Chapter 2.2✿

Unexpectedly, she quickly gave up. Dai Xingren raised his eyes from the computer screen and wandered off for a moment. He was sitting in the hospital library, writing a paper that was supposed to be submitted for a medical journal. There were several thick medical books stacked high on his desk. Two or three English journals were spread out in front of him to serve as cross-reference and he had a ball pen between his fingers, ready to summarise the key points at any time.

As a resident physician, he was always busy at work and had almost no time to rest. It was rare for him to have any free time. He was either doing simulated surgical exercises or spending time at the library reading and writing papers. Except for the hospital, he has no home, no private life, and even his brain has never bothered dealing with people and things outside of the medical field. 

Recently, however, he had found himself occasionally thinking of that girl, the one who claimed to be a journalist, who had smiled sweetly at him, who had sometimes spoken sarcastically, others funnily, and whose self thought was cool when she proposed a date by pointing a finger gun straight at his heart.

She looked like a determined girl, but after being rejected by him, she quickly disappeared.

Really no perseverance! 

Dai Xingren thought with disdain, it’s not that he hasn’t been entangled with girls before. When he was at school, many girls from the same school admired his talent and his cold demeanor. They would approach him and ask him for a date. He would usually refuse, and only occasionally agree, but at least they would try their best. Two or three of them had brief relationships with him, and it took a while for them before they left in disappointment. But that reporter lady actually said goodbye to him after only trying once. Was he not worth her efforts a few more tries? 

Then again, why should he mind? He had always hated women who stalked him for no reason, so wasn’t it better that she knew how to back off?

When he thought about it, Dai Xingren was a bit annoyed. It was actually himself whom he was annoyed at, wondering why he was distracted by a girl he had met in person only once by chance. His time was precious, and it was a waste to spend it thinking over her.

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“Jsakdt.” Tl ekpxkpple kv okvb y plzq-elralnyvkdt obkprla.

“Rp vblal lhla y vkxl kd uswa zkql obld usw’al dsv csale?” G nzlya yde elzknyvl hsknl alppswdele qasx vbl svbla pkel sq vbl vyczl vs bkx.

Tl oyp pvwddle yde aykple bkp blye kd yxyglxldv. Rv oyp vbl tkaz bl oyp xkppkdt fwpv dso. Fbl nwazle bla zkrp pzktbvzu, bla lulp caktbv, yde vbl nsadlap sq bla zkrp nzlyazu aykple wr kd y vlypkdt xyddla.

“Ebyv yal usw eskdt blal?” bl iwlpvksdle tawqqzu. Tkp blyav oyp clyvkdt y zkvvzl qypvla.

“Rv eslpd’v pllx vs cl vbl qkapv vkxl usw byhl ypjle xl vbkp jkde sq iwlpvksd.” Fbl czkdjle. “Gx R vbyv pdlyju? Pke R pnyal usw?”

“Tso kp kv rsppkczl?” Tl tzyale yv bla ydtakzu. Tl oypd’v yqayke vs nwv srld vbl kdvlpvkdlp sq y zkhkdt bwxyd clkdt, ps bso nswze bl tlv pnyale cu y zkvvzl tkaz zkjl bla?

“R’x tzye usw’al dsv pnyale.” Fbl pyv esod, rasrrle bla lzcsop sd vbl vyczl yde nwrrle bla ralvvu shyz pbyrle qynl.

“Gal uswa bydep clvvla?” Mbl qkapv vbkdt bl dsvknle oyp vbl elmvlakvu sq bla bydep.

“We haven’t seen each other in two weeks, of course my hands are better.” Her eyes were wide and fixed on him.

He was a little uncomfortable due to the way she looked at him. The girl’s eyes were too bright, right? Brighter than the man standing in front of her. “You didn’t come to the hospital for the follow-up  last week.”

“How do you know?” She raised her eyebrows in surprise, followed by a sudden realisation. “Oh, You must have inquired about it at the outpatient clinic, right? It turns out that you have been paying attention to me.”

He almost choked. 

“But I’m curious, you don’t know my name, so how did you find out if I’ve not been to my follow-up appointment? Did you just ask everyone by saying ‘Hey, did you see a cute, charming, beautiful woman with a strained elbow today?’ “

She boasted unashamedly. Her words were teasing, but her smile was as warm as the spring sun. 

His breath hitched and he felt his eyes glaze over by her. He was almost unable to open them.

“Hey, don’t you want to ask me my name?”

“There is no need to ask.” He deliberately poured cold water over her chirpy and chattery self. “And don’t get carried away thinking that I care about you. I just care about my patients.”

“You mean, for all the patients you have ever treated, do you keep track of their condition like this?”

