Bathroom
Autistic Mushroom
Lu Yinxi remembered that Jian Qing had a little bit of a cleanliness obsession, and since she must have been exhausted from rushing over from the hospital to City C, she said: “You go wash up first, I’ll unpack the luggage.”
Jian Qing didn’t refuse. Hearing this, in front of Lu Yinxi, she reached out and peeled off the buttons of her coat, one by one.
Lu Yinxi had not expected her to act so quickly, and her gaze had not yet had time to move away, so it got stuck, fixated on the movements of her hands. The flow of time seemed to slow down in that instant, and every movement of the person before her eyes was infinitely magnified, from the topmost button, all the way down to her lower abdomen. She saw every little detail of her undressing crystal clear.
“How long will you look until your satisfied?” Jian Qing slowly took off her coat, revealing the pure white cashmere sweater and exquisite curves within.
This one sentence caused Lu Yinxi to blush all the way to her neck. Realizing that her behavior was impolite, she immediately turned around, faced the wall, and apologized in a quiet voice. “Sorry…”
Jian Qing didn’t reply. As usual, she checked the room for any cameras, and after making sure it was safe, she fished out the change of clothes in her suitcase and prepared to go take a shower.
Lu Yinxi was still facing the wall, with her head down, like an autistic mushroom.
(LP: The term “autistic mushroom” is not a literal description of a mushroom with autism. It is a Chinese slang term used to describe someone who is socially awkward or introverted, and who prefers to withdraw from social interactions.)
Before entering the bathroom, Jian Qing threw out a sentence: “As punishment, memorize 《Zuiweng》. When you come out, recite it to me.”
(LP: “Zuiweng” (醉翁) means “drunken old man” in Chinese. It is a reference to a famous essay written by the Song dynasty poet Ouyang Xiu, entitled “Zuiweng” (亭记) (Record of the Thatched Pavilion of the Drunken Old Man).)
Lu Yinxi silently cursed in her heart: You’re a medical school teacher, but you’re punishing someone to memorize classical Chinese prose…
Having cursed, she took out her phone, searched for the original text, and silently recited it word by word. As she recited, she suddenly thought of the time she had talked about her ideal type, saying that she hoped the other person would have a high level of literary, so that they could complement each other…
She couldn’t help but laugh.
《Zuiweng》 is included in the compulsory curriculum for junior high school. How can it reflect any literary?
While finding it funny, she couldn’t help but wonder if Jian Qing had changed because of those words she had said?
Thinking and thinking, her heart felt neither up nor down, and all thoughts of joy vanished. Her eyes felt a little dry, and her nose a little sour.
When you fall in love with someone, you can’t help but ponder their every move, their every word and action, guessing over and over again whether it’s related to you, savoring a hint of sweetness from your conjectures.
If mutual affection is possible, it is something to be celebrated for anyone.
But Lu Yinxi couldn’t see a future for this relationship.
She could disregard gender and age to fall in love with Jian Qing, but she and Jian Qing were ultimately not from the same world.
She was no longer a child, and she clearly understood that when you like someone, you don’t necessarily have to be together.
There’s more to life than love, including family, friendship, ideals, and beliefs.
She was Lu Yinxi first, and only then was she the Lu Yinxi who loved Jian Qing.
Her feelings for Jian Qing were not enough to make her give up her life in the other world and stay here permanently.
Leaving this world and returning to reality was her ultimate goal.
Reason and emotion clashed, and Lu Yinxi crouched down, so upset that she wanted to cry.
She rubbed her eyes, not daring to let the pessimistic emotions spread. She turned her attention back to her phone and silently recited《Zuiweng》.
When she recited the line “Walking six or seven li into the mountains, I gradually heard the sound of water gurgling and pouring out from between the two peaks. This is the Brewing Spring,” the rippling sound of water in the bathroom reached her ears without missing a beat.
Her train of thought was instantly interrupted.
Lu Yinxi’s mind wandered. When she came to her senses, she immediately moved a chair with a backrest and sat down.
People who work in hospitals all have a common problem: they never touch their bed or bedding after work until they have changed their clothes.
She sat in the chair with her back straight, trying to concentrate on reciting the classical Chinese text, but the sound of water in the bathroom lingered in her ears, refusing to dissipate.
Lu Yinxi flurriedly grabbed the remote control, turned on the TV, allowing the sound of the TV drama to cover up the sound of water coming from the bathroom.
Jian Qing, not wearing a single thread, stood in the water, soaked long hair tightly pressed against her waist and back, eyes closed, allowing hot water to wet her body.
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Opening her eyes when applying shower gel, she glanced outside the bathroom.
