“Damn, that’s terrifying,” said Yu Sang the next day when he heard about it. Even someone as accustomed to the coldness of the world couldn’t help his anger. “That man is inhuman.”
Even the usually mild-tempered Wu Rui spoke with heat in his voice. “People like him should be locked up for life and never let out!”
“Exactly,” another doctor chimed in. “I heard the police interrogated him overnight yesterday, and as soon as they were done, they locked him up! The nurse on duty told me that when he was in the hospital, he kept shouting about saving the baby. I thought it was strange at the time, nobody was asking for his opinion, so what was he so excited about?”
His face was full of disdain. “Now it all makes sense. No wonder he kept insisting on saving the baby, turns out his wife’s condition was his doing.”
Zhang Yun’s husband was suspected of poisoning, domestic violence, and lying about her condition; he was now being held in the detention center.
Once Zhang Yun regained consciousness, the police came to the hospital to investigate and collect evidence.
According to her statement, after an argument, the suspect beat her and pushed her from halfway down the stairs. When Zhang Yun tried to call for help, the suspect grabbed a bottle from the stairwell to shove into her mouth, silencing her, then assaulted her again. She lost consciousness, only then did he realize the bottle contained discarded pesticide.
Panicked, he rushed his wife to the hospital, but too afraid to admit his violence, he nearly delayed her treatment.
After venting about the scumbag, Wu Rui turned to Jiang Xu with a sigh. “You and Fangyu really have sharp eyes and quick reactions. If it had been us, never mind calling the police, we might not even have realized so quickly the patient had been poisoned.”
As he spoke, he suddenly paused. “By the way, I never asked, you and Fangyu operated together last night?”
Jiang Xu lifted his eyelids slightly, lowered his gaze, and sipped his soup.
“Mm.”
His diet had now shifted completely from Coke and fried chicken to the health-preserving clay pot soups sold outside the hospital. Even though he often felt nauseous after drinking them, he still persevered.
“Really?” Wu Rui was stunned. “When I heard it from others, I didn’t believe it. How long has it been since you two were on the same operating table after graduation? Sounds like you’re patching things up.”
“Our relationship was never good,” Jiang Xu said.
“Fine,” Wu Rui said, having expected that response. “Then let’s call it turning swords into plowshares. I heard from Xiao Ting at the nurse’s station that Fangyu came to borrow a hot water bottle from her in the middle of the night, and it turns out he borrowed it for you. Since when did you two get so close?” He clicked his tongue in amazement.
Jiang Xu’s hand paused on the spoon. He knew that, with Xiao Ting’s personality, it would take less than one night for all of Jihua Obstetrics and Gynecology to hear that Shen Fangyu had borrowed a hot water bottle for him.
A familiar voice suddenly came from behind. Shen Fangyu cheerfully greeted Wu Rui, “Brother Wu.”
“Oh, Fangyu, I was just talking about you with Jiang Xu.” Wu Rui waved him over warmly.
Shen Fangyu smiled knowingly. “Then I suppose it wasn’t talking, it was cursing me.”
“How could it be?” Wu Rui, who had just glimpsed the faint hope of reconciliation between the two, was determined to dispel any misunderstanding between his two junior colleagues. He enthusiastically invited, “Come sit with us.”
Usually, during meals, Jiang Xu and Shen Fangyu would avoid each other’s line of sight as much as possible. Hearing Wu Rui’s invitation, both Jiang Xu’s gaze and Shen Fangyu’s steps hesitated for a moment. But Wu Rui, champion of smoothing over conflicts and proud recipient of the “Peace Prize,” was clearly fired up to matchmake the two sworn enemies into friends.
“Come on,” he urged Shen Fangyu again.
Hearing Shen’s footsteps approach, Jiang Xu lowered his eyes.
“Hey, what happened to your face? How did it get so swollen?” Wu Rui exclaimed in shock when Shen removed his mask. “Did someone hit you? Who hit you?” He rolled up his sleeves. “Your senior will get revenge for you.”
The bluish swelling stood out awkwardly on Shen Fangyu’s handsomely roguish face, looking both out of place and a little comical.
