EHTM - 76

Qing Hang had very little free time. Whenever Cheng Wanyue was hospitalized, he was almost always at the hospital, reliving those missing days, watching her undergo various tests and treatments, suffering from nausea and vomiting due to medication, either insomniac and unable to sleep or falling into a deep slumber for a long time.

Cheng Wanyue was in and out of the hospital, her physical condition fluctuating between good and bad. It felt like summer arrived in the blink of an eye.

Yesterday, Qing Hang was on night duty and was supposed to come see her after his shift this morning, but she waited and waited and he didn’t appear.

A nurse came to draw Cheng Wanyue’s blood. She kept looking towards the door. The nurse knew she was waiting for Qing Hang. “Dr. Qing encountered some trouble and probably won’t be able to get away for a while.”

He had been working at this hospital for half a year, and everything was stable for him.

Cheng Wanyue was a bit anxious. “What kind of trouble?”

The nurse said, “A patient’s family is causing a scene, a pretty serious one.”

It had even spread to the hematology ward, so it definitely wasn’t a small matter. Cheng Wanyue went to find Qing Hang after her blood draw. As soon as she got off the elevator, she heard a clamor of arguing. Although the dialect was hard to understand, she had been there long enough to recognize that they were swearing.

Cheng Wanyue walked forward and suddenly stopped at a corner.

Six or seven family members were yelling and cursing. Nurses and doctors were trying to mediate, and the scene was chaotic. Security guards rushed over. Cheng Wanyue was bumped, and she managed to steady herself by leaning against the wall. After the troublemakers were pulled away, she saw Qing Hang, cornered.

His glasses were crushed, a button on his white coat was torn off, and there were several bleeding scratches on his neck.

Qing Hang ignored everyone else, pushed through the crowd, and ran to embrace Cheng Wanyue, who was striding towards him. No one could stop her when she lost her temper.

Her hat fell to the ground. Qing Hang unbuttoned his white coat and wrapped it around her.

“How dare they treat you like that?” Cheng Wanyue struggled fiercely, wanting to argue with those people. “You save people, you don’t harm them! How dare they hit and curse you?”

The family members’ anger flared at her words. Qing Hang covered Cheng Wanyue’s ears and, after leading her away from the busy elevator entrance, explained in a low voice, “The patient’s family thinks I’m too young and inexperienced, mistaking me for an intern. It’s a misunderstanding, Wanyue. Listen to me, they didn’t hit me just now.”

Cheng Wanyue’s voice choked. “They clearly did, I saw it...”

During her treatment, she hadn’t shed a single tear, but now, seeing Qing Hang being slandered and cursed by the patient’s family, tears streamed uncontrollably, soaking a large patch of the white T-shirt Qing Hang was wearing.

Tears dripped onto his scratches, stinging him to the point of suffocation.

“They’re doing it for their family; it’s understandable. Similar things happen everywhere. Even if I stayed at my previous hospital, I couldn’t avoid it 100%.”

“Verbal arguments are unnecessary. Doing a good surgery and the patient slowly getting better trumps all explanations.”

“Wanyue, I haven’t given up anything for you, nor have I sacrificed anything for you. I love this profession. It was like this before, and it is now. No, that’s not accurate. I have more now than before. I’m very glad I followed you to Nanjing. If I hadn’t come, I’d be the one regretting it.”

Qing Hang patiently comforted Cheng Wanyue’s emotions, sentence by sentence. “I know you’re angry, you feel for me, and you’re upset for me, but you can’t go looking for a fight right after having your blood drawn. Chi Yue calls you ‘Sailor Moon.’ Just listen to the first two words. You be the ‘Sailor,’ and I’ll be the ‘Moon’ — no, you be the beautiful girl, and I’ll be the warrior. Treating and saving people is like fighting against death; it’s a battle too.”

Cheng Wanyue was amused. “I don’t like him calling me that; it’s silly.”

Qing Hang had no tissues at hand, so he could only use his clothes to wipe her tears. “I won’t mention it again, and I won’t let him call you that. You are the most special Rapunzel.”

“...There’s no bald princess.”

“That’s why you’re special. A princess doesn’t necessarily have to wear a fancy dress, or have magic, or live in a castle, or be young, or have long hair.”

“That makes sense. Tomorrow, when I see the child in bed 48, I’ll tell her that.”

“Are you still angry?”

“Yes, I’m practically fuming.”

She had a big cry, and her voice was hoarse from coughing. Qing Hang gently patted her back. “Do you remember that summer vacation in junior high, when you followed Uncle Cheng to town and helped teach a lesson to some kids who were bullying a person collecting scraps near the school’s convenience store, while you were watching other boys play marbles?”

Cheng Wanyue clearly didn’t remember. “That happened?”

“Guess who that person collecting scraps was.”

He had hinted enough for Cheng Wanyue to understand. “It was you? So we knew each other that early.”

Qing Hang even remembered the color of the clothes she was wearing that day very clearly. “Yes, a year earlier than you remember our first meeting. You started protecting me back then.”

Cheng Wanyue also recalled some old memories. “Because of you, my classmates gave me nicknames, like ‘Little Dog Cheng,’ ‘Little Chicken Cheng.’ So ugly.”

After a while, she added, “But I wasn’t angry at all.”

A colleague picked up Cheng Wanyue’s hat and waved at Qing Hang from a distance, signaling to leave the hat in the office first. Qing Hang nodded in thanks.

“Don’t be angry now either. I can handle it,” Qing Hang turned sideways, blocking the gazes of passersby. “Didn’t you always say I was amazing?”

“I’ll be mad for a little longer, then I won’t be,” Cheng Wanyue calmed down. She actually didn’t care about wearing a hat or being stared at. “The hat was stepped on several times.”

