Celebrating the New Year
Like a Home
“What should I do in the afternoon?”
Jian Qing thought for a moment and said, “Help me screen patients for the clinical trial. My research assistant is also on holiday.”
Since the last business trip, Jian Qing had found that Lu Yinxi was quick to learn and had a certain understanding of medical knowledge, making her more than capable of being an assistant.
Lu Yinxi took out paper and pen: “You have to teach me first.”
Jian Qing took out the clinical trial research plan and a research manual, and handed them to Lu Yinxi: “You go through them a few times first, get familiar with the inclusion and exclusion criteria.”
Clinical trials refer to testing drugs/devices on subjects (volunteers) before they are marketed to ensure the safety and efficacy of the drugs.
Generally, there are four phases: I, II, III, and IV. If the first three phases are qualified and effective, the drug can be marketed. Phase IV is also called real-world research and is the follow-up study after the drug is marketed.
The oncology department reports the results of clinical trials every month. Every month, pharmaceutical companies also come over to hold kick-off meetings, expert meetings, report the latest research progress at home and abroad, or come to audit the clinical trial data for any doubts.
Lu Yinxi remembered that in the original work, the author only briefly mentioned medical-related topics in a few paragraphs, and it was obvious between the lines that the author did not have a medical education background.
These research plans and research manuals that were not mentioned in the original work now look very professional, with no flaws visible.
This virtual world automatically corrects and supplements many details.
It’s as if the patients and illnesses encountered every day almost seem to genuinely exist.
By the afternoon, Jian Qing saw Lu Yinxi sitting at the desk, looking intently and seriously, and casually asked: “How much did you understand?”
Lu Yinxi raised her head to look at Jian Qing, carefully choosing her words: “I can probably understand about 60%. ‘A Phase II Clinical Study on the Efficacy and Safety of Evaluating HE-A114 for the Treatment of Second-Line and Above Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer’ is an immunotherapy study of PD-1. It’s an international collaborative research project, with the indication being lung cancer. Currently, it’s in Phase II trials in China, led by the First Affiliated Hospital of Jiangzhou . The Principal Investigator (PI) is Vice President Hu. Of course, I don’t understand the principles at all.”
Jian Qing opened the computer: “Knowing the basic inclusion and exclusion criteria is enough. Come, I’ll teach you.”
Screening subjects is the preliminary preparation for conducting a clinical trial.
Common folk often liken subjects to lab mice, but clinical trials have actually undergone rigorous animal testing to ensure safety before proceeding to clinical research.
Patients participating in oncology clinical trials generally fall into two categories.
One is that the drugs available on the market are no longer effective, and they are forced to try new drugs, treating the clinical trial as the last straw.
The other is that their family is poor and cannot afford the cost of cancer treatment, so participating in the trial allows them to receive free examinations and treatment.
However, not everyone can participate in the trial. Any trial has certain inclusion and exclusion criteria, such as age restrictions or previous medication restrictions.
There is also an unspoken rule: for trials, naturally, one hopes the data looks good, so subjects with poor physical condition are not included.
Jian Qing explained item by item and personally screened a round for her to see.
Lu Yinxi could start right away after listening once.
Jian Qing, observing her proficient actions, asked, “Have you done this before?”
Not only had she done it before, but her medical career was interrupted because of a clinical trial.
Lu Yinxi didn’t want to reveal this scar to Jian Qing, so she only said, “When Wei Mingming was helping you screen patients, I watched a few times from the side. My memory is pretty good; I can memorize lines perfectly after reciting them three to five times.”
If it weren’t for skimming through the original work and lacking a complete memory, she would have already grasped the plot of this world.
Jian Qing saw that she didn’t want to say more, so she didn’t ask further: “After screening, go home and rest first.”
Lu Yinxi wanted to say that she wanted to stay and accompany her, but then she remembered the pile of ingredients at home that weren’t prepared yet. So, she nodded, “I’ll go back first to wash and cut the vegetables. We’ll cook together when you return.”
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This conversation felt very much like a couple living together. Jian Qing smiled and turned to busy herself in the ward.
Lu Yinxi flipped through the inclusion and exclusion criteria of the research plan while screening suitable lung cancer patients.
She had fallen and stumbled here, helping others cross the river only to drown herself.
Despite deliberately avoiding everything related to hospitals in the years following her fall, countless deep nights saw her dreaming of still being in the hospital, still helping her teacher screen patients for clinical trials.
These were memories etched into her subconscious, unforgettable for a lifetime.
She had always thought she would not regret giving up medicine, but in her subconscious, it seemed she had always been pleading with the heavens to give her another chance.
If time could turn back and give her another chance, she would surely not fall there and would not easily give up.
Brilliant fireworks bloomed across the sky, colorful and crisscrossing.
Jian Qing returned home to find music playing in the living room and the sound of deft vegetable chopping coming from the kitchen.
She took off her coat, and Lu Yinxi poked her head out of the kitchen: “You’re back.”
Jian Qing responded with a hum.
Lu Yinxi ran out: “After work today, I bought you a cushion with a funny face as a return gift.”
“Mm.” Jian Qing continued to nod, paused for a second, and slightly raised an eyebrow, “Mm?”
“Deng deng deng deng——” Lu Yinxi magically produced an oversized yellow cushion with a funny face and stuffed it into Jian Qing’s arms, “Isn’t it cute?”
Jian Qing’s eyes revealed a hint of disdain.
