Peerless Beauty – Chapter 87
by Little PandaDoing Bad Things
I now want to do bad things to you
When Lu Yinxi woke up, the living room light was a dim yellow, with a thin blanket covering her.
She guessed that Jian Qing had returned, adjusted the light to a bright white, wrapped the blanket around her, and shuffled in slippers, noticing the kitchen food had already been eaten.
There was a slight regret for having fallen asleep, missing the moment when she returned and saw her own appearance.
It should have been a happy moment, rightโฆ
The study room door was open, with the light on inside.
Lu Yinxi glanced in the direction of the study room, opened the refrigerator, took out a lemon, and busied herself for a while at the kitchen juicer, squeezing two cups of lemon juice, inserting straws, and carrying them in.
Jian Qing sat at the desk, her gaze focused on the computer screen, supporting her forehead with her left hand, gently rubbing her temples, and holding the mouse with her right hand, adding annotations to Wei Mingming’s thesis.
Lu Yinxi walked in, and their gazes met.
After a long separation and reunion, there were no greetings, just a mutual smile.
Lu Yinxi’s smile was radiant, and Jian Qing slightly raised her head, quietly observing her, with a gentle gaze and eyes sparkling with light.
She placed one cup of lemon juice on the table, saying: “No need to care about me, you focus on your work.”
Then she went around behind the screen, took a book from the bookshelf, and half-reclined on the small bed to read.
In reality, her heart was somewhat restless, unable to concentrate on the book, occasionally glancing towards the figure in front of the screen.
Jian Qing took a sip of the lemon juice.
It was somewhat sweet.
She suggested: “You could add less sugar.”
Her taste is mild.
“Hmph.” Lu Yinxi lightly hummed, without raising her head, quietly scolding her, saying, “It’s the usual amount. Be less picky, having a drink is already good.”
Not praising her, yet daring to criticize it as too sweet, how could there be such a reason?
Her suggestion was fiercely rebuffed, Jian Qing lightly responded with an “oh,” bit the straw, and continued quietly modifying the thesis.
After quite a while, she moved her ear and a sound emerged: “Maybe the heart is sweet.”
Lu Yinxi finally managed to concentrate, able to read a few words, but after hearing Jian Qing’s sentence, she lightly bit her lip, trying to restrain a smile, yet the corners of her lips couldn’t help but rise.
One sentence made her heart bloom with joy.
Chu Yan was part of the second batch of medical team members sent out, and on the third day after Jian Qing’s departure, he also went to the disaster area.
Lan Zhou, along with the studio and fan support group, personally transported a large batch of medical and daily supplies to the disaster area.
The two of them met in the disaster area and shared hardships, which brought their relationship further together.
After returning to Jiangzhou City, Lan Zhou invited Lu Yinxi to participate in a disaster relief charity performance, to perform a duet.
Right after the disaster, the most urgent need was for supplies, and she sent supplies and began organizing donation efforts.
All donations obtained from the charity performance would be sent to the disaster area.
Lu Yinxi gladly agreed, going out to rehearse every day, and in the evening, she would also insist that Jian Qing listen to her sing.
From the people returning from disaster area rescue, life is returning to normal, but the entire country is still mourning this great disaster, and the urgent repair work in the disaster area is also continuing.
In the face of disaster, there are no miracles, only the flesh and blood bodies standing in front.
Every day, helicopters still hover over the hospital roof, transferring patients here, with orthopedics and pediatrics being crowded.
The oncology department also received several tumor patients transferred from disaster area hospitals.
When the earthquake occurred, they were evacuated by the hospital to downstairs and luckily survived, but their families perished in this disaster, and they were personally unable to pay for treatment costs. The hospital approved waiving their treatment costs and reported to the medical insurance department.
Spring has gone and summer has come, with the weather gradually getting hotter.
By the end of June, the department nurse fetched new short-sleeve white coats from the warehouse, and almost everyone switched to short sleeves.
“This doesn’t necessarily indicate progression, because those test values and tumor markers have decreased a lot compared to before, your physical strength is still good, your weight hasn’t decreased, and no new metastatic lesions have been found,” Jian Qing pointed at the computer’s imaging results and talked with Uncle Chen, who was participating in a clinical trial. “After using immune drugs, there’s a 3%~8% probability of a pseudo-progression, where the film shows the lesion slightly enlarged compared to before, but it’s not a progression. These enlarged parts might be immune cells activated by the immune drugs entering here, causing inflammation swelling, which will subside afterwards.”
Uncle Chen was one of the patients screened by Lu Yinxi during New Year, and Jian Qing had a deep impression of him.
