Life is Like a Journey – Chapter 18

Volume 1: Rise

Dissection

You are clearly a doctor; how can you still have stereotypes?

Gu Yanzhi almost bit her own tongue. Previously, in the military camp surrounded by big men, she never considered herself a woman and did not allow others to see her as one. Over time, she mixed with the male soldiers, calling each other brothers, almost to the point of changing her gender on the household registration.

However, Lu Qingshi’s gentle movements, the softness she felt when holding her, and the fragrance that occasionally drifted to her nose constantly reminded her that the person behind her was a woman, and a woman who was weak and needed her protection.

An indescribable sense of shame filled her heart. Gu Yanzhi reached out to tidy her clothes: “I’m fine, no need to trouble.”

Lu Qingshi pressed her hand, biting her lip: “I am a doctor.”

After a while, feeling it was inappropriate to treat her lifesaver so harshly, her tone softened: “It must be stitched, otherwise it will get infected.”

The two were at a stalemate for a while, but Gu Yanzhi conceded first, letting go with an expression of facing death unflinchingly.

Lu Qingshi didn’t think much, and after obtaining her consent, quickly undid her bra. When she saw the scars of various sizes all over her back, she inhaled sharply without a sound.

At least two places were marks left by open-heart surgery. What had this person experienced before?

Thinking did not affect her hand speed; Lu Qingshi quickly wrapped the wound with a bandage from front to back to stop the bleeding.

Fortunately, the police arrived quickly. After a brief inquiry, they found Gu Yanzhi injured, and immediately took her to the hospital with sirens blaring. As for the bandit, he was handcuffed and taken in another police car.

Lu Qingshi supported her and quickly walked into the emergency treatment room: “Where is everyone?! Bring me a suture kit, good sister, get a tetanus shot quickly!”

In the deep of night, she suddenly shouted, and Yu Gui, who was napping, jumped up from the chair in an instant, quickly stood with legs together, almost saluting.

“Teacher Lu!”

Lu Qingshi helped the person sit on the emergency bed, without looking at her, took the gloves from the bedside and put them on: “Give me the suture kit.”

“Oh! Oh, okay,” Yu Gui, with a slightly delayed reaction, quickly brought the suture kit.

Gu Yanzhi’s clothes were all bloody, already cut open by Lu Qingshi. Before leaving, she casually pulled a coat to wrap her. At this moment, the person sitting on the hospital bed was clutching the clothes to her chest, looking exactly like a bullied little wife.

Yu Gui inexplicably felt this person looked somewhat familiar: “Oh, I remember… you… you are Teacher Lu’s…”

“Neighbor,” the two people answered in unison.

“Lie down,” Lu Qingshi added another sentence.

Gu Yanzhi looked at the room full of men and women, wanting to cry but having no tears.

……

On the surface, a person who looks carefree is actually still a child inside.

Lu Qingshi’s tense lips relaxed a bit: “Everyone go out.”

Having said that, she pulled the curtain, leaving even Yu Gui outside.

Lu Qingshi, wearing a mask, first performed a skin test with lidocaine anesthesia¹ on her. This substance rarely causes allergies, but her rule is that any patient needing lidocaine² must undergo a skin test; this is a lesson learned from experience and hardship.

Gu Yanzhi watched her steadily insert the needle: “No need for local anesthesia, just sew directly.”

Lu Qingshi didn’t lift her head: “I am a doctor, you have to listen to me.”

When it was time for suturing, she looked at the various scars on her back and suddenly paused, opening the curtain: “Yu Gui, go get an ophthalmology needle³.”

Yu Gui quickly went, and when she returned, Hao Renjie gossiped with her: “Hey, hey, have you ever seen Sister Lu treat a patient so well? Even using an ophthalmology needle for stitching.”

Yu Gui, a bit slow-witted, replied: “Teacher Lu has always been good to patients, and for girls, using an ophthalmology needle makes it less likely to scar.”

Hao Renjie rolled his eyes: “Are you sure she treats patients well?”

The most complaints in the medical office are about her, yet she still goes to work as if nothing happened.

Yu Gui remembered the time when Wang Youshi’s wife knelt and begged for mercy and didn’t know what to say for a moment. After a long silence, she said: “You are right.”

After the stitching was done, the police officers came to take statements one by one. Lu Qingshi finished first, went out to buy some food, and when she returned, Gu Yanzhi had already mingled with everyone in the ward.

