It's April now and the weather is getting warmer.
The cycling club on Zeng Li's website began to organize cycling activities frequently. She missed many times, and finally had no reason to refuse. She suddenly remembered the ambiguity between Ning Feng and Wu Ying, so she signed up.
She hadn't ridden a bike for nearly ten years and was unsure if her skills had faded, so she rented a bike nearby to give it a try.
Zeng Li was not used to the bike at first, but he recovered after riding it for two laps. Later on the way home, he discussed with Ma Yiyi and decided to buy a bike.
"Wu Ying is going, you really don't want to go?" Zeng Li asked.
"With my motor skills, are you sure?" Ma Yiyi asked back.
Zeng Li stared at Ma Yiyi for three seconds without blinking, and thinking of how incompetent she was in sports when she was in college, he decided not to try to persuade her anymore.
The destination of the weekend cycling activity is an ancient town not far from City A.
She and Wu Ying didn't like to do physical exercise. They were able to ride ahead at the beginning of the 10-kilometer ride, but they started to fall behind when they encountered continuous uphill sections. Therefore, Ning Feng and another deputy captain had to ride slowly to look after them.
Zeng Li was very satisfied when he saw how carefully Ning Feng treated Wu Ying along the way. He thought that it was not in vain to participate in such a physically demanding activity.
It was already dark when she returned to the city in the afternoon. After parting ways with the others, she rode home alone.
Ai Jingchu's car also had difficulty stopping and moving on the Second Ring Road.
At this moment, he saw Zeng Li in front of him. She was wearing a sports suit and a navy blue cap, and was on the right side of the car in front of him. At first, he only showed her back, and her dress was different from what he usually saw her in. At first, Ai Jingchu just thought she was a little similar. After observing for a while, he saw her half-profile face accidentally turned around, and then he was sure it was really her.
She was seen holding the front of the car with one hand and one leg on the ground for balance, waiting for the green light like him.
Unfortunately, the green light was almost useless because two cars in front were arguing after a collision, and the traffic police came to solve the problem, so there was only one lane left for cars to move slowly.
Half a minute later, the green light came on. She was sandwiched between a bunch of electric vehicles, buses, and cars, occupying her own position and moving carefully.
The traffic police finally cleared the road, but the bus in front of her was about to enter the station, so she was blocked again. On Ai Jingchu's side, the speed of traffic quickly recovered, and the traffic police kept making gestures to the drivers, asking them to hurry up and not add to the traffic jam. He stepped on the accelerator, glanced at the rearview mirror, turned a corner, and then he could no longer see the figure behind him.
Ai Jingchu's right hand let go of the steering wheel and moved towards the direction where the mobile phone was placed. After a moment, he retracted his hand and turned to turn on the radio in the car.
When I drove to the second intersection, there were too many cars waiting and the green light was too short. I finally got through one, but after turning a corner, I was stuck in traffic again.
Today, he had a very bad driving experience and ran into red lights every time.
Ai Jingchu drove patiently while listening quietly to the host on the radio telling a series of jokes about the mental hospital.
The host said, "It is said that writing novels is popular now. If you throw a brick out of the window, the people you hit are all writers. There are also such a group of literature lovers in mental hospitals."
After hearing this, the green light finally came on. He slowly moved forward, but just when he was about to cross the line, the light turned red again.
The anchor continued, "One day, mental patient A handed a book to his friend B and asked him, 'What do you think of this novel I recently finished?' B looked at it carefully for a while and replied, 'Not bad, not bad. But it seems to have too many characters.' At this time, the nurse who came in to distribute medicine saw the book in B's hand and said angrily, 'Put the phone book back to me right now!'"
To complement his story, the host played a sound effect of the audience laughing loudly after he finished. But Ai Jingchu did not laugh. He was not paying attention to what others were saying.
At this moment, Ai Jingchu subconsciously turned his head and saw Zeng Li appear on the road on the right.
Ai Jingchu was taking the left turn lane, while Zeng Li was on the non-motorized vehicle lane, with a car between them.
She had her hair tied in a ponytail, and the ends of her hair had gone into her collar, which seemed a little uncomfortable around her neck, so she tilted her head, pulled her hair out, and put it in front of her shoulders. She turned her face to the left several times, but she didn't notice Ai Jingchu and his car.
Ai Jingchu's eyes fell on her, watching quietly, as if he was looking at her, but also as if he was not looking at her. His expression was calm.
After a moment, the green light came on.
Ai Jingchu followed the traffic and turned left, while Zeng Li pedaled his bicycle easily and turned right downhill.
He looked out the window in the rearview mirror and the figure disappeared again.
In a flash, they parted ways.
The radio in the car continued to tell jokes about the hospital, and then started to play advertisements. Ai Jingchu suddenly felt that the noise was too loud and harsh, so he simply turned off the radio. He drove the car through a small alley, slid for ten meters, and stopped at the edge of the green belt.
After the car and the people were quiet for a moment, he suddenly started the engine, turned the steering wheel, and turned in the other direction to chase.
