Read Novel Full Chapter 28.1
Chapter 28.1
In the fast food restaurant that was closing, the three doctors who happened to be there were having a midnight snack.
Li Sheng and Zhang Cheng watched as Shen Fangyu answered a phone call, and the whole person seemed to become a wax statue, he was frozen as he held the phone.
“What’s wrong?” Li Sheng asked.
Shen Fangyu suddenly came back to his senses. He looked at the phone that had been hung up on the other side, and then looked at the time on the phone, “I have to go….” he couldn’t help but whisper, “What’s wrong with Jiang Xu? There isn’t enough time, is he on a timer? ”
“Jiang Xu called?” Zhang Cheng and Shen Fangyu were eating fried skewers the last time Jiang Xu called him away. Now that the scene had been replayed, he couldn’t help but say, half-jokingly, “What did Her Majesty the Queen tell you to do this time?”
Shen Fangyu didn’t say anything; he stood up, put his jacket over his arm, and picked up his phone to settle the bill. “You guys continue eating,” he waved to the two of them, “I have something to do so I’ll go first.”
He patted Li Sheng, who was close to him, on the shoulder, and then stretched his hand out to hail a taxi that happened to be passing by.
“Did something happen at the hospital?” Li Sheng didn’t know what happened last time. “What did you just say about Her Majesty? Is that the new nickname you’ve given Dr. Jiang? Does Dr. Jiang know about it?”
Unlike Zhang Cheng, who was the attending doctor in the obstetrics and gynecology department, Li Sheng was from a different hospital, had been in the same class as Jiang Xu and Shen Fangyu, and had been Shen Fangyu’s friend for many years, so he was not as casual in his speech and was still a bit formal.
Zhang Cheng was also a bit puzzled. It was fine once, but Shen Fangyu left in a hurry once again. Given Jiang Xu and Shen Fangyu’s relationship, it couldn’t be a personal matter if it could make Shen Fangyu so anxious, so he approved of Li Sheng’s speculation, “I guess so.”
“So…Her Majesty?” Li Sheng was still curious.
“Eat, eat, eat!” Zhang Cheng didn’t let him continue to ask, but only whispered a warning, “You mustn’t let Jiang Xu hear you.”
At this moment, Shen Fangyu, who in the eyes of his colleagues was rushing to the hospital and in no way anxious about personal matters, was arguing with the taxi driver over personal matters—
“Sir, please be kind, just wait for me for five minutes, I’ll be right back after I finish buying something.” Shen Fangyu glanced at the owner of the bozai cake shop, who was about to close the door, and his palms were sweating.
It was hard to get a taxi in this area, so he wanted the driver to wait for him to finish buying the cakes before continuing, otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to keep up with Jiang Xu’s time limit.
“Do you know how many orders I can take in five minutes? Besides, you don’t have much distance left, and I don’t make much money, so I might as well get another person to pay a new price.” The driver was about to throw him out.
Shen Fangyu took a hundred yuan from his wallet and handed it to him. “Please, sir, I’m really in a hurry.”
The driver, who had been impatient a moment ago, instantly brightened up and put the money into his pocket without blinking. Like a face-changing master in the Sichuan opera, he quickly put on a kind smile.
It’s not often one can make such a profit nowadays.
He looked at Shen Fangyu happily and said, “No problem, uncle is kind-hearted and never in a hurry.”
“…..” For the first time, Shen Fangyu was stunned at seeing someone as shameless as himself.
The driver smiled benevolently and said, “Don’t just sit there, go.”
Shen Fangyu pushed the car door open and jogged all the way to the bozai cake shop. The owner saw him from afar and shouted, “It’s closing time, come back tomorrow.”
Shen Fangyu was now experienced, he immediately put some money on the table and said, “Please, I’m really in a hurry to buy.”
Unexpectedly, this boss wasn’t one who would bend for five buckets of rice, he waved his hand and said, “No, it’s closing time, I’ve received everything in the back kitchen, and I’m in a hurry to go home and put my son to bed.”
A sincere person probably can’t stand sensationalism.
“Boss,” Shen Fangyu instantly changed to a pitiful expression, his eyes were just the right amount of red as he pointed to the tall building of Jihua Hospital in the distance and said, “I have a weak lover who can’t take care of himself, he is terminally ill, and the doctors say he won’t live past tonight at most, he said he just wants a bite of this bozai cake before he dies.”
*The “he” used here is genderless (when the gender is not specified).
After hearing this, the boss looked at the heartbroken young man cautiously and said, with disbelief, “Are you telling the truth?”
Shen Fangyu nodded heavily, his eyes pleading, “Consider it a good deed, my beloved will bless you in heaven,” he lowered his voice, sounding a little depressed, “otherwise, he won’t be able to rest in peace as a ghost, and his ghost will surely haunt your shop every day and refuse to——”
“Stop, stop, stop,,!” The muscular boss was covered in a cold sweat. He rubbed his arms in the autumn breeze, and a gust of wind blew by, as if the ghost was already drifting over.