Two or three young nurses gathered around her bed, shyly looking at her: “Wow! You are amazing! Were you in the special forces before?! Are all SWAT officers this handsome?! Hey, hey, give us the WeChat of your single, unmarried comrade!”

The person being pestered didn’t seem annoyed and shared some of her past glorious deeds, enough to make these young girls scream.

Lu Qingshi shook her head, sat down to the side, and started chewing on a bag of bread.

Soon, Gu Yanzhi, with her eloquence and humorous, charming talk, and her handsome, attractive appearance, gained a large group of fanboys and fangirls. Even Hao Renjie, who claimed to have seen many people, wasn’t spared, as Gu Yanzhi promised to introduce him to a single, unmarried comrade.

Yu Gui was even more so, already serving tea and water, acting like a little lackey.

The head nurse swaggered in, speaking in a Northern dialect: “What are you all doing here? A tea party?! Disperse, disperse, get to work!”

Reluctantly, the group dispersed, and the ward returned to quiet. Throughout the process, Lu Qingshi quietly ate her bread without making a sound. Sometimes, even though her position in the department wasn’t low, her presence was almost zero, except on the operating table and emergency scenes.

Such a Lu Qingshi naturally wasn’t likely to talk with her. Gu Yanzhi’s gaze fell on the bread in her hand, and she swallowed: “Um…”

“Mm?” Lu Qingshi turned back, just in time to see her eagerly staring at the food in her hand.

“Are you… hungry?”

The other sincerely nodded once, and her stomach growled very timely.

Lu Qingshi’s lips revealed a barely perceptible smile, and she placed the remaining milk and bread all at once on her bed.

“Make do with it, the cafeteria’s closed.”

After saying that, she returned to her position to look at the medical case.

Gu Yanzhi inserted the straw into the box, with her movable left hand brought it to her lips, sipped once, then eagerly looked at her: “Um…”

“What now?” Lu Qingshi raised an eyebrow and looked back.

“I want to eat the bread.”

She was wearing white hospital clothes, sitting cross-legged on the bed. Her chestnut-colored hair was slightly messy, not very short, just about reaching her shoulders, with some natural curls at the ends. Paired with a pure and harmless smile and gaze, it inexplicably made people feel she was somewhat like the shepherd dog she raised.

Lu Qingshi quietly sighed in her heart, walked to her bedside to help her tear open the bread’s packaging, and handed it to her lips. Gu Yanzhi just drank a sip of milk and ate a bite of bread, chewing.

Seeing her wolfing down appearance, Lu Qingshi couldn’t help but ask, “Were you really a SWAT officer before?”

Gu Yanzhi swallowed a mouthful of bread before answering her, “I joined the army at seventeen, served as a soldier for ten years, and only transferred after being injured. Also,”

She slightly raised her eyes, becoming slightly more serious, “SWAT is just a term. The full name of the unit I belonged to should be the People’s Republic of China Falcon Commando.”

Lu Qingshi suddenly remembered the TV news a few days ago about the General Secretary presenting a flag to a certain unit and suddenly felt that indeed people cannot be judged by appearance, nor the sea measured by a bucket.

Instead, Gu Yanzhi was more at ease, “What, doesn’t look like?”

Lu Qingshi doesn’t know how to lie, nodded, “Your skills are very much like it, but sitting, lying, walking, standing, and your manner and character completely do not resemble someone who has been a soldier.”

Gu Yanzhi was choked a bit, almost spat it out, “You are clearly a doctor, how come you have stereotypes?”

……

“I am a doctor, so what does my stereotype about you relate to?” Lu Qingshi retorted.

“Of course it relates, I also think you don’t look like a doctor,” Gu Yanzhi retorted back.

Hearing this statement for the first time, Lu Qingshi became interested: “Then what do you think I look like?”

Gu Yanzhi frowned, thought for a while: “I think you are more suitable for doing research; places with many people are not suitable for you.”

Lu Qingshi was stunned for a moment, never having been analyzed so thoroughly, and a feeling difficult to describe surged in her chest, leading to some daze, but she had to admit she was right. The increasingly tense doctor-patient relationships and interpersonal interactions made her feel tired from the bottom of her heart.

“But I think Dr. Lu’s vision is very high; ordinary people not being able to become friends with you is not your problem. It’s because they and you are fundamentally in a different class. Maybe this is the loneliness of standing high.”

She continued to speak, her voice low and pleasant, tone light and lively, bringing a warm spring breeze feeling into the heart.