Fortunately, his eyes still held their usual easy charm. He shot Jiang Xu a meaningful glance and said to Wu Rui, “Who else could dare hit me? Besides your most spoiled junior, Jiang Xu, can you name another in our department?”
Wu Rui was momentarily speechless. True, Shen looked refined, but when it came to throwing punches, he didn’t hold back, textbook gentleman on the surface, scoundrel underneath.
Other than Jiang Xu, no one could really match him in a fight. Plus, Shen’s tall height made it hard for most patients to even reach his face, let alone hit it; chances are, before they could land a blow, he’d throw them over his shoulder.
Jiang Xu stirred the white radish in his chicken soup. “Serves you right.”
Hearing that, Wu Rui suspected they’d had another spat. He turned to Shen Fangyu. “What did you do to annoy Xiao Xu this time?”
“Why is it always me annoying him?” Shen retorted. “You’re just taking sides for Jiang Xu.”
Wu Rui said, “Because I always see you picking on him.”
Shen gave Jiang Xu a sidelong glance. “You only see me provoking him, you don’t see how he provokes me. Your favorite junior has quite a talent for getting under someone’s skin.”
“Grown men, and you still bicker like children,” came a sudden voice from the doorway, cutting off their exchange.
“Director,” the group of doctors greeted in unison.
Director Cui smiled gracefully and nodded, then pointed at the two who had just been squabbling. “Jiang Xu, Shen Fangyu—if you have time in the next few days, come to my office together.” As always, her manner was efficient. With that, she left.
Everyone’s expressions turned gossipy, and one bold voice in the crowd teased, “The way Director Cui said that, it sounded just like a homeroom teacher catching a pair of young lovebirds.”
Jiang Xu, Shen Fangyu: “…”
The two of them turned their heads at the same time, each showing the other the back of a head that clearly didn’t want to deal with them.
“Director Zhao, what brings you here?” Director Cui’s voice suddenly came from just outside the door.
The doctors inside, hearing this, all looked toward the doorway and saw Zhao, the ER director, standing there with a young doctor they didn’t recognize.
After exchanging a few polite words with Cui, Zhao gave the young man beside him a little push and explained, “I brought him to see Dr. Jiang.” Cui gestured toward the room. “Jiang Xu is inside, go on in,” she said, then quickly walked away.
The brief exchange at the door had been overheard by everyone inside. They exchanged puzzled looks, until the unfamiliar young doctor walked straight up to Jiang Xu.
“Sorry, Dr. Jiang. I offended you yesterday.”
Jiang Xu recognized him, set down his soup bowl. “Not going to file a complaint against me anymore?”
At the sudden reminder of his rash words yesterday, Liu Ran’s face flushed scarlet. “I… I don’t have much experience, I was just thinking, the book says…” But under the half-amused, half-curious stares around him, his voice grew lower and lower. “I was wrong, Dr. Jiang.”
Word had already spread that the junior ER doctor had confronted Jiang Xu yesterday and even threatened to lodge a complaint. Now, with this, the other doctors in the lounge were starting to piece the whole story together.
“Jiang Xu,” Director Zhao stepped in to smooth things over. “This morning this kid was sneaking around outside my office. I asked him about it and found out there’d been an incident last night. He wanted to apologize to you but didn’t know how to say it, so I brought him over. He’s young, inexperienced, believed what the patient’s family said without question. Don’t hold it against him.”
“Just remember the experience,” Jiang Xu said after glancing at Liu. “No need to apologize to me.”
“It’s a good thing to question your senior,” Wu Rui added, looking at the young doctor who seemed to want to bury his head in the floor, “but next time you question someone, don’t start with ‘the book says.’”
At that, everyone laughed.
“Young man,” Wu Rui continued in a gentler tone, “in this line of work, no book can cover all the unexpected situations you’ll encounter. You can memorize a whole library, but you still have to adapt. In the city, organophosphate pesticides are rarely seen, and our hospital’s in the city center, it’s not like rural hospitals. Cases of pesticide poisoning are rare here. Add in a family deliberately hiding the truth, and it’s normal for an inexperienced doctor to misdiagnose.”
