Life is Like a Journey – Chapter 47
by Little PandaVolume 1: Rise
Choice
The stars and the sea, one day, I will reach them.
“Captain Xiang, he confessed everything,” the colleague said, holding the record as he came out from the interrogation room to show her. Xiang Nanke glanced at it and tossed it on the table.
“Alright, prepare to submit it to the procuratorate to initiate public prosecution.”
Seeing that she seemed in a bad mood, the colleague hesitated repeatedly but still came over: “If you ask me, we should focus on that case. All this small stuff is of no use…”
Xiang Nanke lifted her head from the computer screen, her eyes slightly cold: “What do you mean by ‘small stuff’? What do you mean by ‘no use’? Could it be that a twelve-year-old child’s future…”
She stopped mid-sentence, realizing that compared to a cross-national smuggling case, it indeed is…
“Alright, you know to keep up, hurry up, if idle with nothing to do just go visit for me.”
Seeing her angry, the subordinate didn’t dare to say more and awkwardly left with the dossier.
Xiang Nanke thought for a moment and still picked up the car keys from the table and put them in her pocket.
“Captain Xiang, what are you doing after work?”
Without turning her head: “Investigating a case.”
Just after finishing a world boss fight that dropped rare equipment, Fang Zhiyou put it up on the Treasure Pavilion, estimating it should sell for around a thousand. She flipped through her wallet, finding a colorful array of bills saved up quite a bit; aside from daily expenses and her mom’s medical fees, there should still be a bit of money left to visit her.
While thinking this, a call from Yu Gui came in, and she answered a bit excitedly: “Xiaogui, next month…”
The other poured cold water on her plans: “Zhiyou, I want to stay at Renji Medical University.”
Beside Yu Gui was a thick stack of review materials, and her notebook was densely filled with key knowledge. She is preparing for next year’s practicing physician qualification exam and the assessment at Renji Medical University.
In the past, this was something she wouldn’t have dared to think about, but after witnessing so many miracles, she seems to have become a little braver.
Fang Zhiyou tightly squeezed the phone: “Why… wasn’t it agreed that after the training ends you’d return to our hospital?”
Going back to be a small-town doctor, living peacefully, and staying together with her long-term isn’t something Yu Gui hasn’t thought about, but…
She doesn’t know how to describe that feeling, just like after enjoying a luxurious life, it’s very hard to be content with poverty and happiness again.
She feels a little bit unwilling.
“I… I want to try… also don’t know if I can… just don’t get excited yet…”
Fang Zhiyou gritted her teeth, her eyes slowly reddening: “Yu Gui! Since you got into Jinzhou Medical University, I’ve waited for you for five whole years! How much longer do you want me to wait for you?”
Even though she desperately wants to narrow this gap, ever since she got into a first-tier university and she herself failed, an unseen chasm has been growing every year.
She sometimes even feels that the relationship between her and Yu Gui is no longer about physical distance, but about an unspeakable class issue.
Sometimes she has to admit, her mom was right; she and Yu Gui are destined to be people from two different worlds.
While Yu Gui was burying her head in studying hard, burning the midnight oil, she was staying up late playing games.
When Yu Gui was exhausted from working hard, she slept heavily due to staying up late.
Two people with irregular routines naturally can’t stick together anytime and anywhere, so waiting for Yu Gui’s call became her daily luxury.
She didn’t even dare to call her actively, because she was uncertain when Yu Gui would have time and was afraid of delaying her in saving patients.
But even so, it was common for Yu Gui to be busy for several days without a trace, and as time went on, it’s lying to say there wasn’t a bit of dissatisfaction.
What she didn’t know was that the few minutes to call her were also squeezed out from Yu Gui’s eating or bathroom time.
Training doctors are not like resident doctors; they are a bottom role that anyone can order around, leaving Yu Gui with too much beyond her control.
“Sorry…” Yu Gui lay on a makeshift desk made by piling up suitcases with a newspaper as a desk pad, her eyes silently reddening.
She thought, she really owes her a lot…
“Believe me… I definitely can… if I can get into Renji Medical University as a resident doctor… I can bring you and Aunt over…”
Fang Zhiyou held the phone and silently laughed: “With my mom like this, do you think she can travel long distances? Besides… are you willing for her to…”
Yu Gui felt a lump in her throat: “I will prove to Aunt that I’m not a waste… and… I really want to achieve my own dream… and also want to be with you…”
Since she was young, she was someone who got by without big ambitions, and entering medical school was her parents’ demand, but this time she really wants to stay here, at Renji Medical University.