“It’s fine. I’ll buy an identical one.”

“Buy glasses first. The old pair was also crushed. We’ll be discharged tomorrow. Let’s go shopping together.”

This stage of treatment was over. After discharge, they would wait for the doctor to notify them of the next hospitalization date.

Qing Hang had just finished his night shift. After eating breakfast with Cheng Wanyue, she sent him home to rest.

During the day, Cheng Yuzhou took care of Cheng Wanyue. When Cheng Yuzhou went to the doctor’s office, she went downstairs for a walk, wondering if the scratches on Qing Hang’s neck would scar, and walked to the place where the commotion had happened that morning.

Qing Hang’s colleagues knew her, since the family had just caused a scene that morning. Worried she’d be at a disadvantage, they told her not to go.

Cheng Wanyue wasn’t there to cause trouble.

That doctor saw she wasn’t listening to advice and called the nurse’s station. Cheng Yuzhou rushed over when he found out.

Cheng Yuzhou’s worries were unnecessary. Cheng Wanyue chatted warmly with the family members. She was talking about Qing Hang’s resume. Qing Hang himself couldn’t praise himself, but she could praise him double, praise him hard, to reassure the patient and their family, and make them trust Qing Hang.

As she was leaving, the family member who had been yelling and cursing that morning smiled and slipped a kumquat into her hand.

Cheng Wanyue looked up and smiled at Cheng Yuzhou. She tossed the kumquat into the air and caught it precisely, as if saying: See? Aren’t I amazing?

“Are you surprised?” She held the kumquat and dangled it in front of him to snap him out of his daze. “I have a brain too.”

Her eyes and brows were filled with smiles, but Cheng Yuzhou felt a pang of sadness. “Not surprised, just think our little sister has grown up.”

He changed the subject. “Qing Hang isn’t coming to the hospital tonight. My mom will come to stay with you. She has a lot of new stories to tell you.”

Cheng Wanyue enjoyed listening to her second aunt’s stories; they were more interesting than watching TV. Cheng Yuzhou then mentioned that he and Zhou Yu were choosing a postpartum care center, and Cheng Wanyue forgot to ask why Qing Hang wasn’t coming to the hospital, despite usually being hard to get rid of.

He was busy with work, and while she preferred he rested, she still felt unaccustomed to him not being there.

Qing Hang was already in the car when he received Cheng Wanyue’s message. She estimated he should be awake before sending him a WeChat message.

Y: When Little Crescent Moon is born, what kind of gift should I, as her aunt, prepare?

lune: Toys?

Y: But I don’t know what kind of toys Little Crescent Moon would like. How about we get a dog to grow up with her?

lune: Much better than what I thought. Samoyeds are cute as puppies and cute when they grow up too.

Y: The kind Yanci has?

lune: Yeah, he says they’re easy to raise.

Cheng Wanyue decided to get a Samoyed after seeing the video Yanci sent her. She called Qing Hang and heard a broadcast in the background; he was on a high-speed train.

She thought Qing Hang was on a business trip out of town and would be gone for at least a week, but he returned the next day.

He looked a bit tired from lack of sleep, but he was in a good mood, holding her and talking a lot.

Tomorrow was her birthday. At 11:55 PM, he knocked on her door, sang her a birthday song, and asked her for a birthday wish. She wouldn’t give him one, so he said he had made a wish last year on his birthday and wanted her to help him fulfill it.

Cheng Wanyue thought about it. He had indeed only made two wishes last year. “Last year’s wish has expired.”

Before she could blow out the candles, Qing Hang leaned in and kissed her, then knelt on one knee in front of her. “So I’m not making a wish to God, but to you. I wish... that Cheng Wanyue and I get married.”

Cheng Wanyue closed her eyes and lay in the rocking chair, briefly dazed. “No, choose another one.”

“I’ll be a good husband.”

“No.”

“You already proposed to me on New Year’s Day.”

“That was a joke.”

Qing Hang took out the ring she had only worn for one night. “If I take it seriously, then it’s not a joke. You said you took a set of photos you really liked in your freshman year. I found that photographer, and she agreed.”

Cheng Wanyue suddenly realized, “You went to see her yesterday...”

The photographer was named Zhao Nanbing. Qing Hang had been contacting her studio for a long time but hadn’t revealed Cheng Wanyue’s information until he met Zhao Nanbing in person yesterday and told her a bit. “Her schedule is fully booked. She refused me three times, but she remembered you and postponed her international travel after knowing I wanted her to take photos for you.”

Cheng Wanyue had gotten into the industry because of that set of photos taken by Zhao Nanbing.

Before she could use being tired as an excuse to send Qing Hang away, the door was opened from outside by Cheng Yanqing. The whole family came in. Zhou Yu held a white veil, and the light reflected in her tear-filled eyes.

Cheng Wanyue was surrounded, and Qing Hang could have put the ring on her finger while she was distracted, but he didn’t. He was waiting for her to nod.

“The floor is very hard, Qing Hang has been kneeling for so long, Yueyue, don’t you feel bad?” Zhou Yu let go of her hand, and the veil landed perfectly on Cheng Wanyue’s hat. Cheng Wanyue had said the same thing to her on the day Cheng Yuzhou proposed.

The veil covered her face. Cheng Wanyue blew gently, and the veil fluttered lightly.

She murmured, “He’s actually playing tricks now, even Ayi is helping him.”

Qing Hang smiled. “I had no choice but to find helpers.”

Cheng Wanyue accepted the veil and the ring. Cheng Yanqing cheered them on from the side. The house hadn’t been so lively in a long time.