Chapter One Hundred and Nine: I Hope That Next Year, I Can Say ‘Happy New Year’ To You Too
It was the eleventh year.
This was the eleventh year that he had lost her.
……
The caretaker aunty said that she had something going on at home this year and asked Chu Ge if she could take leave to head back home early. She wouldn’t even mind if he deducted her salary.
Back then, Chu Ge was recording his patient’s diagnosis. When he heard about it, he extended her leave and her salary remained unchanged.
The caretaker trembled as she tried to talk glibly. In the end, she said: “You’re a great man, Mr. Chu. Your charity will be rewarded.”
When the patient in front of them heard that, he also agreed as he nodded his head feverishly: “After visiting so many clinics, I have never seen a doctor as responsible as Dr. Chu. G.o.d will reward good doctors like him.”
Chu Ge smiled silently.
This was S City’s most famous private hospital. It was the place where the country’s richest people chose to prolong their lives. As one of the few chronic care doctors in the hospital, his department attended to only a handful of patients in one year.
The old man in front of him was considered the descendant of a veteran. He had a big family and abundant riches. He only came here after a recommendation from his own circle of buddies.
The patient before him was a large stockholder from the side branch of the Yan family. He made used of his ties in the Yan family to get a consultation. Chu Ge had studied that person for almost half a day, yet he still couldn’t figure out the man’s ident.i.ty. He made a call to Yan Jin on the spot and only accepted the patient after the chairman confirmed that it was alright to attend to him.
Average citizens were out of question. After all, Chu Ge’s name would never appear on their medical record.
If karma really did exist, then perhaps Chu Ge would never experience it.
The caretaker bowed as she left.
After sending the patient away, Chu Ge immediately went to apply for leave from the department head. Naturally, the department head would never disagree. Even without Yan Jin, Chu Ge’s ident.i.ty had already been uncovered long ago. It was only a matter of time before it would be revealed in their industry.
The top floor of the hospital was as deserted as always.
The ward next door had already been cleared few weeks ago. It was leukemia. The patient had been treated for a year in this world-cla.s.s standard hospital, but she ultimately did not make it. She was an energetic young lady one year ago. No one knew what was going through her mind when she dragged her ailing body and shut off the power generator on this floor in the middle of the night.
Not only was she seeking death, she also wanted to bring the patients on this floor with her.
When they saved her, she had completely lost conscious. Despite that, they managed to forcefully drag her life on for a few more months.
Including the other time, when Chu Ge had rushed over in a panic, this was the second time that he had entered this place in almost six months.
When he heard that she was fine, there was no tinge of happiness in Chu Ge’s heart.
If she could wake up, whether she was able to speak, move, or only blink her eyes… He wondered if those eyes that he had already forgotten would show that she had wished all of this had ended.
Perhaps they would.
Chu Ge thought uncertainly.
She had always been kind. Perhaps she could not bear to let him suffer for another eleven years.
……
Chu Ge was genuinely surprised the day that he was approved to enter the ward.
Was it because he was so handsome today that even the doctor in charge wanted to make an exception for him?
However, judging from how the doctor in charge was hesitant, Chu Ge somewhat understood what he was trying to say. He smiled indifferently and joked that he knew about the rules and would never do anything that was illegal.
Of course he would act appropriately. He was a doctor himself after all. He knew what he could and could not do.
His teacher once told him that he had never seen a person who was as gifted and talented as him before – it was as if Chu Ge was born to be a doctor.
That elderly doctor was wise for a generation and farsighted for life, but he had misjudged Chu Ge.
Before he had changed his aspiration at the last moment in high school, Chu Ge was, without a doubt, a person born for the Nan family’s business empire. The Nan family had entrenched themselves in S City for so many years. Even the Yan family, which had a powerful reputation overseas, had shown fear in regards to the current head of the Nan family. They once said that –
This child was no doubt blessed by the heavens for the Nan family’s sake.
Using Yan Jin’s words, although they were both gifted, Yan Jin’s skill points were spread out, which made it possible to be good at every aspect. As long as he had a good starting point, there would be nothing he could not do.
However, Chu Ge was different – at least eighty percent of his skill points were used on business trade.
A person like Chu Ge had abandoned those skill points and made an extreme decision just because of a meaningless dream, an unwavering trust, and a sudden rebellious emotion that affected his decision.
The day before, that girl had smiled under the crabapple tree and told him that dreams were meant to be ridiculed by many before they could be meaningful. The next day, she had an accident and ended up lying in the intensive care unit with a low chance of ever waking up again.
The girl lying on the bed was already thinly out of shape. One could not imagine how beautiful she looked eleven years ago.
“Sorry. I thought I couldn’t come in, so I gave the dried flowers away.” Chu Ge touched his nose awkwardly before he looked at the white ceiling and mumbled: “Why don’t I bring you fresh ones when you wake up?”
“I went back to the school two years ago. They had moved, and the crabapple tree was gone. That’s really depressing isn’t it?”
