Chapter 1 : New Beginnings

It had rained heavily last night, and the ground was still wet.
A few sparrows were perched on a utility pole.
The thick clouds didn’t part until almost noon.
The moment the sun peeked through, a rainbow bridge stretched between two tall buildings.

On the way here in the taxi, the driver had been complaining the whole time: “The rain this year is ridiculous. It’s been one storm after another without a break.”

Tang Zhen didn’t really mind.
She wasn’t a local.
Her home was in a small, third-tier city up north where it barely rained twice a year.
She remembered the year she first got into Jingbei University; it was the first time she had seen such heavy rain, and she had excitedly held up an umbrella just to stand in it and watch for a long time.

The taxi stopped at the entrance to the alley.
After paying the fare and saying thank you, Tang Zhen grabbed her two large, clumsy suitcases, one in front and one behind, and pulled them into the lane.

This was an old district in the west of the city.
The road surface was uneven, and a tangled mess of black electrical wires crisscrossed overhead.
A nearby concrete utility pole was plastered with various small ads.
The narrow alley was so tight that another person couldn’t have squeezed through.
The only reason to choose this place was, without a doubt, its cheap price.

The old Tang family only had her, a single daughter.
With two working parents, all their resources went to supporting this one child.
Even if they weren’t incredibly wealthy, their financial situation was far from poor.
Just before she was about to graduate, Tang Mingzhong had transferred thirty thousand yuan to her in one go.
He had even asked if it was enough, saying he could send more if she needed it.
Fearing she would feel burdened, he had specifically added— “Our family isn’t short on money. Spend what you need to spend.”

But in the end, it wasn’t a matter of being short on money or not.
The main thing was that at twenty-six years old, she still had to rely on her parents for support.
That thirty thousand yuan sitting in her bank account… felt scorching hot to the touch.

‘Sure enough—to study medicine, you first have to live off your parents.’
Tang Zhen was finally getting a firsthand taste of that saying.

Once she was out of the narrow lane, the road widened.
After just a few steps, a pair of large, rusty iron gates came into view—she had arrived at the Ronghuali Residential Complex.

The old complex had no elevator.
Although the fourth floor wasn’t particularly high, dragging two large, clumsy suitcases up was a real effort.

Tang Zhen’s head was beaded with sweat.
By the time she finally reached the fourth floor and caught her breath, she was about to take out her keys to open the door when a creaking sound came from behind her.
An old woman with graying hair peeked out from the apartment opposite hers.
She held a large cattail fan in her left hand, her right shoulder leaning against the doorframe, fanning herself as she smiled at Tang Zhen—

“You look unfamiliar, little lady. Just moved in today?”

“Yes, that’s right.”
Tang Zhen still had a touch of post-ivory-tower naivety.
She clutched her keys and turned to nod at the woman.

“Just graduated?”

“Yes.”

“How old are you?”

Being asked her age upon their first meeting gave her a strange sense of discomfort, but out of politeness, Tang Zhen still answered, “Twenty-six.”

“Twenty-six?”
The old woman’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“Hiss… you look so young. I thought you were only twenty-two. Turns out you’re almost thirty. That’s not young at all. Ay… then are you seeing some—”

Before the old woman could finish, Tang Zhen had turned the lock.
She quickly pushed the two large suitcases inside, then turned back and said to the woman—

“See you later.”

She shut the door as soon as she finished speaking.

At the moment the door closed, the old woman muttered something, but Tang Zhen didn’t hear it.

The living room was empty and quite clean.
There was nothing on the plastic coffee table.
There were two pots on the kitchen stove, one of which had some leftover rice porridge in it.
The fridge was stocked with vegetables.
It seemed everyone cooked for themselves.
Tang Zhen thought for a moment… she would probably have to cook for herself in the future, too, if she had the time.

Her room was at the very end of the hall, right across from the bathroom, which would be convenient for getting up at night.

She opened the door to her room.
It was alright, more spacious than she had expected.

Once she had finished unpacking, Tang Zhen looked at the now-filled room and finally felt a small sense of belonging.
Given her current situation, she couldn’t be more satisfied.

Tang Zhen thought about the breakfast stall she had passed on her way over.
She planned to eat there tomorrow morning before heading to Renhua Hospital to report for duty.

Mentioning Renhua, Tang Zhen still felt like she was in a dream.
Renhua was Jingbei’s top-tier Grade-A hospital, and its Cardiac Surgery Department was practically a legendary entity.
Countless medical students fought tooth and nail to get in every year.
For her, a tiny drop in the ocean of students, to have been admitted to Renhua was a stroke of luck no less incredible than a pie falling from the sky.