“Thank you, brother!” Shen Fangyu put away his deliberately distressed expression and replaced it with a sincere one, looking at the shopkeeper with expectation, as if he had just been making up ghost stories to threaten someone else.
The boss turned his head and coughed heavily before sighing, “Fine, who made me a good man.”
The boss withdrew his hand that was about to pull the roller shutter and went to the back kitchen to open the fridge, shouting in a gruff manner to the man outside, “What flavor does your wife like?”
“Red bean!”
A certain man turned his face faster than a book and didn’t have time to bother the boss about his misunderstanding.
“Okay!” The boss was not ambivalent at all, and without asking Shen Fangyu how much he wanted, he packed up all the cakes with red beans left in the fridge and handed them to Shen Fangyu.
“It doesn’t have to be this much ……”
“It’s fine, no charge,” the boss said boldly, “You said it was a good deed, take them. I really have to go now, or my son will be anxious.”
Even though Shen Fangyu was as thick-skinned as a city wall, he couldn’t take advantage of the situation. After refusing to accept the money several times, Shen Fangyu took out a parking card from his bag and said, “This is a parking card for Jihua Hospital, it has two hundred hours, you can take it.”
The boss froze and waved his hand, saying, “The parking fee at that hospital is very expensive, we usually don’t dare to drive there when visiting the doctor. Your card is probably not cheap.”
Doctors and nurses spent all day in the hospital, and if the parking price was the same as that for the public, their salaries wouldn’t be enough to pay for parking.
Shen Fangyu and his team used an internal card for parking. And not long ago, there was a “buy five, get one free” or “buy ten, get two free” parking card campaign. To prevent people from selling them, each employee had a limit on the number of cards they could buy, and the most they could get was one or two for friends and relatives.
Shen Fangyu bought a bunch of cards according to the maximum amount he could buy, which was enough for him until the next event.
The money he spent on the card was about the same as the value of the bozai cakes, but in order not to blow up his previous lie, Shen Fangyu couldn’t reveal that he was a doctor, so he continued to pretend to be mournful and said, “Anyway, he’s going, so I won’t be able to use it in the future. Just take it and be healthy.”
The boss suddenly felt that the parking card in his hand was as heavy as a thousand pounds, and he nodded firmly to Shen Fangyu upon hearing those words.
After sending the boss off, Shen Fangyu carried the heavy bag of bozai cakes in his hand and leisurely returned to the taxi. He thought about it and decided to give half of them to the driver.
If he carried that many bozai cakes to Jiang Xu’s place, he would definitely receive a blank stare and the title of “rice bucket.”
*Rice bucket is a derogatory term used to describe a useless person.
The driver looked extra happy after receiving the money and the snack, and he casually teased, “Are you in a hurry to meet your girlfriend?”
Shen Fangyu opened his phone screen, looked at the tight time, and seriously commented on Jiang Xu’s attributes. “Not a girlfriend, but a little ancestor.”
At 10:29, Shen Fangyu, who had been running as if it were a matter of life and death, finally knocked on the door of ancestor Jiang Xu’s house with a suitcase.
Jiang Xu looked at his watch, opened the door and looked at the panting Shen Fangyu outside. After a moment of silence, he said to Shen Fangyu, “Time’s out.”
“No way.” Shen Fangyu said and was about to take out his phone to look at it when Jiang Xu pointed to the clock in his dining room and said, “At my house, it has to be according to my house’s time.”
“Hey, no, Jiang Xu, you’re being unreasonable.” Shen Fangyu walked in and closed the door, leaving his suitcase at the door. “It’s not up to you to decide the time, I came in time.”
Jiang Xu took the bag of bozai cakes from him and pointed to the striped slippers on the floor, saying, “Wear that.”
“And I haven’t even entered your house yet, so why should I have to follow your time? I set the time on this phone with that of Jihua Hospital, there’s no way I could have—”
Shen Fangyu was rolling up his sleeves and preparing to argue with Jiang Xu, so he didn’t understand the meaning of Jiang Xu’s words until he was halfway through his sentence, and now he came to a halt.
“What did you just say?”
Jiang Xu gave him a look and walked towards the kitchen with the bozai cakes.
His brain mulled over the words, and Shen Fangyu, who had been left hanging at the doorway, shouted at the top of his lungs, “Are you telling me to change my shoes and come inside!”
Jiang Xu took a bozai cake out of the bag and took a bite.
The texture of the bozai cake was better than Jiang Xu had imagined, it was soft and sweet, and with the blended sweet and fragrant red beans, it had just the right amount of moistness, leaving a fragrance between the lips and teeth.
His craving was suddenly satisfied, he looked at the rest of the bozai cake and suddenly felt a little happy.
At the same time, he felt that Shen Fangyu, the enthusiastic delivery man, who had already done his job, was a little redundant.
So he took the remaining bozai cakes and returned to the doorway, saying, “Ask again, and you’re out.”
Shen Fangyu obediently kept his mouth shut and changed into the slippers Jiang Xu had designated.
“Is it good?” He casually picked up the hand sanitizer that Jiang Xu had placed in the hallway and wiped his hands.
