Do you still remember the viral photo in which a doctor and an elderly patient watched the sunset together in Wuhan? The two protagonists parted from each other on April 1 as the medic set out on his return trip to Shanghai. To send the doctor and his colleagues off, Mr. Wang, the patient, played a piece of music on the violin.

The music piece is from “Meditation from Thais” composed by Jules Massenet (1842-1912). “I don’t have enough strength to pull the string. I will play the whole piece for you after I recover,” said Wang, a bit shy of his imperfect performance. However, beyond his expectation, the piece lingered in many people’s minds for the whole day. Someone commented, “This is a miracle. Can’t imagine the music is played by an 87-year-old patient who was once severely ill.”

Wang is among the first batch of COVID-19 patients taken over by Shanghai Zhongshan Hospital’s medical team assigned to the East Hospital of Wuhan University People’s Hospital.

Across China, over the past months, over 300 medical teams consisting of 40,000 medical staff have been dispatched to aid Wuhan, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus. It was because of a photo that the Zhongshan Hospital medical team became familiar to the public.

In the photo snapped by a fellow hospital volunteer on the late afternoon of March 5, 27-year-old Dr. Liu Kai from Zhongshan Hospital stood next to the bedridden Wang to watch a sunset, a moment that touched millions of people. “My heart was lit up the moment I saw the sunset,” said Liu. The photo was then posted by Huashan Hospital on social media platforms with the title “Life is worth living,” garnering millions of “likes” from netizens.

Afterwards, thanks to the meticulous care of the medical staff, Wang’s health condition has got better day after day. As more patients in the hospital were healed, the day of returning home for the Shanghai doctors came closer. On the evening of March 30, they were notified that they could go back to Shanghai. The next day, Liu and his colleague began to transfer the remaining patients and pack their own luggage. There were still around 20 patients in the ICU ward, who had to be transferred to another ward area. Wang is one of them but his nucleic acid test result on March 30 was negative and the CT image was better than prior results. For safety reasons, the doctors asked Wang to stay in hospital for rehabilitation.

“I’m basically as well as normal. I can walk, talk, and play the piano. That is thanks to the careful treatment by Shanghai doctors and nurses,” Wang said with emotion when sending the Shanghai medical team off. A few days before, he had asked his nephew to fetch his violin to the hospital and his mood got better as he tuned and played the instrument.

Since February 8 until their departure, the Shanghai Huashan Hospital medical team has treated 152 severe COVID-19 patients in Wuhan and 119 were cured. As Liu and his colleagues headed home, there are still a lot of medics staying in Wuhan, until all the patients make a full recovery and are discharged.