Chapter 8.1 When are you coming back?

Back in the office, Shi Miao finally replied to her mother’s message.

Shi Miao: I probably can’t make it. The department will be extremely busy during that period, and as the chief resident, I can’t take time off.

Zhao Moyin: It’s a Saturday. No matter how busy, you should arrange a shift swap with a colleague. Xi Cun has always been kind to you all these years. Not attending his wedding is hard to justify.

Zhao Moyin added: Try to attend with Min Ting. Consider it meeting his family.

Shi Miao: Mom, I’m busy. Let’s talk later.

She stared at the words in the chat box: “Xi Cun has always been kind to you all these years,” allowing herself only a few seconds of distraction before locking her phone screen.

Soon, her mother sent another message: “Alright, take care. By the way, Ye Shuo is back for summer break. Let’s have a meal together when you have time off.”

Ye Shuo was her half-brother, born from her mother’s remarriage. He was pursuing a graduate degree abroad.

She wasn’t particularly close to him. Having grown up in separate households under vastly different circumstances, the blood relation between them felt distant, and their relationship remained lukewarm over the years.

Ye Shuo, however, was much closer to Ye Sangyu, their other half-sibling.

But before she could schedule a time to meet, Shi Miao ran into Ye Shuo the next day in the hospital corridor.

Shi Miao had just exited the 57th patient room, focused on replying to messages in the work group chat when a figure called out to her: “Sis.”

Engrossed in her messages, she didn’t realize she was being addressed.

“Sis.”

Shi Miao snapped her head up. A few steps away stood a tall, broad-shouldered young man holding a bouquet of fresh flowers, accompanied by Ye Sangyu. They were here to visit Mr. Shao, the elderly patient.

Though they shared the same mother, Shi Miao and Ye Shuo looked nothing alike. He had inherited their mother’s deep-set features, while she resembled her father.

“Back for the holidays?” she asked in greeting.

Ye Shuo hummed in affirmation. “I’m here to see Grandpa Shao.”

Shi Miao nodded.

She didn’t need to be told whom he was visiting.

Ye Shuo then added, “Mom went to your office to look for you.”

Shi Miao gave a slight nod to indicate she understood.

“Go ahead,” she said, ending the brief interaction.

Ye Shuo seemed to want to say more but was nudged in the leg by Ye Sangyu. “Let’s go,” she said.

As they passed each other, Ye Sangyu’s lips curled into a faint smirk. She always disdained Shi Miao’s pretense of aloofness. Claiming not to care about the Ye family’s status, yet secretly leveraging their connections to cozy up to the influential Min family.

Shi Miao walked at an even pace, her head lowered as she typed replies into the group chat, moving past them without haste.

Her mother was waiting by the door to the office, reading the medical information posters on the wall.

“Mom.”

At the sound of her voice, Zhao Moyin turned with a warm smile.

She was holding two large bags, and Shi Miao hurried over. “Why didn’t you call me?”

“I didn’t have anything urgent. I just brought you some fruit and snacks,” Zhao Moyin replied. Familiar with the hospital layout from her visits, she reached out her hand. “Give me the key. You carry on with your work.”

Shi Miao wasn’t busy at the moment, so she accompanied her mother to the duty room to put things away.

When she reached for the bags, Zhao Moyin held them back. “They’re not heavy.”

In the duty room, Zhao Moyin began placing items that needed refrigeration into the small fridge. With no one else around, her words became more candid.

“I brought Ye Shuo to visit Grandpa Shao.” After all, they would soon be family, and proper courtesy was necessary.

While visiting was one reason, the real purpose was to discuss wedding arrangements for Xi Cun and Si Wen directly with the elder.

She glanced at her daughter. “Have you mentioned to Min Ting that you’ll attend Xi Cun’s wedding together?”

“No,” Shi Miao decisively shut down the idea. “Mom, I’m not planning to meet his family so soon. Even if I do, I want to wait until my brother returns from his training. Before we got our marriage license, I already told Min Ting about my situation. I was raised by my grandparents, who have both passed. When the time comes to meet his family, it’ll just be my brother having a meal with him.”

Zhao Moyin felt a pang of guilt. “Your Uncle Ye has already suggested bringing Min Ting home for dinner when you’re free. If you’re too busy, then how about meeting the family at Xi Cun’s wedding?”

Shi Miao replied calmly, “Please thank Uncle Ye for me, but we won’t impose.”

Zhao Moyin studied her daughter for a long moment but ultimately said nothing more. She resumed organizing the items in the fridge.

On the desk, two wilted roses in a vase had turned limp, their petals discolored. Shi Miao removed the flowers and discarded them in the trash, poured out the stagnant water, rinsed the vase under the tap, and left it on the sink.

In the silence, mother and daughter went about their tasks separately.

For the next month, her mother busied herself with preparing for Ye Xi Cun’s wedding and did not bring up meeting Min Ting’s family again.

One Saturday evening in mid-July, less than two weeks before the wedding, Shi Miao received a call from Ye Xi Cun.

He asked if she was free for dinner that night to hand her the invitation.

Shi Miao replied, “I’m free. I’m off today.”

Unsure if she’d be able to take leave for the wedding day, she thought it best to congratulate him in person now. But she didn’t intend to have dinner alone with him.

“Let’s just grab a drink somewhere. I’m on a light fast.”

Ye Xi Cun picked a café near her apartment complex, just across the street.

He sent her the address and said, “I’ll be there around six. Don’t come too early.”

Shi Miao set an alarm for 5:30 p.m. After lunch, she went to take a nap but woke naturally at 4:00 p.m.

She lay in bed staring at the curtains for a few minutes, then shook off her wandering thoughts and got up to study.

Next to the thick textbook lay a sleek black-and-gold fountain pen. She picked it up carefully and unscrewed the cap.

This was her most expensive pen, one she used with great care.

It originally belonged to Ye Shuo and was her eighteenth-birthday gift to him.

Ye Shuo had developed a penchant for collecting fountain pens. His father had even custom-built a cabinet to display his collection.

For Ye Shuo’s eighteenth birthday, she spent over five thousand yuan on this pen. At the time, it was an extravagant purchase for her, but she couldn’t bring herself to give a cheap gift.

After the birthday party, Ye Shuo and Ye Sangyu were in the living room unboxing gifts.

“Who even gifts something like this…” Ye Sangyu remarked disdainfully upon seeing the card in the box, then closed it and tossed it aside without a second glance.

Shi Miao recognized the box—it was her gift. The contempt in Ye Sangyu’s tone stung, as though the gift was beneath their notice.

Not long after, her mother invited her over for another meal.

That day, Ye Shuo sorted out a pile of unwanted items for the housekeeper to dispose of. Among them was the fountain pen.

She asked the housekeeper if she could keep it.

The housekeeper replied, “Take whatever you like.”

Ye Shuo happened to come downstairs at that moment. He froze at the sight of her, probably not expecting to see her in the living room, let alone retrieving the discarded pen.

She slipped the pen box into her bag without a word.

Ye Shuo remained silent, several times opening his mouth as though to speak but ultimately saying nothing, unable to find a suitable explanation.

After that, an invisible chasm formed between them. They didn’t deliberately avoid each other, but they gradually drifted apart.

It was only much later that Shi Miao learned Ye Shuo’s pen collection consisted of rare, top-tier models costing hundreds of thousands, even millions. A mere five-thousand-yuan pen held no value to him.

Shi Miao set aside her thoughts and resumed studying.