In all her years of studying medicine, this was the one thing that gave Tang Zhen a sense of accomplishment, and it also gave her one of the few sources of confidence for staying in a first-tier city like Jingbei.

Without realizing it, the sky had already darkened.

Tang Zhen maintained the habit she had developed as a student, insisting on reading every night.
Only when it was getting late did she go to wash up.
She had originally wanted to take a shower, but her roommates in the other two rooms still hadn’t shown up.
Tang Zhen felt a little uncertain.
Although the rental agent had beaten his chest and guaranteed they were all girls, who would dare to truly trust an agent’s words?
In any case, until she saw her two roommates with her own eyes, Tang Zhen wouldn’t dare to take that shower.

She had just rinsed off her facial cleanser and hadn’t even put her toothbrush in her mouth when the front door of the apartment opened.

Tang Zhen was wearing blue and white plaid pajamas with a headband holding her hair back.
Fluffy strands of baby hair clung to the sides of her forehead.
She had a classic face-framing head shape, and her skin was fair and delicate.
Perhaps from scrubbing too hard just now, her cheeks were faintly flushed.
Paired with her fluffy, damp baby hair, she looked for all the world like a water honey peach freshly picked from a tree.

The two of them looked at each other from across the doorway.

‘This must be one of my roommates,’ Tang Zhen thought.
So she took the initiative to greet her—

“Hello, I just moved in today. My name is Tang Zhen.”

“Chen Min.”
She pointed to the door on the left.
“I live in this room. Nice to meet you.”

While Tang Zhen was brushing her teeth, Chen Min went into her room.
When she came out again, she had changed into a slip dress.
Her previously loose hair was now clipped up with a claw clip.
Unlike her earlier sharp and cool competence, she now looked completely relaxed.

“Are you kidding me! She didn’t wash the pot again!”

Chen Min frowned.
On her way back from the kitchen, she ran into Tang Zhen, who had just finished brushing her teeth.

The two of them stood at the bathroom door, each trying to let the other pass, which finally made Chen Min laugh.

Tang Zhen didn’t have the build of a typical northern girl.
At one-meter-sixty-five, she wasn’t tall… but she wasn’t short either.
Her features were gentle and pleasant, especially her eyes, which held an inexplicable warmth when she looked at people.
Even without having interacted with her, one would get the impression that she was a gentle, patient, and kind girl.

“How old are you? Are you twenty-two?”

“Twenty-six.”

Tang Zhen wondered just how young she must look.
This was the second person to ask her that today.

A flash of surprise crossed Chen Min’s eyes—

“Twenty-six? Just graduated?”

“Yes.”

“What did you study?”

“Medicine.”

“Jingbei Medical University?”

“Yes.”

Chen Min paused for a moment.
“Don’t tell me you were in the consecutive Bachelor-Master-Doctorate program?”

“I was.”

“Wow, little sis, I can’t believe you’re so brilliant. The eight-year medical program is tough to get into. I remember the year I was applying for college, you had to score at least sixty points above the cutoff to get in.”

“You studied medicine too?”

“Something like that. Forensic medicine.”

“You’re a police officer.”

“Who told you that forensic medical examiners are police officers? I do DNA analysis.”
Chen Min walked over to the sink.
“Have you found a job yet? It’s not easy for medical students these days. It’s tough and tiring, and even after you graduate, you still have to grind it out.”

Although there was a big difference between clinical medicine and forensic medicine, at least they both had “medicine” in the name, making them semi-colleagues.
A sense of closeness welled up in Tang Zhen’s heart, and she naturally felt more warmth toward Chen Min—

“I was accepted into Renhua.”

Chen Min suddenly turned her head—

“Renhua’s Cardiac Surgery Department?”

“Yes.”
Tang Zhen thought her expression was a bit strange.
“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”
Chen Min shook her head, changing the subject.
“Oh, right, don’t go making small talk with that old lady next door. Or have you already talked to her?”

“I ran into her when I arrived this afternoon… What’s wrong with her?”

“It’s nothing, really. The old lady used to work at the Civil Affairs Bureau, stamping marriage certificates. Now that she’s retired with nothing to do, her eyes light up green whenever she sees a single young woman. She spends all day scheming to set people up.”

“That’s fine.”

“Fine?”

“Once I officially start work, I’ll definitely be very busy. She’s old, so she must go to bed early. We probably won’t run into each other.”

“You’re really something.”

Just as Tang Zhen was about to go into her room, Chen Min suddenly blurted out—

“Hey, have you heard of Chi Yuqin from Renhua’s Cardiac Surgery Department?”