“I think it really complements your temperament.”
Jian Qing lightly flicked her forehead, “Are you mocking me?”
Lu Yinxi shook her head like a rattle-drum.
She just thought that the funny expression on the cushion, with its mix of lewdness and unrestrained disdain, and a touch of indifference.
“Take it to the hospital. You don’t like sleeping in the duty room, and it’s uncomfortable to sleep on the desk. Having something to cushion your head would be nice. Plus, when you wake up and see this expression, you’ll definitely find it funny and feel happier.”
Jian Qing glanced at her without saying a word, her gaze still full of disdain.
She was disdaining her childishness again.
Lu Yinxi caught that hint of disdain, snatched back the cushion from her arms, and lightly hummed in her ear, “If you don’t want it, fine, I’ll use it myself!”
Jian Qing raised her hand and rubbed her ears.
The humming was actually quite pleasant.
She reached out to take it back, holding it in her arms. “I didn’t say I didn’t want it.”
Lu Yinxi stood still, waiting for Jian Qing’s thanks.
Jian Qing did not express any gratitude, instead placing the cushion into her room and heading straight to the kitchen to wash her hands and cut vegetables.
What a person… without a bit of a sense of ceremony.
Yet she knows how to buy gifts to make people happy…
Noticing this contradiction, Lu Yinxi suddenly realized.
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—Could it be that she saw someone buying New Year gifts and was simply imitating them?
Lu Yinxi walked into the kitchen and voiced her question: “Why did you think of giving me a gift yesterday?”
Actually, she bought it several days ago but didn’t have the courage to give it to me.
Jian Qing lowered her head and continued chopping vegetables. “I saw Zhang Yue buying practice exam questions as a New Year gift for his sister who is in high school.”
Lu Yinxi: …
Good thing I’m not a high school student anymore…
But this reason doesn’t have a hint of romantic ambiguity, instead, it exudes a strong sense of familial affection.
Lu Yinxi recalled half a month ago, when she joked in the hotpot restaurant, “I love you like an older sister from another father and mother”, and rubbed her arm.
She didn’t want familial affection.
She had never seen a sister who, after getting drunk, would kiss her younger sister.
At this moment, the music automatically playing in the living room switched to 《Any Empty Wine Bottles for Sale?》 (《酒干倘卖无》, a famous Taiwanese song full of sorrow and familial love).
Lu Yinxi heard the lyrics echoing in her ears, “If you had not raised me, given me a warm life; if you had not protected me, what would my fate have been… You gave me a home, so I can share it with you,” and immediately shivered, rushing to the living room to switch the familial love song to a love song.
She has a gentle temperament, but she doesn’t like listening to soft and tender songs.
The music playing in the living room was powerful and majestic. Only one line, “Among the myriad charms and colors of the world, I love only your kind”, was sung in a melodious and low tone, full of tender emotions that deeply moved Lu Yinxi’s heart. She turned around to glance at Jian Qing.
Jian Qing was earnestly preparing the New Year’s Eve dinner.
Most of the time, she was serious, so focused that she would ignore everyone else around her.
She seemed out of place with this world.
Lu Yinxi knew she didn’t belong to this world and couldn’t truly integrate into it, but what about Jian Qing?
Why couldn’t she integrate into it either?
Was it simply because of her solitary personality?
From six in the evening until eight at night, the two of them busily prepared a sumptuous New Year’s Eve dinner.
Lu Yinxi took out a bottle of red wine from the wine cabinet: “Tonight, we will drink this.”
Jian Qing said, “Don’t drink too much.”
Lu Yinxi smiled and said, “The one who blacked out last time wasn’t me.”
As the red wine was poured into the glass, Lu Yinxi sat down and looked at the table full of dishes, saying, “Tomorrow we need to make dumplings.”
Not making dumplings during the New Year always feels like something is missing.
Jian Qing nodded. She had almost forgotten how to celebrate the New Year, relying entirely on this child to arrange everything.
The first time she saw this child, it was like seeing an abandoned kitten, pitifully curled up in a corner.
She took her in.
Then, she realized she had a home.
Lu Yinxi asked Jian Qing a few more questions about what kind of dumpling fillings she liked and if there was anything she didn’t eat.
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Jian Qing shook her head at each question.
Lu Yinxi earnestly noted down, “Tomorrow we will go buy them together, and then make them together.”
With the hope of changing her fate, she began to avoid thinking about whether they should maintain an appropriate distance.
Those originally obscure feelings were just a seedling, often moved to a dark corner, not watered, not fertilized, not exposed to sunlight. With hope, it was like a sudden spring breeze overnight, bringing pear blossoms to bloom on thousands of trees (忽如一夜春风来，千树万树梨花开, an idiom used to describe sudden and abundant growth or change, from a poem by Cen Shen, a 715–770 Chinese poet).
She could hardly restrain her feelings that were growing wildly.
She really liked Jian Qing.
The more she liked her, the more she cherished her, the more unwilling she was to leave, not bearing to hurt her even a bit, trying every way to be good to her.
It was the first time she liked someone so much, not knowing if she would end up like the silly mermaid, willingly drinking a potion to turn her fish tail into legs, to become a person in the same world as the little prince.
The mermaid’s ending was not beautiful; she turned into foam.
She was afraid.
The author has something to say:
Let’s play the song 《Foam》 for Classmate Xioalu, singing: “It’s all just foam, a spark that lasts only a moment!”