Chapter 4.2 The Person She Once Liked

Ye Sangyu put down her coffee cup and stood. “I’ll go. It’s been a while since I’ve seen Shi Miao. We can catch up.”

After saying her goodbyes to Shao Siwen, Shi Miao looked at Ye Xicun. “Brother, I’m leaving now. Stay busy.”

Ye Xicun nodded but then remembered. “Wait, let me have the driver take you.”

“No need. Someone’s picking me up.” The car was just an excuse to refuse.

Shi Miao stepped out first, with Ye Sangyu following close behind. The door shut firmly behind them.

They walked silently to the elevator. Shi Miao pressed the down button, and the elevator ascended from the first floor.

With her arms crossed, Ye Sangyu remained silent.

Once inside the elevator, she glanced at Shi Miao. “My brother just got back from abroad, and you couldn’t wait to see him?”

Shi Miao kept her eyes on the elevator door. “Don’t judge me by your own standards. I was just returning the car.”

Ye Sangyu let out a mocking laugh, clearly unconvinced. “Really?”

Shi Miao didn’t respond.

Ye Sangyu continued, her tone turning sharp. “Don’t blame me for being blunt. My brother has a girlfriend. Please have some self-respect and stop finding excuses to see him. If I were you, I’d first ask myself whether my family is even worthy of someone like him. Shi Miao, people need to have self-awareness.”

Shi Miao thought she would feel humiliated and angry.

But she didn’t.

After working at the hospital for the past few years, her mindset had become calmer, and very few things could upset her anymore.

She couldn’t deny it—there was a time when she had feelings for Ye Xicun that went beyond those of siblings. She didn’t know where to place him in her heart, so she carefully hid her emotions, afraid someone might notice.

She thought she had done a good job hiding it, but Ye Sangyu, with her keen intuition, had still caught on, uncovering the secret she had buried deep inside.

Apart from herself, Ye Sangyu was the only one who knew about her crush.

Thankfully, Ye Sangyu had never told Ye Xicun.

Shi Miao didn’t want him to know. It was better if he never found out for the rest of his life.

The elevator’s display showed the number “6,” indicating they were about to reach the ground floor.

Ye Sangyu, seeing that Shi Miao remained silent, started speaking again: “I heard your hospital’s internal politics are particularly messy, with various factions and cliques. Doctors without connections have it the hardest. Being a resident-in-chief is exhausting, but your department is full of young doctors who compete for the position. Some are already in their thirties and still haven’t made it.”

Shi Miao wasn’t naive—she could hear the veiled sarcasm.

When the elevator stopped on the first floor, the doors slowly opened.

Shi Miao didn’t rush to leave. Instead, she pressed the “Open” button and turned to meet Ye Sangyu’s disdainful gaze. “I’ve long since let go of my feelings for your brother. Maybe love is everything to you, and you can’t live without it. I’m not like you. Also, I earned the resident-in-chief position with my own abilities. As for my connection to your family, you can ask my colleagues yourself. See if anyone even knows about it. I’m not so incompetent or hypocritical as to need to use your family’s influence to my advantage.”

She released the button and stepped out of the elevator with measured strides.

Shi Miao didn’t care what kind of expression Ye Sangyu had inside the elevator as she walked away without looking back.

When she exited the building, she headed toward the nearby bus stop. There was a route that passed by her rented apartment complex without requiring any transfers, making it very convenient.

After waiting for two or three minutes, the bus arrived.

At this hour, the bus wasn’t crowded. There were still two vacant seats on the west side, though they were in direct sunlight.

Shi Miao chose one of them and sat down. Perhaps because she was naturally sensitive to the cold, the sunlight that others found too harsh felt comfortably warm on her. Gazing out the window, she suddenly thought of Shi Wenli.

She pulled out her phone and opened their chat. She typed two words but then erased them, realizing it was still early morning where her brother was.

While she was lost in thought, her phone vibrated in her hand.

The screen showed a call from Gu Changshen. She answered in a low voice, “Director, what’s the matter?”

Gu Changshen’s voice came through: “Send me the follow-up records for Mr. Jiang.”

“I’ll send them right away.” Shi Miao ended the call, logged into her email, and found the records in her sent folder. She had already sent them to her director earlier; he must have been too busy to remember.

Since graduate school, Shi Miao had been assisting her director in tracking follow-up data for patients with heart valve repairs. Over the years, she had never stopped. Mr. Jiang was her director’s first aortic valve repair patient, and this year marked the twentieth anniversary of his surgery.

Back then, valve replacement was the norm, and few cardiac surgeons could repair valves. Her director was one of the rare exceptions.

After sending the email, Shi Miao reread the follow-up records from start to finish.

Immersing herself in work, she quickly forgot the unpleasant exchange in the elevator.

The Next Morning, 6:30 AM

Shi Miao was awakened by her alarm. No calls had come in from the hospital overnight, so she had slept soundly until dawn.

There were handmade dumplings in the fridge. After a quick wash, she boiled water to prepare breakfast.

Shi Miao loved dumplings and wontons—she could eat them every day without growing tired of them.

While the water boiled, she found a tote bag and packed a few things: several containers of food her mother had brought over yesterday and seven boxes of juice from Min Ting. She planned to take them to the hospital to improve her meals.

As she closed the fridge, her phone rang. The caller ID displayed an unfamiliar number.

When she answered, the caller first confirmed her identity: “Are you Dr. Shi?” Then they introduced themselves, “I’m the driver from Mr. Min’s family. Mr. Min said it’s hard to get a cab during rush hour. I’m already at the entrance to your apartment complex.”

The driver also provided the license plate number.

Shi Miao thought of Min Ting’s words: “Whatever my sister has, you’ll have too.”