Peerless Beauty – Chapter 103
by Little PandaBirthday
Happy birthday
Lu Yinxi acted as if she hadn’t heard, picked up the ceramic basin from the ground, raised her arm, and was about to smash it again.
Wei Mingming from inside rushed out and hugged her: “Yinxi! Calm down!”
People in mourning clothes surrounded them, wielding wooden sticks, encircling her: “What are you doing! What are you doing! Are you trying to kill someone?”
Zhang Yue also rushed out, snatched the ceramic basin from Lu Yinxi’s hand, and shielded the two of them behind him.
Jian Qing heard the commotion outside, stood up straight, and forcefully knocked on the door of the tea room: “Open the door, let me out!”
The scene descended into chaos.
Doctors and nurses rushed out to check on the middle-aged woman on the ground.
One doctor said: “She’s not dead, there’s still breathing and heartbeat. Get up, stop pretending to be dead!”
The crowd involved in the medical dispute shouted: “Save her! Bandage her! Aren’t you doctors and nurses?”
A nurse rolled her eyes: “She won’t die anytime soon. Take her to the emergency department yourselves!”
A middle-aged man in mourning clothes raised a wooden stick and swung it towards Lu Yinxi’s left arm.
Zhang Yue shielded them and stepped back: “Don’t use violence, don’t use violence!”
The man roared: “Who allowed you, you wh*re, to hit my wife?”
Lu Yinxi pointed at the surveillance camera and shouted: “There’s a camera here, she hit me first! If you hit me again, you won’t get a single penny, and you’ll all end up in jail eating prison food!”
Old He’s relatives originally intended to cause a scene for the He family and extort some money to share, but they didn’t want to go to prison for it.
Unable to hit her, the man forcefully shoved Lu Yinxi: “You bastard! I’ll f*ck your ancestors!”
“Bang bang bang!” Jian Qing knocked on the door of the tea room, calling Lu Yinxi’s name, “Yinxi! Go home!”
Lu Yinxi glanced at the tea room.
She didn’t care about being insulted herself; she was a celebrity, and had been cursed at online countless times before. What vulgar words hadn’t she heard or seen?
She just didn’t want to hear others cursing at Jian Qing anymore.
Jian Qing pounded on the wooden door: “Wei Mingming, Zhang Yue, come and open the door for me!”
Wei Mingming pulled Lu Yinxi and Zhang Yue, dragging them both into the office, and went to open the door for Jian Qing.
The group of people in mourning clothes also swarmed into the office in a noisy crowd.
Security personnel from the Security Department, fully equipped with helmets, riot shields, and tear gas sprays, came up and stood in front of the doctors.
Hospital leaders and Director Jiang from the Medical Affairs Department also walked over.
Director Jiang shouted: “Don’t argue! Causing trouble won’t solve the problem! If there are conflicts, let’s sit down and negotiate a solution! Everyone, put your things away!”
Old He roared: “Negotiate my ass! You people, officials protecting officials!”
Hu Jianjun took out a red-headed document and said: “Everyone, calm down. According to the instructions from the higher authorities, she is now to be suspended for investigation. Stop making trouble.”
With these words, everyone fell silent.
Lu Yinxi looked towards Jian Qing.
Jian Qing came out of the tea room, looking at the red-headed document in Hu Jianjun’s hand.
Old He asked: “She’s suspended, but what about our compensation? Your hospital killed my daughter-in-law, how much do you plan to pay?”
Director Jiang: “We’ll sit down and resolve the matter of compensation. First, remove those wreaths and take off your mourning clothes. Don’t affect other patients seeking treatment!”
The head of the Security Department had already arranged for people to remove the wreaths and maintain order at the scene.
The head nurse dispersed the onlooking patients, urging them to return to their wards.
Several resident doctors lifted the middle-aged woman who was pretending to be dead and carried her to the emergency department for bandaging.
The police also arrived at the scene and took the troublemakers to the police station on charges of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.”
Hu Jianjun handed the red-headed document about suspension and investigation to Jian Qing: “The public opinion has escalated. The Health Commission wants you suspended. You also need to go to the police station for investigation. Hand over your current work.”
Jian Qing took the red-headed document, read it word by word, and said: “Understood.”
Everyone in the department was watching her.
Lu Yinxi walked to her side.
Jian Qing lowered her eyes and looked at Lu Yinxi for two seconds, then suddenly lowered her head and gently bumped her forehead: “Who told you to be so impulsive?”
Her forehead bumped, Lu Yinxi frowned, rubbed it, but didn’t complain. She held Jian Qing’s hand, remaining silent.
Hu Jianjun, with a stern face, continued speaking: “Don’t crowd around here watching the commotion. Go do what you’re supposed to do. Zhang Yue, Wei Mingming, go clean up outside.”