He paused, then added something to encourage the young man, “Don’t be fooled by how fast Dr. Jiang reacted, he built his experience by making trips to rural clinics for two years straight, going every week for free consultations.”
“I understand,” Liu Ran said, tugging at the hem of his coat. After a moment, he managed to get out, “Thank you, Dr. Jiang.”
If the poisoning hadn’t been identified in time, he might have faced a disciplinary action for misdiagnosis. In an age when medical disputes run rampant, even a small error can end a doctor’s career.
“All right, no need to be so tense,” Shen Fangyu said with a smile. “And don’t worry that Jiang Xu will hold a grudge and make things hard for you later. I bet you in two days he won’t even remember your name.”
The exaggeration drew a laugh from Liu, and the mood lightened.
Liu bowed deeply to Jiang Xu. “I’ll write up a full report when I get back and give it to you and Director Zhao. I’ll work hard to become a good doctor like you.”
Jiang Xu wasn’t used to such enthusiastic praise. After a short pause, he said, “I’ll read it, and I’ll remember you.”
“…Huh?”
“I’ll remember you, to see whether you reach your goal.”
Liu’s eyes lit up with sudden determination, like a man injected with adrenaline, ready to work three more night shifts. “I understand. I’ll work hard. I’m going to apply for volunteer outreach right away!” Tightening his white coat with fresh energy, he strode out of the lounge.
After he left, Wu Rui clicked his tongue. “Ah, youth. Boundless energy. Why is it I just want a vacation?”
“You’re not old, Brother Wu,” Shen Fangyu said, comforting him, then turned to needle Jiang Xu. “Today’s the first time I’ve seen you dish out chicken soup for the soul.” He couldn’t resist adding, with a touch of mock sourness, “I thought all you could do was mock people.”
Jiang Xu tilted his chin toward his half-finished chicken soup. “You want it?”
Half a pot of clay-brewed soup remained. After all this talking, it had gone cold, and the gamey smell had grown stronger. Jiang Xu drank half a spoonful and felt nausea rising again.
“You’re just going to leave it?” Shen Fangyu commented. “And you call yourself a good doctor saving lives, you’re wasting that poor old hen’s sacrifice.”
Jiang Xu shot him a look, picked up the spoon again, and glanced irritably at the pale chicken meat in the bowl. The more he looked, the worse the nausea became. Finally, he couldn’t fight it and frowned lightly.
A moment ago they’d been trading barbs, but Shen Fangyu caught on instantly. With a touch of awkward hesitation, he asked, “Are you… feeling okay?”
“Better off than you,” Jiang Xu replied offhandedly.
“No, I mean… that kind of reaction.”
Jiang Xu’s lashes trembled, he understood immediately.
Shen Fangyu meant early pregnancy symptoms.
Shen’s gaze fell on the soup. He leaned back slightly, lowered his voice, and changed tack. “I was just saying, if you don’t feel like drinking it, don’t. The hen won’t hold it against you.”
Jiang Xu: “…”
“What do you want to eat?” Shen asked. “I’ll go get it.”
“No need.”
“You need the nutrition. Don’t risk low blood sugar during pregnancy, be good, hmm?”
The other doctors kept eating, drinking, and gossiping about Zhang Yun’s scumbag husband and this case that would go down in the hospital’s gossip history. But between Shen Fangyu and Jiang Xu, there was a subtle, almost imperceptible undercurrent.
The atmosphere grew slightly awkward. Jiang Xu pressed his lips together, feeling a strange, indescribable sensation. The exchange felt oddly like they were a married couple, with the young expectant father sneaking moments at work to fuss over his newly pregnant wife.
But those words shouldn’t have had anything to do with them.
Jiang Xu exhaled slowly, tilted his head slightly, and stared motionless at the table, the line of his jaw drawn sharp.
After a pause, he said, “Don’t trouble yourself.” Then, under Shen’s gaze, he decisively poured the chicken soup away and walked out of the lounge.
Shen remained seated, watching the slightly uneven rhythm of his steps. His peach-blossom eyes seemed ink-drenched, their dark gleam unreadable.
Only after Jiang Xu had completely vanished from sight did Shen shake his head with what seemed like helplessness. “How can someone be this stubborn?”