I squatted down to pick up the medical charts and said, "I was afraid you might have gotten gastric pain again from being over hungry, so I brought you breakfast."
Jiang Chen squatted down to help pick up the medical charts, "Hospital"s cafeteria has breakfast."
I looked up at him, "So have you eaten?"
He took the medical charts from me and threw them on the table, "Too tired, no appet.i.te."
Indeed, his face was a face of weariness, a slight greenish color on his lower eyelids, face and lips were slightly pale.
I said, "I bought you tea eggs."
He removed his coat and said, "I will eat if you peel it."
I took over his coat, dragged him to a chair and sat him down, beamed and him and said, "Doctor, you need more protein for supplement. I will peel an egg for you right now."
He looked and me, shook his head and laughed. I stretched out my hand and poked his dimple and laughed along with him.
I held out the peeled egg to his mouth side and asked carefully, "How was the surgery?"
"Successful." He took one bite off the egg, "Help me take a bottle of water, it is at the lowest compartment of the doc.u.ment drawer."
I opened the lowest compartment of his drawer, it was filled with at least thirty to forty Nongfu Spring water. I took one out, opened it and pa.s.sed it to him, "Why does your hospital only give out Nongfu Spring?"
"How would I know?"
Jiang Chen reluctantly ate two tea eggs, and leaned back on his chair, and said, "I don"t want to eat anymore."
I tore apart a disposable chopstick and persuaded him, "Eat a few more dumplings."
He very unwillingly swallowed down a few dumplings, I saw that he was really tired, so I didn"t persuade him anymore, I only said, "You didn"t sleep the whole night, and you had a surgery, you should go home and rest."
He shook his head, "The patient"s anesthesia has yet to wear off, we still need to do close monitoring. I can"t leave the hospital."
I felt a little distressed for him and gave a pat on his head, "It"s been hard on you."
He dodged my hand, "Your hands just peeled tea eggs."
I was angry, "Your hands have touched dead people!"
He said gravely, "I washed my hands."
I said, "You can rest your head on the table and take a little nap, or I can ask Doctor Su if there"s any empty ward for you to sleep for a while?"
He didn"t answer me, he only stood up and walked behind a shelf and dragged out a foldable bed.
I exclaimed, "Well equipped ah."
He opened up the foldable bed against the wall, then he threw himself on the bed with a ‘thump’ sound, just like a corpse.
I stared blankly at his tightly shut eyes, thinking if I should leave or stay and wait for him to wake up? Shouldn"t he at least warn me before sleeping…
I stared at him for a while and sighed. I squatted down to remove his shoes for him.
I placed the shoes under the bed and cleared the egg sh.e.l.ls on the table. Just as I was about to leave the room to throw the rubbish, Jiang Chen said, "Chen Xiaoxi, where are you going?"
I turned back, he didn"t even open his eyes. I said I was going to throw rubbish.
He asked if I will be coming back.
I said I will be.
He then said, "Okay, then you go."
I thought in my heart that I didn"t even asked for your permission, why do you flatter yourself?
After I returned from throwing rubbish, Jiang Chen suddenly opened his eyes while I was closing the door. I got a shock, it was actually very scary. Just imagine, being in a gloomy dark room, the person whom you thought were asleep suddenly opened his eyes and looked at you. Basically, all you want to do is to rush towards him and stick an amulet on him.
I asked him frightenedly, "Why are you not asleep?"
He said, "Nope, I fell asleep, it was just a light sleep."
I thought about it and didn"t know what to reply, so I could only parrot his last line, "That was a really light sleep."
Jiang Chen closed his eyes again, I stood in the middle of the room at a loss of what to do. Just as I was thinking If I should leave first and come back in the afternoon, Jiang Chen opened his eyes and said, "Why are you still standing there? Come here and accompany me to sleep."
I was really taken aback. However, I usually express my feelings wrongly in front Jiang Chen which ended up being awkward or creepy, I concluded that the indecent sleeping I was thinking about is not the pure sleeping he was talking about. So, I calmly walked to his bed side and said, "You move in a bit."
He moved in, and I lied down after removing my shoes.
Then I asked him, "Do you have pillows?"
He said he doesn"t.
After a while he suggested, "Why not you rest your head on my arm?"
I think a surgeon"s hand is very costly. If I slept till it became numb, and after it went numb it would become crippled, then I would have committed a big offense. Therefore, I rejected him.
We slept with our backs against each other for quite some time, I asked him, "Are you asleep?"
He said, "No."
I said, "Is it too squeezy?"
He replied, "No."
I said, "Then why can"t you fall asleep?"
He said, "I want to hug you to sleep. But I recalled that you stayed in the hospital for the entire time since last night and didn"t bathe."