Every time he returned to the hospital for chemotherapy, he and his wife would bring some specialties from their hometown to give her, sometimes air-dried cured beef, sometimes a box of persimmons, and sometimes a jar of dried chili.
Brought from a thousand miles away, the local specialty is not considered an expensive gift, but rather a precious sentiment. Jian Qing generally would accept it, but only takes the dried chili home, while bringing part of the cured beef and persimmon cakes home to feed Lu Yinxi, leaving the rest in the department for everyone to share.
Clinical trial patients’ examinations and medications are all free, but some fees like ten to twenty yuan for registration and bed fees are not reimbursed. Every time he brings cured beef, Jian Qing adds one hundred fifty yuan to his medical card, considered as indirectly purchasing from him.
This time, during the hospital return evaluation and medication, the CT showed a lesion in the lung enlarged. Jian Qing’s comprehensive judgment is that it’s pseudo-progression from immune treatment, not real progression.
Simple countryside people, some do not understand medical-related terms, and their eyes are still filled with confusion, but still say: “Doctor, you say it can continue, then continue, anyway, it’s like this, treat a dead horse as a living horse.”
Treating a dead horse as a living horse is the heartfelt sentiment of most participating clinical trial subjects.
If there were medicine that could cure, or money to afford treatment, no one would willingly make themselves an experimental subject.
Jian Qing asked: “Then after using the medication last time, have you felt any discomfort during this period?”
During the trial process, every time patients return to the hospital, they must record any adverse reaction events that occur, such as diarrhea, rash, feverโฆ these adverse events will be the ใmedication adverse reactionsใ precautions in future medicine instructions.
Uncle Chen said: “Last week, I had some rash on my skin, I applied some medicine myself, and it subsided.”
Rash is also one of the common adverse reactions during immune treatment.
Jian Qing asked in detail: “What medicine did you use? How many days did you use it? How many times a day?”
These must all be recorded in the research medical record.
After the consultation ended, Wei Mingming ran over, bent down close to her ear and said: “A colon cancer patient from a prison was transferred from the disaster area, I heard after the earthquake he didn’t escape, and even helped dig out and save many prison police. The prison police there were sent to our gastrointestinal surgery department, originally planning surgery, but upon opening the abdomen, found it couldn’t be operated on, as it had metastasized throughout the body, stage IVB, so they could only transfer to our department. Deputy Hu wants you to be responsible for admission and treatment.”
After the disaster, the original prison in the disaster area was also completely destroyed, and some surviving prisoners, during the unstable order, either shouted to go home to save people, or focused on escaping during the chaos, while some with conscience intact, not one ran, and even stayed to participate in the rescue efforts.
After order was restored, they were transferred to prisons in surrounding cities.
Prisoners who fall sick inside the prison generally receive treatment at the prison hospital, but usually only for minor illnesses. For serious illnesses or acute sudden illnesses, arrangements are made to send them to external hospitals. If it’s a disease like cancer, they can even apply for medical parole.
Hospital medical staff have always not been very fond of these types of patients and do not show them any kindness.
Jian Qing, with a cold face, went to see the patient, asking Wei Mingming along the way: “What crime did he commit?”
Wei Mingming pouted and said: “I heard from the police accompanying him for medical treatment that he’s a trafficker, previously involved in trafficking children. But this time, during the earthquake, he performed very well, saving many prison police. The prison police there want to grant him medical parole, but his wife died long ago, and no one from his family has come to take him, so it might still require the prison to pay for his treatment. Sigh, isn’t the prison’s money still our taxpayers’ money? Although I don’t need to pay taxes yetโฆ”
Jian Qing listened and, in her eyes, a rare trace of disgust showed.
In this life, she detests human traffickers the most.
Her younger sister, Ruan Xi, was drowned by human traffickers who threw her into the river.
If those human traffickers hadn’t been caught by the police and put into prison, she would do whatever it takes to kill them.
The hospital prepared a separate ward for this transferred criminal patient, with two prison police guarding the doorway. Upon entering, there were also two prison police watching by the bedside, and a camera was installed inside the room.
The patient lay on the bed, emaciated, wearing handcuffs, looking at the approaching doctor in white.
Jian Qing studied his face, was stunned for a second, then calmly took the medical record handed over by Zhang Yue, examining the information one by one.
The patient’s surname is Lan, name Bin. A few months ago, he discovered abdominal pain, diarrhea, and blood in his stool, but it did not attract attention. Within a short time, his weight rapidly decreased without reason. Half a month ago, due to severe abdominal pain, he visited the D City judicial police hospital, where a colonoscopy found a sigmoid colon1 tumor, and pathology showed “adenocarcinoma.”2
He was then transferred to the gastrointestinal surgery department of Jiangzhou City’s First Affiliated Hospital.
