Sheng Xia, Cheng Liang

That afternoon, Cheng Liang was in the operating room.

As for Sheng Xia, the patient who had just been admitted to the hospital, was busy all afternoon for the preoperative examinations. She frequented the outpatient building, queuing for blood test, ultrasound, and MRI scan. It was not until 5:00 p.m. that all the tests were finished. Sheng Xia, who was very easygoing, went to the hospital cafeteria to grab dinner.

Because of her parents’ education, she grew up easily adapting to new environments. Whenever she went to a new place, she would always familiarize herself with the entrances and exits, the places to rest, the places to eat, the restrooms, and, most importantly, the people.

After finishing dinner, she had already figured out the opening hours of the hospital cafeteria, which windows had long queues for meat and vegetarian dishes, as well as the favored flavors at the stir-fry counter, and had shared this information with Tang Caixi in passing.

“You don’t need to come over for now. I won’t be able to have the surgery for a while. Wait until the doctor confirms the surgery time, and then you can ask for leave.” After eating dinner, Sheng Xia walked out of the cafeteria with her head down to WeChat.

Tang Caixi replied in seconds: What’s wrong?

Sheng Xia’s answer was concise: I have a low fever.

Tang Caixi: ……

Sheng Xia’s physical fitness was usually not bad, but once she had a low fever, it would persist for many days.

Both of them knew that a person with a fever couldn’t undergo surgery.

When it comes to the body, it is impossible to exactly plan to the hour according to Sheng Xia’s preferences, and she is also aware of this.

However, with the change in plans, she couldn’t help but feel depressed.

Sheng Xia put down her phone with a slightly furrowed brow, raised her head, and saw that the hospital lobby was crowded with patients heading downstairs to eat, families delivering meals, a swarm of people at the elevator entrance, and there were various smells from the meals that were packed and sealed in boxes.

It was so noisy and unpleasant, much like a kitchen when they were cooking.

Sheng Xia turned around without hesitation, circled around, and entered the side door of the hospital lobby.

The advantage of getting used to knowing all the entrances and exits of a building in the first place was that Sheng Xia always had a building layout map in her mind. While others were queuing for ultrasounds in the afternoon, she wandered around with her phone, so she quickly learned that there was an inconspicuous old elevator at the entrance of the side door of the hospital’s inpatient building. There was no sign indicating it was for employees only, and it wasn’t considered an employee-only elevator.

However, this place was very remote. She had to go around the back of the temporary storage area for medical waste behind the inpatient building, climb over the pile of construction debris left from the renovated building, and pass through an empty green belt before seeing the entrance to a small corridor.

From this small corridor, she had to turn again to find a mottled old elevator door.

The old elevator stopped on the twenty-first floor. Hospital elevators were always notably slow, and it took a long time after pressing the up button to see the elevator move, and the displayed number changed to twenty.

Sheng Xia put on her earphones, intending to finish watching the remaining ten minutes of the documentary while waiting for the elevator. Yet, before she could open the video, her phone was blocked by a shadow.

Sheng Xia turned her head and saw Dr. Cheng Liang walking into the corridor with his hands in his pockets.

He didn’t look very good. His eyelids were drooping, and he looked like he was about to fall asleep. Apparently, he didn’t expect to encounter anyone in front of the elevator. When he saw Sheng Xia, he was momentarily stunned.

“Dr. Cheng.” Sheng Xia greeted him.

“Hello.” Cheng Liang also greeted her.

Then, the air fell silent.

Out of politeness, Sheng Xia was embarrassed about continuing to play the documentary she was about to watch. So while wearing her earphones, she raised her head and watched the old elevator slowly descend, and it only arrived at the eighteenth floor.

Cheng Liang had been doing surgery all day, and now his brain was dizzy, he just wanted to find a place to lie down, and he didn’t want to strain his brain chatting with patients anymore, so he also looked up at the numbers on the old elevator.

The two people in the dimly lit corner, who were completely silent and not making any sound, heard footsteps coming from the green belt at the same time. Because the place was secluded, the sound of the conversation became unusually clear.

These two obviously didn’t expect that there would be someone at the entrance of the elevator dedicated to cleaning staff behind the stairs at this time. The volume of their conversation was not deliberately lowered, it was just a casual tone of chatting.

Sheng Xia didn’t care much at first.

From the sound of it, the two people chatting were also doctors. They had just finished dinner and found a quiet place to smoke. The content of their chat was about the scheduling issues of the operating room. Sheng Xia didn’t quite understand the medical jargon between doctors about the operating room, and she remained focused, staring at the numbers on the elevator.

This old elevator took a long time to come down four floors and was now stopped on the sixteenth floor.

Cheng Liang, on the other hand, lifted his eyelids slightly and glanced expressionlessly in that direction.

Then, Sheng Xia heard Cheng Liang’s name from the mouths of the two people chatting.

“How is your request to change mentors with Director Lin going?” Doctor A asked, “If you follow Cheng Liang, it will be difficult for you to transfer to a PhD program.”

……

Sheng Xia’s neck, leaning back and looking at the elevator out of boredom, stiffened.

This hospital is so big!!

Why can it be so coincidental!!!

Doctor B didn’t answer but just sighed faintly.

“Although Cheng Liang is Director Lin’s direct disciple, he is indeed…” Doctor A seemed to be searching for an adjective. After thinking for a while, he finally squeezed out a word, “unreliable.”

……

Sheng Xia felt like she had turned into a fossil.

The protagonist of the gossip, the unreliable Cheng Liang, Director Lin’s disciple, was standing behind her at this moment, and she didn’t dare to move at all.

“In fact, he teaches very well, and he doesn’t hold back knowledge. He is also willing to guide newcomers during surgeries.” Doctor B said a lot, but there was a but, “But he just… he doesn’t care.”

