CH 45.2

Jiang Xu’s mind was still buzzing as he came down from the stage. Li Sheng came up to meet them and seeing the two holding hands, said in a joking tone, “Okay, okay, you don’t need to hold hands now that you’re off stage.”

Jiang Xu came back to his senses and broke away from Shen Fangyu’s hand. He hadn’t noticed it on stage, but now he realized that his palms were sweating. Shen Fangyu didn’t say anything, he just took the water Li Sheng handed him and drank a couple of sips.

“Did you go for voice lessons?” Jiang Xu suddenly asked.

“If you want to compliment me on my singing, just say so; you don’t have to be so tactful.” Shen Fangyu smiled and handed Jiang Xu the water. Seeing that he didn’t take it, Shen Fangyu withdrew his hand without much concern and asked Li Sheng to bring Jiang Xu an unopened bottle of water.

“I know a lot of things,” he returned Jiang Xu’s words to him, “I’ve won first place in the top ten singers at No. 4 middle school every year.”

Jiang Xu unscrewed the cap and took two sips, “Why didn’t I see you enter the top ten singers in college?”

“Aren’t you going to ask if you gave me the time?” Shen Fangyu said, “If I were to enter the top ten singers, wouldn’t I be giving you first place in the exams?”

Jiang Xu chuckled, and Shen Fangyu laughed, “It’s a good thing we didn’t meet in high school.” He put down the water and asked Jiang Xu, “Shall we go back to the hospital wing?”

Jiang Xu nodded and was about to go back with him when his mobile phone suddenly rang. He looked at it and found it was a message from President Cao.

He had attended a few of President Cao’s lecture in college, but it was only after he was promoted to deputy chief physician that he added the president’s WeChat.

The president had never sought him out for so long, and he wondered why he suddenly remembered him today.

-President Cao: [Jiang Xu, are you free? I’d like to invite you to dinner.]

Jiang Xu’s fingertips paused, and he looked at the message with some surprise. President Cao seemed to be able to read the confusion in his mind and added a sentence immediately afterward:

[Don’t be nervous, it’s just my daughter and her friend. You juniors do nothing but work, so you should relax a bit. I won’t be attending.]

Shen Fangyu looked over in confusion, “What’s wrong?”

Jiang Xu handed his phone to Shen Fangyu, who read the message word for word and returned it. He looked at the side of Jiang Xu’s face, combined the performance he had just given with the perfect timing of this text message, and suddenly realized something, but he didn’t immediately point it out.

Jiang Xu’s fingers were flying as he began to edit the words of rejection when Shen Fangyu stopped him with pursed lips, “This is the president’s invitation, you have to do the president a favor. Go meet his daughter.”

Jiang Xu asked him, “Is President Cao’s daughter sick?”

Shen Fangyu shook his head.

“She’s not sick, so why would I go see her?” Jiang Xu gave Shen Fangyu an inexplicable look and said, “I only know how to treat diseases.”

Shen Fangyu sighed, “It must be a blind date.”

Jiang Xu abruptly raised his eyes and looked at Shen Fangyu.

“Director Cui is our teacher, so it’s fine if you repeatedly reject her; she won’t bother you for the sake of the teacher-student relationship, but you can’t offend the president, Shen Fangyu said. “Don’t be capricious.”

Jiang Xu’s voice suddenly became cold, “You want me to go on a blind date?”

“That’s not what I meant,” Shen Fangyu said, “Can you stop being so aggressive?”

Jiang Xu ignored him and walked out with his coat in his arms, leaving Shen Fangyu with a sharp, crisp back. He lifted the curtain, and a gust of wind blew in, causing Li Sheng, who had witnessed everything, to shiver.

Li Sheng had always known that the two were not on good terms, and when he first heard that they were going to perform together on stage, he expected the scene to be like a car crash, but to his surprise, the show went quite well, and these two actually managed to talk and laugh when they got off stage, they didn’t seem to hate each other as they appeared to be in the office.

He was trembling at first, fearing that the two of them would fight, and was relieved to see that the two of them were still amicable. Unexpectedly, after just two minutes of not paying attention to their conversation, these two got into another fight.

He knew at first glance that Jiang Xu was angry when he left, and Shen Fangyu stood in place like a statue, motionless, not knowing what he was thinking.

“Brother Shen…” he hesitated to speak.

Shen Fangyu reacted as if he had suddenly come back to his senses and looked at him. After a moment, he shook his head very lightly and walked out while putting on his coat.

Once again, the two of them fell into a cold war.

Cao Xuan was very efficient. She quickly added Jiang Xu’s WeChat account, and made an appointment with him for a time and place to meet. On the day of the appointment, Director Cui even called Jiang Xu over to talk to him with love and reason and promoted Cao Xuan.