“You have dreams, don’t I?! My biggest dream now is to be with you forever!” Fang Zhiyou painfully held her head in her hands. If it weren’t for her mom’s accident and failing the college entrance exam, she too would have entered university like Yu Gui, had a bright and respectable job, and worked nine to five with her.
Yu Gui remembered long ago when Fang Zhiyou stared at an airplane model in a display window for a long time. Later, on her sixteenth birthday, Yu Gui saved for a long time to buy that model for her. She will never forget the radiance on her face at that time, the youth in a blue and white school uniform holding the model, running on the playground, turning back to call her name.
“Yu Gui”
“Mm?”
“Do you believe that one day I can also fly an airplane into the blue sky?”
Yu Gui counted on her fingers: “Uh… being a pilot seems to be in the science field… last time in the assessment exam you…”
Fang Zhiyou suddenly covered her mouth and fiercely shouted at her, “Will you die if you don’t talk?”
Little Yu Gui looked at her aggrievedly, desperately blinking her eyes twice to beg for mercy. Only then did Fang Zhiyou let her go, raising the airplane and looking up at the blue sky.
“The stars and the sea, one day, I will reach them.”
Yu Gui looked at her high-spirited appearance with some envy in her eyes, kicking the sand beneath her feet, while she was about to face class division and still didn’t know what she wanted to do.
Fang Zhiyou put the airplane on the lawn and lay down next to her: “And you, Yu Gui, what do you want to do?”
Yu Gui hugged her knees tightly, somewhat confused: “I… don’t know… mom wants me to apply to medical school… but I always feel a bit scared…”
“Scared of what? Dead people? I heard medical students all go to the morgue to move corpses,” the youth gloated.
Yu Gui immediately got a burst of goosebumps, stammering: “You… can you not say it so frighteningly… it’s not necessarily going to…”
“However, I do think you’re quite suitable to be a doctor,” Fang Zhiyou put her arm under her head, tilting her head to look at her.
“Eh? Why?”
“Because…” the youth slightly curved her lips: “You’re very kind. Not to mention how your medical skills are, to be a good doctor, at least you must have a kind heart, right? And…”
She suddenly stopped speaking, unwilling to continue. Yu Gui went to tickle her: “And what? Quickly say!”
Fang Zhiyou, afraid of tickling, was tickled until she was out of breath. She seized an opening and suddenly exerted force to grab her wrist, pulling her down, and Yu Gui unexpectedly fell onto her.
With their eyes meeting, she saw a sparkling light in her eyes: “If you study medicine, we can be in the same class.”
Under her palm was the unique softness and delicacy of a girl, her heartbeat strong and powerful, and the breath she exhaled carried the scent of early summer grass, brushing across her face. Somehow, Yu Gui suddenly blushed and jumped up like a rabbit.
“Who wants to be in the same class with you, hate it!!!”
After shouting this sentence, Yu Gui was silent for a long time, covering her mouth, as water stains fell on the open book pages, blurring the ink marks.
She knew she cried, but when hadn’t she?
Family affection and love seem to be eternal, unchanging multiple-choice questions, but only those who have personally made choices know that this question actually has no solution.
Thus, there was a moment of mutual silence, and Yu Gui was the first to speak: “I know… let me think again… think…”
In the morning, the woman got up from the bed, opened the curtains, and daylight shone in, dispelling the room’s lingering ambiguous smell.
The man buttoned his shirt himself, tied his tie in the mirror, and Qin Xuan sat at the dressing table putting on makeup. As she was using an eyebrow pencil to draw her eyebrows, he suddenly leaned over and kissed her cheek.
“Then I’m leaving now.”
Qin Xuan’s hand slipped, drawing her eyebrow to the edge of her temple, and her eye corner twitched: “Going to Yunnan again?”
Bao Fengnian is in the tea business, having contracted dozens of tea gardens in Yunnan, often running between Jinzhou and there. When she was studying in Beijing, she also ran between three places.
“Isn’t there no other way? How can I be reassured with the workers once the boss is gone? Wait until you give me a big fat son, then I won’t run anymore and will focus on staying home with you.”
Qin Xuan rolled her eyes at him: “You just know how to talk nonsense, hurry up and leave.”
