Life is Like a Journey – Chapter 41
by Little PandaVolume 1: Rise
Contact
Doctor Lu, are you always this cute after drinking alcohol?
The person who talks about others having poor alcohol tolerance is actually the first to collapse; Gu Yanzhi has the kind of alcohol tolerance trained in the military camp to not get drunk even after a thousand cups, and at this moment, she is the only sober person.
“Hey, don’t sleep on the sofa, the bedroom is for you,” she said as she helped Qin Xuan up, estimating that being this drunk, she couldn’t return home, so for safety’s sake, she should stay overnight.
Unexpectedly, the person didn’t appreciate it and shook her off: “Hand…phone…I need to call Old Bao…let…let him come pick me up…”
Even though her tongue was slurred, she still insisted on going home. Gu Yanzhi, helpless, retrieved the phone from her bag and handed it to her.
Without even looking, she hazily dialed from the recent calls, and the phone was connected after just one ring.
Qin Xuan opened her mouth and said: “Dear~ you haven’t contacted me for a long time… I really miss you… can you come to pick me up, please…”
Due to being drunk, her voice was especially soft and sticky, so Xiang Nanke silently covered the receiver and walked outside the interrogation room under the surprised gazes of colleagues.
“You…” she had just uttered one word when the other side suddenly took on a crying tone: “You don’t love me anymore… hum! Wuwuwu I hate you!! Bao Fengnian!!!”
Goosebumps fell all over Gu Yanzhi, and looking once more at Lu Qingshi, who was sitting straight even when drunk, she indeed felt that she was more normal.
Based on many years of investigation experience, this person was definitely drunk, but upon hearing that name, the always calm officer raised an eyebrow and cleared her throat.
“I am Xiang Nanke, where are you?”
After Gu Yanzhi cleaned up the mess, she heard the doorbell ring, ran over to open the door, and didn’t expect it to be Officer Xiang, whom she had met once: “You…”
The other party maintained a smile: “Sorry to disturb, I came to pick up Doctor Qin.”
How did she remember Qin Xuan’s call just now was made to her boyfriend?
The always straightforward fire officer was somewhat puzzled, scratching her head: “You two…”
Qin Xuan heard someone came to pick her up, immediately let go of Lu Qingshi, and without even looking, she pounced on the person, affectionately wrapping her arms around the person’s neck and giving a kiss on the gentle officer’s face.
Gu Yanzhi was dumbfounded on the spot, but the “violated” officer’s expression remained normal, even wrapping an arm around her waist, slightly nodding in thanks: “Then we will take our leave.”
“They’re all gone, so I’ll go home too,” Lu Qingshi said as she picked up her bag from the sofa. Her eyes looked clear, and her speech was coherent, but Gu Yanzhi knew that someone who doesn’t usually drink can be even more drunk.
“I’ll see you off.”
Lu Qingshi pushed away her hand that came to pull her, insisting on not being seen off, and pushed open the kitchen door.
“I’m leaving.”
Gu Yanzhi tightened her facial muscles to keep herself from laughing out loud, and pulled her towards the door: “This way.”
“Oh.”
The indifferent doctor touched her own security door and finally relaxed: “You can go back now.”
Then Gu Yanzhi saw her holding a car key while trying to open the door.
After a while, she looked at the key in her own palm with confusion: “Is the door broken?”
She rummaged through her bag to find her phone to call property management, but Gu Yanzhi pressed it down with one hand.
“Doctor Lu, are you always this cute after drinking?”
The other party blinked, not understanding the meaning, but after shedding those cold and sharp features, her eyes were unexpectedly innocent and pure.
Gu Yanzhi found the correct key from her bag and opened the room door for her. As she turned to help her inside, the person closed her eyes and her body went limp. She quickly reached out to catch her and checked her breathing — she was asleep.
The fire instructor shook her head with a light laugh, and had to carry her horizontally, using her foot to close the room door.
Doctor Lu, who appeared only half a head shorter than her, was surprisingly light and indeed too thin. Gu Yanzhi smacked her lips, gently placing her on the bed in the bedroom.
Only then did she have time to examine the entire room, which had a layout similar to her own, a standard two-bedroom, one-living-room single apartment. On three sides against the walls were bookshelves, with a human skeleton piled in the corner, somewhat startling at first glance. The room was filled with various surgical knots of different sizes and colors, indicating she often practiced at home.
Randomly picking a book from the bookshelf, she found it densely filled with medical notes, footnotes, and her own reflections after reading. Her handwriting was like her, clean and neat.
The books were categorized and placed very neatly, but there were none of the usual items found in a girl’s room, such as a dressing table or plush toys.
Truly a calm and self-disciplined person.
Gu Yanzhi sighed, but then heard the person lying on the bed softly mumble something, so she leaned at the bedside to listen.
“Lele…”
Who is that?
