On Wednesday, Zeng Li had to go to the hospital to remove the stitches, and that day was Ai Jingchu's outpatient clinic. Ai Jingchu had contacted Ge Yi in advance, and Ge Yi had an operation in the morning, so he asked Zeng Li to go early.
Ai Jingchu drove to her home to pick her up and then went to the hospital.
"You've been taken so far in a detour. You'll be busy for most of the day. I can just go by myself," said Zeng Li.
"If I have time, I will pick you up when you get off work."
"Isn't that necessary? You're much busier at work than I am, and you still have to take time out to pick me up. How troublesome."
"Then I'll give you the car, and you'll pick me up every day?"
"I..." She never knew that Ai Jingchu also loved to take advantage of others.
When they arrived at the hospital, she went to the ninth floor to find Ge Yi, while he went to the fourth floor to see patients in his own department. When getting off the elevator, he couldn't help but turn around and tell her, "Come down to see me when you're done."
She agreed.
On the ninth floor, Ge Yigang had just changed his clothes and asked the nurse to take Zeng Li to the treatment room to wait. Ge Yi came in and examined him carefully. "He is growing well. We just need to avoid hyperplasia in the future."
Seeing that she didn't understand, Ge Yi explained, "After the wound heals, the skin goes through a repair process, and the new flesh will expand outwards, making it bulge out. It will be more obvious for people with scar-prone constitutions."
"Is it okay to just remember to put on the silicone patch?" Zeng Li asked.
"Well, it can have some physical effect."
Ge Yi disinfected her, asked her to tilt her chin up, and then cut off the navy blue thread piece by piece.
"Bear with it, it will hurt." Ge Yi said, "We removed the stitches early to make it look better, but the wound hasn't healed completely yet, so you have to take good care of it when you get home."
"Yeah." She was not afraid of this little pain.
After the work was done, she thanked Guy.
Ge Yi looked at her from behind, feeling unhappy. Some people can never get what they desire, while others can get it easily.
At this time, something went wrong with Ai Jingchu. His least experienced female student named Fan Fan made a mistake.
Ai Jingchu received a new patient who needed a dental model. Fanfan was inexperienced and had never received a new patient on her own, so she just did odd jobs for everyone else. Ai Jingchu asked her to take a dental model for the patient. In fact, this is a very simple thing. Mix the tartar powder with water to make a colloid with the right amount of dryness and wetness, then spread it evenly on the mold, put it in the patient's mouth for a few minutes, take it out when it is half dry, and fill it with plaster. This is almost the entry-level skill for all orthodontic and prosthodontic students. But Fanfan is usually timid, and the patient was a delicate little girl who started crying before the mold was put in her mouth, making Fanfan tremble with fear.
Ai Jingchu was so busy that he had no time to rest, but he was still worried, so he asked Zhou Wen to stand by and give him some guidance.
Tartar powder smells like toothpaste, which is not too unpleasant. However, some people really don’t like to hold things in their deep throats. Plus, that thing needs to be slowly heated up by the temperature of the mouth before it can dry, so it needs to stay there for several minutes, which is definitely uncomfortable.
"Take it out when it's suitable." Zhou Wen said.
"Yeah." Fan Fan still has this judgment.
The child kept crying, and the mother next to him urged, "Are you okay?"
"Done yet?"
"Is it still not good?"
"What's going on!"
"Can you do it?"
The repeated urging made Fan Fan panic and anxious. When the time was almost up and she wanted to pull out the mold, the child refused to cooperate and kept shrinking back without opening his mouth. Fan Fan did not dare to use force for fear of damaging the teeth marks. So she coaxed the child gently while reaching in with the fingers of her other hand to help. However, the child got naughty and bit her finger hard.
Fan Fan felt so much pain that he cried out, retracted his finger, and the mold fell on the child's body.
The thing was pulled out, and the child's throat was no longer blocked, so he could cry loudly.
Seeing this, the woman thought her child was bullied and slapped Fan Fan without knowing the truth.
This happened too suddenly.
Zhou Wen immediately got furious, "What are you doing? Why are you hitting people?" He then pulled Fan Fan behind him.
