Outside the glass window, inside a bright yellow car, Jiang Xu’s colleague, who had just been mentioned, had parked by the roadside and was quietly watching the lively, bustling restaurant. From his angle, he could see most of Jiang Xu’s profile, but not the person sitting across from him.
Is Miss Cao pretty? She must be very pretty, Shen Fangyu thought. Otherwise, how could Jiang Xu smile at her so brightly? He had never smiled at him like that.
Shen Fangyu took a deep breath and pressed his fingers against his brow, feeling that the way he was acting, sour and jealous, was downright sick. He couldn’t even understand why he had followed Jiang Xu’s car all the way here, just to end up in this corner where parking cost thirty yuan an hour, watching Jiang Xu on a date.
Before coming here, he had received an email from a magazine editor. After he had revised it until it was almost unrecognizable, his unlucky student’s paper had finally passed the preliminary review. The reviewer had only made a few minor comments and asked for revisions as soon as possible. So right now he should have been racing against time, burning the midnight oil to help the student revise the paper, not sitting here watching Jiang Xu have dinner with someone else.
But the accelerator was right under Shen Fangyu’s foot, and yet he couldn’t move an inch. Perhaps it was because the night had grown deeper and the air heavier with dew, and after a long day of exhaustion, a weary brain denied rest would retaliate by spawning countless unpleasant thoughts.
For example… Shen Fangyu thought, if that child didn’t exist, Jiang Xu could date Miss Cao, get married, become the hospital director’s prized son-in-law, have a happy family and sweet love, and then enjoy a smooth, soaring career.
With Jiang Xu’s talent, he would probably achieve financial freedom by the age of forty. If he chose to keep striving, he might even become the youngest director in Jihua’s history. And if he decided to rest, perhaps he could retire early without pressure and properly enjoy the life that studying medicine had delayed.
This realization made Shen Fangyu unable to stop recalling certain old memories, memories about filling out university applications after the college entrance examination.
After Shen Fangyu’s exam scores were released, admissions officers from several of the country’s top universities all contacted him. In truth, no matter how prestigious a university was, when their admissions offices competed for top scorers, prime academic talent, they would pull out every trick in the book, no different from sales clerks energetically pitching clothes in a store.
First they would praise their school and programs to the skies, then, like a clothing shop advertising discounts, they would tell students how much scholarship money they could receive. There was also a common sales line, “This outfit sells really well. Just before you came, someone bought a set.”
When applied to admissions, it became: “Let me quietly tell you something, the other science-stream top scorer in City B who tied with you is also planning to come to our university.”
The admissions officer from A Medical University gave Shen Fangyu a knowing look. The implication was obvious: they were using Jiang Xu’s choice to influence Shen Fangyu’s decision. Shen Fangyu, who had been listening to the admissions officer’s rambling absentmindedly, suddenly paused.
“He applied to your university?”
“Yes,” the admissions officer from A Medical University said proudly. “When it comes to medical programs, which school in the entire country can compare to ours?”
At that time, it had already been one or two months since Shen Fangyu last saw Jiang Xu after the college entrance examination. Shen Fangyu had originally assumed that once the scores were released, Jiang Xu, who had spoken so arrogantly, would sheepishly admit defeat. What he hadn’t expected was that they had actually tied.
From the time the college entrance examination system was reinstated in City B up until the year Shen Fangyu and the others took it, there had never once been a tie for top scorer in decades. Yet that year, fate quietly arrived.
At eighteen, people are hot-blooded and impulsive. Because of that tie, and because of the improper information leak from the admissions office, the proud Shen Fangyu wrote the Eight-Year Clinical Medicine Program at A Medical University as his first choice on application day.
Thinking back on it now, all he had really wanted was to see Jiang Xu one more time and tell him, “The fact that I tied with you in the college entrance exam was just an accident. In the future, I’ll show you that between the two of us, there can only be one number one.”
But he hadn’t expected Jiang Xu to say those words first. Nor had he expected that the boy from No. 6 High School would not be nearly as easy to defeat as he had imagined.
Because of that impulsive decision made out of pride, what should have been a somewhat easier university life compared to high school instantly turned into something with hell-level difficulty. Back then, whenever he reflexively used Jiang Xu as an excuse to reject people who pursued him, part of it was also anger at himself.
He knew Jiang Xu worked hard too, but perhaps he himself carried a bit more helplessness, after all, it was he who had chosen to attend the same university and major as Jiang Xu. He had truly experienced what it meant to pick up a rock only to drop it on one’s own foot.
When it came time to choose departments, Shen Fangyu once again learned about Jiang Xu’s choice. The difference was that the first time, an admissions officer had told him voluntarily; this time, he had asked around and found out himself.
After years of competing with Jiang Xu, he was exhausted. He wanted to rest for a while. But he could never admit defeat in front of Jiang Xu. So he deliberately chose a department Jiang Xu would absolutely never choose, hoping to bid Jiang Xu farewell in a dignified way.
Yet through a twist of fate, he and Jiang Xu collided again.
On the day he was appointed associate chief physician at a speed far surpassing his peers, Shen Fangyu even felt a strange sense of absurdity. It was as if from the moment he met Jiang Xu at eighteen, the boy in the No. 6 High School uniform, Jiang Xu had, in some way, been shaping the course of his life ever since. And half of his life was already filled with Jiang Xu.
That day, when he took over Jiang Xu’s night shift, while Jiang Xu slept soundly, Shen Fangyu recalled those old memories and asked, “Do you regret it?”
He wasn’t asking Jiang Xu. He was asking himself. Did he regret choosing the same university as Jiang Xu back then? No.
