CH 96

The door was pushed open with a “bang”, and a slender girl with a backpack on her back came in. While changing her shoes, she pulled the zipper of her backpack open.

“Daddy! Quick, quick, quick, help me!”

She handed a pen and a paper to Shen Fangyu, who was making a birthday cake tower for her. “Quick, sign your name for me.”

Shen Fangyu calmly finished placing the top layer and took the paper from her. After glancing at the pitiful number at the top, he smirked and said, “I can’t sign this for you. If Jiang Xu finds out, I’ll have to sleep on the couch again.”

“Daddy, please, you’re the best!” She laughed and pulled Shen Fangyu’s sleeve. “Sign now before Baba comes back. Today is my twelfth birthday! Can you bear to see me get scolded? Can you bear to ruin Baba’s mood?”

“Don’t try to guilt me,” Shen Fangyu refused bluntly. “I won’t sign it.”

“Daddy—”

Xiaoxiao shook Shen Fangyu’s arm hard. “Daddy, just sign it for me once. I promise this is the last time!”

“You’re just playing tricks on me,” Shen Fangyu said. “Jiang Mu Shen, I still haven’t settled last time’s account with you. What was it again… Oh right, Arbor Day. You said I had to protect the flowers of our motherland and couldn’t let you get scolded by Jiang Xu on Arbor Day, so I signed it for you. But then your grandpa let it slip, and your dad gave me the silent treatment for three days and nights. I asked you to help me persuade him, but you didn’t do it.”

“I definitely won’t tell grandpa and grandma that I took another exam,” Xiaoxiao said with a smile.

Shen Fangyu: “…”

“Besides…I wanted to help you persuade him,” Xiaoxiao said with a pout. “But Baba punished me with too many questions. He said I couldn’t talk to him until I finished them.”

Shen Fangyu sighed. “It’s only been a few days. What will your excuse be next time? Are you going to use the Qingming Festival to commemorate the unlucky test paper or the Labor Day to commemorate the hard work of getting such a low score?”

“You’ve already helped me come up with an excuse…Daddy,” Xiaoxiao flattered. “You’re so thoughtful.”

Shen Fangyu nodded at her and pierced through her intentions. “You don’t actually want me to sign your paper, you just want me to share the blame with you if something goes wrong.”

The little fox’s Intentions were exposed by the old fox, and she grinned awkwardly. “After all, you’re better at coaxing Baba than I am.”

Shen Fangyu shook his head and finally signed Jiang Xu’s name on the paper. “Take it.”

Xiaoxiao held the paper excitedly and hugged Shen Fangyu. “Thank you, Daddy!”

Shen Fangyu watched his daughter’s back with a worried expression and listened to the sound of the konghou coming from her room while rubbing his forehead.

He didn’t know If it was because their genes were too saturated and mutated, or if it was for some other reason, but their daughter didn’t inherit their good competitive qualities. At a young age, she had already learned how to reconcile with herself, and she didn’t seem to care about anything day by day.

Her grades weren’t good or bad; they were just average in her class. She was quite satisfied with herself, but Jiang Xu would get angry just by looking at them.

As Jiang Xu put it, “If I fell asleep during the exam, or even sleepwalked while doing the paper, I wouldn’t get such a low score.”

But fortunately, Xiaoxiao still had one subject she was good at- English.

When Xiaoxiao was in kindergarten, she showed talent in English. As she grew up and could understand more words, her two fathers would switch to English when they had to talk about things that weren’t appropriate for her to hear. Unexpectedly, one day, Jiang Xu and Shen Fangyu were discussing about taking a break and having some time for themselves when Xiaoxiao interrupted and asked why they didn’t take her out to play since they were free.

When they heard Xiaoxiao’s voice, they looked at each other for a while, relieved that she interrupted them early enough before they could say anything inappropriate.

Jiang Xu and Shen Fangyu never figured out how Xiaoxiao, who had never learned English in kindergarten, understood their conversations. They could only attribute it to her having heard too much English literature when she was born, and it was ingrained in her subconscious.

When Xiaoxiao first started elementary school, Jiang Xu had high expectations for her. However, he later realized that she was not a top student and set a compromise for her: as long as she scored 80 on any subject, she didn’t have to redo the test. But if she scored less than 80, she had to do 30 more similar problems, and he would personally check them.

Xiaoxiao was very reluctant to do the extra problems. Fortunately, she was still only taking three main courses: Chinese, math, and English. But she heard that in junior high school, she would have to take even more courses. Just the thought gave her a headache.

When Jiang Xu came back, Shen Fangyu had just finished cooking dinner. He heard the sound of the music and asked, “Is she playing the konghou now?”

