Chapter 6 : Thank You

Chi Yuqin’s voice wasn’t loud, but her brow was tightly furrowed.

The voice on the other end of the phone, however, was much louder.
A woman’s sharp, piercing question—How could you be so heartless, so cruel…

Cruel?
Heartless?

If Chi Yuqin had been a man, Tang Zhen would have reflexively assumed she was dealing with a jilted lover.
After all, words like that inherently carried a sense of ambiguity.

It was a good thing that Tang Zhen was now twenty-six.
If she had been a few years younger, her honest feelings would probably have been written all over her face.

She surreptitiously took a step back, stopping at a distance that was neither too close nor too far.
She turned her head to look at the few succulents on the windowsill, her movements natural and seamless, not at all out of place.

But in reality, she might as well have just stayed standing by the desk.

There was a seven-year age gap between thirty-three and twenty-six.
Chi Yuqin looked at her as if she were looking at a child—

‘You heard what you heard. Why the pretense of innocence? Who are you trying to give a way out to?’

The woman on the phone started crying again.

Chi Yuqin hated it when people cried, as if crying and wiping away a few tears could solve anything.

That was just how she was.
She never indulged things she didn’t like.
Crying, was it?
Fine, then go ahead and cry.

The woman on the other end of the line probably couldn’t even guess why she had been hung up on.

“Do you have anything else? If not, I’m getting off work.”

“I don’t look down on research. On the contrary, I admire it very much.”

Chi Yuqin looked up, watching Tang Zhen’s hesitant backward steps—

“So?”

Tang Zhen wasn’t one to explain herself.
Even if there was a reason, she wouldn’t defend herself.
But she was particular.
When it came to matters of principle and bottom lines, she would nitpick every detail.
Clearly, Chi Yuqin’s comment about ‘making money’ had crossed Tang Zhen’s line.

“So what was your original intention for studying medicine?”

“No original intention. My family forced me. I had no choice.”

Chi Yuqin was telling the truth.
Her family had been doctors for three generations, ever since her grandfather’s time as a barefoot doctor.
She was destined to walk this path.
So from the very beginning, Chi Yuqin had no choice.
Whether she liked it or not, it wasn’t up to her.

But to Tang Zhen, this sounded a bit unreal.

Could you imagine a person who spent her days in the operating room, fighting with the King of Hell for lives, being a good girl who listened to her family?
If you said she was someone who responded to soft persuasion but not hard pressure, that might be possible.
But to say that someone could force her head down… it didn’t seem likely.

“They forced you to study, and you just did it? You didn’t resist?”

“What’s there to resist? What’s that saying again? If you don’t have a passion, choose a popular field.”

“Didn’t you say the pay was low?”

“My family is rich. They can support me for a lifetime. I’m just bored, finding something to do.”

“So you became a doctor against your will?”

“More than that. I was forced into it.”

Tang Zhen was choked by Chi Yuqin’s words and couldn’t ask any more.
If she continued, Tang Zhen felt that Chi Yuqin would start pointing out her mistakes on an ideological level.
Most importantly… she felt this person was talking nonsense.
No one understood how hard it was to study medicine better than a medical student.
Perhaps at the beginning, it was due to one reason or another, but if there was truly no passion, purely relying on coercion and enticement, it would be impossible to persevere, especially to a position like Chi Yuqin’s.
Unless you were an alien mutant, it was absolutely impossible.

“You’re joking with me.”
Tang Zhen’s stubborn streak flared up.

Chi Yuqin looked at her with interest. “Is it so important to you whether I’m joking or not?”

“Director Wang said you’re very outstanding, a role model for young doctors to learn from.”

“You believe what Director Wang says?”

Tang Zhen was choked up by her again.
This time, she really couldn’t say a single word.

Chi Yuqin took off her white coat, revealing a loose gray and white plaid shirt underneath.
A round neckline, a long, slender, and fair neck.
Perhaps it was really time to get off work.
Once the white coat was off, her whole demeanor changed, the coldness inexplicably warming up.