After passing the intersection, he looked to the side while driving.
However, there were so many cars coming and going on such a big street, and I didn't know which direction she would go, so how could I find her
Ai Jingchu gave a bitter smile to himself and had to give up.
Just when he was about to give up, he accidentally spotted Zeng Li across the street. She came out of a convenience store, holding a bottle of drink in her hand, and had taken off the baseball cap she had been wearing. Her hair was already flat on her forehead, wet with sweat and a little messy.
He was afraid of losing her, so he got out of the car in a hurry, his heart filled with joy that a new world had finally come to him.
Zeng Li looked up and saw Ai Jingchu coming towards him, with a look of surprise on his face, "Oh, what a coincidence."
He didn't know how to start or how to explain his mood swings, so he could only nod.
Zeng Li had long been accustomed to his appearance and was not afraid of him.
When she went to the hospital for a follow-up last week, he didn't say a word to her. As a result, Zhou Wen secretly asked her if they had a fight, which made Zeng Li laugh and cry.
She added, "I live nearby and was feeling a little thirsty on my way home by bike." She then gestured to the bicycle parked nearby.
Ai Jingchu's mind was not here. He had never racked his brains to strike up a conversation with anyone in his life. Finally, he said bluntly: "I'm just about to go out for dinner. I'm going to eat alone anyway. How about eating together?"
It would have been better if he didn't mention it, because once he did, he touched Zeng Li's soft spot.
Last time, she made an excuse and said she would treat him next time, but more than a month passed without any response. At that time, she thought that with his personality, Director Li would have to ask him out again and again, and she was so persistent that he reluctantly agreed, so he should not care about who treats him to a meal, so she didn't take it seriously. Now that Ai Jingchu mentioned it casually, even if the speaker didn't mean it, the listener took it to heart, and she felt that she had become a stingy person who broke her promise and got fatter.
Zeng Li quickly replied: "Okay, it's rare that you have time, I should treat you, we agreed on it last time."
Then Zeng Li went to park the bicycle.
She remembered that he liked spicy food, so she asked, "How about hot pot
"good."
So Zeng Li chose a clean and tidy hot pot restaurant nearby. After ordering the dishes, she suddenly remembered something. "Oh, I have a friend named Wu Wanxia. She went to a plastic surgery hospital recently. She was instigated by the people there and was determined to get a cone-shaped face. I told her that private hospitals are terrible and she should at least go to a big hospital like yours."
"Conical face?" Ai Jingchu didn't quite understand this word.
"The face is just ground to be small and pointed. I can't explain it clearly. Can you take a look and see if your hospital can do it?" After saying that, he took out the photos he had taken on his mobile phone and showed them to Ai Jingchu.
Ai Jingchu glanced at him and said, "Your colleague?"
"Um."
"No wonder. I've seen her before. That night at the Dongshan Hotel, and once more at the top of the mountain in the morning."
Zeng Li thought about it and said, "It seems so." It was because they met twice that Wu Wanxia had the opportunity to gossip about him. "You have a good memory."
“Sometimes I’m more sensitive to people’s appearance.”
"Then why didn't you remember me?" Many times I only remembered her when I saw her braces.
“Because sometimes the way I lie on the treatment chair with my mouth open is a little different from usual,” he replied.
Zeng Li blushed after hearing this. Maybe she was the type who looked particularly ferocious with her mouth open.
But I don't know what Ai Jingchu was thinking, and then he said, "Send the photo to my phone and let me see it."
"Oh." Zeng Li hurriedly did as he was told.
After a few seconds, Ai Jingchu received a message on his phone. He picked it up and looked at it carefully. "It can grind the mandible."
"You think so, too?"
"but… "
"Is it dangerous?"
Ai Jingchu nodded, lowered his eyelids, and remained silent.
At this time, the dishes were served and the soup in the pot was boiling. In front of them, each of them had a small soup pot, bubbling and boiling. Zeng Li quickly picked up the dish in front of him and divided it into half for each of them, then said, "She is just like that. She is very concerned about her appearance. I don't know if I can persuade her to stop."
Hearing this, Ai Jingchu took another look at the person in the photo. "Her eyes are wide apart. She will look much prettier if she opens her eyes. There's no need to grind the bones."
Zeng Li thought about Wu Wanxia's appearance while picking up the dishes, and for the first time shifted her attention to her eyes. After careful consideration, she found that Ai Jingchu was right, and immediately felt that his vision was very sharp. She couldn't help but put down her chopsticks, sat up straight, straightened her face, gathered her hair and asked: "Teacher Ai, use your professional eyes to find out where is the biggest flaw on my face?" Then she added: "Except for the teeth."
Ai Jingchu raised his head and looked at her calmly, from her eyes to her nose and then to her mouth, just like the first time he treated her. After a long while, he answered seriously: "I think - everything is fine."
Zeng Li didn't expect him to answer so seriously, and her face flushed again. She actually wanted to tell him that her self-esteem was strong and she was not afraid of being hit.
After that, she ate her food obediently.
