In the end, I wasn"t able to go inside Jiang Chen"s house — his house was on the 9th floor, when the elevator that we were in arrived at the 2nd floor, he got a call telling him that something came up with his patient, he pressed open the elevator door for the 3rd floor, then threw a bunch of keys at me, and instructed, "903, find something to eat first, and then sleep."
I watched him turn around and hurriedly run for the stairs as the doors of the elevator slowly closed.
I took the elevator up the 9th floor, and stood in front of the door of Jiang Chen"s house for a while, deciding if I had better not go inside. One, my good upbringing doesn"t allow me to willfully enter someone"s house in the absence of the owner. Two, I am afraid that without the owner watching me attentively, if I went in and saw something valuable, I might not help but take it with me. Oh! My excellent upbringing!
So I took the elevator again and went at the breakfast shop downstairs to buy wonton and tea eggs for breakfast, and then flagged down a cab to return to the hospital.
How silly a woman is, how silly am I being.
At the entryway of the hospital parked a long row of luxury sedans. I already said I have no knowledge when it comes to cars, but those cars all looked polished, I also wanted to know whether they"re really that nice. This principle is the same as that of clothes, if it"s only a few ten bucks worth of clothes, and soy sauce was poured on it, I won"t bat an eyelash, if it got dirty then throw it away. But if it"s a few hundred bucks worth of clothes, if I spot a soy sauce even from a distance, I would quickly run away, if it got dirty then I"d kneel on the ground, and rub every little part clean.
I have not walked through the hospital doors when two men in black suits wearing sungla.s.ses barred me from entering and asked me in unison, "What are you doing here?"
I lifted my head and read the "hospital" sign, too lazy to explain myself so I just casually replied, "To go see a doctor."
Suit Man A, glanced at his wrist.w.a.tch and countered, "The hospital is still close, what do you want to seek consultation for!"
I replied, "I"m going to register myself in the emergency room?"
Suit Man A countered once more, "Which part does it look like you need registering in the emergency room? Say it, which TV station are you from?
I blanked for a moment, then bashfully scratched my head, and humbly replied, "Hehe, I"m not working in any TV station, although many people have commented that I would look great on TV."
Suit Man A and B looked at each other, and callously asked in unison, “Cut the c.r.a.p, which publication* are you from?”
I shook my head, “I came here by myself in a cab, you also saw it just now, where would someone be able to carry* me, besides, I"m not lacking in arms and legs, why must someone have to "carry" me?"
(T/N: I think Xiaoxi was a dumb dumb and mistook 报 bào (newspaper/ publication) with 抱 bào (carry) that"s why her reply doesn"t make any sense.)
They don’t seem to feel my sincerity because there was a knot on their facial expression as though they’ve been suffering from constipation for several days.
As I felt that there was no way around it, I was left with no choice but to lift my hand that was carrying our breakfast and reasoned again, “Actually, I am a doctor in this hospital, I came to work.”
Before I was done speaking, someone patted me on the shoulder making me turn my head towards them — it was Doctor Su looking at me with a huge grin, “When did you become a doctor in our hospital?”
I let out a sigh, this time, in the minds of these men in suit, my ident.i.ty is even more confusing. I looked at them, their eyes has a certain alertness to them as though I was a terrorist armed with a bomb and they"re ready to pull out their guns from their pockets and fill my body with holes at any given time.
I said helplessly, "If I"d say my boyfriend works here as a doctor, and I"m here to give him his breakfast, would you believe me?
Suit Man A retorted, "Cut the c.r.a.p, are you a journalist? What are you going to do inside the hospital. I"m telling you, this is a private matter, you can"t report it!"
I pushed Doctor Su in front of the two men in suit, "I"m really not a journalist, she is Doctor Su, a doctor in this hospital, she can testify, I"m really here to look for my boyfriend."
Doctor Su nodded foolishly, "I"m a doctor in this hospital. I know her boyfriend."
