Chapter 375 Eat and Run
Fang Yuqi said to Qin Haodong, “Doctor Tang, is that okay? Beer is not good with seafood. As doctors, we should pay more attention to our bodies. We’ll just have some red wine.”
“Okay, it’s all right!”
Qin Haodong replied with a nod.
While they were ordering, a figure appeared at the entrance of the restaurant. It was Lu Fei who had just lost his position as chief doctor.
What happened today depressed him. The general manager of this seafood restaurant was his old cla.s.smate, so he wanted to come over for a drink, but he didn’t expect to see Qin Haodong and Fang Yuqi as soon as he walked in.
“b.a.s.t.a.r.ds!”
When he saw them, Lu Fei gnashed his teeth. In his view, the two persons had taken his place as chief doctor and were here to celebrate.
When he heard Fang Yuqi order, Lu Fei put on a sneer. He was thinking how to get even with the two men, and now was his chance!
When the waiter returned, Lu Fei beckoned him over. As Lu Fei was a regular guest, the waiter, knowing that he was a cla.s.smate of the general manager, stepped forward and said politely, “h.e.l.lo, Doctor Lu!”
Lu Fei asked, “What did the guest order at that table just now?”
The waiter replied, “The lady didn’t order anything regular. She asked me to arrange four specialty dishes and a bottle of red wine for them.”
“Oh, you do what I tell you to do.”
When Lu Fei had said this, the waiter looked surprised and said, “Doctor Lu, it is our custom to show our guests the dishes after we have arranged them. We won’t place an order until the customer agrees. The dishes you mentioned are too expensive. I guess the guest won’t agree.”
“Don’t show them. You just place the order.”
The waiter said quickly, “No, Doctor Lu, I don’t have the right. If the guest doesn’t pay after the meal, even if I sell myself, I can’t afford it.”
Just then, a middle-aged man in a suit came over. When he saw Lu Fei, he tapped him on the shoulder, and said, “Doctor, why don’t you come upstairs? What are you doing here?”
It was Song Wu, the general manager of the restaurant. Lu Fei took Song Wu’s arm and whispered, “See those two? They have a problem with me. You’re going to help me get even now…”
He then related briefly that he had been demoted this afternoon, but in his story, Fang Yuqi had become a seducer of the director, and he had become a victim.
Song Wu had always shared the same rotten tastes with Lu Fei and asked him to do things for him. At this point he patted his chest and said, “Dude, what do I have to do?”
“You just need…”
Lu Fei told him again what he had just told the waiter.
When Song Wu heard this, he looked embarra.s.sed and said, “Dude, is this all right? These things you’re talking about add up to 300,000 or 400,000 yuan. What if they can’t afford after the meal? I’m just the general manager of the restaurant, not the boss. How am I going to feed my family if I lose my job?”
“Don’t worry. That woman just became the chief doctor. I’ll come with you when she pays the bill. She certainly will not make this matter big, or tomorrow the whole hospital people will know that she come to eat and run when she becomes the chief doctor. And her family is rich, so she is not a poor person. She will pay the bill.”
“Will… will it work?” Song Wu was still a little uneasy.
“What’s the problem? They will waste a lot of money. This will both get me back and help you earn a big commission. What a wonderful thing!” Then Lu Fei took a gold card from his pocket. “I have half a million yuan in my card, and if they don’t pay, I’ll pay. Okay?”
Song Wu’s face lit up and he said, “Dude, if you put it that way, it’s okay. I’ll arrange it now.”
Lu Fei turned and looked at Qin Haodong and Fang Yuqi with a sneer. “You dare to defy me. I’ll let you spend a lot of money first!”
Over the table, Qin Haodong and Fang Yuqi were having a nice conversation.
Qin Haodong who came with a purpose asked, “Doctor Fang, where did you graduate from? How many years have you been in Guangren Hospital?”
Fang Yuqi replied, “I’m a doctor of medicine from M Country. It will be three years since I arrived at Guangren Hospital this summer.”
“A doctor of medicine coming back from M Country should be in high demand in Huaxia. Why did you go to Guangren Hospital? Don’t you consider a large public hospital like Jiangnan Hospital?”
“When I came back, I had an invitation from a public hospital, but I thought the relations.h.i.+ps in public hospitals were too complicated. There were many other factors besides medical skill, so I chose Guangren Hospital.”
At this point, Fang Yuqi gave a wry smile. “Later I learned that seniority given top priority and interpersonal relations.h.i.+p are the national conditions of Huaxia. It existed in both public and private hospitals. So I have been Lu Fei’s a.s.sistant for three years.”
Qin Haodong nodded and said, “Shouldn’t a private hospital be a little higher than a public hospital in terms of salary?”
Fang Yuqi replied, “My salary is 300,000 a year, which is quite a lot compared to the average person, but the medical staff pays a lot. My cla.s.smates are mothers of two children, while I’m not married.”
Qin Haodong laughed. “The problem lies with you. You are so superior. You have a high degree and beauty, so ordinary people do not have the courage to pursue you. For example, I only dare to admire a woman like you.”
While the two were chatting, the waiter brought up the dishes one by one. Then he took a bottle of wine with English letters on the outside and said, “Lady, sir, would you like to open the red wine?”