Lu Qingshi lowered her head, not knowing what to think: “Is that so… Maybe you are right.”

She never thought about integrating into this department, but from the start, she was appointed as deputy chief physician with a blemish, taking a position others had worked diligently for decades. No wonder Dr. Sun targeted her.

She also once sincerely treated every patient and strived to get along with every colleague, trying to be the expected, desired, genius perfect surgeon in everyone’s eyes.

Probably all enthusiasm has a time when it is completely exhausted. From the time Lu Qingshi came to Jinzhou, she was no longer the original Lu Qingshi.

In a certain sense, she and the constantly ostracized Yu Gui are the same kind of people, only Yu Gui’s is in the open, and hers is in the dark, with various trivial details bit by bit killing her remaining enthusiasm.

Thus, she became the current indifferent, unapproachable Lu Qingshi.

During the silence, Qin Xuan broke in, pulling her and looking her up and down: “Are you okay? You scared me to death! You’re too careless, being followed and not even realizing it!”

Lu Qingshi shook off her hand: “I’m fine, thanks to the neighbor for saving me.”

Only then did Qin Xuan notice there was another person sitting on the hospital bed in front of her, and she proactively extended her hand to greet her: “Hello, I am Qin Xuan, thank you for saving our careless Dr. Lu. Let’s have a meal together another day.”

Qin Xuan helped her say what she wanted to say. For some reason, Lu Qingshi quietly breathed a sigh of relief, nodded, and felt that she should formally express her gratitude.

Gu Yanzhi likes beautiful things, and naturally couldn’t refuse Qin Xuan’s goodwill. The two quickly started chatting, seamlessly transitioning from Gu Yanzhi’s past glorious deeds to Qin Xuan’s current love life, even unrelated topics.

Lu Qingshi shook her head, walked to the side to continue reading medical records.

After hearing that Gu Yanzhi had never been in a relationship, Qin Xuan immediately thought of playing matchmaker: “Hey, you have such good conditions, you were a former special forces member, now a fire instructor, with a decent income. Are you interested in going on a blind date with me? My boyfriend has a…”

Lu Qingshi, hearing this, had a hint of a smile at the corners of her lips: “I say, you should also change professions.”

“Change to what?” Qin Xuan was puzzled.

“Matchmaker,” the two of them answered in unison.

Qin Xuan realized, became angry, and pretended to pinch her: “Good for you, Lu Qingshi, teaming up with outsiders to bully me, aren’t you? If you were a bit more promising, why would you still be an older single woman, the emperor is not anxious but the eunuch is!⁴“

Lu Qingshi was tickled by her and kept dodging: “Wait a minute, stop! Don’t touch me!”

She was panting, her originally fair skin tinted with a faint blush due to excitement, as if a layer of rouge was applied.

Everyone’s face had a smile, and Lu Qingshi hadn’t been so joyful for a long time. Under the warm indoor lighting, the deep night outside gradually faded away.

Qin Xuan went to play around with Gu Yanzhi again, holding a cup of hot coffee in her hand. Amidst the rising steam, a vague illusion of peaceful times emerged.

Yu Gui also gave Fang Zhiyou a call, rambling on with some nonsensical small talk, and finally asked: “Is Auntie okay?”

Fang Zhiyou lowly responded, helping her mother turn over, a rotten and decayed smell came from her: “Still okay, don’t worry.”

Yu Gui thought for a moment, tightly holding the phone: “Otherwise… come to Renji Medical University to take a look?”

Nine years ago, a car accident left Mother Fang paralyzed until now.

There was a moment of silence on the other end, as it seemed Fang Zhiyou helped her mother get a cup of hot water. After a while, her voice came through: “I won’t talk to you for now, I’ll first attend to my mother taking her medicine.”

“Okay.”

Yu Gui looked up at the light on the ceiling and gently sighed.

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1. Lidocaine Anesthesia: Lidocaine anesthesia refers to the use of lidocaine, a local anesthetic, to temporarily numb a specific area of the body to prevent pain during medical procedures.
2. Lidocaine: Lidocaine is a medication commonly used as a local anesthetic to block nerve signals in the body, providing pain relief during minor surgeries or procedures.
3. Ophthalmology Needle: An ophthalmology needle is a fine, specialized needle used in eye surgeries or delicate procedures, designed to minimize tissue trauma and reduce scarring.
4. The emperor is not anxious but the eunuch is: A Chinese idiom used to describe a situation where someone is more concerned or worried about a matter than the person who is directly involved or responsible for it.