Jiang Beiyuan gave him a sidelong glance.
"Is this your step-dad?"
The other opened his mouth in awkwardness. "M-My biological father…"
Making no comments about it, he approached the elderly man and squatted down to listen to his heartbeat using the stethoscope around his neck.
Yan Nian noticed his troubled look.
From her angle, she could see his brows increasingly tightening to a knot as he whipped up his phone to make a call to someone.
"There"s a patient in the hallway on the second floor. I suspect his hemoptysis is caused by a hemorrhage in his lungs. Prepare two scanners— Yes, now, I"ll be using it right away."
His thin lips parted and closed, keeping his voice to a minimum level. All the surrounding lights and shadows were cast on him as he moved methodically. His entire being seemed to be glowing.
It was not until he helped the old man up that his gaze s.h.i.+fted toward her.
"Go wait for me in my office. It"s on the seventh floor."
She nodded dazedly at him, not at all understanding the reason behind him doing so.
His office was very s.p.a.cious.
However… there was a mess on his sofa and an even bigger pile of mess on his table. His working environment was totally different from how it was at home.
And so, she spent some time tidying up his table, reckoning that she might as well find herself something to do since she was idle anyway.
Moments later, a graceful and charming woman donning a white coat nonchalantly entered the office with a cup of hot cocoa in her hand.
The latter sized up the woman sitting on the sofa.
A clear face with delicate and exquisite features and fair skin.
She instantly recognized that the coat on her belonged to Jiang Beiyuan, no question about it.
"Who are you?" she asked with a frown as she placed the coffee on the desk.
Yan Nian glanced at the name tag pinned to the front of the other woman"s clothes.
Yu Lili, Thoracic Doctor of Ning City Central Hospital.
The intruder turned out to be his colleague.
"I"m… Dr. Jiang"s friend."
"Friend?"
Yu Lili pursed her lips as her eyes flashed in suspicion.
She had never seen the male doctor hanging around with any friends of the opposite s.e.x other than the "Mrs. Jiang" he mentioned previously.
"Dr. Jiang doesn"t like others wearing his coat. It"s best if you take it off."
She once wanted to borrow his coat to wear as hers was dirtied during an operation, but alas, the man refused to lend it to her no matter what. It left her feeling exasperated and embarra.s.sed to no end, especially since she was refused in front of many other colleagues.
Yan Nian, however, laughed when she heard that.
"You"re fond of Jiang Beiyuan?"
"W-What nonsense are you spouting?!"
"From that panicky look on your face, I guess you do like him."
Women knew women best. A woman"s sense of possessiveness was very strong when she was fond of someone. She would not permit others to possess any personal belongings of her beloved one.
Furthermore, the female doctor"s tone was practically dripping with jealousy.
"Tsk! It"s only natural for an outstanding woman to like an outstanding man, isn"t it?" said Yu Lili in a proud manner as she raised her chest and looked down condescendingly at her.
From the looks of it, she doesn"t seem to care about Dr. Jiang at all. She"s probably not his wife, then.
She pretended to nod her head understandingly. "Yup, you"re pretty good. After all, you"re an outstanding woman."
"You—"
Yu Lili"s seemingly exquisite face contorted in fury when she heard the sarcasm in her words, and she was unable to put up a reb.u.t.tal.
What an irksome woman!
She then gave her a hard look before turning around to leave.
Half an hour had already pa.s.sed by the time Jiang Beiyuan returned to his office.
Yan Nian mentioned nothing about the female doctor to him. Her clothes had naturally dried already, and so, his white coat was folded neatly and placed aside for him.
The man strode over and took a seat on the sofa with his broad shoulders leaning against the seater and his one leg crossed over the other as he fiddled with the orange on the coffee table.
"Oh, yeah. Is that old man alright?" she asked.
Propping a hand at the side of his head, he swept a glance to her. "As he didn"t receive timely treatment, the lung abscess has resulted in the necrosis of a large part of his right lung cavity."
"It sounds rather serious. What"s going to happen to him now?"
"He needs to undergo surgery, of course. We"re waiting for his family"s permission right now. As they"re not locals, they"re unable to claim any medical expenses for the surgery conducted in Ning City, so they"re hesitating about it. But—"