Song Yihe's On-Call Room

Inside the hospital room.

An Zhiheng had just awakened from anesthesia and still couldn't move.

The doctor said that in about six hours, he would pass gas (fart), and then he could get out of bed and walk around a bit, and have some rice broth.

There was still some finishing work to do on the promotional video from a few days ago.

After An Zhiheng's surgery was over, An Zhiwu planned to make a trip to Lufeng.

She agreed with Mother An that she would come back at dinnertime to take her place.

Mother An felt sorry for her daughter and insisted she didn't need to come over that night.

An Zhiheng lay in his hospital bed, watching the two women argue until he couldn't take it anymore. "You two should both go home and sleep tonight. I'll be fine on my own."

Mother An glared at him. "What nonsense are you talking about? If no one's here, how are you supposed to go to the bathroom by yourself?"

An Zhiheng was miserable. With you two here, I'd be too embarrassed to go to the bathroom anyway.

Unfortunately, Father An was still drifting somewhere out on the ocean, and there was no way he could make it back.

In the end, the three of them agreed that Mother An would stay during the day, and An Zhiwu would come at night.

An Zhiwu went to Lufeng and finished editing the hospital's promotional video and the rest of the work.

She had told Wang Wenbo on WeChat yesterday about An Zhiheng's surgery.

Once she finished her part, Wang Wenbo didn't ask her to stay any longer.

On her way back to the hospital.

An Zhiwu passed a congee shop.

She paid five yuan and asked the owner to ladle out a bowl of congee broth without any rice grains, then took it to the hospital.

That evening, after Mother An left.

An Zhiwu sat on a stool in the hospital room, browsing a mukbang forum.

After the last post discussing whether there were any real beauties in the mukbang world.

The topic had remained a hot one.

An Zhiwu even came across a post titled [Betting on whether "Three-Hundred-Jin An'an" is a real beauty].

The comments under the post were all over the place. An Zhiwu skimmed through them and saw that most people were betting she was an ugly freak.

Their reasoning was as follows: if a woman was good-looking and could cook so well, women like that would have gone extinct in this society long ago.

An Zhiwu pursed her lips after reading the post.

Then she was probably a beauty of the endangered variety in this society.

An Zhiheng looked at An Zhiwu sitting in the corner and couldn't help speaking up. "An Zhiwu, go see if Dr. Song is around. If he is, sorry for the trouble, but ask him to come over. If he isn't, another male doctor is fine too."

An Zhiwu asked in confusion, "What's wrong?"

An Zhiheng avoided her gaze. "My stomach hurts."

"Your stomach hurts?" An Zhiwu jumped up from her stool in fright. She had seen cases where people died from infections after surgery, as well as news stories about careless doctors leaving alcohol swabs inside patients' abdomens.

An Zhiwu hurried to An Zhiheng's side. "What kind of pain is it? Where exactly does it hurt?"

An Zhiheng said uncomfortably, "Why are you asking so many questions? Could you possibly know more than a doctor? Just get Dr. Song for me, or another male doctor."

An Zhiwu grew worried too and hurried to the doctors' office.

Song Yihe had just finished a surgery and was sitting in the inpatient department's office writing a report.

Then he saw An Zhiwu rush in. "Dr. Song, An Zhiheng says his stomach hurts. Sorry for the trouble, but could you come take a look?"

Song Yihe frowned. That shouldn't be possible.

After minimally invasive surgery for appendicitis, the abdomen should generally only hurt when the patient strained it.

Still, he hurried to his feet and followed An Zhiwu to the hospital room.

When Song Yihe reached the room.

An Zhiheng glanced at An Zhiwu and made his request to Song Yihe somewhat awkwardly. "Dr. Song, could you help me to the bathroom?"

Song Yihe paused. "Is that why you called me over?"

An Zhiheng nodded uncomfortably.

Only then did An Zhiwu understand why An Zhiheng had been acting so strangely and had insisted she get a male doctor.

Now her own face was bright red, and she could only bite the bullet and thank Song Yihe.

After An Zhiheng finished using the bathroom.

Song Yihe glanced at the folding bed that had already been set up and recalled how An Zhiwu had slept curled up on it that morning.

He couldn't help saying, "An Zhiwu, come with me for a moment."

Under An Zhiheng's subtle, "I understand" expression, An Zhiwu followed him out.

The doctors' office.

Song Yihe looked at the young woman in front of him. She wore a T-shirt and denim shorts, and her hair was tied up in a little ball at the back of her head.

He resisted the urge to reach out and squeeze that little ball, then took a key from his drawer and handed it to her. "I have an on-call room here. I usually stay there when I finish surgery too late at night to go home. It has basic facilities like a shower and a sink. You can sleep there tonight."

An Zhiwu's heart began pounding uncontrollably.

So Song Yihe really did have a bit of a thing for her?

Right?

Song Yihe looked at her shining eyes, and a blush rose on his face. "Don't mind it. I sometimes let patients' family members who are having a hard time stay there too."

Song Yihe wasn't being honest when he said that. In fact, not even the cleaning lady had ever entered his on-call room; he had always cleaned it himself.

The light in An Zhiwu's eyes... went out.

His liking her and all that really had been her imagination.

She was only one of his countless patients' family members.

But the folding bed was truly too uncomfortable to sleep on.

Besides, the patients in the other two beds in the room were both men, so it really wasn't very convenient.

An Zhiwu hesitated, then reached out and took the key from him. "Thank you, Dr. Song."

Her fingertips brushed Song Yihe's palm, and An Zhiwu unconsciously rubbed them.

When Song Yihe saw her take the key, a barely perceptible smile appeared on his face. "Then get some rest early."

An Zhiwu murmured, "Mm," and walked out of the office.

At the thought that An Zhiwu was right there in the hospital room off the corridor.

Song Yihe, who had planned to go home, sat back down.

Actually, reading reports and surgical cases and the like at work was quite interesting too.

In the hospital room.

An Zhiwu rubbed the key in her hand with the pad of her finger, lost in thought.

Thinking of how things had been the night before, An Zhiheng coughed. "An Zhiwu, when it's time to sleep, go home. I'll be fine on my own tonight."

An Zhiwu looked up at him from her thoughts. "Then how will you go to the bathroom?"

He had been fine until she brought that up. At the mention of it, An Zhiheng grew awkward. "I'm a grown man. Are you saying I can't even use the bathroom?"

"So how are you planning to go?"

An Zhiheng paused. "Just don't worry about it. Go home and sleep tonight."

An Zhiwu had tossed and turned all night. If she hadn't refused, An Zhiheng would have wanted her to sleep in the hospital bed while he slept on the folding bed.

Besides, An Zhiwu slept like a pig, and the room was full of men. In the second half of the night, he had kept checking whether her clothes had ridden up and whether her blanket was covering her properly.

As a result, he hadn't slept well all night either.