Wei Mingming, with teary eyes, looked at Jian Qing, then at Hu Jianjun and Director Jiang, and choked out: “You’re just muddling through!”
Director Jiang clicked his tongue: “We want to protect your teacher too, but we can’t. These are orders from above, we can only comply.”
Hu Jianjun, with a stern face, coldly looked at her: “It’s not your place to speak. Get out.”
Zhang Yue didn’t dare to make a sound, pulling Wei Mingming out to clean up.
Lu Yinxi went to the bathroom to wash her hands and face.
The head nurse took a piece of gauze, wrapped it around an ice pack, and applied it to her face.
She obediently went to pick up the ceramic pot, replanting the soil and cactus back into it.
Jian Qing sat in the office, took out paper and pen, and wrote down a list of work handover notes.
She wrote about the medical work, research projects, administrative affairs, and teaching duties she was responsible for, prioritizing them clearly and methodically, then handed it to Hu Jianjun.
Hu Jianjun’s stern face softened a bit, and he comforted her: “You’ve been wronged. I was the one who asked you to admit this patient.”
Jian Qing shook her head: “She’s my patient too. She didn’t do anything wrong.”
Director Jiang said: “I’ve inquired about it. This won’t lead to a formal case. You just need to go and assist with the investigation.”
Jian Qing made a sound of acknowledgment, didn’t say anything more, and took off her white coat.
After taking off the white coat, she looked up at the red slogan on the wallβ
γSometimes, to cure; Often, to help; Always, to comfort.γ
Lu Yinxi, with the ice pack on her face, came in from outside and saw Jian Qing’s bewildered look.
Her heart felt as if a blunt knife was cutting through it, causing waves of dull pain.
Lu Yinxi remembered the academic conference at the beginning of the year, where Jian Qing, across hundreds of people, announced the clinical data of a patient’s progression-free survival. They had exchanged a knowing look, sharing the joy, satisfaction, and pride of a doctor, a researcher, snatching a life from the hands of death.
Once such a spirited person, a person with firm beliefs, now revealing such a bewildered look.
Was she also doubting herself, wondering if she had done something wrong? Whether she shouldn’t have been soft-hearted and kind?
Lu Yinxi didn’t dare to guess the despair in her heart. She walked over, reached out to embrace her, warming her with her own body heat: “Let’s go home.”
After returning home, the next day, Jian Qing was summoned to the police station for questioning, to assist with the investigation.
She went for three consecutive days without coming out.
She wasn’t imprisoned for killing someone, but for saving someone.
Online, a video influencer with millions of followers reposted the news report from the satellite TV station. Jian Qing was cursed and became a trending topic.
Lu Yinxi checked the avatar of that influencer; it was a familiar face.
It was the person who had caused a scene at the outpatient clinic for missing their turn.
She had scolded him back then.
Before, at the outpatient clinic, when one person cursed, she could curse back on Jian Qing’s behalf. Now, with a group of people cursing, the power of public opinion capable of melting gold and destroying bones, how could she curse back for Jian Qing?
That influencer found the video he had filmed back then, maliciously edited it, and released it.
In the edited video, Jian Qing appeared to have a terrible attitude, looking coldly at the patient, disdaining to explain the reason, and directly making him wait until the very last.
Below the video was another flood of abuse.
“This kind of doctor deserves to be in jail! Go eat prison food!”
“No medical ethics, morally bankrupt!”
“She looks quite pretty, didn’t expect her heart to be so black!”
“Are you blind? Where is she pretty? She looks spiteful and mean!”
…
Lu Yinxi remembered that Jian Qing had once trended on social media after participating in earthquake relief efforts. At that time, the comments below were all praise and commendationβ
“Doctors are great! Respect!”
“Salute to the angels in white!”
“The doctor sister is beautiful both in appearance and heart! Respect!”
…
She could only say one thing: it’s just as well.
It’s just as well that Jian Qing never used Weibo and couldn’t see these comments.
In the day-after-day waiting, Lu Yinxi slowly sank into despair.
She reflected on herself.
She had always been trying to peel away the cold, hard protective layer around Jian Qing, wanting to help Jian Qing escape those unfortunate fates.
Now, it was precisely because of the softening after peeling away that hardness that Jian Qing had been pushed into a desperate fate.
She felt that she herself was the biggest variable, the culprit, the person who shouldn’t have existed.
If she didn’t exist, if Jian Qing had always remained cold and hard, if she hadn’t tried to change her, hadn’t let her learn empathy, hadn’t let her learn to be soft, if she had just let her remain cold and closed off from beginning to end, would the current situation be different?
But then she thought, in the original plot, they both ended up dead.
It wasn’t any better.
Lu Yinxi climbed out of the pit of despair.
Even if the fate of this world was determined to knock her down, she wouldn’t bow her head.