Fang Yuqi was impressed by what Qin Haodong just said, and said airily, “Open it!”
The waiter opened the wine with a bang. Qin Haodong gave him a surprised look and asked, “What’s wrong with you? Why are your hands shaking?”
The waiter said nervously, “No… It’s okay. Maybe the air conditioner is running too cold here.”
With that, he poured red wine into their gla.s.ses and hurried off.
Although the waiter was acting strangely, Qin Haodong ignored it but kept chatting with Fang Yuqi because he had the serial murder in his mind.
He raised his gla.s.s and said, “Congratulations on your promotion to chief doctor!”
Fang Yuqi also raised her gla.s.s, clinked Qin Haodong’s gla.s.s gently, and said, “Thanks!”
Qin Haodong suddenly noticed that Fang Yuqi was holding the cup with her left hand, indicating that she was left-handed.
Putting down his gla.s.s, Qin Haodong said, “Doctor Fang, you’re left-handed. I’ve heard that left-handed people have an advantage in many industries, such as table tennis and badminton, because they make opponents difficult to defend. Is there an advantage for doctors?”
Fang Yuqi sipped her wine before replying, “There’s no advantage or inconvenience. The left hand is the same as the right hand. It’s the level of surgery that matters.”
Then Qin Haodong began to inch closer to the point. “Are there many doctors like you who operate with left hand in our hospital?”
Fang Yuqi didn’t think much about it. She just thought Qin Haodong was a casual chatterer and said, “Not too much. I use my left hand, so does Lu Fei, and Doctor Zhang Yang, who is nearing retirement. Since he’s an old man now, he does very few operations.”
Qin Haodong went through the list he got from the archives in his head and found that there was no doctor named Zhang Yang. Now he was rapidly narrowing down to Lu Fei and Fang Yuqi. He only had to investigate the two of them.
Qin Haodong was thinking about the case when Fang Yuqi said, “Doctor Tang, who did you learn medicine from?”
“I learned it from my grandfather when I was young.”
Fang Yuqi continued, “I didn’t know much about traditional Chinese medicine before. In M Country, we accept the idea that traditional Chinese medicine is not scientific, and that Chinese medicine pract.i.tioners are all liars. But today I see from you the magic of traditional Chinese medicine. It’s completely out of reach of western medicine.”
Then the two ate and talked. Through the conversation, Qin Haodong felt that Fang Yuqi was a kind and straightforward person, not like a murderer. But it was hard to say. Perhaps she was hiding her true face deep.
After about two hours, the two were full. Fang Yuqi raised her hand to the waiter and said, “Check.”
Then she took out her purse to pay.
Qin Haodong didn’t say anything. That didn’t mean he was mean. The food in this seafood restaurant was not cheap, and he was just a little Chinese medicine pract.i.tioner now. So he had better not rush to pay the bill, or it would arouse suspicion.
“Okay!” The waiter said, “Lady, you have consumed 408,000 yuan. The manager said you could just pay 400,000.”
“What? We ordered four dishes, and you will charge us more than 400,000. You charge too much.”
Qin Haodong just realized why the waiter’s hand was shaking when he opened the wine. It turned out to be the nervousness or excitement before the deception.
Fang Yuqi was surprised, too. Although her economic conditions were good, that did not mean that she had no bottom line. She couldn’t be fooled.
“Are you wrong? We only had four dishes. Why do you charge so much money? Four dishes worth more than 400,000 yuan. Is your restaurant a trap?”
Hearing their conversation, the surrounding guests looked over. Four dishes charged more than 400,000 yuan, which was really scary.
The waiter took the menu and said, “Lady, it’s not a trap. This is the marked price. Look, you’ve eaten some of the best things in our restaurant.”
Seeing Fang Yuqi ignore his bill, the waiter read it straight. “What you had was: the soup stewed with crocodile tail, 28,000 yuan, wild croaker, 16,000 yuan for every 500g, and your piece weighs 1600g… The red wine is a 15-year gold Romani Conti, 200,000 yuan. That’s 408,000 yuan in total.”
“We have the genuine food. Even if you go to the Price Bureau and complain to us, we are not afraid.”
Now that the matter had been made clear, the waiter had the confidence. If he went through with the deal, he would get a good commission.
“I just asked you to arrange four specialty dishes. Are these the specialty dishes of your restaurant? How many people in Jiangnan City can afford it?”
“Besides, shouldn’t you let me have a look before you place the order? Shouldn’t I have been asked for advice on the 400,000 yuan dishes?”
The others listened and began to talk.
“Yes, why don’t you tell her in advance about such expensive things?”
“This is blackmail in disguise. That’s outrageous. 400,000 yuan is enough to feed the average person for a lifetime…”
The waiter who had already got ready for that, put on a helpless expression and uttered, “Lady, you let me order for you, I have asked for your advice before the wine is opened. You told me to open it. You can’t afford it, and you’re going to eat and run, are you?”
“Who is that? Who wants to eat and run?”
Suddenly Song Wu and Lu Fei came along.
The waiter pointed to Qin Haodong and Fang Yuqi and said, “Manager, they don’t pay for dinner!”