Lin Xiaoman clutched the clay pot engraved with "2025", her knuckles whitening from the force. The handwriting left by Li Chengqian at the bottom of the pot seemed to carry a temperature that burned her palm. The morning light filtered through the glass window of the emergency room, casting tiny shadows on the silver ring, the bamboo slips and the clay pot, like a broken dream.
"Dr. Lin!" Intern Doctor Xiao Chen's voice was tinged with panic, "That... That patient's remains..."
Lin Xiaoman shuddered and walked quickly towards the morgue. The white mist of the refrigerator rose up, and where Li Chengqian should have been lying, there were only a few pieces of pottery emitting a shimmering light left at the moment, and the pottery was densely engraved with tadpole shaped symbols, which were precisely the ancient words recorded in the Time and Space Medical Codex. She trembled as she picked up the pieces of pottery, and suddenly realized that these symbols began to flow and reorganize in her palm, eventually spelling out a line of simplified Chinese characters, "On the night of the full moon, at the ruins of the Daming Palace, the secret codex appears."
As night fell, the ruins of the Daming Palace looked particularly pale under the moonlight. Lin Xiaoman held the silver ring left behind by Li Chengqian and stepped into the depths of the ruins. The silver ring suddenly emitted a high-frequency vibration, guiding her to a collapsed foundation. By the light of her cell phone, she saw half of a ceramic jar in the soil, with the words "Xiaoman Tang" engraved on the jar, the same as the ceramic jar found by the archaeological team.
When she struggled to dig out the pot, the sealing mud of the mouth of the pot automatically cracked, revealing a roll of yellowish silk cloth. Unfolding the silk cloth, on it was the handwriting of Dr. Zhang: "The residual volume of the Spatio-Temporal Medical Codex is now available, and it requires a carving knife and a silver needle as a guide to open the door of space and time. However, this code contains heaven's opportunity, prying eyes will be condemned by heaven, be careful! Be careful!"
At the same time, far away in the Tang Dynasty's Imperial Doctor's Hospital, Dr. Zhang was looking at the ceramic pot that suddenly chimed with its own sound, his brows tightly locked. He took out the treasured remnants of the Spatio-Temporal Medical Dictionary, and the words on it even slowly changed under the candlelight. "So this is it..." He muttered, "The encounter between Doctor Lin and His Highness the Crown Prince was actually destined by heaven." He immediately summoned his disciples and began to prepare for a "consultation" across time and space.
In the modern emergency room, Lin Xiaoman was studying the clues on the silk cloth when he suddenly received an unfamiliar phone call. A familiar voice came from the other end of the line, "Doctor Lin Zheng, goodbye." It was Doctor Zhang! Through the video call, Lin Xiaoman saw the scene in the Imperial Hospital, where the disciples were gathered around a huge bronze mirror, which vaguely reflected the modern emergency room.
"We've temporarily connected the two time periods through the power of the secret codex." Doctor Zhang's voice was serious, "Before His Highness the Crown Prince left, he left the most important clue in your silver bracelet."
Lin Xiaoman hurriedly took off the silver bracelet and carefully examined the inside. Sure enough, underneath the original lines, newly engraved traces loomed. She found a magnifying glass and finally read what was on it, "Meridian flow injection, corresponding to the star map, time and space rift, this is the moment."
Based on the clues, Lin Xiaoman realized that the hour of the Meridian Stream Note was wonderfully related to the star sign of that night. She took the clay pot, silver ring and bamboo slip with her and once again went to the ruins of the Daming Palace. When the moon rose to the mid-sky and the star map perfectly overlapped with the ruins on the ground, the clay pot left behind by Li Chengqian suddenly levitated and resonated with the stars in the sky.
A brilliant light shot out from the clay pot, forming a huge vortex in the air. Lin Xiaoman saw the Chang'an City of the Tang Dynasty and the hospital of the future. In the vortex, she seemed to see Li Chengqian smiling and beckoning to her, a carving knife in his hand and a clay pot filled with medical texts beside him.
"It turns out that carving knives and silver needles can really cross time and space." Lin Xiaoman said softly, a determined gleam in her eyes. She knew that this was not the end, but a new beginning. Through the secrets of the Time and Space Medical Codex, she might be able to meet Li Chengqian again, as well as integrate ancient and modern medicine, truly realizing the ideal of "the medical path has no ancient or modern".
The light gradually dissipated, but a peculiar stone monument was added to the ruins of Daming Palace. On the stone monument, one side is engraved with the Tang Dynasty's medical classics, the other side is engraved with modern medical knowledge, and in the center is a crossed carving knife and a silver needle, which shines eternally in the moonlight.