The man, over forty, was still humorous and elegant: “Yes, the little one now withdraws.”
Before leaving, he didn’t forget to take a card from his briefcase and place it on the table.
Qin Xuan tidied herself up, took the gold card from the table, sighed deeply, and locked it in the drawer.
“Captain Xiang, the DNA result comparison is out; it’s the same person,” a colleague from the technical investigation department enlarged the data on the screen.
Bao Fengnian, male, forty-five years old, Han nationality, from Jinzhou City, is the boss of Huafeng Tea Industry Co., Ltd., and has consecutively received the “Jinzhou City Entrepreneurial Expert” title for two years. He is also one of the representatives of the Jinzhou City People’s Congress.
The resume looks normal; he built his career from nothing, diligently working hard until he was over thirty to establish a company and start his tea business. But the difference is, his DNA completely matched the blood extracted from a murder scene in Yunnan.
“Captain Xiang, the evidence is conclusive. Do we arrest or not?”
Xiang Nanke touched her chin: “There’s no rush. I want to wait and see; perhaps there will be new discoveries.”
“Good morning, Doctor Lu.”
“Good morning, Director Lu.”
“Doctor Lu, are you feeling better today?”
Lu Qingshi, wearing a white coat, stopped and nodded in greeting: “Much better.”
It was another busy morning of ward rounds. After resting for three days, work had piled up like a mountain. Fortunately, she was always very efficient. With a group of attending doctors, she saw the patients one by one, observing, listening, asking, feeling, and examining. After finishing, she reminded them of important points and instructed everyone to scatter like birds and beasts.
Yu Gui, holding the medical records, was just about to ask her a question when she saw the person take off the white coat and hang it on the coat rack: “If there’s anything, talk in the afternoon.”
Why is Teacher Lu hurrying off so quickly…
Yu Gui leaned behind a pillar in the outpatient hall, peeping, and saw as soon as she exited the main entrance, a Mercedes stopped in front of her. From the car, a man and a woman in suits got out, bowed, and shook hands with her, then opened the car door for her.
“Director Lu, despite your busy schedule, you still managed to spare time to see us. We are really grateful. President Huang said today, whatever Director Lu wants to eat or do, he’s treating. In the future, we also ask for your continued guidance.”
Yu Gui’s eyes almost popped out: medical… pharmaceutical representatives?!
Someone patted her from behind: “Not working, what are you doing in the outpatient hall?”
Yu Gui was startled, and the medical records in her hand fell to the ground, but she didn’t bother to pick them up.
“Good day, Director Xu!” She quickly bent down to bow: “Nothing… nothing… I just finished ward rounds and was coming back through the outpatient hall…”
Xu Qiankun’s gaze slid from the medical record to her, gently patting her shoulder, smiling warmly.
“Don’t be so nervous. I won’t eat you. By the way, how have you considered the thing I mentioned to you last time?”
He gently stepped forward two steps, seeing no one around, whispered in her ear: “I know you’re tight on money, and the days as a resident aren’t easy, but… Doctor Yu, you’re a smart person.”
Yu Gui bit her lower lip tightly, pushed him away, and ran without looking back, until she rushed into the office, surrounded by people, only then did she breathe a sigh of relief, her eyes slightly reddened.
Hao Renjie came over holding instant noodles: “Yu Dummy, what’s wrong with you?”
Yu Gui wiped the corner of her eye with the back of her hand: “Nothing, give me a bite of your instant noodles.”
Hao Renjie quickly moved away with his instant noodles: “Wishful thinking, make your own.”
While eating instant noodles, Yu Gui suddenly sighed deeply: “Good person sister, if there were ten thousand yuan in front of you now, would you take it?”
Hao Renjie, slurping noodles, without hesitation: “Take it, not taking it would be foolish.”
“If taking this money means losing some things, then what?”
“Then it depends on what you lose.”
Yu Gui stirred the noodles with a fork: “Dreams, dignity…”
Hao Renjie sneered: “I tell you, before you have enough to eat and wear, dreams and dignity mean nothing. With a hungry stomach, you can’t even sleep, let alone dream!”
Yu Gui picked up the instant noodle bowl and gulped down the soup until it was clean, then placed it heavily on the table. Hao Renjie waited for her to say something grand.
Who knew she would just wipe her mouth: “You’re right, so I’ve decided to eat my fill first, then talk. Another bowl!!!”
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