Lu Yinxi was still honestly facing the wall, not daring to turn around and take a look.
In reality, the glass of the bathroom is not the usual completely transparent glass, but rather electrolytic fogging glass. When a person walks inside, the sensor automatically senses it. From the inside looking outside, everything is clear at a glance. From the outside looking inside, it’s as if a layer of white fog has been applied, hazy and unclear.
When Jian Qing wiped her body dry and went out, she did not tell Lu Yinxi this.
“Wait until I finish washing and then I’ll recite it for you to listen.” Lu Yinxi hugged the changed clothes and walked into the bathroom, regardless of whether Jian Qing agreed or not.
Jian Qing, wearing a white bathrobe, folded her arms, leaned against the wall, stood upright right opposite the bathroom, looked in the direction of the bathroom, and unhurriedly enjoyed the view.
Lu Yinxi took off half of her clothes. When she saw Jian Qing’s unrestrained and shameless behavior, she hurriedly put on her clothes, opened the bathroom door with a loud bang, stuck her head out, and gritted her teeth: “You, you’re not allowed to look! Go to the window! Before I come out, you’re not allowed to come over!”
She herself sat upright and walked upright, did not do any sneaky things, and nearly forgot that the person in front of her was not a gentleman at all, but a scoundrel!
Jian Qing walked over step by step, a pair of long legs swaying gracefully under her bathrobe.
Lu Yinxi held her breath and covered her collar tightly.
Jian Qing glanced at Lu Yinxi’s chest, pointed at herself, and her face was as cold as her words were shameless: “What you have, I have too.”
The implication was that she didn’t care to look at her.
“Go away!”
Jian Qing obediently walked away.
She went to the window to blow cold wind.
After a while, the sound of pattering water came from the bathroom. Jian Qing stood by the window, lowered her head, and expressionlessly flipped through the PPT that she needed to present and explain tomorrow on her iPad. The tips of her ears turned a little red without her noticing.
Lu Yinxi put on a big red coral fleece long-eared rabbit nightgown and hopped to Jian Qing: “I’ve memorized 《Zuiweng》, do you want to listen to me recite it?”
Jian Qing raised her head and sized up the child.
Eyes adorned with moisture, hair carrying refreshing moisture.
Pure as a lotus flower emerging from clear water, naturally free of artificial decoration.
Jian Qing lowered her head, restraining the urge to touch the rabbit’s ears, and continued to look at the PPT: “No need, go blow dry your hair.”
The PPT has been paused on the same page for five or six minutes.
Late at night, after finishing everything, the two prepared to go to bed.
Before going to bed, Jian Qing looked at the light and hesitated.
Lu Yinxi didn’t wait for her to speak, but took the initiative to lie down and put on an eye mask: “No need to turn off the lights, I have an eye mask.”
Jian Qing looked at Lu Yinxi on the bed. Seeing that her eyes were covered by a black eye mask, revealing a high nose bridge and rosy lips, her gaze lingered on her face for a few seconds before she looked away, pressed the switch, and changed the cold white light to a hazy and soft warm yellow.
Lu Yinxi opened the eye mask and peeked at the light, feeling that the color was a bit ambiguous.
It was like the light that would be turned on when doing something bad.
Lying on her side, she was not sleepy at all, she looked towards Jian Qing on the bed next to her.
Jian Qing was half-leaning on the head of the bed, holding an iPad, logging into the Education Office’s work number, entering the backend, and marking the final assignments submitted by the students.
“Teacher Jian, why don’t you sleep?”
“Aren’t you also not sleeping?”
Lu Yinxi made small talk: “What are you doing?”
“Marking homework.”
“What homework?”
Jian Qing patiently answered her questions: “Students’ final assignments.”
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“How many copies do you need to mark?”
“273.”
“Do you want me to help?”
Jian Qing glanced at her and asked, “How is your English level?”
The questions and answers are all in English.
Lu Yinxi was not modest about this point: “Not bad, I can translate documents.”
In the medical field, one needs to write papers and learn about the latest research progress at home and abroad, so the requirement for English proficiency is not low.
Back then, she was admitted to the eight-year clinical medicine major, and the class she was in was a bilingual teaching class. The teachers taught in Mandarin, but the teaching materials, handouts, and exams were all in English.
Her English level was already very good in high school, and after two years of training in university, it could be considered excellent.
Later, when she entered the entertainment industry, this was still a plus when interviewing for international cooperation film projects.
Jian Qing gave her the answers and account password: “You start marking from the last page.”
Lu Yinxi chattered as she marked the homework: “I can also use epidata, SPSS, Python, I can help you crawl, clean, and statistically analyze the paper data.”
