Zeng Li saw him take out his cell phone from his pocket, answer it, put it to his ear and said "Hello". The cell phone was in a transparent plastic bag, just like last time, as if it wouldn't get dirty when used at work. He was really obsessed with cleanliness.
"I'm Zeng Li." She wanted to call him, but what should she call him? Ai Jingchu? Too awkward. Teacher Ai? Doctor Ai? She had just called him by his full name, and now she was changing it back, which was too hypocritical.
"I know." Ai Jingchu's computer was facing away from the glass, so when he moved his eyes away from the screen, he looked up and saw Zeng Li not far away.
Zeng Li was a little afraid that he would hang up the phone and come out to talk to her directly.
If that's the case, what will be everyone's reaction after seeing it
But, fortunately he didn't.
The two people looked at each other and talked on the phone through a piece of glass and half a corridor away.
"When are you free in the evening? Director Li from our unit wants to invite you to dinner last time." Zeng Li said.
"Tell him no, I understand."
"I've declined many times, but he insisted on inviting me. If you don't go, he will ask me to come and talk next time." Zeng Li said helplessly.
Ai Jingchu was silent for a while, then answered: "Then let's do it tonight, if he has time."
"That's definitely no problem." Zeng Li made the decision for Director Li. "Then I'll give him a call and ask him to contact the place?"
"Okay." Ai Jingchu said.
After Zeng Li ended the call, he quickly reported to his leader. Director Li was very happy and kept praising Zeng Li for his good work. He then asked Ai Jingchu what he liked to eat, Chinese food, hot pot or Western food, so that he could reserve a seat.
Zeng Li had no choice but to call again, "I forgot to ask you what you like to eat? He can order food." Just then, Zhou Wen stood up and was about to turn around. Seeing this, Zeng Li immediately turned around and hid at the elevator entrance.
If they saw that it was actually me who was talking on the phone with Ai Jingchu, and she was even shamelessly asking him out for dinner, she would never be able to clear herself even if she jumped into the Yellow River.
"Chinese food, but no drinking." Ai Jingchu replied.
"Oh." Zeng Li said, "Then I'll go there first after I find out the place. I'll send you the address later and you can come over after get off work."
Ai Jingchu on the other end of the phone hesitated for two or three seconds, then said, "I don't have any patients here anymore. Let's go together. Wait for me at the parking lot entrance for a few minutes."
Zeng Li arrived at the first floor exit and not long after waiting, he saw Ai Jingchu's SUV driving out. The car slid forward a few meters and then stopped.
After she got in the car, she said, "Director Li said that for your convenience, we will have dinner near the hospital. He will come after picking up his wife and children and will meet us there at 6:30."
Then, she and Ai Jingchu glanced at the time at the same time - it was just five o'clock.
How to spend the remaining hour or so
Zeng Li had never been on business trips, received clients or accompanied leaders, and had no social experience in this situation.
"How about I call Director Li and tell him that you've already left work, and ask him to move up the time?" Zeng Li asked tentatively.
"No need. Let's drive around." Ai Jingchu said.
Then, the two of them sat in the car and really strolled slowly on the street. It was already close to the evening rush hour, and the road was congested enough, and they continued to contribute to the congestion.
Zeng Li was really at a loss, so he sent a text message to Ma Yiyi asking her how to deal with the situation.
Ma Yiyi replied: "It depends on what kind of person the client is. Generally, you can spend time with the client by playing cards, washing feet, giving massages or drinking tea."
Playing cards? Two people are not enough, we are short of two.
Wash your feet... have a massage... or drink tea.
Zeng Li had no choice but to choose the most reliable one and ask Ai Jingchu for his opinion, "Why don't we find a place to drink some tea?"
"If you want to drink tea, I have a place." Ai Jingchu said.
So, the car drove to a quiet little street. In this season, the leaves of the sycamore trees had fallen off, but it did not damage the quiet beauty of the green tiles and gray walls along the way. On the black plaque of one of the courtyard gates, there were only two words "Yiwei". If Ai Jingchu hadn't taken her in, she would have never known that it was a tea garden.
