Ning returned to the industrial ward with Qinghe and asked whether patients wanted to talk about their treatment. She waited in the courtyard until Ward advocate Mei finished with another worker. Ning did not ask for the list of names or open the ward records.
A woman stepped forward. “I’m Ge Lian. I’ll talk, but I don’t want my name in a public complaint.”
“Then I’ll keep your name separate,” Ning said. “What are you willing to share?”
Ge said she had a dry cough and numb fingers. It worsened after night shifts near the mineral wash. Her supervisor called it seasonal dust. The clinic had given her a fever remedy but had not done a lung mirror test.
Ning wrote only the symptoms and shift pattern Ge approved. She kept Ge’s name on a separate sheet folded inside the folder. “Is this wording right?”
Ge read it. “Write that the numbness starts near the end of the shift.”
Ning added the timing. “Do you want me to include the supervisor’s phrase?”
“No. I don’t want his name in it.”