Probably because she was afraid that Jiang Xu would not understand, she also added, “You have a great future, but the road is still long and not everything will go smoothly. If you have the old president as your father-in-law, then the road will be better.”

According to Jiang Xu’s temper, he was about to refute, saying something about his future being his own business and that he didn’t have to rely on his father-in-law, but perhaps because he remembered Shen Fangyu’s words, he swallowed his words back.

When he was about to leave work, Shen Fangyu sent him a message asking when he was leaving.

After those abdominal pains, Shen Fangyu would usually ask him whether he was going to work late and how long it would take, especially if there was no night duty. Then he would go back with him. They would drive their cars, but they would move next to each other on the road, starting and ending at the same place.

Before the unexpected pregnancy, the two of them were at odds with each other and would compete in working overtime, and they would often leave one after the other, so the rest of the department didn’t notice any difference.

Jiang Xu glanced at his mobile phone and answered, “Don’t wait for me.”

Shen Fangyu, who was sitting at the far end of the office, suddenly stood up and quickly walked up to him.

“Are you going to have dinner with ……?” There were other people in the office, and Shen Fangyu paused in the middle of his sentence, not saying the name out loud, but Jiang Xu understood whom he meant.

Jiang Xu stood up and swept a glance at him, his gaze behind the lenses was cold, and his words were even colder: “Didn’t you want this?”

With that rhetorical question, he didn’t even bother to look at Shen Fangyu’s reaction, and he walked out of the office without looking back.

Shen Fangyu’s attitude in this matter had made him very angry.

Although he couldn’t say why he was angry, he instinctively didn’t want to talk to Shen Fangyu.

When he met Cao Xuan at the restaurant, she was chatting with a friend, and the seats they had chosen were by the floor-to-ceiling window, with a good view of the busy street scene outside.

President Cao had sent Jiang Xu a picture of Cao Xuan. He was a little faceblind, but the girl next to Cao Xuan quickly recognized him and waved at him.

“Good evening,” Jiang Xu said as he sat opposite the two girls and introduced himself, “I’m Jiang Xu.”

“Cao Xuan,” Cao Xuan smiled at him, and pointed to the girl beside him, “Yang Rui.” She handed Jiang Xu the menu and said, “Xiao Rui and I already ordered, see if there’s anything else you need to add.”

As they were talking, the dishes they had ordered were served. They were more than enough and Jiang Xu didn’t plan to order more. However, as his eyes swept over the menu, he suddenly saw a familiar dish –

Tiger skin green peppers.

“Let’s add this one.” After a moment of silence, he pointed to the menu and said to the waiter.

“Tiger skin peppers, right?” The waiter took the menu as he confirmed it with him, and after receiving an affirmative answer, the waiter said, “Yes, sir.” With that, he turned and left.

“What’s tiger skin green pepper?” Yang Rui had never heard of this dish and hadn’t noticed it when she was just ordering, “Is it good?” She asked Jiang Xu.

Jiang Xu gave a faint “mmm.” “You can try it.”

As he spoke, he saw a bright yellow shadow pass by from the corner of his eye. He subconsciously looked over, but in a flash, there was nothing on the driveway outside the window.

“What are you looking at, Dr. Jiang?” Yang Rui said curiously.

“I thought I saw a car,” Jiang Xu spoke after a pause, “it kind of looked like my colleague’s.”

“Which colleague? Is it a friend?” Yang Rui didn’t believe it and asked Cao Xuan with a smile, “Do you remember what my car looks like?”

Cao Xuan shook her head and asked, “Who can remember all your cars?”

Yang Rui spread her hands and shrugged her shoulders at Jiang Xu, laughing, “Look, Xuan Xuan doesn’t even remember my car model.”

“Miss Cao,” Jiang Xu saw Cao Xuan looking over and repeated the words he had prepared countless times, “I’m very grateful to you, but–”

“Um, wait a minute,” Cao Xuan interrupted him, “I know you must think my father called you here to meet me on a blind date,” she spoke extraordinarily bluntly, “I knew right after we met that you weren’t interested in me, so don’t be in a hurry to send me a good guy card, let me first explain.”

Jiang Xu was suddenly blocked from speaking, and was originally thinking of how to say it more politely without hurting Cao Xuan or making the President feel bad. To his surprise, Cao Xuan said directly, “To be honest, I don’t want to go on a blind date either, so don’t worry, I’ll go to my father and tell him that we’re not suitable for each other.”

Jiang Xu breathed a sigh of relief, and Cao Xuan continued, “But Dr Jiang, I didn’t ask you out for dinner because I’m obeying my father,” she glanced at Yang Rui, “it’s mainly because Yang Rui wanted to meet you and thank you in person.”