The person who answered the door was a beautiful lady in a dark blue uniform, who led them around the courtyard to the side room.
When they sat down, the beautiful woman said, "Mr. Ai, the tea you requested last time is already available."
"Then let's brew that first." Ai Jingchu said.
Then, the beauty brought the tea set.
Zeng Li didn't know much about tea, she just thought that one should use a purple clay teapot to taste tea, but she saw that she and Ai Jingchu each had a transparent, uncovered glass cup in front of them, so she picked it up and looked at it.
Ai Jingchu saw Zeng Li's doubts and said, "We are drinking green tea. In addition to tasting and smelling green tea, using glassware can also help us see its color and shape."
The beautiful woman who was making tea smiled slightly and explained softly: "This is top-grade green tea. It is the Mingqian tea grown near Dongping Temple in our Dongshan Mountain. The altitude cannot be too high or too low. Each one is a single bud, and one is selected from ten thousand buds." As she spoke, she scooped a spoonful of tea leaves, showed it to Zeng Li, and then evenly poured it into the two people's glass cups.
Zeng Li looked at it carefully. The tea leaves were flat and slender, green and lush, and each one was plump and distinct. She immediately thought of something that was not very poetic but closest to it - a lengthened and slim version of green tea melon seeds.
Afterwards, the beauty tested the temperature of the boiled water that was hanging aside, and when it reached the right temperature, she washed the utensils and then poured water along the edge of the cup. She smiled, made a "please" gesture, and quietly withdrew.
There were only two of them left in the room. A soft guzheng tune was playing on the speakers, but no one knew where the speaker was.
The narrow leaves were immersed in the water, first floating on the surface, then gradually one or two stood up, and the tea soup slowly changed from colorless to light green. All these changes were clearly visible through the thin layer of glass, and the fragrance of tea also spread in the air as the color of the water spread.
He is not talkative.
So does she.
Suddenly, Zeng Li's phone rang and a text message came in. She opened it and saw that it was from an unfamiliar number with only one line of text: Is this Zeng Li? I am Zhou Wen.
When she saw this sentence, she looked up at Ai Jingchu nervously.
Ai Jingchu then turned his gaze over.
Zeng Li said, "I'm going to go out and make a phone call." Then he walked outside, closed the door, and dialed the number back.
"Zhou Wen? I'm Zeng Li."
"It's really you," Zhou Wen said, "I secretly looked at the number on your profile, and it turns out it's correct."
"I've used this number for years. I just happened to have something to ask you."
"What?"
"When I went to pay the fee, Ai...did the teacher say anything? Did he explain it to me?" Everyone seemed to be feeling strange.
"Oh, don't mention it. After you left, did he need to talk to us? He just glanced at us and told us to do what we were supposed to do. Even if we had nothing to do, we had to pretend to be busy so that he wouldn't find things for us to do." Zhou Wen replied, "Then when the head nurse saw that he actually charged you, she thought she might have misunderstood. Because even students don't have to pay to get their teeth straightened by Teacher Ai, let alone his girlfriend. Later, when the head nurse saw that we didn't react, she lost her enthusiasm and said something else before leaving."
"It's that simple?"
"yes."
Zeng Li originally thought that Ai Jingchu sent her away because he was afraid that she would make things worse, and it would be easier for him to explain it alone.
"But Teacher Ai is quite abnormal today."
"how?"
"It's the hospital's rule to charge twenty dollars for re-bonding a bracket, but Teacher Ai rarely asks us to pay. The head nurse is definitely not as clear about this as we are. Sometimes I'm too busy to remember, and sometimes I really feel embarrassed to charge people a little money. Teacher Ai never asks, and we're too lazy to care, because he won't pay me anyway. So we think that he actually asked you to pay, either because he has a grudge against you, or because he has something to hide." Zhou Wen analyzed it very clearly, and finally couldn't help asking, "Why do you think this is?"