“Mm.” Shen Fangyu said, “She’s been thinking about it every day.”

Xiaoxiao started learning the konghou (an ancient Chinese harp) in first grade. Once when she went to play with Zhong Lan and Lin Qian, she happened to see Lin Qian playing her konghou.

The konghou has been lost for a long time in history, and the modern konghou was a newly reformed instrument with double strings that combined various information and instrument characteristics. It has only been in development for 30-40 years and was a relatively niche instrument.

Lin Qian originally studied the guzheng (a Chinese plucked zither), but later switched to the konghou. After graduation, she became one of the few teachers of this obscure instrument.

When Xiaoxiao first saw Lin Qian practicing in the piano room, her eyes widened. The unique shape of the konghou, which stood about one person tall, was exquisitely carved and Lin Qian was playing the strings elegantly, creating a clear and ethereal sound.

For the little girl who was a few years old, it was simply an incredibly novel and attractive experience. That day, she immediately went to find her two fathers and clamored to learn it.

When they heard that she wanted to learn, Jiang Xu and Shen Fangyu chatted with Lin Qian and sent Xiaoxiao to her tutoring class to learn how to play the instrument. At first, no one took this matter too seriously. After all, children of that age are unpredictable and it was difficult for them to stick with anything. However, they didn’t expect Xiaoxiao to become more and more enthusiastic about learning. After discussing it, Jiang Xu and Shen Fangyu bought Xiaoxiao a konghou for her to practice at home.

Before Lin Qian, the two doctors had never seen this type of instrument before. However, every time they accompanied Xiaoxiao to Lin Qian’s class, they would wonder whether they had bought the wrong instrument.

Their neighbor, Zhan Le, who was a factory worker in a cotton mill, said that it sounded like fairy music when he heard Xiaoxiao playing. They endured this painful life for almost a year, but Xiaoxiao’s performance art finally evolved from playing cotton to being able to fluently play some simple exercises. The two fathers finally took off their earplugs and were moved to tears.

“Actually…” Shen Fangyu thought of the exam paper Xiaoxiao had just shown him, and listening to the smooth and melodious sound of the instrument, then said to Jiang Xu, “If she really doesn’t like studying, don’t be too strict with her. Going to a music school in the future would be great too.”

“I remember she grabbed a music box at her full moon party, maybe she really has a talent.”

Shen Fangyu glanced at the door to Xiaoxiao’s bedroom and added, “And didn’t Lin Qian say that this kind of niche instrument might be easier to get during the entrance exams?”

Jiang Xu listened and felt something was wrong, immediately asking, “Did she take another exam?”

“…” Shen Fangyu: “Absolutely not!”

Jiang Xu gave him a meaningful look, but decided to let it go for now since it was Xiaoxiao’s birthday.

As dinner time approached, the guests began to arrive. Jiang Su’s parents, who lived in his old house, were the first to arrive.

Their neighbors, Zhong Lan and Lin Qian, saw the table full of food that Shen Fangyu had posted on his social media and hurried over, feeling hungry.

Shen Fangyu’s parents and older brother couldn’t come because they lived far away, but they had sent many gifts to Xiaoxiao in advance.

Years ago, after Mother Shen returned home, she thought about it for several days before cautiously asking Shen Fangyu where the child came from. After asking Jiang Xu’s opinion, Shen Fangyu told her the truth. Shen Baihan on the other end of the phone was rather silent after hearing the news, and the two brothers both fell silent over the phone.

After a long silence, Shen Baihan finally spoke, “You guys are doing well. If you encounter any difficulties, your elder brother and parents will help.”

Later, Mother Shen asked a few times whether Xiaoxiao could be brought to their home, but their house was too small at the time, and Jiang Xu’s parents were closer with Xiaoxiao, so she was reluctant to return to their hometown. Shen Fangyu refused, but during winter and summer breaks, they would bring Xiaoxiao back to visit his parents and elder brother.

The decency of adults was probably that no matter what kind of grudges they had in the past, they will hide them in front of children.

For so many years, the two families have been getting along like relatives, and they are still harmonious.

Of course, when Xiaoxiao opened the selected exercise books that Shen Fangyu’s elder brother sent her for the entrance exam to middle school, she might not have felt this way.

In comparison, the little dress that Zhong Lan gave Xiaoxiao and the music scores that Lin Qian gave her were obviously more pleasing to her.

After unpacking the gifts with Xiaoxiao, Zhong Lan looked at the table full of dishes and immediately urged, “Why haven’t Tang Ke and the others arrived yet?”

“We’re here! There was traffic jam when I went to pick up Yu Sang, and we waited for a long time on the road.”