Tang Zhen couldn’t understand how her emotions could change so drastically.
One moment she had a cold face, the next, the dimple on her left cheek had appeared.

Actually, if Tang Zhen stayed a little longer, she would know that this was just Chi Yuqin’s personality.
She was about the matter, not the person.
If you did something wrong, I can’t just smile and praise you with my eyes closed.
And it was after work… no matter how sacred a doctor was, they weren’t a god.
Finally getting a break, a little bit of joy was in order.

Unfortunately, it was only Tang Zhen’s first day of hard labor.
Of course, she couldn’t quite understand Chi Yuqin’s kind of joy yet.
She just thought this person was strange, gloomy one moment and sunny the next… like the weather in the Forbidden City.
But it didn’t matter.
She would slowly come to know it in the future.
After all, compared to the 24/7 work model of a hospital, the 996 work culture outside was just a little brother.

“How about this? I’ll ask you in a different way. Do you want me to give you some encouragement, or some advice?”
Chi Yuqin had already stood up from her chair.
Even with both of them in flat shoes, she was a forehead’s height taller than Tang Zhen.

Her shadow cast over her, along with that clean scent from her body.

Tang Zhen carefully sucked oxygen into her lungs. “Advice.”

“My advice is that I have no advice.”

Chi Yuqin’s expression finally turned cold—

“Clinical work is very hard. Cardiac surgery is even harder, many times harder than when you were in school. Your qualifications are very good, but I can’t guarantee that you can persevere. I don’t want to say anything too certain or too negative… I’m just giving you some advice as someone who has been through it. You’re still young. If you turn back now, it’s not too late.”

“What do you mean?”

“Change careers, or sit in a lab. It’s up to you.”

Under Chi Yuqin’s harsh criticism just now, Tang Zhen had only blushed.
But now, a real bitterness welled up in her heart.
Her throat felt like it was blocked by a water-soaked sponge, swelling until she couldn’t breathe.

It was like you were in a classroom, seriously studying for an exam, and suddenly someone rushed in and told you that you were terrible and should drop out.

Tang Zhen had been the “gifted child” since she was little.
She wouldn’t dare to say she was exceptionally outstanding, but she certainly wasn’t in the category of ‘dropping out.’
She couldn’t say a word, her teeth clenched tightly against her cheek, a basin of cold water poured over her from head to toe.

Was she about to cry?

Chi Yuqin felt a headache coming on.
Crying after just a few words?
Was her tolerance so low?

It wasn’t that she was afraid of her crying.
At worst, she could just leave.

The main thing was that it was troublesome.
She herself—first, hated people crying; second, hated trouble the most.

Just as trouble was about to start, Chi Yuqin was thinking about whether to say something to ease the tension when she saw Tang Zhen suddenly straighten her shoulders— “Thank you, I won’t change careers, and I won’t go into research.”

After speaking, Tang Zhen bowed her head to Chi Yuqin. “I will keep your words in my heart. I won’t delay you from going home. Director Chi, I’ll be leaving now.”

The door was quickly pulled open and then quickly closed.
Through the door, Chi Yuqin could hear the sound of Tang Zhen’s footsteps as she ran off—

Hiss… she wasn’t going to complain to Director Wang, was she?

Tang Zhen had fled.
As soon as she was out of the office, her legs started to move faster on their own.
She hadn’t meant to run.
And she still remembered Chi Yuqin’s reminder from outside the ward at noon—no running in the hospital.

But the air in this place was too suffocating.
She needed to get away quickly, to catch her breath and suppress the uncomfortable feeling in her heart.

Just as Chi Yuqin was about to leave, the door was pushed open again.
She thought it was Tang Zhen coming back, but when she turned, she saw it was Zhao Qin.

“Little Tang left? Did she finish asking you everything?”

“She did.”

“How was it? Was it okay? It’s the little girl’s first day, don’t be too strict with her.”

Chi Yuqin’s expression remained unchanged as she picked up the shoulder bag hanging on the coat rack—

“She said thank you.”