Chapter 3.2✿

“This vinegar and rice blend is too sour.” He began to be picky. “The seaweed used to roll the rice is too wet and not finely cut. It looks as if it has been chewed by a dog.”

“You don’t mean to say that it’s not something humans would eat, do you?” She asked with a smile, but her face was bleak as if she was hurt.

“I can eat it if I have to.” He grunted briefly. “But it’s so much worse than my cooking.”

“You can cook?” She was surprised.

“At least I won’t do it all over again three times just to cook a meal.” He looked at her coldly. “Don’t you think you’re a spoiled young lady?”

“I’m…,” Mo Chuan Ya blinked. “If I am, would you hate it?” She asked in a soft voice.

He couldn’t hear clearly, “What did you say?”

“I…” she squirmed a little, unsure how to explain.

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“Stop talking!” She cut him off abruptly.

He was stunned.

“Dai Xingren, don’t…. say any more.” She had a slightly shaky voice and her eyes were faintly red as she stared at him. “You are too good at hurting a girl. Do you know how much you are going overboard?”

He was silent, this was not the first time he had heard a girl complain about his heartlessness, but it was the first time he felt it in his chest.

“If you don’t like it, I won’t come back.” With those words, she flew away as if afraid that if she stayed a moment longer, she would be more embarrassed.

Was she crying? Did he make her cry?

Dai Xingren stared blankly at her disappearing back, and a burst of anger suddenly rushed to his throat. He let out a low growl for unknown reasons. It took a while before he reluctantly regained his composure. He picked up the lunch box she had forgotten on the cement guardrail and walked back to the office while angrily eating it as if in a fit of rage.

As soon as he stepped into the office, Xiao Li approached him. “Sushi? That’s great! I’m starving.” Without waiting for his permission, he took the initiative to grab a piece for himself. Dai Xingren glared at the robbed sushi. 

“What is this? “Xiao Li squeezed out a strange expression while eating. “It’s so sour… oh my god, there are eggshells in this egg? What the hell?”

“If you don’t like it, don’t eat it, no one’s forcing you!” Dai Xingren’s eyes were stern and his voice was like thunder.

The whole office was suddenly silent, and Xiao Li, after seeing that he had annoyed him, fled in a huff.

Dai Xingren sat back in his seat and finished his box of sushi, one bite at a time, in full view of everyone.

____________

She really did not come. It had been three weeks since the roof incident, and she was nowhere to be seen, never again falling in his sight. Occasionally, he would stand by the hospital’s corridors’ glass panel, not knowing what he was thinking or who he was waiting for. Just standing in a daze until the sound of the radio or the sound of people woke him up from his reverie.

She had once said it had taken her two weeks to get over him, and now she had exceeded the deadline she had set for herself in the beginning, so she should really have gotten over him.

She won’t come again. He knew that very well. Just like the girls who had been in and out of his life for a short time. They came because of a moment of dazzle and left after being able to see through it. Why did he think she would be different? 

In the same way, he was a man who was not born to fall in love. Just why, this time, he actually felt a… seemingly slight pain in his chest. He was a bloodless, tearless robot, wasn’t he? He doesn’t know heartache, he doesn’t know what it’s like to be in love. He doesn’t understand the subtleties of love between a man and a woman, and he’s never been able to understand it, nor has he ever wanted to, because it would be a pure waste of time.

“Boring.” Dai Xingren opened his lips and spat out his mantra silently.

It was so boring, and the most boring thing of all was himself. He was unable to hold his own heart which was fluttering for a love he was not good at.

“…I said, are you listening to me?” A grumpy bear-roar suddenly rattled on his eardrums.

“Yes.” He hurriedly turned his head and looked at his mentor who was gushing at him endlessly. “I’m listening.”

“Listen to the hell!” Xiong Jianming was not foolish enough to be bluffed by his protégé. He flicked him firmly on the head with his hand, “Then tell me, what the hell was I talking about?”

Dai Xingren’s head hurts, but he still answers calmly, “You want me to go with you tonight to attend the commemorative c*cktail party for the tenth anniversary of the founding of the hospital.”

Xiong Jianming raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Well, if you are really listening, what do you think?”

“I don’t want to go.” He bluntly rejected his teacher’s offer.

“You son of a b!tch! Why won’t you go?” Xiong Jianming’s anger was ignited again. “Do you know how many dignitaries are going to be present there?”

“It’s because of that I don’t want to go.” He was determined. “Such an occasion is not suitable for me.”

“Who said it’s not suitable? You, kid, really don’t understand my thoughts and worries. Do you know why I’m not taking anyone but you with me?”

Dai Xingren remained silent. Of course, he understood that his mentor had good intentions. Although it was a memorial reception of the hospital, there was no way that a junior doctor like him would have been included in the list of invitees. He would not have had the opportunity to attend such a feast if it was not for Xiong Jianming’s exceptional support.

Seeing he didn’t say a word, Xiong Jianming thought he had finally grasped what was at stake and softened his tone. “You should know I don’t have a son. I have always regarded you as my very own child. You are smart and talented. None of the students I have met are as talented as you are, and none are more serious than you.”

“If I give you a few more years, you will definitely shine, but do you know what you lack? You just lack a good family background and appropriate social skills. If you want to climb to the top of the professional ladder, you must strengthen this point. That’s why I have been arranging blind dates for you. To see if I can arrange a good marriage for you. But you kid, every time I ask you to go on a blind date, it’s like I’m asking you for your life! Obviously, you just need to say a few words, but you sit there like a log of wood, no wonder those daughters don’t like you!”

“Is that why the professor is asking me to attend this c*cktail party tonight?” Dai Xingren understood the intention of his mentor very well. 

“That’s right! Since you are not satisfied with the candidates I choose, you should find someone by yourself. There must be many ladies and daughters from good families present at a c*cktail party like this one today. You can see which one you like, and I will find a way to match you up.” Xiong Jianming pulled at his eyebrows and resisted the urge to sigh. 

Who was more useless as a teacher than him? He had done everything he could to help his students get to the next level, but this student didn’t even bother to climb up the ladder.

“Professor, I know you’re doing it for my own good, but…”

“No buts, no ifs!” Xiong Jianming growled frantically and tried to take a deep breath to regain his sanity.

“Tell you what, how would you like to be my first assistant when I help that little boy with his heart surgery next week?”

When Dai Xingren heard the words, his eyes shone brightly. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for him. It was a difficult surgery to perform, a very rare case, and many attending doctors were clamouring to be his assistant, but the professor had offered to appoint him.

“Although you have good skills, you are only an R2 after all. If I break the rules and give you this opportunity, there will be many people privately complaining against me, tsk tsk.” Xiong Jianming exaggeratedly shook his head, sighing and acting to show how difficult the matter was for him.

Dai Xingren did not fail to understand the tricks of his mentor. He rolled his eyes secretly and gave in helplessly. “I know, I will be there for the c*cktail party tonight.”

“That’s what I call a good student!” Xiong Jianming was delighted, patting his favourite pupil on the shoulder. The more he looked at him, the more accomplished he became, and he was extremely satisfied. “By the way, this is an important occasion. The chairman of our hospital will also be there. So you have to dress appropriately and not make me lose my face.”

He only had a suit from 101 mall, how was he going to look good? Dai Xingren thought to himself with mockery. But in order not to disappoint the professor, he ironed his iron-grey suit, put on a silver striped tie which he received as a gift from his professor’s wife and tried his best to look neat and presentable. 

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Edited by: TsumiHokiro