Tang Ke pushed open the door, followed by a lively group of people. Yu Sang, Wu Rui, and Zhang Cheng had also arrived, carrying large and small gifts, and squeezed into the entrance where they changed shoes.

Xiaoxiao greeted them sweetly, making a group of uncles feel delighted, and their smiles were particularly sincere.

Jiang Xu announced his relationship with Shen Fangyu after becoming the head of the department.

At that time, Director Cui was about to retire, so she called Jiang Xu and Shen Fangyu to her office to discuss promotion issues.

Although Jiang Xu and Shen Fangyu were both promoted to chief physicians in the same year, the title and position were two different things. A department could have many chief physicians, but there could only be one department head.

Director Cui was obviously in a dilemma. Both of them were students she had personally taught and were her most trusted assistants in the department. She couldn’t determine who was better than the other, so she handed their resumes to each other.

“I have read your resumes many times in the past few days. I can say that every aspect is comparable, even your H index is the same. But I can only recommend one person, so I can only use a not-so-appropriate and stupid method.”

She said: “Let’s calculate the total score of the articles.”

Research ability is the main assessment item for promotion in the hospital system, and the evaluation indicators often focus on an individual’s H-index and the impact factor of their articles.

Scores cannot fully measure a person’s ability, especially the impact factor of articles, which fluctuates almost every year with the level of the journal. It is the laziest and most intuitive tool to use when it is difficult to distinguish between two equally skilled individuals. That’s why the ‘top five’ policy has been denounced for so many years, but there hasn’t been much effect.

Jiang Xu and Shen Fangyu looked at each other, silently calculating each other’s scores.

Somehow, it reminded them of that scene when they checked what they answered in the internet café in the past. In the end, the two wrote a score in the upper left corner respectively and handed it to Director Cui.

However, unlike in the past, the two numbers this time were not the same.

“Teacher Cui, I don’t think we should calculate it this way,” Jiang Xu said. “Shen Fangyu had a paper on male cesarean section with a high citation rate but he posted his article on a domestic journal just to promote our country.”

Shen Fangyu was three points behind him, but if he had originally submitted the paper to the planned top foreign journal, these three points would not be worth mentioning.

“You should consider the comprehensive citation rate,” he suggested.

Director Cui looked at the two resumes and sighed, “I should choose you if I consider this score, and him when I consider the citation rate, but when I consider each indicator one by one, I am completely stumped.”

She said: “Jiang Xu, to be honest, asking you to calculate this is a bit like rolling dice. I don’t know what the impact factor of the articles you have both published now is. Maybe a few years later, if you use the same articles to calculate, the results will be completely different. The difference is too small and it is difficult to measure with data. If you are willing to accept this result, I will make a recommendation. If you are not willing, I will try to fight for another opportunity for you to showcase yourselves to the higher-ups, and you can compete again as before.”

“No need,” Shen Fangyu said. “It was my decision to submit to the domestic journal. We both agreed to determine this matter by calculating the scores of our articles. Since this is the case, we should all follow the rules.”

Director Cui was the department head and the deputy director of Jihua Hospital, so Shen Fangyu knew how much weight her recommendation carried. If the many years of competition between him and Jiang Xu ended with Jiang Xu becoming the department head, it probably meant that he had lost to Jiang Xu.

However, he had no resentment or regret about losing. Perhaps, as Director Cui said, after so many years, there were inevitably errors and fluctuations in calculating the impact factor of the past articles, making it difficult to truly rank them. If he lost due to luck, there was actually nothing to care about.

Or perhaps, Shen Fangyu thought, if it was about losing, he had already lost when he put his whole heart out when he impulsively kissed Jiang Xu back then.

Jiang Xu looked at him, wanting to say something, but with Director Cui sitting in front of them, he couldn’t be too direct. He could only use his foot to touch Shen Fangyu’s shoe from under the table.

It wasn’t until Shen Fangyu noticed his movement that he snapped back to attention and turned to Director Cui, saying, “Can Jiang Xu and I talk alone for a moment?”

The two stood in a sparsely populated staircase, and Jiang Xu said with a frown, “You didn’t want to promote it back then because of Xiaoxiao, so I didn’t persuade you. But you finished such a difficult surgery, shouldn’t you fight for yourself now?”

“Jiang Xu,” Shen Fangyu interrupted him, “isn’t it your principle to follow the rules? Otherwise, you would have had a share in that article back then. Why do you want to persuade me now that we have agreed to follow the rules?”

Jiang Xu choked up and didn’t speak for a while.

“You don’t have to feel any psychological burden,” Shen Fangyu said. “If you really feel burdened, you can split your office and materials with me when you become the department head.”