“Yes.” He looked at her arrogantly, thinking she would be surprisingly fascinated by it. Unexpectedly, her cherry lips slightly blossomed, as she cheekily smiled. “I knew I was right, you are a good doctor.”

He was speechless, her reaction was very different from what he had expected.

“Dai Xingren, did you miss me all this time?” she asked out of the blue.

This time he choked solidly, “What did you say?”

“I asked you if you’ve missed me in the past few weeks?” She looked him in the eye, very straightforward and unapologetic.

What a cheeky woman! He glared at her unamused. “Of course not!”

“I see.” She tugged at her lips, as if in self-deprecation. “But I’ve missed you.”

Another thunder struck in his ears, Dai Xingren snorted coldly with a gloomy expression. This woman speaks nothing but nonsense all the time. If she really had missed him, would she have been gone for two weeks?

“Because I’ve spent two weeks trying to forget you,” she said, as if she could read his mind. She raised her voice again.

“But I found that I couldn’t forget you, so here I am again.”

She had…… wanted to forget about him?

Dai Xingren looked at her complicatedly, and couldn’t tell what was likely to take over in his chest.

“Didn’t I tell you?” She smiled softly. “You’re the first guy I have ever taken an initiative to ask out, and sadly I have been rejected. Don’t you think I need some time to heal and relieve the pain?” Healing and relieving the pain? He frowned. He never thought that his refusal might have hurt her. What’s even weirder was that he seemed to feel a little… bored by this realisation?

“Maybe you won’t believe me, but I’m usually very proud of myself.”

She said, wrapping her arms around her chest and burying her back into the back of the chair, assuming a posture of someone who could rule over people spread across thousands of miles far away. 

He unconsciously let out a small smile.

“Are you smiling?” She looked at him like she had discovered a new world.

With a shock, his square lips immediately tightened, recalling the smile that had escaped inadvertently. 

“Stingy.” She sighed and gave him a reproachful, measured look.

He pursed his lips resolutely, and he would never betray his smile easily. 

“Stingy.” She scolded softly again, tilted her mouth and squinted at him, making a grimace. 

He forced himself to keep an indifferent expression. 

She could only roll her eyes at his mountain-like immobility. “Have you ever thought that your life is so boring because you don’t know how to have fun?” She was being sarcastic again.

“My life is not boring.” He retorted.

“Really? Then tell me about it, what’s so interesting?”

He couldn’t tell.

“You’ve been in the library all day, haven’t you? Have you done enough reading?”

“Of course not.” The sea of learning was endless for him. “And I’m writing a paper right now.”

“But it’s getting late. Look, isn’t the sunset beautiful?” She looked out of the window.

He turned his eyes as she did, and it was already dusk outside. An orange haze stacked in layers across the sky, with a mysterious purple ring around the very edge.

“Even if you’re catching up on your paper, you should be hungry by now, right? Why don’t you at least come out for dinner with me?” She suggested softly. “It won’t take you a lot of time.”

Was this a date? He pulled back his gaze and looked at her pretty face, his eyes unconsciously assessing.

“Let’s go!” She turned her eyes away, avoiding his excessively deep gaze, getting briskly up while tugging at his cuff.

She didn’t take his hand, nor his arm, just holding the corner of his sleeve lightly.

Dai Xingren dropped his eyes and looked at the jade hand that was holding his sleeve reservedly, and began to believe that this was really the first time that this girl had ever taken the initiative with a man.

_______________

The two dined at a ramen shop near the hospital. He ordered soy sauce-flavoured ramen, but she preferred the lighter tonkotsu ramen. Both of them had good appetites, and they finished a bowl of noodles within a few minutes. He was a little surprised to see that she ate almost as fast as he did. 

“I thought girls were slow eaters.” He commented lightly. At least the girls whom he had dated before would deliberately slowly chew in front of him. It would take at least an hour to eat a meal, and their slowness would drive him crazy.

“Have you forgotten what I do for a living? I’m a journalist, I don’t have time to eat slowly, in order to not let anything newsworthy slip.” She wiped the corner of her mouth with a tissue, eating with quickness but with an unmistakable elegance.

Dai Xingren looked at her strangely. Does he know too little about the creatures called women? He felt that this woman made him feel contradictory sometimes.

“You should eat slower,” he suggested.

“Why?” She blinked. “You don’t think I look bad, do you?”

He shook his head and explained earnestly,”Eat slowly so you can digest better.”

Mo Chuan Ya was taken aback, and after a while, she smiled, “Are you worried about me? Thank you.”

Dai Xingren felt suffocated but when he met her twinkling eyes, he suddenly felt embarrassed. Why was this woman always self righteously commenting on what he was doing? He was just …… giving her medical advice based on his position as a doctor.

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Edited by: TsumiHokiro