134 Red Packe

Words of gratitude poured from the father's mouth. Zheng Ren smiled politely at him.

They exchanged contacts as the father wanted to treat him to a meal once the little girl had healed.

As he left the room, the man grazed past Zheng Ren, who discovered a fat red packet in the pocket of his white coat.

The packet, which lay inconspicuously in his pocket, was of considerable thickness.

Such flawless sleight of hand suggested the father did this often.

The red packet had been slipped into Zheng Ren's coat pocket with featherlight movement. The gesture was not ostentatious but sincere.

When Zheng Ren discovered the red packet, he raced after the patient's father but the man was gone.

Zheng Ren's only intention was to visit the patient. It was improper to receive a red packet when the patient was still in recovery.

"Chang Yue, if you could take this to pay off the hospital admission charges." Zheng Ren decided to delegate the work to Chang Yue.

"Oh, sure. That's a thick packet," Chang Yue remarked. The exchange caught Su Yun's attention and he asked Zheng Ren, "It's a sincere thank you from the family. Why are you returning it?"

There were two types of red packets.

The first was given by insistent families prior to a surgery. The doctor would either accept the money or put up token resistance before doing so anyway. If the surgery had a low success rate, the doctor would hand over the money at the hospital payment counter.

The second type was given after a successful surgery.

These were usually genuine tokens of appreciation from the patient's family.

Doctors typically had a good sense of the patient's condition post-surgery. Hence, accepting the sincere gesture from the family reflected confidence in the patient's recovery.

However, Zheng Ren declined this post-surgery red packet.

"There's 3000 yuan here," Chang Yue exclaimed after counting the bills.

"How generous. I thought they were all ten yuan bills. 200 yuan would have been sufficient." The sharp-tongued nancy boy had to open his mouth and ruin everything.

"Use it to cover the patient's bills and bring back a receipt," Zheng Ren said calmly.

"Why won't you take it?" Su Yun pressed on.

"Why should I?" Zheng Ren challenged.

"After docking contributions, you would be getting around 3500 yuan per month even with overtime. As a chief resident doctor, you save on rent, but you must have plans for marriage sooner or later. What lady would want someone with no money, no time, no house and no car?" Su Yun said bluntly.

"I'm worried things may go wrong," Zheng Ren replied.

There were patients who gave red packets and recorded the incident to commit blackmail.

It was inevitable no matter how well the surgery went.

Sometimes, rejecting the red packet would backfire. There had been cases where patients framed the doctor for accepting bribes and went on to protest in crowded areas of the hospital.

It was a tricky situation.

"Drama queen." Su Yun turned his focus back to his phone.

Zheng Ren had only accepted one red packet from a patient during his entire medical career.

It was a liver cancer patient under his care. The surgery was done by a professor from Sorcery Capital but Zheng Ren dedicated much of his time to care for the patient.

After the patient recovered, Zheng Ren provided him with basic counselling.

Despite not being a counselor, he had done some reading on the topic before doing so. He encouraged the patient to conquer his fear of cancer.

They had spent a lot of time talking.

Three years later, on an autumn night, Zheng Ren saw the patient at his doorstep. The patient thanked him with a few simple words and passed him an envelope containing 2000 yuan.

That was the only monetary gift Zheng Ren had ever accepted.

Zheng Ren was not willing to share this story with Su Yun.

Soon, Chang Yue came back with a deposit slip. She gave the piece of paper to the patient's family.

The family could reject the money but not a deposit slip. During discharge, a missing deposit slip would complicate the billing process.

The family took the deposit slip begrudgingly.

Moments later, Zheng Ren got a call from the patient's father.

Through the phone, the man conveyed his dissatisfaction at Zheng Ren without being overbearing. He explained how the red packet was a form of thanks from his family.

In the end, Zheng Ren allowed the man to order lunch for him.

He had no strength left to put up resistance.

Thirty minutes later, two men in Golden Spiral Restaurant uniforms arrived at the emergency department with four lunchboxes.

The dishes were magically laid out.

Herbal soup with fish maw and sea snail, fried pork strips, honey roasted pork, crispy pork belly, braised pigeon, boiled clams, spicy salted mantis shrimp…

Each dish came with a short introduction by the Golden Spiral Restaurant employees, explaining the source of their ingredients, how they were the freshest on the market and that the master chef personally prepared them.

The whole point was to trumpet the restaurant's top-tier food and service.

Zheng Ren was initially excited to watch the presentation, but as more and more dishes were placed on the table in the on-call room, he lost interest.

These dishes must have cost more than 3000 yuan.

Zheng Ren had never been to the Golden Spiral Restaurant but was aware of their reputation.

This was a heartfelt thank you from the man. Zheng Ren texted the Chu sisters and Xie Yiren to join the feast.

Xie Yiren's eyes bulged when she saw the table full of food.

On days when roads froze over, Xie Yiren had still been adamant about eating out. This banquet table was a jackpot for a foodie like her.

They were all friends, so she wasted no time dithering. After washing their hands, they sat down and started eating.

"Delicious!" Xie Yiren chewed on a piece of fried pork strip. Then, she drank the herbal soup with fish maw and sea snail.

"Yummy."

"This is good too."

"This tastes amazing."

Zheng Ren watched Xie Yiren praise each dish. He had thought a rich woman like her would have eaten them before, but she seemed incredibly fascinated by each bite.

'She is truly a food connoisseur,' Zheng Ren thought.

He had a small appetite, being full after two bowls of seafood porridge and one of herbal soup.

"Now do you regret not taking the money?" Su Yun asked.

Zheng Ren chuckled and said nothing more.

Their conversation ended there.

"Yiren, don't gorge yourself. It's bad for the stomach," Chu Yanran said. She took a small sip of soup.

"I'm not eating a lot," Xie Yiren mumbled in between bites. "I have a friend who went to a buffet a few days back. Ate so much, his pancreas acted up and now he's been admitted to the gastroenterology department."

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