“I got another girlfriend lately. Are you angry? If you’re angry, then wake up soon to tell me off.”
“…… Happy new year.”
Chu Ge continued blabbering for almost an hour and used that sentence as a conclusion.
It was a new year.
That was probably the closest he had even gotten in the past eleven years to greet her for the new year.
It was a rare luxury, yet it did not make Chu Ge happy at all.
After enduring for so many years, he could handle the hospital, and his finances were stable. However, his soulless body had finally reached its limit.
“I hope that next year, I can say ‘happy new year’ to you too.”
“Even if it’s just standing outside to say it.”
……
The way that YL functioned at the end of this year was very obnoxious. Year-end bonuses with astronomical figures and the extended holiday made YL’s mysterious employee benefits create another wave of storms in the industry.
YL had indeed done very well in that one year. The outstanding amount of profits were obvious, and the year-end bonus could still be explained because of that. Although their counterparts were jealous, they were helpless. However, regarding the holidays brought forward, it simply made them envious, jealous, and resentful yet puzzled.
YL had hit the headlines three times in that short period of six months. Shouldn’t they be stuck in an extremely busy period where they could not even finish going through their doc.u.ments? Who was the one who said that with great power comes great responsibility? Where was the ‘no holiday for the design industry’? And where were the drafts that always needed to be edited and the clients that could never be appeased?
While the industry was at a loss, YL gleefully started their holiday – three days earlier than the official holiday period.
Three days may not seem like a lot, but in this period where the bustling industry was not doing well, that really was a luxury.
When Yan Jin held the general shareholders’ meeting, there was almost no one left in the company. The only remaining people were the handful of cleaners who were doing their last checks and would be leaving right after they finished.
As the person who was the last to leave last night, Yan Jin was responsible and diligent to his company; a person whose story had rendered every listener with teary eyes.
And yet there were many who could not understand him and spouted nonsense.
For example, Xiao Yu.
“Squeakkkkkk!!” Why was your meeting so long? How did you delegate your work? As the chairman, if everything needs to be overseen by you, that means you’re not competent enough!”
“I…” Chairman Yan sank deeply into self doubt.
After the shareholders’ meeting, Yan Jin was in great mood. This time, not only were some people willing to transfer their shares to him, some were even willing to outright show their support for him.
Thankfully, Chairman Yan’s memory was not bad. After some quick thinking, he promptly recalled that Chu Ge had mentioned the shareholders and even offered to undertake the task of settling those troubles for him.
From a certain perspective, Chu Ge really did settle a big issue for him.
As a payback, he would treat Chu Ge to a meal. Like a home-cooked meal.
Yan Jin did not feel that such remuneration was kind of belittling Chu Ge’s hard work. No matter what, the doctor was still considered a businessman. His current ident.i.ty was simply so convenient that even the insiders did not know that the doctor had long chosen to stand by his side. They only knew that he was a celebrity doctor and was naturally less alert when they talked to him.
That was Chu Ge after all. Never would they expect that after a random consultation and some simple probing, the doctor would investigate them in the next moment after the medical reports had been written. Be it entrepreneurs who came for consultations for s.e.xually transmitted disease even though they had a wife, or second-generations of wealthy families who brought their mistresses for abortions, every secret affair that they had was all thoroughly investigated, and Chu Ge had sent the information back to them with the contact number that they had given him.
Although it was impossible for all of YL’s shareholders to have problems, and not all of them had consulted Chu Ge before, as long as he was able to get a hold of a few big shots, the problems could be considered completely resolved.
No wonder Chu Ge would dare to say that he could resolve the problem after flipping through the shareholders’ details. He probably recognized some of them from the photos that were attached to the dossier.
“Squeakk!” How dare you daze out!
Xiao Yu was very angry. So angry that his fur was standing on end.
“Someone was looking for me after the meeting…… I won’t do it ever again. Half an hour will only be half an hour.” Yan Jin quickly promised.
“Squeakk?” Then what about this time?
Yan Jin pondered seriously for a long time before he suggested: “Could you let me off this time since it’s a new year?”
“Squeak.” Hn.
“Fishy, happy new year.” Yan Jin blinked his eyes as he attempted to use his non-existent cuteness to buy his way through.
“Squeakk.” Fine. I’ll forgive you this time.
Surprisingly, Xiao Yu bought it.
He revealed a helpless expression as if there was really nothing he could do to Yan Jin.
The adorable little face showing such an expression was like a live demonstration to Yan Jin on how to act cute correctly.
“Squeakk.” Happy new year, Yan Jin.
“Thank you.” Yan Jin was torn between melting from cuteness or from being too touched.
He felt like he had sunk into a mysterious blissfulness that he could not free himself from.
“Squeak.”
“What?” Yan Jin did not catch it.
“Squeakk.” Nothing. You’re not paying attention.
Xiao Yu puffed his cheeks, feeling slightly angry.
……
I hope that next year, I can say ‘happy new year’ to you too.
As well as for all the years to come.