"Yes, why?" Zeng Li tried to fool her.
Zeng Li thought about it while waiting for the elevator. Ai Jingchu didn't explain in Dongshan because he was worried about her face. If the first person to deny such rumors was not the woman, but the man, the woman might be embarrassed in front of her colleagues. So, today, in front of his colleagues and students, he deliberately sent her away. What else is there to say
or-
Is he the kind of person who doesn't care about such things
"Are you our teacher Ai's girlfriend?" Zhou Wen asked.
"I've already said it, no."
"I always felt that he was planning to punish us severely after getting rid of you." Zhou Wen said, "Anyway, I called to ask for your help."
"Why?" Zeng Li wondered.
"Please say something good for us in front of Teacher Ai. You don't know how we will die."
"I already said, I..."
"Whether you are his girlfriend or not, we will all die miserably, really. If you are not, and we dare to gossip about you in front of him and watch his show, he must be very unhappy; and if you are indeed your future master's wife, and I kept it a secret from him and let you go on a blind date, he must want to kill me. Considering that I understood you so well at noon, can you also speak for us, Zeng Li?" Zhou Wen had a cheerful personality and was very friendly with everyone. It would be wrong for Zeng Li to agree or not with such a shameless plea.
"He... doesn't seem like the kind of person who would abuse his power for personal gain, does he?"
"Master's wife!" Zhou Wen wailed.
Zeng Li's forehead twitched at this name, and he almost threw his phone to the ground in fear, "Stop shouting."
At this time, the beautiful lady who had just made tea came over from the other side of the yard, smiled at Zeng Li, then knocked on Ai Jingchu's door, said "Sorry to bother you", and then pushed the door open with a pot of water.
Zeng Li was just moving sideways to avoid the man, and happened to see Ai Jingchu's face through the gap. And Ai Jingchu also happened to look over.
"Master's wife." Seeing Zeng Li didn't say anything, Zhou Wen howled again, "After get off work today, Teacher Ai hurried to the locker room to change clothes without saying a word. Then when we returned to the dormitory just now, we heard from other junior sisters that they seemed to have seen a beautiful woman in Teacher Ai's car. Could it be you? If it's not you, then we have to investigate it carefully. Our boss never..."
"Stop, stop." Zeng Li started to have a headache. She seldom lied and did not dare to tell lies with her eyes open. She really did not know what to do at this moment, so she just perfunctorily answered and hung up the phone.
The beautiful woman brewed the second cup of tea and left quietly. At the same time, Zeng Li returned to his seat.
"Drinking tea here reminds me of the cafe that my friend and I opened together." She remembered Zhou Wen's instructions, so she started chatting with Ai Jingchu about the topic.
"Where is it?" Ai Jingchu added some water into the cup himself.
"It's just outside your school's main campus." Zeng Li replied, "Compared to here, it really feels like being in the mortal world."
Ai Jingchu did not answer, so Zeng Li sighed inwardly and said, "Why is this place called 'Yiwei'?"
"It may be taken from the four words 'Zen and tea are one'."
"Our cafe is very vulgar. It simply uses my English name." Zeng Li suddenly remembered something when he said this, and the expression on his face faded a little.
Ai Jingchu then asked, "How is business?"
"We were barely making ends meet just to fulfill the dreams of several of us in the dormitory when we were in college," Zeng Li murmured. "At that time, I simply felt that being able to do what I loved, be with the people I loved, and open a small cafe to live out my life was the happiest life in the world." As she said this, the corners of her mouth curled up, revealing a helpless smile.
Zeng Li suddenly felt that he had some emotions that he shouldn't have, and said: "There is also a student from your medical school working here. She knows you and always says that you are too harsh on students." Finally, he got to the point.
"What did you say?" he asked.
"It is said that during a thesis defense, you made a girl cry." In order not to betray Zhou Wen, Zeng Li had to drag Dou Dou to take the blame.