After a while, she broke the ice and asked, "If I go to your hospital, which department of doctor should I go to to have my cheeks reduced?"
"That's the mandible, go to the maxillofacial surgery department."
"Maxillofacial surgery?" Zeng Li heard this unfamiliar word and remembered something. "When you were in Dongshan, your junior sister said that you studied this?"
"Um."
"Why do you want to change departments?"
Ai Jingchu stopped using his chopsticks, thought for a moment and said, "Maybe because I don't have to work the night shift?"
Zeng Li couldn't help laughing when he heard this answer. "But being a surgeon should earn more, right?"
"Yeah, I didn't think much about it at the beginning, but after you reminded me, I felt I was at a disadvantage." Ai Jingchu also raised the corners of his lips.
He seldom smiles, and whenever he does, it is always reserved, yet extremely pleasing to the eye.
Zeng Li was a little afraid to look him in the face and had to turn her face away. She suddenly felt that it was a mistake for the two of them to have dinner together as a single man and woman. She should have brought Bai Lin and Ning Feng along earlier.
She coughed and continued the previous topic, "What is maxillofacial surgery?"
"It can be said to be a combination of dentistry and surgery," said Ai Jingchu.
"Where is the jawbone?"
Ai Jingchu pointed to his face and said, "The upper part of the mouth is called the maxilla, and the lower part is the mandible."
"Does the chin count?"
"Calculate."
She thought of Director Li’s son that night. She found him by such a coincidence, but she didn’t expect that this was exactly what he was best at.
"Are there many people who undergo this type of surgery?" This is a rare occurrence.
“There weren’t many before, but there are more now.”
"Why?"
"It's a new discipline here, and society is just beginning to accept it." Ai Jingchu said, motioning Zeng Li to look at the LCD TV on the wall behind her.
Zeng Li turned around and saw that the TV was broadcasting the six o'clock entertainment news. A foreign female singer was doing a show in the live broadcast room.
I only heard Ai Jingchu say: "Do you think there is anything wrong with her face?"
Zeng Li replied: "No, she's fine." I just think she doesn't look photogenic.
"Her chin is underdeveloped and her jaw is receding, so her facial features are neither delicate nor three-dimensional."
"Need a chin pad?"
"Using prosthesis to fill the chin is a traditional method, but now maxillofacial chin shaping can be done."
"shell?"
Ai Jingchu wrote the word on the table with his fingers and explained: "It means cutting the front half of the jaw and moving it forward."
Zeng Li couldn't help but stare in amazement when he said such a bloody thing so calmly, "That's too horrible."
"This is a minor maxillofacial surgery and it lasts a lifetime. It is much more natural than simply using a prosthesis."
Zeng Li turned his head and looked at the TV again. The screen just turned to the side profile of the star. Compared with her nose and mouth, according to Zhou Wen's theory of three points and one line, her chin was indeed a little bit back.
"So maxillofacial doctors are also considered plastic surgeons?"
"It's not just plastic surgery. There are also surgeries for accidental injuries and fractures, as well as those for children born with bite problems and cleft lip and palate," he said.
Zeng Li felt that Ai Jingchu would only be generous when answering questions with professional knowledge, so he sighed: "I really envy those of you who do highly professional work."
"Why?"
"It can make others very curious and they will keep asking questions, and then there will be no dull moment in situations where talking is necessary," said Zeng Li.
"Are you afraid of being left alone?"
"Yes." Zeng Li answered honestly, "It makes people feel difficult to get along with and awkward."
"Say it when you want to, don't say it when you don't want to, and don't care what others think." Ai Jingchu advised calmly.
Zeng Li glanced at him, totally disagreeing, and muttered softly: "Of course you can do this." Normally, he was worshipped like a male god in school and hospital, so how could he understand the troubles of an ordinary person like her.
I don't know if Ai Jingchu heard her complaints, but he smiled lightly and said in agreement: "I am also curious about the people who work in the library."
"What's there to be curious about? We work from 9 to 5, and occasionally have to work on weekends. We are closed on Friday afternoons, and the entire museum studies politics and business, day in and day out for ten years."
"Is the beauty of the museum like this too?" he asked.
Zeng Li didn't understand the meaning of the word "Garden Flower" at first. Then he remembered the teasing words the nurse said to Ai Jingchu during the follow-up visit on the Lantern Festival in the first month of the lunar year. He felt extremely embarrassed, and his face turned red for the third time.
Now, she felt that Ai Jingchu must have come to take revenge on her.
Revenge on her for causing him to have an affair with the so-called "beauty of the museum", revenge on her for crashing his car, revenge on her for promising to treat him to a meal but never actually thinking about it.
Zeng Li had no choice but to explain: "They made it up. There are not many young girls in our unit, and Wu Wanxia and I are the only unmarried ones. In order to sell us, they said that Wu Wanxia and I are the first and second most beautiful girls in the club respectively."
Hearing this, Ai Jingchu saw Zeng Li's embarrassed look and couldn't help laughing.
It was obvious that he was in a good mood.