As Gu Yanzhi wondered, the person in front of her suddenly had two lines of clear tears slide down from the corner of her eyes: “Sorry… Mom… couldn’t save you…”
More shocking than her words were Lu Qingshi’s tears. It wasn’t the first time she had seen her cry, and coincidentally, every time she seemed to witness her vulnerable side. However, seeing Lu Qingshi completely unguarded and fully exposing her vulnerability was indeed a first for her.
She found it very difficult to describe that kind of feeling, somewhat like the sour and astringent taste of fresh lemon, and she also very much wanted to smooth out the wrinkles between her eyebrows.
To make her smile, to make her happy, to let her no longer frown, and no longer shed tears.
A person who has always been cheerful and open-minded, for the first time in twenty-nine years, began to worry about this kind of feeling.
She was not without friends; her previous comrades were all life-and-death friendships, and after coming to Jinzhou City, Qin Xuan was also considered a good friend. But when it came to Lu Qingshi, she did not know how to define it, or how to approach her.
She seemed indifferent to everything happening around her, but in reality, beneath the iceberg, she hid a burning innocent childlike heart.
She could see through this iceberg, yet did not know how to melt it.
In the special operations courses she learned in the past, they never taught her how to approach someone she likes, and no one even told her what liking someone truly means.
At that time, the naive and ignorant Instructor Gu only extended her hand to carefully wipe away her tears: “Don’t cry, no matter what you’ve experienced in the past, I’ll be with you.”
“Click—” Xiang Nanke turned on the living room light and gently placed her on the sofa.
Qin Xuan tugged at her sleeve, not letting her leave: “Old Bao, stay with me tonight.”
“I…” Xiang Nanke pried her hand open: “Doctor Qin, you’ve drunk too much.”
After she spoke, she turned to leave, but was suddenly hugged from behind, with burning tears falling into the hollow of her neck, making her heart tremble a bit.
“Old Bao, I have followed you since I was seventeen, and for so many years I never asked you for anything… Every weekend you go home to be with her, while I eat, sleep, and watch movies alone… I am very obedient… will you stay with me, please?”
Xiang Nanke’s throat moved as she looked down at the pair of hands around her waist. They were a doctor’s hands, slender, fair, and delicate. A trembling kiss fell on her earlobe, carrying a bit of caution.
Hearing the sound of water from the bathroom, Xiang Nanke put on gloves, took a plastic sealed bag out of her pocket, removed a small brush from inside, and extracted fingerprints from the glass in front of her. She then used the same method on other items and found a man’s hair on the bedroom bed.
The sound of water in the bathroom stopped, and she quickly put everything back in its original place.
The next day, not until the sun was high in the sky, did Lu Qingshi rub her temples and sit up from bed, her head feeling like it was splitting.
She lifted the quilt, ready to get out of bed to drink water— wait! Who changed her pajamas!
It seemed there was a gap in her memory, her mind a blank, but it seemed that Gu Yanzhi had brought her back, and she sighed in relief again.
Anyway, since they are both women, seeing is seeing, it doesn’t matter.
The doctor had a bit of a “broken jar, broken throw” mentality1, which was still better than being overwhelmed by the smell of alcohol and lying on the bed, as then the next day she’d certainly have to change even the bed sheets and covers.
After getting up and washing, she opened the refrigerator, which was completely empty. Lu Qingshi rubbed her forehead, picked up her keys, and was ready to go out shopping.
Just as she pushed the door open, a head popped out from the house opposite: “Awake, huh? Come to my house for a meal.”
Lu Qingshi shook her head: “Yesterday, thank you.”
“I made roasted pigeon, four happiness meatball soup, and osmanthus sugar lotus root, oh.”
The other person began reciting the menu.
“…”
Afraid that her appetite might not be good due to just waking up and yesterday’s hangover, Gu Yanzhi only served her soup. The clear broth, filled with vegetables and meatballs, just looked so appetizing.
Lu Qingshi took a sip and slightly squinted her eyes: “Are your cooking skills this good?”
The other four dishes and one soup were successively served on the table, including both meat and vegetables, and there was cold mixed okra to whet the appetite.
Gu Yanzhi took off the apron and sat down at the table: “The first year in the army, I helped in the cooking class, with nothing to do, I blindly pondered how to eat.”
Lu Qingshi couldn’t help but laugh: “Then how come you don’t seem to gain weight?”
Gu Yanzhi bent her arm, and the solid muscle lines bulged up: “All here.”
Hamburger, smelling the aroma of the food, ran over and placed its front paws on Lu Qingshi’s body, eagerly eyeing the contents of her bowl.
Lu Qingshi held back her laughter and rubbed its head. Gu Yanzhi looked at her today with her hair down, wearing a loose shirt with one button undone at the collar, revealing her slender collarbone, and said a sentence.
“Doctor Lu is truly thin; yesterday, when I carried you, you were as light as a feather, not even as heavy as my family’s Hamburger.”