(LP: epidata, SPSS, and Python are all software programs used for data analysis.)
Jian Qing gave an “en” sound.
Lu Yinxi waited for a while, but did not wait for her compliment. She rubbed her nose and continued to boast about herself: “Although, well, I am very good-looking, and it is easy to be seen as a vase, but I am really not a vase. Sometimes, I am still very useful.”
Jian Qing still gave a cold “en.”
Lu Yinxi stopped talking.
She felt that people in the entertainment industry were better. You praise me and I praise you, praising from head to toe, from inside to outside. They can praise people to the heavens. These academics have no vision and do not know how to praise people.
After not hearing the little chatterbox speak for a while, Jian Qing glanced over and asked, “Do you want me to praise you a few sentences?”
Lu Yinxi snorted softly, took the iPad and turned her body to face away from her, ignoring her, and once again transforming into an autistic mushroom.
It was obvious that she was not lacking in vision, but was simply deliberately trying to tease people.
Some academics are actually very good at doing things.
At seven o’clock in the morning, the director and doctors of City C’s Oncology Department, the organizer of City C’s Academic Conference, came to have breakfast, chat, and connect with the experts in person. They personally received them at the hospital’s academic hall and also brought them to the wards to visit.
The conference lasted for a day and a half, with about ten experts giving lectures.
Among the group of experts with receding hairlines and beer bellies, the most eye-catching were Jian Qing and Chu Yan. Everyone praised the talented and beautiful couple as a perfect match. When taking a group photo before the start of the academic conference, they even specially arranged for the two of them to stand together.
The expert seats were also arranged side by side.
Even though she knew that these two people would not be attracted to each other from beginning to end, Lu Yinxi still felt sour in her heart.
She did not have an exclusive seat. The front rows were all experts from various cities. She could only sit in the back, watching the two of them occasionally lean close and whisper something.
She did not know if it was her illusion, but Jian Qing’s attitude towards Chu Yan seemed to be more enthusiastic than towards ordinary people. Occasionally, she would smile slightly, or even gaze at him and smile.
Due to her profession, Lu Yinxi paid more attention to people’s facial expressions and body movements than ordinary people, and could also easily perceive changes in other people’s emotions.
She saw that when Jian Qing talked to Chu Yan, her body would actively lean towards him, and her cold expression would also become softer.
In an instant, she not only felt sour, but also a little jealous.
The jealousy gradually spread, burning her so that she could not bear to look at them again. She ran to the lounge outside the conference hall to drink tea and eat snacks, and chatted with the staff to relieve her emotions.
When it was Jian Qing’s turn to take the stage, Lu Yinxi returned to the academic hall, sat in the last row, and looked at her.
Jian Qing shared an individual case of liver cancer immunotherapy and the latest research progress in breast cancer immunotherapy.
Many people in the audience took out their phones to take pictures. Lu Yinxi also opened her camera and took a picture of Jian Qing’s graceful demeanor on stage.
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The liver cancer case she shared was a very successful case of immunotherapy.
The patient was pathologically diagnosed with liver cancer after surgery four years ago, and multiple lung metastases were found three years ago. After PD-1 treatment, the lesions in both lungs and liver were significantly reduced. Two years ago, during a follow-up examination, the lesions in both lungs had almost disappeared. There were still a few scattered shadows on the right posterior lobe of the liver, and the follow-up examination this year was still in a stable state.
(LP: PD-1 treatment: This refers to treatment with PD-1 inhibitors, which are a type of immunotherapy drug.)
The patient’s medication history from beginning to end and a comparison of imaging data before and after were displayed on the PPT. Jian Qing showed them one by one, and then announced: “Up to now, the patient’s PFS (progression-free survival) has reached 46 months.”
(LP: PFS (progression-free survival): This is a measure of how long a patient lives without their cancer progressing.)
When she shared this data, her gaze fell on Lu Yinxi in the last row.
Across hundreds of people, Lu Yinxi forgot all the sour and jealous emotions, raised her head, made eye contact with her, and smiled, feeling the joy in her heart together with her.
That’s right, joy.
Jian Qing on the stage had almost no change in expression and no ups and downs in her tone, but Lu Yinxi could sense the joy, relief, and pride that came from a doctor, a scientific researcher, snatching a life back from the hands of death.
The author has something to say:
Enthusiastic Zhang Yue: I guess Xiaolu has hit puberty. Senior, take Xiaolu to the academic conference with you and create some opportunities for them. Maybe that brat Chu Yan will become your cousin-in-law~~~
Jian Qing: … (Got it, I’ll go “create opportunities” right now.)
LP: Sorry for the no update yesterday, just really tired…