“Not caring is fatal.” Doctor A laughed, “He usually laughs and jokes like a brother but at the critical moment, he will drop the chain. What excuse did he use this time to kill your project?”

“Insufficient clinical data support and it is difficult to implement at the grassroots level.” Doctor B said this reason with a hint of gritted teeth.

It was just a PhD project, and students from other departments had already finalized theirs, and many were even more unreliable and unrealistic than him. Yet, he was the only one that was stuck.

“Do you think……” Doctor B hesitated for a moment and lowered his voice, “He found out that I went to medical affairs to report that there are problems in his teaching, so he…”

“You also know that that intern has a weak personality and will definitely not go report him, and by process of elimination, it could only be me……”

Sheng Xia: ……

At this moment, she really wished she was deaf.

But this damn elevator had only just reached the seventh floor.

No wonder no one uses it…

“It shouldn’t be.” Doctor A also paused for a moment. “He has always done things like this. You can’t see it from his usual work, but when it’s crucial, he doesn’t even care about his own matters. You see, this time, Director Lin even personally went to urge him to send an email for the outstanding doctor selection, but the result was still not a problem for him.”

“He……” Doctor A seemed to be looking into the distance, as his tone carried a hint of melancholy, “can’t be compared to us.”

“This is our job, we have to think about our future and find a way out.”

“As for him, let’s call it experiencing life…”

Ding.

The elevator that Sheng Xia had been waiting for a long time finally reached on the first floor, and it loudly and cheerfully announced to everyone that it had arrived safely.

The sound was too loud. As long as the two people in the green belt had no problem with their ears, they would definitely be able to hear it clearly.

Another silence.

Sheng Xia was so embarrassed that every hair on her body from head to toe began to stand up straight.

The elevator door opened, and Sheng Xia, with a stiff back, walked in first. She didn’t dare to look back, and she didn’t dare to speculate the mood of the two doctors who were chatting in a despondent manner.

Behind her, the protagonist of the gossip, Dr. Cheng Liang, also entered the elevator, and pressed the button for the eighteenth floor – Sheng Xia’s hospital floor and Cheng Liang’s office floor.

The two people on the green belt outside the staircase also fell silent.

The elevator doors closed.

All returned to calm.

Sheng Xia made up her mind to hold on and not make any sound. She was still wearing earphones, so she pretended that she hadn’t heard anything from start to finish.

Though it was far-fetched.

She remembered that before they greeted each other, Cheng Liang should have seen that she didn’t turn on the sound of her phone.

People who work as doctors are smart.

The incredibly embarrassed Sheng Xia lamented in her heart as the elevator slowly descended to the third floor.

In just a few minutes of conversation, they had summarized most of the gossip about Dr. Cheng, more so than her fellow patient, Aunt Liu.

The elevator slowly descended to the eighth floor.

Sheng Xia thought that Dr. Cheng should also be embarrassed. Because from entering the elevator until now, he stood motionless in front of her, and his back appeared quite rigid.

“That pen of yours……” When the elevator reached the twelfth floor, Cheng Liang finally spoke, “Where did you buy it?”

Sheng Xia was startled.

“The black pen,” Cheng Liang turned around, “The matte one.”

Sheng Xia: “……Taobao.”

“Oh,” Cheng Liang nodded, very politely, “Thank you.”

Sheng Xia: “……You’re welcome.”

Two seconds later, Cheng Liang: “……Which Taobao store?”

Sheng Xia: “……Hero’s, a limited edition. Taobao will have a promotion next month—spend three hundred, get fifteen off.”

Cheng Liang: “……”

Sheng Xia: “……You’re welcome.”

Silence once again.

But they had finally made it to the sixteenth floor, and the elevator had stopped. A cleaning lady came in with a cleaning cart, and the small elevator was suddenly crowded.

The remaining two floors were no longer so awkward. Sheng Xia clearly felt Cheng Liang’s shoulders relax a little, and her own toes, which had been gripping the floor tightly, also relaxed a little.

“Do you think……” After leaving the elevator and watching Cheng Liang swiftly leave without looking back, and in order to avoid a second awkward encounter, Sheng Xia walked in the opposite direction, circled around, and took out her phone to send a WeChat message to Tang Caixi, “it would be considered a bribe if I gave a doctor a signature pen when I’m discharged from the hospital? It should be fine if it’s a cheap one, right?”

Tang Caixi continued to instantly reply: ?

Sheng Xia: I just experienced the most suffocating ten minutes of my life.

Tang Caixi: And then you refreshingly decided to give the doctor a signature pen? Encouraging your handsome male doctor to be happy?

Sheng Xia: ……If you’re free, help me collect the parcel.

Tang Caixi: Why don’t I come to accompany you tonight? Anyway, there’s nothing to do alone at home, and I can’t sleep alone.

Sheng Xia: The patient in my ward is the type you fear the most.

Tang Caixi: ……A middle-aged auntie who is very enthusiastic and all-seeing?

Sheng Xia: Yes.

Tang Caixi: …… Okay, bye.

Sheng Xia put down her phone, and the banter with her best friend finally made her last bit of embarrassment disappear. After all, once out of this elevator, they are all rational and mature adults.

The ones with amnesia.

***

But Sheng Xia didn’t anticipate that the ward she was staying in was bustling at the moment, and there were two nurses standing at the door, surrounded by a circle of people.

In the ward, Aunt Liu, who had been enthusiastic towards her when she was admitted at noon, looked ten years older after not seeing her for an afternoon. Her face was ashen as she sat on the bed, tugging at the hand of a man.

“How can I live if you take everything?” Her voice was tired and hoarse, tightly clutching the man’s sleeve.

“You wait outside first,” the nurse at the door stopped Sheng Xia and lowered her voice, “Security will be here soon.”