If fate wanted her to despair, she would stubbornly refuse to despair.
She absolutely would not go down the path of self-destruction.
Absolutely not!
Wang Enyi brought his friend, a reporter from the satellite TV station, to linger at the hospital entrance, wanting to interview people from the Oncology Department.
The reporter fired off several questions in succession:
“What’s your view on a colleague prescribing fake medicine?”
“This probably wasn’t the first time she prescribed fake medicine. Do you know how many times she’s done it before?”
The doctors and nurses from the Oncology Department didn’t answer and drove them away.
Those whom Jian Qing had offended in the past all took the opportunity to trample on her when she was down.
Lu Yinxi went to the Oncology Department to pack up some of Jian Qing’s belongings left in the on-call room, and happened to run into the two people who had been driven away.
She looked at the reporter’s work ID and said sarcastically: “Your TV station broadcasts fake medical advertisements all day long, and now, for the sake of attracting attention, you’re pushing a dedicated doctor into a whirlpool of public opinion. How despicable can you get?”
The reporter stuck out his neck and said: “You little girl, looking so delicate, why are you speaking so rudely? What’s it to you? Are you her family member?”
Lu Yinxi sneered: “Yes, I am her family. You think only her family is cursing you? Do you know about the famous ‘Peng Yu case’? A young man helped an elderly person who had fallen down, and the elderly person turned around and sued him in court, claiming the young man had knocked them down and demanding compensation. The judge ruled against the young man, reasoning: ‘If you didn’t knock the elderly person down, why would you help them up?’ Since then, before helping any fallen elderly person, everyone has to weigh whether they might be falsely accused.
“Now, no doctor dares to recommend unapproved imported drugs to late-stage cancer patients, and patients can only wait for death. Your news reports are stained with human blood! What you’re doing doesn’t just harm her alone, you’re blocking the path for millions of cancer patients. Hundreds of cancer-affected families are cursing you, you’re infamous! You’d better pray that no one in your family ever gets cancer! Ptui!”
The reporter’s face turned red from her scolding.
Lu Yinxi spat once more at Wang Enyi, then left with her head held high, carrying Jian Qing’s belongings.
She washed clean the things brought back from the hospital and put them on the balcony to sun.
Lu Yinxi went out again, bought a large cake, and went to the police station to pick up Jian Qing.
The days-long investigation finally ended. Jian Qing had not profited from it, there was no financial connection with the drug sellers, and the drug had no direct relationship to the patient’s death. Although her actions were illegal, they did not constitute a crime. The police station announced that no case would be filed and the investigation was terminated.
Jian Qing’s treatment at the police station wasn’t too bad; she could usually eat with the police officers.
Lu Yinxi brought a large cake and said to the police: “Today is my birthday, I’ll celebrate it here. Please everyone have some of my birthday cake, and thank you for taking care of my cousin.”
A police officer sighed and said: “In this world, it’s hard to be a good person. Dr. Jian has suffered.”
Jian Qing put candles on the cake.
Her phone, which she had just gotten back, was on the table with a web page open showing a familiar Weibo avatar.
Lu Yinxi’s avatar.
Lu Yinxi picked up her phone, clicked on her profile, and found that her Weibo was blank, her avatar was blank, and she was only following one person – herself.
So she had been using Weibo after allβ¦
Had she also seen those rumors? That awful public opinion?
Lu Yinxi looked up at Jian Qing.
Jian Qing was also looking at her, singing “Happy Birthday” along with the police officers.
Lu Yinxi put down the phone, cut cake for each of the police officers, and finally cut a piece for Jian Qing with less cream and more fruit. The piece in her own hand was almost all cream.
“Happy birthday,” Jian Qing swapped their plates, pushing the one with more fruit in front of Lu Yinxi. “I’ll make it up to you tomorrow.”
Lu Yinxi’s nose stung, and she choked up, unable to speak. She glanced at Jian Qing’s haggard and thin face, held back her tears, and lowered her head to eat the cake.
Jian Qing watched as her tears fell into the cake.
“Yinxi, don’t cry. I’m fine now.”
A gentle consolation.
“I’m not crying⦔ Lu Yinxi rubbed her eyes, holding back tears, and said with a trembling voice, “I’m not crying. They use public opinion, I will use it tooβ¦ They use public opinion to hurt you, so I will use public opinion to protect you, to uphold justice for you.”
The author has something to say:
It’s not that angsty, right? I’m still a writer of sweet stories~~~
LP: You now have a stain author-san~ Can’t wait for the revenge!
An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth! Trample them all, Lu Yinxi! *victory laugh*
I wished that old hag HAD died. Teach her family a lesson about mutually assured destruction. “If you don’t want to drink the toast, you’ll drink the forfeit”.
This better be as good as I hope it is going to be. I have faith