Lu Qingshi, unable to swallow a mouthful of soup, choked and coughed repeatedly, a flush rising on her pale face.
“You… carried me back yesterday?”
The other person sincerely nodded: “You even took the car keys to open the door.”
“…You also changed my pajamas?”
With an honest gaze: “Yes, is there any problem?”
In the first half of Lu Qingshi’s life, she did not have any overly intimate relationships with either the same sex or the opposite sex. She and Fu Lei did not experience any thrilling romantic stories, but were simply two like-minded people who naturally came together. Therefore, she values the safe distance between people in interactions very much. Once someone breaks this boundary and gets too close, she feels very uncomfortable.
Gu Yanzhi is an exception. Unlike Qin Xuan, who seems to have a skin contact thirst and pounces on her as soon as they meet, Gu Yanzhi’s contact is like still waters that run deep, but it slowly leaves a place in her heart.
She admits she cannot treat Gu Yanzhi as an ordinary patient, as this makes her pay attention to her condition and unconsciously listen to her words. Just like today, when Gu Yanzhi said she made a meal and invited her to eat, she came. This is very unlike the usually aloof Lu Qingshi.
But looking at her hesitant eyes, she couldn’t say words of refusal.
Moreover, when it comes to her helping her change clothes, she doesn’t have particularly close female friends, but according to the general public’s view, between close friends, this seems to be no problem.
But if one were to say there’s no problem, it always seems like there’s a problem somewhere.
The usually intelligent doctor was made somewhat tangled by this mood, like a mess of yarn where no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t find the end of the thread.
The person opposite, biting her chopsticks, spoke: “Doctor Lu, do you not like having intimate contact with people?”
From the first time she put her hand on her shoulder, she discovered that Lu Qingshi was very resistant to this kind of physical contact. She thought it was just because the two were not familiar, yet she didn’t expect it to be the same with Qin Xuan.
Lu Qingshi came back to her senses, stirring the four happiness meatball soup in her bowl: “Mm… sort of.”
“Then how about this?” The other person suddenly reached out and touched her forehead; her palm was dry and warm, her eyes bright and clear.
“Does Doctor Lu resist my contact?”
Lu Qingshi subconsciously shook her head: “If it’s only this level of contact… it’s still okay…”
For some reason, Gu Yanzhi quietly breathed a sigh of relief and withdrew her hand: “I understand, it’s no problem. It must be that our contact time hasn’t been long enough or frequent enough, so you’ll feel uncomfortable. In the future, more contact will make it okay~”
Is it really like this?
Lu Qingshi’s face showed a contemplative expression, as if… what was said had some truth.
In the morning, Qin Xuan stretched lazily as she walked out of the bedroom. Just stepping into the living room, she felt something was not right. On the sofa was something that wasn’t her coat nor Lao Bao’s clothes.
Still in a daze, the female doctor walked over and pulled it open, revealing an unfamiliar head, and immediately let out a series of ghostly screams: “Ahhhhhhhhh!”
The female police officer, disturbed from her sweet dream, turned over and got up, covering her mouth with one hand. Her voice was somewhat hoarse, and her hair was slightly messy.
“It’s me, Xiang Nanke.”
“Mmm mmm mmm…” The other person nodded desperately, and only then did she let go and sit back on the sofa.
“Was it you who brought me back last night?”
“Yes,” Xiang Nanke replied as she put on her coat and went to button her shirt.
Qin Xuan, wrapped in a bathrobe with nothing underneath, blushed deeply: “Did you help me bathe?!”
Xiang Nanke glanced at her: “I just sent you in.”
Qin Xuan felt her legs go weak, thinking about her lifetime reputation!
“If you weren’t a woman, I would have called the police,” Qin Xuan said, shivering, her face red enough to drip blood.
The officer got up from the sofa, fastened her belt, and put her sidearm into the holster: “Then I should have directly taken you back to the station and charged you with sexually harassing me.”
“What?!” Someone’s eyes widened, with a face that said, “What happened? Who am I? Where am I?” completely not remembering anything.
Xiang Nanke explained the entire event process once, and when she mentioned Qin Xuan dialing the wrong number and acting coy, Qin Xuan held her forehead. When she talked about Qin Xuan kissing her cheek in front of Gu Yanzhi, Qin Xuan covered her face.
When speaking of her holding onto her waist and not letting her go, Qin Xuan felt ashamed, the corner of her mouth twitching.
And then later…
Xiang Nanke suddenly closed her mouth.
Qin Xuan, weakly but with the determination to face it boldly: “And then?”
“Then you started taking off your clothes yourself…”
Qin Xuan’s legs went weak, nearly stumbling to the ground, but Xiang Nanke caught her, a smile appearing at the corner of her lips.
“Doctor Qin’s figure is really very nice, you know.”
Qin Xuan gritted her teeth: “I thank you!”
0 Comments