Suit Man A said, "How can you prove to us that you"re a doctor in this hospital?"
Doctor Su looked clueless, and hesitantly replied, "I……..I"ll perform surgery?"
I pinched the bridge of my nose and made a suggestion, "I think your license is more convincing."
Doctor Su felt the pockets of her trousers, then slipped her hands inside them, and naively declared it outright, "I left my license inside the hospital."
Even I myself wouldn"t be convinced that this d.a.m.n, stupid looking girl is actually a doctor.
Hence, ten minutes later, Doctor Su and I were crouched right outside the big doors of the hospital peeling tea eggs.
I pa.s.sed an already peeled tea egg to Doctor Su, “How could this happen? Who are they? What should we do if we can"t get in?"
Doctor Su bit a mouthful of tea egg and surmised, "It"s probably some bigshot celebrity coming to get their rotten disease examined. What are you worrying for? You don"t even work here.
I think so, too. Anyway, it’s almost time for the hospital to open, I"d be free to go inside so I very kindly helped worry for Doctor Su’s stead, I said, “What to do if you’re late?”
She waved a hand dismissively and said, "No worries, my dad is the chairman."
I swallowed down my surprise inwardly and nodded my head in understanding, “No wonder your medical skills are superb, it turns out it’s in your blood.”
My mind was like: Her father is the chairman of this hospital, Jiang Chen is a doctor of this hospital, so I"d curry favor from the chairman"s daughter. I really envy Jiang Chen for having such a good wife.
Doctor Su furrowed her brows and asked in reply, "What do you mean? My dad runs a veterinary hospital.
I tried to explain, "No, you said you"re not worried because your dad is the chairman, so just now I said……said, ai, don"t misunderstand."
She let out a ‘humph’ and said, “I wasn’t worried because if worst comes to worst and I lose my job I can always go back home to help my dad run the veterinary hospital.
I replied, "Hehe, so it"s like that. Going back to help run a veterinary hospital is also very good.
Her expression darkened, "What are you saying "is also very good"? You think that being a chairman of a veterinary hospital isn"t high-ranking enough?"
I hurriedly shook my head, the more I speak, the more mistakes I make, I had better shut up.
Doctor Su with a straight face, quietly finished eating that piece of tea egg, after which her expression changed again and said, "Actually, I"m just joking with you. My dad is really the chairman of this hospital."
I, who has not yet swallowed the egg that was in my mouth, after hearing her say so, choked at once — in order to not spray onto the beloved chairman"s daughter, I forcibly swallowed it down which had me choked up in tears.
The chairman"s daughter humbled herself to be one with us common folks to help pat my back, she let out a sigh, "When are you going to finally get my humour, my dad really runs a veterinary hospital."
I totally don’t understand this person anymore, hence I gave out a big, hearty laugh, "Hey, you think you"re funny, I was also joking with you, I knew it from the start."
Actually, I don’t know anything at all. I’m still not sure whether her father is a doctor for humans or a doctor for animals, but it"s okay, she doesn"t know whether I knew, or didn’t know, or knew but was feigning to not know.
Doctor Su looked at me suspiciously, but after a long time, she smiled, "I appreciate your humour."
We were crouched in front of the hospital door, eating a breakfast for three people. I"ve prepared two sets to give to Jiang Chen, I originally thought I"d share a set with Doctor Su, at least leave a set for Jiang Chen, but I didn"t expect that Doctor Su would eat so much. To sum up she ate a total of four tea eggs, two servings of dry wonton, and one steamed dumpling.
I stood up to throw the plastic bag in the garbage bin. When the men in suit that were standing at the doorway saw me get up, their right foot took a step back in a lunge position. I waved my hand back and forth, gesturing to them that I was just a weak woman, and would not charge towards them.
After I threw away the trash, I told Doctor Su, "I"ll go buy breakfast again."
Doctor Su gave me a brief nod and said. "I also think that I"m not yet full, buy another steamed dumpling for me please."