After carefully reading the transfer record written by the gastrointestinal surgery department, Jian Qing changed her cold demeanor. Under her mask, a trace of a calm and strange smile appeared on her lips: “Hello, I am the doctor responsible for your treatment, Jian Qing. Your ward doctors are Doctor Zhang Yue and Doctor Wei Mingmingโฆ”
After a day of rehearsal, Lan Zhou drove Lu Yinxi home.
When Lu Yinxi got out from the front passenger seat of Lan Zhou’s car, she bumped into Jian Qing, who was returning home from work.
Lan Zhou, still somewhat embarrassed, got out, greeted Jian Qing, and apologized for the previous unpleasantness.
Jian Qing said calmly, “The past is the past, forget it. Our hospital’s health check center has a free health check activity. Didn’t you say last time that you wanted to bring your welfare institute’s director over for a check-up?”
Lan Zhou sighed in relief and smiled, “I’ve been too busy lately, I’ll bring her over next month to have a look.”
Jian Qing asked again, “Your name is very nice, did your director give it to you?”
Lan Zhou said, “Sort of. When our director found me, there was a Lan character sewn on my clothes. The director guessed it might be my surname, so she named me Lan Zhou. She hopes the children of our welfare institute will weather storms together and share hardships.”
Jian Qing nodded and asked again, “Knowing your surname, why not go find your family?”
Lan Zhou waved her hand, still smiling, “They didn’t want me, so why should I go find them? I think nurturing kindess is greater than birthing kindness. The director is my mom, having her is enough.”
Jian Qing’s concern for Lan Zhou caught Lu Yinxi’s attention.
A trace of strange emotion rose in Lu Yinxi’s heart.
It’s not jealousy, but rather, in their predetermined fate, these two people will inevitably find themselves on opposing sides.
Jian Qing’s excessive concern for Lan Zhou is a very abnormal behavior.
At night, Jian Qing was searching for information on the computer, and Lu Yinxi customarily entered the study to accompany her.
During Jian Qing’s break to rub her eyes, Lu Yinxi moved a chair, sat beside her, and looked at the information she was searching.
Colon cancer, low blood potassium, high blood potassiumโฆ
Lu Yinxi asked, “Did you encounter a colon cancer patient?”
Jian Qing replied with a sound, “Colon cancer, frequent diarrhea, potassium ion loss, often results in critically low blood potassium levels.”
Recalling medical knowledge, Lu Yinxi said, “Then you need to ensure urination before potassium supplementation.”
The normal range for blood potassium in the human body is between 3.5 to 5.5 mmol/L. If it falls below 2.5 mmol, potassium supplementation is needed.
However, since potassium is mainly excreted through urine, if the patient’s urine output is too low, potassium supplementation might cause excess potassium in the body, which can lead to high blood potassium, and in severe cases, death. Therefore, during potassium supplementation, it’s crucial to confirm that the patient’s urination is normal, which is clinically known as ‘urination before potassium supplementation.’
Jian Qing didn’t speak, she reached out and rubbed Lu Yinxi’s head.
Lu Yinxi asked her, “Did something happen today? You seem a bit unhappy.”
“No.” Jian Qing withdrew her hand, closed the computer, and said, “Sleep.”
Lu Yinxi acknowledged with a sound and followed Jian Qing in standing up, preparing to walk out of the study to wash up.
After taking just one step, she stopped again, leaned on the table edge, pointed behind the screen, and said, “Doctor Jian, do you remember, you promised me in this study not to do bad things.”
Jian Qing turned back to look at her and said, “I remember.” She paused, then asked, “What bad things am I doing now?”
It seemedโฆ indeed she wasn’t doing any bad thingsโฆ
Lu Yinxi found herself at a loss for words, momentarily unable to respond, but she just felt that something about her today was not quite right.
Jian Qing, silently, turned off the study’s light. Against the light, she walked over step by step, supported her arm on the desk, encircled Lu Yinxi, and with her body close, whispered in her ear with a breath like orchid fragrance: “I now want to do bad things to you.”
LP: Is Ruan Xi Lan Zhou??
Footnotes
- Sigmoid colon: The last part of your large intestine, shaped like an โSโ (hence the name โsigmoidโ). It connects the descending colon to the rectum.
- Adenocarcinoma: A type of cancer that starts in the glandular cells, which are cells that produce mucus and other fluids in organs like the colon, lungs, or breast.
I was thinking the prisoner might be Lan Zhouโs dad since they have the same last name ๐ค