Volume 1: Rise
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At this moment, her softness was firmly touched, and Lu Qingshi realized that she was lying on some part of her.
While half-dreaming and half-awake, her cellphone suddenly rang, and due to her occupational habit, she immediately jumped up. Hamburger, startled as well, ran away from her feet but soon returned to lick the back of her hand.
Lu Qingshi found the cellphone on the carpet, opened it, and was relieved to see a message from Gu Yanzhi.
「How’s Hamburger? Is he obedient? He hasn’t troubled you, has he?」
She actually just wanted to find a topic to chat with her about, but she didn’t expect her to reply so quickly.
「What time is it, and you’re still not asleep?」
Rarely using an exclamation mark, Gu Yanzhi could already imagine her frowning and angry expression.
With a slip of the hand, a grievance-laden expression was sent out. Is it still possible to retract it now?
As she was thinking this, the other party, looking at that expression, was momentarily lost in thought. Then, seeing Hamburger licking her palm, she hugged the large dog to her chest, pressed the shutter, and sent it.
Along with the picture came words as if completing a mission: “Alright, you’ve seen it. You can sleep now.”
Gu Yanzhi couldn’t help but laugh out loud, which pulled at her wound, making her grimace in pain.
In the photo, Hamburger was still charmingly naive, with shiny and sleek fur, and his face had grown a bit larger. It seemed he was well taken care of. Also captured in the shot was half of Lu Qingshi’s bare face, without makeup, her eyebrows and eyes clean, a few fine lines at the corner of her eyes. Though not exceptionally beautiful, she still saved it.
“Good~ night,” she typed.
The other side replied: “Good night.”
Before the nurse came in to confiscate her cellphone, Gu Yanzhi set this photo as the background for their chat, then willingly handed over the cellphone, closed her eyes, and fell into a dream.
At this time, she did not yet know that in the future, this one person and one dog would become the most indispensable parts of her life.
At the Monday regular meeting, the medical office announced their decision regarding them: Lu Qingshi received a serious warning once and must submit a written review, was dismissed from her position as Ward One supervisor, and her practice activities were suspended for one month.
The person who was named and criticized by the whole hospital was just holding an iPad and browsing medical papers, completely not listening.
The remaining people were fined, wrote reviews, were criticized, or punished accordingly. Counting the previous punishment Yu Gui received, she had been in the emergency department for only three months, and half a year’s salary was already fined away. Upon entering the office, she slouched on the sofa like Ge You, wailing continuously.
However, in the world, there is no most miserable, only more miserable.
Lu Qingshi pushed the door open, took off her white coat, and hung it on the hanger: “From today, I am suspended, you help me write my review.”
Yu Gui slid down from the sofa: “Teacher Lu…”
You are taking my life away!
But looking at her face, Yu Gui only dared to be angry without daring to speak, having actually cursed her a million times in her heart.
“Is there any problem?” she asked as she picked up the car keys from the office desk, ready to leave.
Yu Gui quickly stood up straight, putting on her signature smile: “No, take care.”
Lu Qingshi walked to the door and then turned around: “By the way, during this month, I will randomly come to the hospital to spot check your anatomy suturing technique. Anyone who can’t even sew grapes properly is not fit for my operating table.”
Yu Gui smiled even more brilliantly: “Yes, please rest assured, Teacher Lu. I will definitely practice diligently and will not disappoint your guidance.”
After her figure completely disappeared down the corridor, Yu Gui rubbed her cheeks, sore from the fake smile, and took a sofa cushion to vent her frustration: “Facial paralysis! Facial paralysis! Facial paralysis!”
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Hao Renjie outside prolonged his voice and shouted: “Sister Lu, how come you’re back again?”
Yu Gui quickly stood up straight, bowed towards the air: “Hello, Teacher Lu.”
In the silence of the room, Hao Renjie burst out with laughter that sounded like a rooster crowing from outside.
Angry, Yu Gui grabbed a sofa cushion and swung it around as she charged forward: “Go die!!!”
“How is today?” As soon as Lu Qingshi stepped into the ward, not wearing a white coat, she brightened the eyes of those present. She only wore protective clothing on the outside, with a pure white shirt inside. The collar was unbuttoned, revealing a slender collarbone, and the simple jeans looked very stylish on her. She wore a small watch on her wrist.
She habitually extended her hand to the nurse for the medical record, but the other hesitated for a moment: “Doctor Lu, according to the regulations…”
She was already suspended.