I turned over and said angrily, "You also didn"t bathe, I didn"t even avoid you!"
I squinted his panda eyes and was immersed in his thoughts, after a while he said, "You are right."
After that he extended his arms and pulled me into a hug, he then patted on my head and said, "Alright, it"s no longer squeezy. We can sleep now."
I rested on the hollowness between his shoulder and chest. It was not too hard nor was it too soft, it was pretty comfortable. But I kept having the feeling as though I was being fooled. In order to show my disdain, I said, "You have a disinfectant smell on you."
He made an agreeing sound then proceeded to ignore me, so I said again, "You have too many bones, it"s killing me."
Only then did he open his eyes, "We have the same number of bones, 206 pieces."
As he brought the conversation onto a professional level, my qualities could no longer keep up. I could only think of ways to change the topic, and I thought of Doctor Su. I said, "Oh, do you know what Doctor Su"s dad do for a living?"
He embraced me tightly and said, "Her dad is our faculty"s dean, Old Man Su. Why do you ask?"
This is Old Man Su, that is also Old Man Su*, this person loves to joke, despite how lame the joke is, he thinks that it is very funny. It makes everyone limp and numb, this person, is Old Man Su. (T/N: 2 different types of Su were used here namely, 酥 and 苏 respectively. There is no meaning to it, just a different word used for the surname.)
Old Man Su and I had a chance encounter that was like a thunderstruck. It was a day where leaves were swirling in the air. I waited for Jiang Chen (whose cla.s.s was delayed) to end cla.s.s at the corridor. While I was leaning on the railing looking at the people who were walking on the school ground, an old man came to me and asked, "Miss, what cla.s.s is inside? Why are they not dismissed yet?"
I said, "I also have no idea, I am just waiting for my boyfriend."
I smiled at me and said, "Which one is your boyfriend? Can you point to me?"
At that time I was still naïve, so I pointed inside proudly. However, the elder before me suddenly gave a very solemn look. "Student Jiang? No wonder he seemed really inattentive in my cla.s.s recently, so it was because he is dating. I say you kids these days, being young is the best time to absorb knowledge nutrients, but you all choose to waste it on boy girl relationships. That is too insensible. Looks like I will have to re-discuss with his cla.s.s tutor on the scholarship nominees."
I quickly kept the pride on my face, I was shocked till I was a little unstable, I quickly used my about-to-cry tone to explain to him, "Teacher, it is not like that. Actually, student Jiang Chen doesn"t like me, it was me who shamelessly stuck myself to him, it has nothing to do with him."
He made a ‘hmph’ sound and said, "You need two hands to clap."
I clenched my teeth and said, "Teacher, I will tell you the truth. I am a mythomania. I am always fantasizing on having an extraordinary relationship with each and every boy in the medicine school. The day before yesterday was student Lee. Yesterday it was student Zhang. Today it is student Jiang. According to your professional medical perspective, do you think there is a cure for this kind of illness?"
Old Man Su stared at me with his eyes enlarged, he then slowly asked after a while, "Which faculty are you from?"
"Arts."
I muttered to himself, "Arts students are all crazy people. You only fantasize yourself with the medicine school male students? How about the medicine school male teachers?"
I suspect that his question has a smell of self-recommendation. With the mindset to protect Jiang Chen, I went all out. I fumbled on my shirt edge and looked at him with eyes full of tender feelings, "Actually… actually I do too."
Old Man Su held onto his arms and stumbled backwards. He said, "This student, actually I was just joking with you just now."
I asked blankly, "Which one was a joke?"
He said, "The scholarship nominee. Also, I don"t teach his cla.s.s, I only know him."
My only thought at that time was, "Is it a crime to hit teachers? Or is it better to hit him in a rucksack? Or should I hire someone to a.s.sa.s.sinate him?"
He saw that I was silent, he continued, "This student, I have a wife, we have very deep feelings for each other."
I shook off my idea, and said to him coldly and dismally, "It"s okay, I will just look at you from a distance then."
I even looked down to wipe tears off my eyes after I finished talking. From my peripheral view I saw Old Man Su walked backwards a few more steps. I think I shouldn"t scare the elderly too much, just as I was about to look up to tell him I was joking, an arm came from behind my back and held on my shoulder, "Chen Xiaoxi, why is your head down? Did Old man Su bully you?"
Old Man Su came to a sudden realization, he pointed at me with trembling hand and stumbled half a step and said, "You…. You are too much!"
Jiang Chen whispered to my ears, "Lets go quick, his acting addiction is starting again."
Doctor Su and Old Man Su, they are really from one family.
I looked up, Jiang Chen already fell into a deep slumber, I rested on his chest while smelling the weird disinfectant smell on him as I too, fell into a faraway dream land.