Yan City Sanatorium functions as both a place of medical recuperation and a temporary shelter from the pressures of Yuncheng. Chu Fei proposes it after Su Xiangwan’s vulnerability and distrust have become impossible to ignore, suggesting that she and Su Qingrou travel there with Yun Yun so that the women can recover while looking after one another. The move gives the sanatorium a significance beyond healthcare: it is an attempt to create distance from dangerous relationships, family conflict, and the increasingly coercive pursuit of Lu Xun.

A Planned Refuge in Yan City

Chu Fei presents the sanatorium as a practical refuge rather than an abstract escape. He had already discussed going there with Yun Yun to recuperate, and he extends the plan to Su Xiangwan and Su Qingrou so the three women can share protection and mutual care. His decision is immediate and logistical: after proposing the journey, he takes out his phone and instructs his assistant to book plane tickets. The speed of the arrangement shows how urgently the characters need a controlled environment away from Yuncheng.

The plan also depends on the sanatorium’s location in Yan City. Lu Xun realizes that Su Qingrou is no longer in Cloud City because she has gone to Yan City with Su Xiangwan, and he regards the destination as a place where they believe they are beyond his reach. Lin Yanche identifies Yan City as Jin Zhengnan’s territory and offers to accompany Lu Xun there, but Lu Xun orders the injured man to remain in the hospital. Thus the sanatorium is protected not only by its medical function but also by the political and personal territory surrounding it.

Residents and Daily Life

The sanatorium becomes associated with a small, unusual community of women whose circumstances are marked by illness, fear, and the need for companionship. Su Qingrou is there for recuperation, while Su Xiangwan and Yun Yun spend time together in the grounds. Their shared presence gives the location a quieter rhythm than the confrontations that dominate the surrounding plot.

One of the clearest scenes at the sanatorium places Su Xiangwan and Yun Yun together on a swing, reading Jane Eyre. Yun Yun is described as more lively and Su Xiangwan as quieter, yet they are presented as unusually compatible. While Su Qingrou naps in the afternoon, the two go out into the garden, where their conversation about the novel establishes an ordinary intimacy that contrasts with the danger and manipulation elsewhere in their lives. The swing, the book, and the garden make the sanatorium briefly resemble a protected domestic space rather than an institution.

That calm is interrupted when Lu Xun appears. Su Xiangwan sees him and Chu Fei standing nearby, and her expression immediately darkens. She closes the book, jumps down from the swing, and tells Yun Yun that they should go back. The retreat therefore offers safety only provisionally: even within its garden, the arrival of Lu Xun reactivates the conflict that had driven the women away.

Medical Setting and Bodily Vulnerability

The sanatorium belongs to a wider pattern in which illness determines movement, authority, and emotional responsibility. Lu Xun’s own condition can recur suddenly, requiring him to remove his mask, spray medicine into his mouth, and take several deep breaths before feeling better. Su Xiangwan is likewise portrayed as physically fragile: illness can leave her feverish and barely conscious, and she eventually collapses at an elevator before reaching safety. These bodily crises explain why recuperation is not merely decorative background but a concrete need.

The location also stands against other medical settings in the narrative. Su Qingrou is hospitalized for acute appendicitis and undergoes an appendectomy, while Lin Yanche’s hospitalization is connected to manic behavior so severe that falling objects can be heard from his ward. Later, Yun Yun reveals that Lin Yanche has liver cancer and is waiting for a suitable liver donor, otherwise facing death. In this network of hospitals and sanatorium care, illness is never detached from relationships: it summons protectors, delays engagements, changes travel plans, and gives others information that can be used to comfort, threaten, or control.

Pursuit and Narrative Significance

The sanatorium’s apparent refuge is most sharply defined by the fact that Lu Xun intends to find Su Xiangwan and bring her back. Once he learns where she is, his next objective is to capture her and return her to Yuncheng. His pursuit transforms Yan City from a place of recovery into a contested boundary. Chu Fei’s protection and Lu Xun’s determination represent opposing claims over Su Xiangwan’s safety and autonomy.

The location also gathers the story’s recurring tension between care and control. Chu Fei frames the journey as shared recuperation and mutual support; Lu Xun approaches it as a search for a wife who has left his immediate reach. The same movement can therefore be read as either protection or separation, depending on whose authority is being asserted. When Lu Xun finally appears in the sanatorium garden, the scene does not erase the refuge’s earlier warmth, but it exposes its limits. The sanatorium can provide rest, companionship, and temporary distance, yet it cannot by itself resolve the unresolved bonds that follow the characters wherever they go.