Lu Qingshi reached out, took it, and carefully perused it. Then she pulled a pen from her pocket, neatly signed her own name, and handed it back.
“I’ll stand well for my last shift.”
Gu Yanzhi, upon hearing these words, became slightly excited and tried to get up from the bed. The indwelling needle connected to the back of her hand began to backflow blood through the soft tube.
Lu Qingshi frowned and slightly raised her voice: “Don’t move!”
Her own anxious emotions were inexplicably calmed down by the shout, as Lu Qingshi dragged a chair over from the side and sat down: “Suspended for observation for one month.”
The careful Gu Yanzhi noticed that today she did not stand long in the ward and had a subconscious action of supporting her waist. Although it was fleeting, sharp-eyed Captain Gu couldn’t let any of her movements go unnoticed.
Qin Xuan, after checking fingerprints, also entered the ICU, and her loud voice could be heard from afar: “The gun shoots the bird that sticks its head out. At the news conference, you confronted Secretary Wu’s face like that; it’s no wonder the Health and Family Planning Commission people resent you.”
Gu Yanzhi’s eyes dimmed: “If only I had known earlier…”
Lu Qingshi’s gaze shot over like a sword: “If only known what?”
The words got stuck halfway and couldn’t continue. Gu Yanzhi pressed her lips tight. Even if Lu Qingshi did not insist, she wouldn’t stand by without helping. But seeing her suffer grievances for saving people made her heart inexplicably uncomfortable.
And as for Gu Yanzhi, without her own insistence, she might not be lying in the hospital bed now, her whole body full of tubes.
Although knowing that such a mindset is too impulsive for an adult, Lu Qingshi still felt a trace of guilt. As the chief commander at the emergency scene, she was too impulsive.
The proud doctor lowered her head: “I’m sorry, next time I will not place you in a dangerous situation again.”
Qin Xuan had a face with an expression as if she had seen a ghost. She didn’t hear wrong, did she???
Lu Qingshi actually took the initiative to apologize. It was simply worth spreading the news joyfully, seeing everyone celebrate universally, and setting off fireworks to celebrate.
And the person being apologized to suddenly clenched the bedsheet beneath her, slightly turned her head, and bit her lower lip tightly: “Doctor Lu, there’s no need for this, I wasn’t entirely doing it for that child.”
She was still puzzled as to what this vague statement meant when Qin Xuan suddenly reached out and gave her a push: “I heard from Chen Yi that your waist hasn’t been feeling well these days, huh?”
Lu Qingshi snapped back to her senses and avoided her hand: “Hey, don’t touch me, you…”
Qin Xuan didn’t care and grabbed her arm, pressing lightly on her side waist, causing someone to sweat coldly from the forehead due to pain, and she took the opportunity to press her onto the hospital bed.
“You…” Lu Qingshi still wanted to struggle but suddenly held her breath. The softness beneath her made her extremely uncomfortable. She suddenly realized this was Gu Yanzhi’s hospital bed and secretly cursed Qin Xuan for being so tactless. She used her wrist to slightly prop herself up to avoid pressing on her organs.
The person being pressed didn’t feel much discomfort. When Lu Qingshi met the other’s smiling yet concerned eyes, she slightly turned her head, her earlobes turning a bit red. Even more embarrassing was Qin Xuan publicly lifting her clothes for a physical exam, and the thin-skinned emergency doctor couldn’t hold her composure.
“Are you done yet?!”
Seeing a large bruised area on her fair skin, Qin Xuan gasped: “How did you let this drag on until now? Go, go, go, quickly head to orthopedics for a scan, it might even be a bone fracture. How did this happen?”
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Lu Qingshi, biting her teeth, her wrist unable to support her, spoke with a trembling voice: “When the gas tank exploded, the ceiling fan fell down and hit me. If you’re done, then let me go…”
Gu Yanzhi reached out and pressed her down: “Doctor Lu is a doctor, how can you still hide your illness and refuse treatment?”
“…”
This time, she made solid contact with her softness. Lu Qingshi realized she was lying on a certain part of her, and though the other had a calm and open expression, she inexplicably felt her ears grow warm.
Their gazes met, and Gu Yanzhi’s eyes held a gentle, soft smile, as if she didn’t mind at all that it was Lu Qingshi’s decision that almost cost her life.
“Doctor Lu, how about going to see a doctor?”
It was in a tone used to coax a child.
That hand still rested on her back, with not the slightest intention of letting go.