"What did you say I was doing?" the woman raised her voice.
Ai Jingchu came over upon hearing the sound.
The woman didn't stop and scolded Ai Jingchu as well: "What's your attitude? She's clearly an expert, so why do you ask a student to get a model for her? My child is used as a test subject for you? Doctors are also a service industry. I paid you to provide services for me. Now I'm not satisfied with the service, okay?"
"How can you talk like that!" Zhou Wen's stubborn temper flared up, "If you want to treat me, then treat me. If you don't want to treat me, forget it!"
Ai Jingchu glanced at Zhou Wen and stopped her. He looked at Fan Fan again, then turned back and slowly explained to the woman, "We are a teaching unit here. We not only treat patients, but also guide students on how to treat more people in the future. Every patient is informed of this process before coming for treatment. If you don't accept it, you should raise it. There are many other good hospitals in the city. As long as it is in our hospital, all treatments will involve students, but as a treating doctor, I will sign and be responsible for every procedure. This student is Fan Xiaoyi. If you are dissatisfied with her behavior just now, you can tell me directly, but you can't hit her. What right do you have to hit her? If she did something wrong, the responsibility is mine. You can go to the hospital office to complain about me. But if you hit her, you should apologize first."
"What's that tone of voice? Do you know what I do?" the woman said angrily. "I'm telling you, I'm very familiar with your dean. Do you think you're so great just because you're a doctor? How can you, an ordinary doctor, turn the tables?!"
At this time, the head nurse also came. If there was anything wrong in the hospital, it would be the hospital and the doctors' fault in the eyes of outsiders, so she simply said a few words to Ai Jingchu and coaxed the mother and daughter to go to the office.
Zeng Li saw this scene as soon as he came down from the ninth floor.
She remembered that Zhou Wen had said last time that he would complain about being suspended, and she felt a little worried. She squeezed through the crowd, leaned close to Ai Jingchu, pulled down his clothes, and told him not to be angry.
Ai Jingchu turned around and saw her, his eyes softened, and he turned back to tell the students to take their seats.
Zhou Wen pulled Fan Fan to a chair, asked her to sit down, and examined her.
The man hit her from behind, slapping her on the back of the neck. Perhaps she was wearing a ring, and the protruding part left a scar on her skin.
Ai Jingchu said: "Zhou Wen, you help her get rid of the poison."
Fanfan didn't know why she started crying, "Teacher Ai, I'm sorry for causing you trouble."
"Nothing." Ai Jingchu replied.
Zhou Wen had sharp eyes, and he saw Zeng Li as soon as he looked up, "Hey, Zeng Li, why are you here?"
Zeng Li nodded, not knowing how to answer.
"I remember you didn't have a follow-up visit today. Could your braces have fallen off?" Zhou Wen was worried about the braces under his jurisdiction.
"No, I..." Zeng Li glanced at Ai Jingchu and said hesitantly, "I'm looking for... I'm looking for him."
Ai Jingchu was very cooperative. He took off his gloves, fished out the car keys from his trouser pocket and handed them to Zeng Li, saying, "Drive the car back first, have lunch by yourself, and remember to pick me up after get off work this afternoon."
His voice was not loud, but it was very powerful. Even Fan Fan, who was still wiping tears, couldn't help but look up at the two of them. Then, everyone present understood.
So, two pieces of gossip spread in the dental hospital today, both about the same person. The first piece: Professor Ai was complained by a patient today. The second piece: Professor Ai is really in a relationship.
Mixed joys and sorrows, mixed joys and sorrows…
The next day, when Dou Dou heard the news, it turned out to be: Professor Ai's girlfriend was very jealous and possessive, and was worried about her boyfriend being in public, so she drove to pick him up and drop him off at get off work at a fixed time every day.
The hot and humid weather lasted for almost a week. In the afternoon, the sky seemed to be pierced and it started to rain heavily. The whole city was foggy and there was a refreshing coolness in the rain. It happened to be Friday, and Ai Jingchu had an outpatient clinic and would not get off work until about 5:30 to 6:00. In order to avoid the traffic jam in the rain, she went out an hour earlier to pick him up.