Jiang Xu nodded and handed him the bag of cakes.
“You eat it,” Shen Fangyu said. “I don’t like sweet things.”
Jiang Xu looked at him and didn’t retract his hand.
After a moment of staring at each other, Shen Fangyu lost the battle. He took a cake and swallowed it whole while Jiang Xu was still looking at him.
After a moment of contemplation, he looked at Jiang Xu’s expression and said tentatively, “It’s quite delicious.”
Jiang Xu’s gaze warmed up a little.
Shen Fangyu changed his tone to one of extreme exaggeration and used his entire vocabulary to boast about the deliciousness of the bozai cake, and finally saw Jiang Xu withdraw his gaze in satisfaction.
However, when he saw Jiang Xu finish the huge bag of bozai cakes and turn to ask him if he had any more, Shen Fangyu felt that he might not know Jiang Xu well enough.
‘I should have known better than to give the driver so much.’
Seeing Shen Fangyu’s silence, Jiang Xu also knew that this should be all. He went to wash his hands and felt a little stuffed, so he leaned against the door with the intention of standing for a while to digest.
“Why did you buy red bean ones?”
“Don’t you like the red bean flavor?”
Jiang Xu was silent for a brief moment, but finally couldn’t resist asking, “How did you know?”
“You would stare at the picture of red beans every time we passed by that shop in the past. I’m not blind,” Shen Fangyu said casually, “If you don’t have this kind of observation power, you shouldn’t be a doctor.”
Jiang Xu’s mood was suddenly a little subtle.
“I’m exhausted, it’s late at night, and you’re so tiring.” Shen Fangyu stretched, he had taken a taxi all the way from the hospital to the bozai cake shop, bought the bozai cake, went home to pack some luggage, and then drove here afterwards. He was always rushing, and his bones were almost falling apart from exhaustion.
Fourth, he had a car parked at home, otherwise, it would have been difficult to get a taxi at this late hour.
He stood up and went to pull the suitcase, saying, “Where is your bedroom? I’ll put the suitcase over there.”
Jiang Xu stopped him calmly, pointing to the sofa, and saying, “You can sleep here.” Then he handed Shen Fangyu a bottle of disinfectant and said, “You should clean your suitcase first, especially the rollers.”
“……” Shen Fangyu: “How am I supposed to take care of you if you don’t let me sleep with you? I won’t even know if you get cramps at night.”
Jiang Xu gave him a look and said with a slightly raised tone, “Then you go to my room and hit the floor.”
“You really can’t let me sleep on the bed?” Shen Fangyu began to make up another half-truth, “You’re too cruel; I have a bad cervical and lumbar spine.”
Jiang Xu bristled with anger, “Wasn’t it because of you… ”
He said only five words, but Shen Fangyu understood what he meant: “No…. Jiang Xu, it was an accident, I’m really not that kind of person…. I didn’t mean to do that…I was just drunk…. I…”
The more he said, the more he stuttered, and finally, unable to bear Jiang Xu’s gaze, he threw up his hands and said, “OK, I’ll hit the floor.”
After all, he hadn’t forgotten what he’d come for, and Jiang Xu had a point in not trusting him. Even if he thought he was a straight man, he couldn’t help but acknowledge the fact that—the first time he’d ever laid in the same bed with Jiang Xu—he’d slept with him and made a baby.
Anyone would have to call him a scumbag if they heard it.
Jiang Xu nodded and pointed to the room at hand: “This is the bathroom, there’s an absorbent mop next to it, remember to mop the floor after you’ve showered, I don’t like water on the floor.”
“That is the bathroom!” Shen Fangyu was shocked, “Do you know that the word ‘bath’ in the word ‘bathroom’ has three dots of water(浴), without water on the floor, can it still be called a bathroom?”
Jiang Xu spread his hands, not intending to discuss words with Shen Fangyu, and he went back to his bedroom with the tablet in his arms.
Fine.
Shen Fangyu thought, ‘Who told me to have such a strong sense of responsibility?’
Since he had come here to take care of Jiang Xu and make up for his mistake, there was no need to argue with Jiang Xu now, so he would bear the humiliation for a few days and wait until Jiang Xu’s health improved.
Jiang Xu’s home was similar to what Shen Fangyu had imagined. It was just like him, with a cold gray and white Scandinavian wood style. The home was spotlessly clean, and things were arranged in an orderly manner. However, it seemed inhumane and alienated, cold, and had no warmth.
He was the only one who lived there, and the bathroom only had simple toiletries on the partition, so he probably didn’t get that many guests.
Shen Fangyu first carried the suitcase to the bathroom, as Jiang Xu had instructed. He wiped it clean with alcohol and tissue papers, took a shower, and changed into his home clothes before slowly wandering up to Jiang Xu’s door and pushing it open.
Dr. Jiang was half-naked, the beige shirt he was putting over his head left the red mole on his chest exposed, which stood out against his cold white skin.
Shen Fangyu froze and saw Jiang Xu quickly pull the hem of his shirt and glare at him with anger, “Hasn’t anyone ever taught you to knock when entering someone’s bedroom?”