The installation environment.
It wasn’t just about laying a floor, routing wires, embedding sockets, or applying a few layers of environmentally friendly putty on the walls, but rather including everything except for the main functional equipment.
Intelligent storage cabinets for consumables.
Many reagents required different storage conditions – some needed to be below freezing, some at a constant temperature, and others even under high-temperature conditions to be effective. This was indispensable.
Even at sub-zero temperatures.
There were even finer classifications.
This was the most expensive ’installation environment’, plus various other equipment as required.
As long as the installation environment was properly set up.
And the functional equipment was in place.
It was ready to operate.
In terms of technological content, there actually wasn’t all that much, but the seller charged for the comprehensive package, including added value, and the key was the system which – no matter how pricey – they had no ground to contest.
This was a matter of intellectual property.
Everyone says running a hospital makes money.
Yet this Company snatches business from other hospitals and even makes money off the hospitals. Keep in mind, these devices were not gifted by the state; the hospitals had to bear part of the cost.
How would they pay for it?
It would be deducted from future funding allocations.
Just the thought made them wince in pain.
301 Hospital felt the pain.
As did the other hospitals.
But they had no say in the decision; they could only go along with the decisions from above, otherwise, it was very likely that their hospitals would eventually get reduced to handling only patients with colds, fractures, or at most appendicitis.
In Beijing, it was still okay.
There were plenty of people.
They were aware.
More and more hospitals, which had previously clamored about the shortage of beds, now had beds readily available, and many patients with terminal illnesses hoped to get treatment from the Myanmar Medical Group.
Word of mouth spread.
Everyone went home to book and queue up.
The matter of money was manageable, but the key issue was that it made them question their own existence – as if two restaurants were open, and if your cooking was terrible, and customers flocked to the establishment across the street, you had indeed to reckon with the fact that your skills were inferior.
Saving face was out of the question!
...
Myanmar.
Shijie Province.
Langyu County.
This border county town, miraculously, started having flights two months ago, and suddenly, the small county became even busier, with daily flights to the inland fully booked.
Directly across the county town is India.
The population is large.
The number of patients is also high.
Because it’s located at the border, many Indians choose to come to this county for treatment. Suddenly, the resident population of 150,000 in the county town was almost overwhelmed by the influx of Indians.
The streets are filled with people.
The local residents have almost become the minority.
Seeing the crowds,
many Indians thought about doing what they did before, coming over and if worst comes to worst, sleeping on the streets or blending in illegally. Then, by doing some small business, they could live quite comfortably, which is better than going back home where there are no jobs.
India is notorious for its scarcity of job positions.
Nearly ten million workers enter the market each year, but there are only a few hundred thousand jobs, and unemployment has become the norm, creating immense pressure on life. For many Indians, it’s a dream to illegally migrate to another country and seek their fortune.
Moreover,
it’s a neighbor who suddenly became rich.
Soon, 𝓷ℴ𝓿𝓹𝓾𝓫.𝓬ℴ𝓶
their wish was shattered.
Here, people with illegal status are not allowed to reside permanently. As Border Zhong County is predominantly managed by the military, it is the joint effort of the military and police, along with a meticulous attitude towards enforcing the law,
that ensured these people were sent back.
Throwing tantrums.
Running away.
Hiding.
Scrambling through forests.
Digging tunnels.
None of these worked.
All were found and sent back, but the determination on the other side was firm. They kept coming. Some, seeing that this route was blocked, would enter from other borders, trying to reach other inland towns.
The higher-ups saw this.
This situation couldn’t go on.
These people were also pitiful, only wanting to find a job to fill their stomachs. So a compromise was reached, issuing passes to Indians who wanted to earn a living here, allowing them to work in this area.
Opening shops and doing business was also permitted.
However,
long-term settlement was not allowed, nor was sleeping on the streets or in the wild, as many Indian villages have such conditions, where a few pieces of cloth can be a house and they can DIY it. They have experienced it themselves.
It’s easy to build.
But dismantling later becomes a hassle.
It could easily spark conflict.
That would be another hassle.
Therefore,
to prevent Indians from creating slums and eventually turning them into Indian towns which can’t be managed, those with permits must also have legitimate places to stay and are prohibited from occupying other lands for building shelters.
Also,
without permission,
they are not allowed to go to inland provinces.
Though it’s easy to catch and return them, it can easily lead to conflicts and international criticism, accusing them of discrimination. Even though they wouldn’t lose a single hair over it, having such a nuisance isn’t nice.
And so,
with steps taken back by both sides,
order in the county town was restored.
During the day,
large numbers of people from the Indian border town come over for work and business, and then return to sleep at night. Therefore, every evening and morning, one can see two long lines of people from outside the county heading toward the Indian town.
Because there are street lights,
many Indians are reluctant to take a vehicle.
To be honest,
they are quite pitiable.
Tang Qing also feels some sympathy for them, and therefore, he asked that their wages in the local area be according to local standards. In India, these are high wages, and moreover, there is a fixed working time every day.
The permission for them to come over for work was
also ordered by Tang Qing.
But that’s where it stops, he didn’t give more, because on the other side, there’s a country with over a billion people, twenty times the size of this place. Once overly generous, there would be too many mouths to feed. They could afford it,
but why should they?
He is not the Indian Government.