Lu Qingshi pressed her lips: “…Okay.”
The other person, satisfied, let go of her hand. Qin Xuan smacked her lips, finally understanding what it means for one thing to subdue another.
Holding the scan and carrying a big plastic bag of medicine as she came out from orthopedics, Lu Qingshi thought for a bit and still took out her phone to send her a message.
She wanted to ask her what she meant by that sentence, “Doctor Lu, there’s no need for this, I wasn’t entirely doing it for that child.”
But she felt it was inappropriate, so she deleted and revised it, when the other’s message came first: “Did you go to see?”
She replied: “Hmm.”
After thinking for a bit, she still sent out the edited message.
The other person showed as typing, but after waiting a while, there was still no reply. Lu Qingshi put her phone in her pocket and went home.
When she opened the door, her phone lit up.
She said: “Because protecting doctors is my duty.”
Spoken so naturally and rightly, Lu Qingshi couldn’t help but smile slightly.
“Zhiyou~” Yu Gui, holding the phone, cautiously made a call to the other with a pleasing tone: “I’m not going back next week~”
Fang Zhiyou paused slightly as her hand organized items: “Why?”
“Uh…” Yu Gui hesitated for a moment but still said truthfully: “I was punished again with three months’ salary.”
The other sighed, followed by a long silence. Yu Gui, holding the phone, almost cried. She had promised to go back for her birthday, but it was canceled at the last minute. The guilt pressed on her, leaving her unable to breathe.
“Xiaogui, I really miss you,” Fang Zhiyou put down the cloth, leaned against the sofa, and sat down, looking at the renewed rental house, her eyes slightly red.
“I know,” Yu Gui held the phone tightly: “Rest assured, after my standard training ends, I will definitely strive to pass the assessment and aim to stay at Renji Medical University, then bring you and Auntie over.”
The same words have been said countless times between them, but every time they were heard, they always rekindled a despairing heart.
Fang Zhiyou responded softly: “Don’t put so much pressure on yourself, I will share the burden with you.”
She still wanted to say something when Mother Fang loudly shouted from inside: “F*ck your mother’s c***, are you on the phone with that b**** again…”
Fang Zhiyou covered the phone receiver: “I won’t talk to you for now.”
“Okay.”
After Yu Gui hung up the phone, she felt a burst of melancholy and loss. During the standard training, there is no salary, only a few hundred yuan monthly as basic living subsidy. The hard-earned department bonus was also penalized, and she occasionally had to rely on family support. When will such days come to an end?
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Fang Zhiyou walked into the inner room, where Mother Fang had thrown the freshly made food on the ground, leaving a mess of broken porcelain everywhere. She had to clean up again. Mother Fang, still unsatisfied, slapped the bed and cursed: “Heartless thing, do you know who caused your mom to be like this? It’s her! That b**** from the neighboring village! You still hang around with her; she even got into university, a medical student with a promising future, and you! Still staying in this godforsaken place, cooped up at home playing games! Useless thing, she’s already climbed to the high branches of the big city, doesn’t want you anymore, and you still…”
Fang Zhiyou’s fingertips turned white as she held the porcelain pieces. The pain from the broken porcelain piercing her palm was not even one ten-thousandth of her heartache. In dealing with her own daughter, Mother Fang always has a way to hit the nail on the head.
“You shut up!” She slightly raised her voice, her tone fast and fierce, her eyes bloodshot: “If it weren’t for you, I would have long gone out to study, work, and earn money. Who was it that cried and begged me to stay at home? I tell you, this home, I don’t want to stay at all!!!”
As she spoke, she threw away the broken porcelain in her hand and rushed out the door, with Mother Fang behind her crying, wailing, and cursing her ancestors for eighteen generations, including herself.
Such scenes have been playing out almost every day for ten years.
Fang Zhiyou rushed into an internet cafe, put her ID card on the counter: “Give me a computer.”
From the beginning, the game was just her tool to earn money, but now it has become her tool to relieve stress. Fang Zhiyou, in the internet cafe, puffed clouds and mist, her brows and eyes filled with unresolved sorrow, no longer the once carefree and wild youth.
As soon as she logged into the game interface, a team invitation popped up. She accepted the invitation and was immediately transported to her teammate’s side.
The white-clothed swordsman and red-haired healer stood together, with fiery red wings slowly unfolding behind them, scattering starlight across the sky.
The girl said, “JJC?”
She typed, “Okay.”