When I got back from buying breakfast again, Doctor Su was already laughing and talking with those two men in suit, when she saw me, she beckoned me over, "Let"s go in."
We were already inside the hospital while the two men in suit were looking at us with a smile on their faces so I asked her, "How did you manage to convince them?"
She replied, "I gave each of them a hundred bucks."
"Ah?!" I could not help but exclaim in surprise.
She patted me on the shoulder and said, "Kidding! I called the security office and had someone come out to prove it."
I huffed, "Why didn"t you call earlier?"
She said, "Wasn"t I eating breakfast just now."
I"ve long given up carrying a conversation with her using the logic of a normal human being, hence I replied, “That’s right, eating breakfast is the most important, not eating breakfast is not good for the brain.”
As I was done speaking, the nurse who was walking our way was pulled by Doctor Su, "What"s going on? How come there"s two people standing at the entrance?"
The nurse replied, "That high ranking official who underwent operation in our hospital before had gotten a heart attack again."
Doctor Su asked, "Which one? Cardiology department? Doctor Jiang"s patient?
The nurse replied, "En, Doctor Jiang is now in the operation room to save him." She then looked around before whispering, "I heard he had a heart attack on a woman"s bed."
Wow.
We were making rustling noises, gossiping for a while. The content was all about how intense a "bed exercise" was to have given someone a heart attack. As medical professionals, they"ve offered a lot of professional insight, among them were an elevated blood pressure, increased pulse rate, body secretions……..when I heard these two words, my cheeks flamed up in embarra.s.sment which made both of them look at me with disdain, "Hey, what"s with that vulgar expression on your face, we were only referring to sweating."
As I am thin-skinned, and found it embarra.s.sing to continue the "discussion" with them, I excused myself saying I"ll be in Jiang Chen"s office to wait for him.
Jiang Chen"s office wasn"t locked, I swept a corner of his working desk to place the breakfast, and swept another corner to doze off.
It"s just that, my ability to sleep on the table back when I was still studying seemed to have deteriorated — I couldn"t fall asleep. Hence, I had no choice but to lean over the table in a daze, my fingers were fumbling on the hideous mess on his desk that was his files. He left urgently leaving the things on his desk in a disarray so I arranged it for him.
Jiang Chen sat behind me during high school, you would find it hard to imagine that he was such an outstanding student, his desk was always a mess, reference textbooks for examinations were left lying around. But he is amazing, whenever I ask him for something, it would only take him a moment and he would be able to fish out exactly what I was looking for from his pile of things. The most ridiculous was that one instance when I borrowed his test papers from Chemistry, his gaze was fixed at around 20 test papers, and muttered, "Chen Xiaoxi, are you here to compare answers?" Then he pulled out a test paper from somewhere in the middle, and asked me if it was the test paper that I was asking for. I"ve always felt that his supernatural abilities and the common folks" skill of "feeling the bones*" have different melodies* but are played with equal skill. (T/N: [1] Feeling the bones is a technique by fortune tellers to determine things (personality, luck, etc.) depending on the appearance of a person"s bones. [2] A metaphor for having various approach but the outcome is the same.)
Sometimes, he would also allow me to help him tidy up his desk, but every time I"m tidying up his things, he would always lean back on his chair with both of his arms folded across his chest, looking meticulously at me. I"d ask him what he was looking at and he would tell me he was looking at where I was putting his things, it made me feel like I was actually causing him such inconvenience, but I just continued to relentlessly inconvenience him further.
Jiang Chen"s desk right now looked much better than before, only those medical charts that were stacked were a bit in a clutter. I picked them all up to stack them neatly but didn"t expect that that the door would suddenly swing open which scared me and made me let go, sending the medical charts crashing to the floor.
Jiang Chen said, "What are you doing here?" Then he looked at the heap of medical charts on the ground and continued, "Did my medical charts offend you?"
This is why Doctor Su is my favorite character, she’s crazy!