In fact, apart from that time, she never went to pick him up again as the rumors said.
But we are inviting Wu Wanxia and Director Li to dinner tonight, so we made an appointment to go together.
Her phone didn't have Bluetooth turned on, and it wasn't linked to his car phone. When the phone rang, Zeng Li was driving on the main road, and there were surveillance cameras all the way. She was afraid of being caught and deducted points, so she didn't dare to answer it. She took it out and looked at the number, but it was unfamiliar. The ringing lasted for a long time, and she finally pulled the car over to the side of the road and answered the call.
"Hello—" she said.
"Little fish." said the other party.
When that voice appeared, she almost forgot to breathe. There was only one person in the world who would call her in that tone. "Xiao Yu" and "Xiao Yu", when walking on the road, when someone called them, they would both turn their heads at the same time.
"Yeah," she said.
"I'm back. Are you free to meet me?" Yu Yi asked.
"Um."
"I came back once at the beginning of the year and called you, but the call didn't go through. I thought you had changed your number." He said, "So I thought if I couldn't get through again, I would have to ask my third cousin's wife."
"I have never changed it." Yu Yi's third cousin is Zeng's mother, and the whole family has not changed the name because of the couple's divorce. But it is conceivable how much Zeng's mother hates Yu Yi.
"Xiao Yu," Yu Yi paused, "Did I contact you and make you unhappy?"
"No."
"I just wanted to see how you were doing. Are you free tonight?"
"I have a dinner party tonight. It was scheduled a long time ago. Can it be later?" Zeng Li asked.
"No problem." Yu Yi replied with a smile.
After agreeing on a time and place, she hung up the phone. Zeng Li threw her phone on the passenger seat next to her, watched the screen go from bright to dark, and finally to pitch black, and then she buried her head in the steering wheel.
How long has it been since they last saw each other
After the breakup call, she was afraid to see him at first, and then he seldom came back to China. After a few years, he probably felt that their hearts had been reconciled, so he occasionally sent some holiday greetings in emails. Sometimes she would reply, sometimes not.
They never saw each other again.
But Zeng's mother never gave up asking relatives for any news that could hurt Zeng Li, such as Yu Yi had immigrated, he had a girlfriend, he started talking about marriage, he broke up again, he changed to a more enviable job...
He lived such a wonderful life, but she was so dull.
He once asked her in an email: "Can we go back to the way we were before?"
Others might misunderstand this sentence, but Zeng Li did not. She knew that her past was very far away, when she was a little girl in her teens and her uncle who was five or six years older than her.
The knocking sound forced Zeng Li to lift his head from the steering wheel.
A traffic policeman wearing a white wide-brimmed hat stood outside the cab and knocked on the car window. I don't know when the rain stopped, and the traffic policeman took off his navy blue raincoat, revealing a light blue short-sleeved uniform underneath.
Zeng Li rolled down the car window.
"Girl, you've been parked here for a long time. This is a non-motorized lane, you can't park."
The policeman glanced at Zeng Li and asked, "Are you feeling unwell?"
Zeng Li shook his head, apologized, and drove away.
Ai Jingchu got off work, but Zeng Li didn't come. They talked on the phone before she left. If there was no traffic jam, they should have arrived earlier. He checked the time and stood under the eaves of the outpatient hall. The heavy rain stopped for a while, and the ground was full of water. The water was originally clear, but it became more and more turbid as the footsteps gradually increased.
He found that Zeng Li was not used to answering the phone while driving, and she would be in a panic every time her phone rang, so he did not rush her, but just waited quietly for a while.
However, after this moment stretched into a long time, he began to get worried, and finally dialed Zeng Li's number.
"I'm almost there." These were the four words she continued.
"Okay, I'll wait for you downstairs."
After about ten minutes, he saw Zeng Li's car.
On the way to the hotel, Zeng Li didn't say a word. She used to explain for a long time when she was late, but today she didn't say a word. Ai Jingchu felt that she was different and couldn't help but ask her softly: "What's wrong with you? Are you in a bad mood?"
She remained silent.