“Of course…” He joked in a relaxed tone, “ there’s no need to split it.”

Time was truly a wonderful thing. Twelve years have passed, but Jiang Xu still remembers the young man who sat in the car and said, “Split two hundred thousand dollars with me.” At that time, they were at odds, but now they are in a harmonious and loving relationship.

Perhaps the biggest thing they had in common was that they always share half of their lives with each other, and Shen Fangyu always takes puts his self-esteem in consideration, never wanting to owe anyone anything.

“Okay,” Shen Fangyu squeezed his shoulder, “Besides, Director Cui only recommended you. Whether you can pass the layers of assessments above depends on your own ability.”

“And Jiang Xu,” he said, “You may feel like you owe favors to anyone else except for me,” Dr. Shen said without reservation, then used a cheesy new phrase he had just learned, “Because I belong to you.”

Sure enough, Jiang Xu couldn’t help but shiver with goosebumps all over his body after he finished speaking, and he left with stiff steps.

But late at night, Dr. Jiang couldn’t help but lose a little sleep because of this sentence.

And what surprised Shen Fangyu was that after Jiang Xu became the department head, he really gave half of his new office to Shen Fangyu, along with the key.

The two young talents who had been at odds had now reached this point. Those in the department who understood and those who didn’t, now had some understanding of their relationship.

There was surprise, but more of a feeling that it was meant to be.

The brain’s ability to modify memories is stronger than people imagine. Twelve years had almost made them forget the past when the two doctors could fight each other on sight. To them, it seemed that they were competing with each other most of the time, while moving forward side by side.

It was like they were a match made in heaven, and it was hard to imagine them being with anyone else.

However, Jiang Xu only told a few people he was close to about the child. On the one hand, their relationship was good enough that he knew they wouldn’t hurt him or laugh at him, and on the other hand, he asked them to help smooth things over in the department and keep this matter a secret from others.

After all, for Xiaoxiao, the less people focus on her, the happier her life will be.

When Yu Sang first learned about it, he jumped three feet high and almost fainted on the spot. He kept asking to have his heart checked, and in the end, Jiang Xu personally gave him an electrocardiogram that showed everything was normal.

As a senior brother, Wu Rui was still quite calm. After listening, he just drank three cups of hot water to calm down. Finally, thinking of his own son who was about the same age as Xiaoxiao, he joked, “Shall we arrange a marriage between our families?”

But he was mercilessly rejected by Shen Fangyu, who said, “She only likes monkeys.”

So for Xiaoxiao’s birthday, Wu Rui brought a large plush toy of Sun Wukong. Xiaoxiao was very happy, holding the toy that was almost as tall as her and running around showing it to everyone without feeling tired.

“Aunt Zhong, I have something else to show you.”

Amidst much laughter, Xiaoxiao somehow started telling Zhong Lan about her friends at school, and even showed her the birthday cards her friends had made for her. She got up and ran to the bedroom, but Jiang Xu grabbed her and said, “Don’t run, let’s show Aunt Zhong after we finish the cake.”

Xiaoxiao obediently hugged her doll and stood in front of Jiang Xu, telling Zhong Lan, “Wait a minute, Aunt Zhong, I’ll bring it to you after I finish the cake.”

Zhong Lan smiled and said, “Okay, don’t rush.”

Jiang Xu untangled Xiaoxiao’s messy ponytail, then made a bun and put a golden birthday crown on her head. The baby fat on the girl’s face was disappearing, and at first glance, the girl in the long dress stood elegantly, giving a hint of a grown-up woman.

The three-layered birthday cake symbolized Xiaoxiao’s step-by-step growth, as well as the happiness of the family of three. Jiang Xu took out the camera and planned to take a group photo, but Xiaoxiao snatched it from him, saying, “Let me do it!” She skillfully took Shen Fangyu’s phone and put it on a selfie stick, then held it up high.

Click! The picture froze.

The room was filled with gifts, and in the front was the little girl smiling happily with her favorite Sun Wukong in her arms. Behind her were her two fathers, with similar figures and handsome faces, looking at her with love in their eyes. And behind them were her uncles, aunts, and grandparents who all loved her.

They were all laughing happily and carefree, as if at this moment, in front of this twelve-year-old child, they had returned to their innocent and naïve twelve-year-old selves.

Colored candles were lit and the lights in the room were turned off. The orange-yellow flames were blown out by the little girl. She closed her eyes and made a wish with her hands clasped piously and everyone sang the birthday song.

The April Fools’ Day without any tricks or deception came to an end amidst laughter and joy, and those birthday wishes quietly waited for their little owner to fulfill them one by one in the new year.