Chapter 16

“It’s just dating, is it really that exciting?” Tang Feiwai certainly didn’t connect the Officer Jiang mentioned by Lu Yuqing to Jiang Mu, after all, there were many people with the surname Jiang, and she didn’t know if it was a man or a woman. However, what happened next left her speechless.

Lu Yuqing was talking as she walked in from outside, only then did she notice that Tang Feiwai was also in the office, she greeted her, then sat down in the office chair opposite Lin Ye, resting her chin on her hands, waiting for a response.

“You’re smitten.” Lin Ye didn’t look up, but the corners of her lips curled up slightly, her clear eyes were filled with a smile, obviously delighted by the other party’s rare emotion from the bottom of her heart. She had known Lu Yuqing for 16 years, from the age of 18, when they were both green and naive, to now, when they were both able to stand on their own two feet, they had experienced a lot.

 Lu Yuqing was straightforward, strong-willed, and when she was young, she didn’t have time for love because of her studies, and after she started working, she didn’t like anyone, she thought everyone was a jerk, she went on blind dates three times, but she scared them off after a few words.

“I’m busy with work, I won’t be like other girls, clinging to you like a bird, do you accept that?”

“If I’m busy, you should take the initiative to do housework, do you accept that?”

“The child will follow my surname in the future, do you accept that?”

“Oh, I can tutor the child’s homework, but you have to put in more effort in life, do you accept that?”

Lu Yuqing showed her the chat history at the time, complaining, “Look at what they’re saying? They like children, they’d better have two, three is fine too, do they think having children is like laying eggs? They go to his house during every holiday, do they think I have no relatives?”

So, her friend of many years had been single until now. This time, she finally took the initiative to get to know someone, although she said she wasn’t interested in romance, Lin Ye felt that Lu Yuqing was a little serious. However, she thought of their initial purpose, and was ready to remind her, what if Jiang Mu didn’t have those feelings?

She didn’t want to see Lu Yuqing pour her heart out, only to be left empty-handed, so she sent a WeChat message, “Are you serious?”

Lu Yuqing looked at Lin Ye, but she didn’t speak face-to-face, instead, she sent a WeChat message indirectly. She belatedly realized that the other party was protecting her privacy, she replied with a string of ellipses, her eyes flickered, and she spoke directly, “Not really, who wouldn’t be happy to be cared for?”

Lin Ye was skeptical, “Really?”

“But it’s strange, Jiang Mu is willing to go out of her way to be nice to me, but when I want to reciprocate, she doesn’t accept it.” Lu Yuqing tapped on the table with her fingertips, giving an example, “For example, she’ll order takeout for me, but she refuses when I order for her, she always says she’s on duty.”

Jiang Mu? Same name, same surname? Tang Feiwai, who had already shut down her computer and was ready to go home, didn’t like listening to gossip, but when the subject was Lu Yuqing, and someone with the same name, same surname, and the same job as her distant relative, she still wanted to hear the gossip. She reached out and took a patient’s medical record, pretending to be working.

Lin Ye helped analyze, “She doesn’t want anything in return, she just wants to give? Is she embarrassed?”

Lu Yuqing spread her hands, “I don’t understand.” As soon as she finished speaking, the office door was gently knocked, and the person who came in was Jiang Mu. She was 171 cm tall, and after work, she would let down her long hair that was usually tied up, she wasn’t wearing her baseball cap today, and she looked more mature than her actual age.

“I heard from your colleagues that you were in Doctor Lin’s office, so I came over.”

“Milk tea again? Isn’t that a waste of money?” Lu Yuqing complained, but she had already stood up and walked towards her.

“No sugar.” Jiang Mu handed her the milk tea, and then took a cup for Lin Ye, “Doctor Lin, I don’t know your taste, I ordered a fruit tea.”

“Thank you, Officer Jiang.” Lin Ye took it.

Jiang Mu turned around, walked towards Tang Feiwai, placed the last cup of milk tea on her desk, and asked, “Tangtang, is mango pomelo sago okay?” Jiang Mu called her by her nickname, it was Jiang Junli’s suggestion, saying that it would be too formal to call her by her name directly.

Finally seeing her, the gossip-hungry audience, Tang Feiwai quickly suppressed her surprised expression, and forced a smile, “It’s okay, thank you.” The gossip was too shocking, she couldn’t digest it for a while, so she could only listen silently as Jiang Mu said, “I wanted to invite your whole family to dinner, but my third sister said that you and I are about the same age, and you should have things to talk about, so they wouldn’t get involved.” Jiang Junli is the third oldest, so Jiang Mu calls her third sister.

Tang Feiwai quickly said, “No need to be so extravagant, mango pomelo sago is fine.” Because the two families rarely interacted, she wasn’t familiar with Jiang Mu, and after the dinner party that day, the two of them hadn’t contacted each other, having dinner alone would be awkward.

Although she knew that the other party was just being polite, she had to reciprocate.

Jiang Mu, “Mango pomelo sago is only how much money?”