Without Jiang Xu pushing him forward, Shen Fangyu was confident he would still have succeeded, becoming an outstanding doctor or a top talent in some other field. But because they had met Jiang Xu, the two of them had become legends standing side by side at Jihua Hospital.
Shen Fangyu once thought that Jiang Xu would always keep up this same pace, continuing to compete with him. He had finally come to accept that fact. But one day, Jiang Xu suddenly slowed down a little, and began pursuing Zhong Lan instead. For reasons he himself didn’t quite understand, Shen Fangyu found himself competing with him again.
Zhong Lan was the first girl Shen Fangyu ever pursued. Thinking back now, during the time he claimed he was chasing Zhong Lan, what he did didn’t really resemble courting her at all. It felt more like he was competing with Jiang Xu. Even after he was rejected that day, when he asked Jiang Xu out for drinks, it wasn’t entirely because he was heartbroken. Part of him had wanted to use alcohol as cover to seriously ask Jiang Xu, “Do you want to get married? Do you want a family? Are you… not planning to keep competing with me anymore?”
But in the end, the cheap liquor knocked him out before he could ask anything. Shen Fangyu felt that he himself was truly difficult to please. When Jiang Xu competed with him, he complained about being tired. But when Jiang Xu began slowing down, he suddenly felt an emptiness inside. Shen Fangyu realized that he actually cared a lot about Jiang Xu.
In the past, he had naturally assumed that this concern was simply hostility. But now he felt that perhaps it wasn’t only hostility anymore. As for what else it contained, he himself couldn’t quite figure it out or see it clearly.
Neuroscience is still considered one of the most promising research fields today precisely because it is so complex, with too many questions that cannot be clearly explained. Even doctors themselves can find their thoughts tangled and impossible to sort out.
Shen Fangyu didn’t know which neurotransmitter was currently dominating the synapses in his brain, but he hoped it would stop being secreted. Because this neurotransmitter made him feel a little sad, yet he couldn’t even find the reason why.
When Jiang Xu pushed open the front door, the house was dark. Somewhat surprised, he turned on the light, only to find Shen Fangyu sitting on the sofa.
“You’re here?” he asked. “Why didn’t you turn on the light?”
Originally, since they were still in a cold war, Jiang Xu hadn’t planned to talk to Shen Fangyu so soon. But he wanted to tell him about Yang Rui as early as possible, so he decided not to bother holding onto the grudge.
“Mm… sleepy,” Shen Fangyu pressed his fingers against his brow, his voice slightly hoarse. “Just resting for a bit.”
“If you want to sleep, go to your room,” Jiang Xu said as he set down his briefcase and walked over. Suddenly he smelled alcohol, and only then noticed a wine glass and a bottle of red wine on the coffee table. There was no alcohol in Jiang Xu’s home, so Shen Fangyu must have bought it himself.
Jiang Xu frowned slightly, washed the wine glass clean, and put it away together with the bottle in the cabinet.
“I need to tell you something,” he said, sitting back down on the sofa. Just as he was about to speak, his phone suddenly rang. Shen Fangyu tilted his chin toward it, signaling him to answer first. Jiang Xu glanced at the screen, the caller was Tang Ke.
Could something have gone wrong with the prenatal checkup? Uneasy, he answered the phone, only to hear Tang Ke say, “Good news! Good news!”
His voice sounded extremely excited. “Dr. Kenn’s paper has been published!” Tang Ke spoke rapidly. “The surgery video has already been uploaded to the journal’s website, along with all the prenatal test data and records. Quickly talk to Shen Fangyu about when to perform the surgery, I’ll help you contact the operating room here!”
Previously, when the paper had been delayed for so long, Tang Ke had already told Jiang Xu to prepare for the worst. He hadn’t expected things to suddenly turn around and be published so much earlier than anticipated. It was undoubtedly huge news. It meant Jiang Xu still had time to perform an abortion surgery and wouldn’t necessarily have to wait until the child was born.
Tang Ke was obviously very happy, so happy that his voice was unusually loud. Jiang Xu didn’t have time to lower the volume, and the words spilled out from the phone’s speaker. Jiang Xu didn’t know whether Shen Fangyu could hear them too. For no clear reason, he suddenly felt a little afraid to meet Shen Fangyu’s eyes.
Tang Ke continued talking. “Go check online right now! I bet tons of colleagues are already discussing it! Abortion surgery is better done sooner rather than later, you’ve already delayed too long. Hurry and tell Shen Fangyu. You need to start preparing immediately!”
His voice grew more and more animated. Jiang Xu could almost picture him gesturing wildly on the other end of the call. Tang Ke genuinely cared about him. Jiang Xu should have been infected by his enthusiasm, yet for some reason he found Tang Ke a little noisy.
“I know. I’ll check right away,” Jiang Xu said, hanging up.
He went to check his phone messages. But the moment he turned on the screen, he saw a notification from the embassy–
His visa had been approved.
After being rejected three times, Jiang Xu had followed Tang Ke’s advice and submitted a written appeal with all of his medical examination reports attached, requesting a review. There had been no news for a long time, to the point that Jiang Xu had already given up hope. Yet now, he had suddenly received the notice that the review had passed.
This meant that not only could he ask Shen Fangyu to perform the surgery, if he prepared enough money, he could even go to the United States and ask Dr. Kenn to operate.
“What’s wrong?” Shen Fangyu asked.
Jiang Xu held his phone and fell silent for a moment. Then he stiffly turned his neck and looked at Shen Fangyu.
“Kenn’s paper has been published,” he said. “And my visa… has also been approved.”