"Actually, it happened more than once." Ai Jingchu answered honestly.
Zeng Li was shocked. "So fierce? When we had graduation defense before, the teachers just went through the motions and were very kind."
“This is different,” he said.
“Why is it different?” Zeng Li didn’t understand. Could it be the difference between a famous brand and a third-rate university
"Sometimes, the system problems are beyond the control of ordinary people, but what I can do is to teach them as well as I can, otherwise every little bit can be life-threatening."
"But..." Zeng Li wanted to continue speaking, but didn't know how to start.
He placed his hands on the table and stared at his teacup.
The leaves had spread out and were no longer floating on the water, but were all standing upright.
Then, he flicked the glass wall with his fingers, making a thumping sound. The leaves floated up and down in the cup again due to the vibration, and the tea soup became thicker than before.
Just when Zeng Li was immersed in it, he heard Ai Jingchu slowly say: "There is an old saying that goes 'small doctors treat diseases, medium doctors treat people, and great doctors treat the country.' Medicine is not only a skill, but also a principle. It is not about treating people or the country, but about having a clear conscience. I hope every student I have taught can understand this."
Ai Jingchu had no other words after he finished speaking.
At this moment, all the leaves in the water stretched out and sank vertically to the bottom of the cup. Mixing with the green tea soup, they looked like a piece of jade dissolved in clear water.
He closed his narrow, inky eyes and quietly lowered his head to take a sip of tea.
The fragrance of tea diffused again due to the shaking of the cup.
Suddenly, Zeng Li felt that the man in front of him was very much like the tea, light in color and tasteless at first, but becoming more mellow and fragrant as time went by.
When we arrived at the restaurant, Director Li and his family of three were already waiting in the private room with their dishes ordered.
Director Li stood up with his children and wife, and arranged for Ai Jingchu and Zeng Li to sit at the table. Fatty sat between his parents, Zeng Li sat next to Mrs. Li, and Ai Jingchu sat next to Director Li. The child was obviously much more obedient than before.
Mrs. Li said to Zeng Li, "Men sit together, so let them drink their own drinks. Xiao Zeng, what else would you like to order?" After saying that, she asked the waiter to open the wine.
Zeng Li said, "Enough is enough," smiled and turned down the menu, looked at the bottle of white wine that had just been opened, and glanced at Ai Jingchu. She had just passed on a message for him that he should not drink alcohol with Chinese food.
Sure enough, when Director Li was pouring the wine himself, Ai Jingchu declined.
Later, the dishes came and the five of them started eating. They clinked their glasses together. Except for Director Li, the other three adults drank beverages. During this time, Director Li tried to pour him a glass again, but Ai Jingchu stopped him.
"I have to go to work tomorrow, so I really can't drink." Ai Jingchu said tactfully.
"Drinking a little won't affect your work, right, Xiao Zeng?"
Zeng Li didn't know how to respond and could only smile.
"I drove here." Ai Jingchu had no choice but to say again.
Director Li used his eloquence and said, "That's no problem. Ask Xiao Zeng to take you there. She can drive, so it's absolutely no problem."
Ai Jingchu let him be beaten by the rain and the wind and still refused to drink.
"Then Xiao Zeng, have some." Director Li turned his target to Zeng Li.
"Director, you know, I'm not very good at it."
"It's not like I've seen you drink before." Director Li said with a smile, "Come on, let's have some fun together." After saying that, he picked up a small glass and filled it with wine.
The cup on the glass plate turned half a circle and came in front of Zeng Li, making her extremely conflicted.
Why do we have to drink alcohol before we can really eat
Ai Jingchu was already being disrespectful to Director Li by not drinking. If she didn't drink again...
While hesitating, Mrs. Li stood up and glared at her husband in a pretended rebuke, "Mr. Li, you are such a fool! How can you force a young girl to drink?" She picked up the wine dispenser and poured a glass of wine into her own glass, "Well, as a housewife, I have something to say. It's wrong to say it out loud, so please don't mind, Professor Ai."