He called her, "Zeng Li."
"Ah?" She looked at him blankly, then quickly turned to look at the road ahead, "What?" She was completely immersed in her own thoughts and didn't pay attention to what others were saying.
Ai Jingchu turned on the radio, turned his face to the side window, and then said lightly: "Nothing, just drive carefully." He was a little tired after a busy day, and his throat was uncomfortable, so he simply closed his eyes and rested for a while.
Then, the two of them remained silent all the way.
When she arrived at the destination, her colleagues had not yet arrived. She and Ai Jingchu had come once at noon, and had already selected a private room and finalized the menu.
After waiting for a long time, the guests arrived one after another. They had booked a large table for more than 20 people, and soon they were seated neatly. The leader had not arrived yet, so everyone was more casual.
Wu Wanxia said loudly, "Zeng Li, shouldn't we introduce him formally?"
"That's right." Everyone agreed.
Zeng Li glanced at Ai Jingchu, who was also looking at her. She pointed at her colleagues and told Ai Jingchu their names one by one. After she finished speaking, she paused and pointed at Ai Jingchu again and said, "Ai Jingchu, he is a teacher at A University."
"We all know that he is a teacher at A University. Do you need to tell me?" Wu Wanxia laughed out loud.
Zeng Li was extremely embarrassed, and when Ai Jingchu was about to help her out, Director Li and his family were brought in by the waiter, interrupting everyone's quarrel.
As soon as Mrs. Li saw Ai Jingchu when she entered the room, her face was full of smiles, "Professor Ai, we meet again."
Zeng Li and Ai Jingchu stood up at the same time and invited Director Li and his wife to take a seat.
Now, everyone was seated and the waiter went to the kitchen to serve the dishes.
Zeng Li was not very good at drinking, so the task of accompanying drinking fell on Ai Jingchu alone. Director Li, Wu Wanxia and several male colleagues were all good drinkers. If you were invited to a banquet by someone else, you could find some excuses to refuse if someone urged you to drink, but it would be a completely different story if your status was reversed. Although Ai Jingchu was not good at socializing, he understood these principles.
It was the first time for him to meet Zeng Li's colleagues as a boyfriend, and it was also a thank-you banquet hosted by Zeng Li, so naturally everyone had to make things difficult for him.
Zeng Li was thinking about other things and was socializing absent-mindedly, but when he saw Ai Jingchu drinking one glass after another, he couldn't help but worry.
His seat was next to hers, and their arms would touch each other from time to time. After he drank, although the wine did not show on his face, the temperature of his skin was frighteningly hot.
There was a dish on the table that the waiter highly recommended. It was peanuts mashed into a paste and then cooked into soup with shredded cabbage. It was a very strange way of eating it, but it tasted really good.
Ai Jingchu was not good at speaking, and Zeng Li was also not good at talking, and they didn't know how to control the topic. Fortunately, Mrs. Li and Wu Wanxia were both good at talking. They showed concern for Zeng Li's injury, commented on current news, talked about celebrity gossip, and talked about Ai Jingchu's hospital. After a while, they talked about Zeng Li's injury again, and praised the doctor's skills, so the atmosphere of the dinner was always good.
During the banquet, some people offered Zeng Li a toast, but Ai Jingchu refused. He had a bad throat to begin with, and the liquor hurt his throat, making his voice even more hoarse. Mrs. Li was attentive and thought Ai Jingchu had a cold, so she asked him a few words of concern. He did not explain and just thought he really had a cold.
Mrs. Li complained to Director Li: "Is it fair that a group of you bully Xiao Ai?"
Everyone knew that Director Li was henpecked. He laughed and agreed, "It's not fair. It's not fair."
Mrs. Li added, "There's a lot of time to come. Don't go singing for a while. Wait until Xiao Ai gets better." They had originally planned to go karaoke after dinner, but fortunately Mrs. Li's words saved the situation and everyone stopped in time.
She didn't know how much Ai Jingchu had drunk, nor how much he could drink. Zeng Li was slightly relieved to see him off after dinner, as he was still able to think clearly.
"Are you okay?" she asked him when they got back to the car.