Doctor Hua

Doctor Hua is a physician whose medical skill and personal loyalty make him a recurring point of support in the lives of Lu Xun and Su Xiangwan. He moves between private and hospital settings, treating illness as an urgent physical reality while also navigating the emotional strain surrounding it. His role is not confined to clinical care: he jokes with Lu Xun and Lin Yanche, invites them to travel together, and is close enough to them to confront Lu when the latter’s threats have gone too far.

Identity and Place in the Story

Doctor Hua is presented as a medical professional with a private clinic and a research room. Su Xiangwan learns that Lu Xun intends to take her there for a physical examination rather than to a hospital, and responds with amused surprise at the suggestion that Doctor Hua has his own research facilities. The exchange establishes both the clinic’s distinct place in the story and Doctor Hua’s standing among the characters: he is not merely an unfamiliar physician but someone whose name can enter an intimate conversation and provoke teasing jealousy.

His medical role also carries practical weight. When Su Xiangwan later develops a fever, Doctor Hua handles her case with unusual care, unwilling to take even a small risk with her life. The contrast between his private clinic and his later hospital work shows the breadth of the care associated with him, though the story does not detail the clinic’s equipment, his specialty, or the precise treatment he gives her.

Friendship with Lu Xun and Lin Yanche

Doctor Hua’s friendship with Lu Xun and Lin Yanche is marked by easy banter. At a drinking gathering, he arrives late to find the two men sitting in conspicuous tension and asks what has brought on their bitter feud. Lu Xun answers obliquely, saying that he has behaved unscrupulously and feels depressed; Lin Yanche cuts through the self-reproach by suggesting that the real grievance is that Su Xiangwan failed to give Lu Xun face. Doctor Hua laughs at the exchange rather than treating it as a formal dispute, then shifts the conversation toward an academic conference in Beijing that weekend and proposes that the men bring the women with them. Lu Xun agrees, and Doctor Hua asks whether Lin Yanche will join them as well.

That social ease has limits. When Lu Xun’s conduct toward Doctor Hua becomes threatening enough that people working under him are threatened too, Doctor Hua is waiting at the entrance of Scenic Mountain Villa when Lu arrives. His dark expression and angry confrontation give the friendship a sharper edge: familiarity does not require him to accept Lu Xun’s use of power without protest. The scene makes Doctor Hua both an ally and a person willing to hold that ally accountable.

Medical Care in Moments of Crisis

Doctor Hua’s most consequential actions come when other characters’ bodies become precarious. During Lin Yanche’s hospitalization, Lin is so manic that objects can be heard falling inside his ward. Doctor Hua tells Lu Xun and Su Xiangwan to leave, explaining that he will go in when Lin is tired and give him an injection to make him sleep. He presents the intervention as a practical response to an unstable and exhausting crisis; the account does not identify the drug or describe a diagnosis from Doctor Hua.

Su Xiangwan’s fever prompts a different kind of vigilance. Doctor Hua treats her carefully and is afraid that a mistake could cost her life. The narration’s emphasis on his caution distinguishes this episode from routine medical attention: her condition is represented as dangerous enough to make the physician’s responsibility feel immediate. It also places Doctor Hua within the network of people trying to protect her when illness strips away her usual strength.

These scenes show different demands on his care. With Lin Yanche, Doctor Hua manages a disruptive episode and plans to intervene when the patient can be approached; with Su Xiangwan, he proceeds cautiously because of the risk her fever poses. In each case, medical action is shaped by the patient’s condition and by the people around the bedside, rather than appearing as a detached service.

Relationships and Narrative Function

Doctor Hua’s medical connection to Lu Xun is also personal: he is close enough to take part in private plans, tease Lu about his marriage, and challenge him when his behavior crosses a line. His proposed trip to Beijing begins as lighthearted social planning, while his presence during Lin Yanche’s hospitalization and Su Xiangwan’s fever places him in more serious episodes of care. The alternation gives his character a useful range without suggesting that he controls the larger conflicts.

He is also associated with an on-and-off attraction to Cheng Chuchu, although the available scenes do not develop that relationship in detail. It forms a separate strand of his personal life from his friendship with Lu Xun and his work as a physician, and should not be confused with the better-documented medical support he provides in the crises involving Lin Yanche and Su Xiangwan.

Doctor Hua’s narrative significance rests in this combination of competence, loyalty, and independence. He can laugh at his friends’ romantic grievances, organize a shared outing, and then become the careful clinician responsible for a vulnerable patient. At the same time, he is not simply an extension of Lu Xun’s authority: his anger at Lu’s threats makes clear that friendship does not erase boundaries. Through Doctor Hua, medical care becomes one of the story’s practical forms of intimacy, while his confrontations and social scenes keep that care connected to the ordinary obligations between friends.