“Thank me?” Jiang Xu didn’t remember having any dealings with Yang Rui, and if he remembered correctly, Yang Rui had never been his patient either.

“Dr Jiang, do you still remember Huang Bin?” Yang Rui said, “I’m his ex-girlfriend. You sent me WeChat messages and recordings.”

This was not long ago, and Jiang Xu remembered it clearly. He also remembered that he was blocked after he sent the recording.

“That day, Huang Bin suddenly came over and told me that you were his classmate and asked me to talk to you about the operation. Huang Bin is a bit cautious, and I was afraid that he would go through my phone and know that you had recorded him. I didn’t want him to hold a grudge against you, so I hurriedly deleted everything.” Yang Rui explained.

“Unfortunately, in my haste, I deleted it so cleanly in my haste that I didn’t have the chance to save your contact information to say thank you afterward, and I couldn’t go to Huang Bin to ask for it.” She laughed a little awkwardly and thankfully said, “It was only when I saw you at the Mid-Autumn Festival party that day that I recognized you. You look exactly like your WeChat avatar.”

To make it easier for patients and colleagues to contact him, Jiang Xu’s avatar was just a straightforward picture of himself.

“Thank you, Dr Jiang.” Yang Rui’s gaze was sincere. “Don’t worry, I told Huang Bin that I didn’t receive your friend request, and I didn’t reveal anything related to the recording when I broke up with him. So he shouldn’t suspect you.”

Jiang Xu was surprised, and Cao Xuan said from the side, “I want to say thank you too,” she said with a smile, “I originally thought that men were all one hill of beans, nothing good, but I never thought there were some good ones.”

When Yang Rui asked to meet Jiang Xu that day, Cao Xuan thought Yang Rui was trying to develop a new relationship, and only later did she learn that the great benefactor who sent her the recording and made her come to her senses to escape the clutches of that scum, was this young and talented Dr. Jiang.

“Then you ……”

“Don’t worry, Dr. Jiang, I’m fine.” Yang Rui said, “I’m not pregnant.” She glanced at Cao Xuan. “Huang Bin and I have been in love for many years, and when Huang Bin suddenly told me he would marry me if I got pregnant, I felt something was wrong, so I told Xuan Xuan about it. Fortunately, I had Xuan Xuan to give me advice, and I was able to find out what kind of person he was, and I was able to avoid the damage in time.”

Cao Xuan sneered at the side: “He disdained Xiao Rui for being poor in the recording, not knowing that Xiao Rui’s family has over a billion yuan in assets and could casually but up his so-called business and company. Fortunately, I suspected that Huang Bin wasn’t a good person and asked Xiao Rui not to tell him about her family’s situation.”

“But Dr. Jiang,” Yang Rui said, “you look so gentle and polite, but the scolding on the recording was quite relieving. Unfortunately, the dog man hung up the phone too early, I hadn’t heard enough.”

She laughed, “I used to think that all medical students were nerds. After so many years of study, a master’s degree, and a doctorate, I was still stupid. But you were smart enough to remember to record.”

“I didn’t record that,” Jiang Xu said. “The person who answered the phone was Shen Fangyu, the colleague I performed with on that day.”

He was worried that Shen Fangyu might be affected if the recording was leaked, so he processed his voice before sending it to Miss Yang, so Yang Rui didn’t realize that the person talking to Huang Bin on the recording was actually Shen Fangyu.

He explained the situation that night, only blurring out the fact that he and Shen Fangyu were living together. Yang Rui nodded in understanding, saying, “So that’s how it was; if I had known, I would have called Dr. Shen as well and thanked him.”

As the words were spoken, the plate of tiger-skin green peppers was brought up. Jiang Xuan took a chopstick and lowered his head to taste it.

After Cao Xuan had made her intentions clear, Jiang Xu’s gripped heart was relieved, and when he heard that Yang Rui was Huang Bin’s ex-girlfriend and that she was in good health and did not need to undergo an abortion, Jiang Xu’s mood lightened considerably.

When he mentioned Shen Fangyu, he didn’t even notice the faint smile that tinged his lips.

“I’ll pass it on to him.” Jiang Xu thought that if Shen Fangyu knew about this twist and turn, he would probably be happy that Yang Rui was healthy and away from the scum.

“Dr Jiang looks quite aloof, but I didn’t expect a plate of tiger skin green peppers would make you so happy.” Yang Rui thought his smile was because he had eaten something delicious, and took a piece too. She chewed it for a while and frowned, “It’s actually just… average?”

Jiang Xu was silent for a brief moment before raising his head and saying, “Yes, it’s not as good as my colleague’s cooking.”