Lu Yuqing agreed with her, “Doctor Tang, listen to your elders.”

Tang Feiwai suddenly regretted eating the gossip, if she had gone home earlier, she wouldn’t have been in this situation. She shifted her gaze slightly to the left, catching a glimpse of Lin Ye’s involuntary smile because she saw her being teased. Tang Feiwai was puzzled, why was she smiling? Could it be because of Lu Yuqing’s teasing?

Thinking about Lin Ye’s thoughts, Tang Feiwai planned to verify her guess, so she agreed, “Okay, then thank you, little aunt.”

Sure enough, she clearly saw the smile on Lin Ye’s lips deepen.

It’s okay, to win a smile from her, I’ll let myself be teased.

Lu Yuqing and Jiang Mu chatted for a few words, they reluctantly went back to work, and Jiang Mu also left the office. As soon as the two of them left, Tang Feiwai followed them out and said goodbye to Lin Ye. She was starving, and she planned to go home and cook the corn and pork dumplings that Tang Anhua had made.

In mid-August, the weather was still hot, you couldn’t feel a breeze when you stood still, and even the wind you felt when driving on the overpass was warm and intoxicating. Perhaps because she had been shown off in front of her face just now, Tang Feiwai felt suffocated, her mind was full of sweet memories of her and Lin Ye.

However, reality was completely different. The two of them had no intersection in their lives except for work, even the twice-a-week gym sessions, she hadn’t run into Lin Ye again.

Was she deliberately avoiding me? Tang Feiwai couldn’t help but ask the fitness coach yesterday, the coach’s reason was that she was busy. Yeah, busy, so busy that she hadn’t gone for a month.

The street scenes on both sides were quickly receding, her car speed tonight was much faster than usual, she was pushing the speed limit, and she turned into the alleyway at the north gate of Shujiang University before 8 o’clock. There were many pedestrians near the university, she slowed down, and finally, without thinking, she parked in front of a convenience store. When she came out, she was carrying four bottles of beer.

Tang Feiwai rarely drank, and her tolerance was also low, four bottles of beer was her limit, so she bought exactly four bottles. Beer with dumplings, then sleep after drinking, hopefully, it could help her forget her troubles, tomorrow would be a new beginning. She returned home, just as she was closing the door, Tomato wagged his tail and greeted her enthusiastically, rubbing against her legs.

“Tomato, Teacher Tang has already taken you out to play today, now you go to sleep obediently.” Tang Feiwai changed her shoes, dragged her tired body past the dining room to the living room, casually picked up the remote control on the sofa, and turned on the air conditioner.

It’s not good to eat too much after 8 pm, it’s best to eat 50% full, so Tang Feiwai threw 5 dumplings into the pot. After the water boiled for 7 minutes, she used a strainer to scoop the dumplings into a porcelain bowl, carried the bowl, slowly walked back to the living room, sat down on the small stool in front of the coffee table. It’s said that alcohol can drown sorrows, why do I feel more sober the more I drink? Someone’s every smile and frown seemed to be floating in front of her eyes, she couldn’t shake it off. She was troubled for half an hour, after two bottles of beer and five dumplings, Tang Feiwai slowly moved to the balcony with her third bottle of beer.

This was a small space that the two old professors had built many years ago, a semi-enclosed balcony, with a solid wood desk on the left, a solid wood tea table in the middle, Tang Feiwai had bought a multi-functional tea set a while ago, she, who used to only drink coffee, was also thinking about drinking a few cups of tea occasionally. She sat cross-legged on the sandalwood armchair in front of the tea table, holding the beer bottle and tilting her head back to drink.

It was so hard to drink, Tang Feiwai frowned, reached out and pulled open the drawer of the desk on the left, taking out a few letters. Actually, when she received the four letters Lin Ye sent her back then, she was filled with regret, she called to make amends but found that it was a dead number, she sent a QQ message to make amends but was blocked, and then she tried another way, she wrote registered letters, Lin Ye wrote 12 letters, and she wrote 12 letters. She sent them out one by one, and they were returned one by one.

The post office staff explained that it was probably because the recipient’s home address had changed and they couldn’t find her.

They completely lost contact.

Tang Feiwai’s hand holding the envelope trembled slightly, the thought that had been buried deep in her mind burst out, boiling, Lin Ye was right in front of her, she was no longer far away, why not fight for it

 Why not try to tell her what she was thinking. If she continued to wait quietly, to stand still like she had been doing lately, their relationship wouldn’t even be able to last as colleagues in the same department.

Because in two years at most, she would be returning to cardiac surgery…

After finishing the third bottle of beer, Tang Feiwai’s heart was racing, she grabbed her phone, which had fallen at her feet, opened WeChat, found Lin Ye’s chat box, and without hesitation, typed a message, “Lin Ye, can I talk to you?” After clicking send, her red eyes stared intently at the screen, the “typing…” indicator never went away.

After a long time, when she calmed down and was about to give up, a word appeared in the chat box, “Okay.”