Yesterday I saw a news story about a nurse named Chen from the ICU at Fengcheng City Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Jiangxi. She tearfully complained that after being diagnosed with lung cancer and requesting sick leave, the hospital refused her request and only approved personal leave.

It seems that after her surgery, she took a month of sick leave. When she tried to continue her sick leave with a medical certificate issued by the hospital, her request was denied. They only agreed to let her take a month of personal leave, during which she would have to pay her own social security and housing fund contributions. The conflict escalated when, after her leave, the head nurse even called to question her.

Because of friends in the field, I know a lot about what goes on in hospitals. For grassroots workers like these, especially nurses, their basic rights are often in the hands of just one person—the head nurse or the director of the nursing department. Things like shift scheduling and requests for time off are all decided by the head nurse. If you’re lucky, you get a good one, but if you encounter someone who abuses their authority and makes things difficult for you, it can be really tough.

Musk once said that to understand a person's behavior, you need to look at their incentive mechanisms. If even a person's most basic right to survive is not well protected, then their system is never truly people-oriented, but rather driven by institutional rules.

It's so sad. As human beings, we all have the right to truly experience the world, yet we have to worry about things like this every day. If we can't change it, then we should stay away from these troubles and find ourselves a peaceful and beautiful environment. Good health should always come first.