Chapter 62 Who is she?
The door to the consultation room was pushed open and closed again, and one thyroid patient after another came in, went out, and left.
Around noon, the last number called was Ning Yu's.
She walked in, still looking as quiet and thin as she had yesterday, only her eyes were more determined than before.
"Have you thought it through?" Huo Nanchen asked, while skillfully opening the online consultation interface on his computer.
“Yes.” Ning Yu nodded. “I want to undergo iodine-131 treatment.”
"good."
Huo Nanchen was not surprised and began his routine inquiry, "Are you currently using medication to conceive?"
This question made Ning Yu freeze for a moment. She lowered her head and looked at her hands resting on her knees.
She paused for a few seconds before answering, "No, I...I'm divorced."
Huo Nanchen paused on the keyboard, glancing up at her.
Her profile looked exceptionally pale and fragile under the bright lights of the clinic.
He didn't ask anything, said anything, and turned his attention back to the screen to continue the process.
"Understood. Since you've decided to undergo iodine-131 treatment, you need to stop taking the medication first."
"Strictly abstain from iodine for four weeks to keep the thyroid gland in a state of starvation, so as to ensure the absorption effect of radioactive iodine."
As he spoke, he printed out a detailed list of precautions.
The list clearly outlines high-iodine foods to avoid and points to note in daily life.
He handed the paper to Ning Yu: "These are the specific requirements for avoiding iodine. Please be sure to strictly follow them."
"One month later, come back on an empty stomach to check thyroid function and iodine uptake rate. Only then can we determine the treatment dosage based on the iodine uptake rate."
"Thank you, Dr. Huo," she whispered, folded the paper in half, put it in her bag, and got up to leave the consultation room.
Huo Nanchen watched her figure disappear behind the door, his gaze darkening for a moment.
Then the usual calm returned, and the call button was pressed.
The day's consultations ended around 5 p.m.
Huo Nanchen changed out of his white coat, packed his things, and walked out of the hospital gate. There was no exchange meeting today.
As he was about to walk towards the parking lot, a figure emerged from behind a pillar beside him—it was Ning Yu.
"Nan Chen." She called him by his name, not the distant "Dr. Huo."
"Can we... talk?"
"Just think of it as... friends who haven't seen each other for many years."
Huo Nanchen remained silent for a moment, then finally nodded.
They found a dessert shop near the hospital, sat by the window, and each ordered a hot drink.
Ning Yu took a sip from the warm cup and said, "Back then... after the engagement was called off, my father was very angry."
As she spoke, a bitter smile appeared on her face. "He felt that I had brought shame to the Ning family and disgraced the aristocratic family."
"He knew that I had always liked Jing Yu, so he told me that if I insisted on marrying him, I would have to give up my status as a young lady of the Ning family and leave with nothing."
"He said he wanted me to see how long so-called love could last without family protection. I never expected that my father would be right in the end."
"Back then... I was too young and thought love was everything."
“I gave up my surname and my comfortable life, and married him without hesitation.”
"At the beginning, there was indeed a sweet time, but soon, real problems followed one after another."
"Without economic support, poetry and distant places are truly just dreams."
"The realities of daily life, such as food, rent, and utilities, can all be overwhelming."
“He was having trouble making money at work, so we started arguing about money and all sorts of trivial things.”
"Gradually, the way he looked at me changed. The love and cherishing he once had were gone, replaced by resentment and impatience."
Her voice choked for a moment, then she tried to calm herself down and hold back her tears.
"Without the halo of status brought by the Ning family, I am nothing in his eyes."
"So in the end... we got divorced, which was a relief."
"It was probably the long-term depression from that stifling marriage that led to me being diagnosed with hyperthyroidism not long after the divorce."
She looked at Huo Nanchen, who had been listening silently across from her, and asked with a bitter smile, "Look, isn't fate quite ironic?"
Huo Nanchen listened quietly without interrupting her, his face expressionless.
His fingers unconsciously caressed the warm cup, his eyes as deep as the night.
Meanwhile, just across the street from the dessert shop, about five or six meters wide, was a roast meat shop.
Lin Xili and her colleagues had just finished collecting supplementary evidence from the scene of a minor theft in the alley behind the store.
The three men carrying their survey kits came out of the store and stood by the roadside waiting for a car.
"I'm starving. I bet there won't be any good food left in the cafeteria when I get back," Brother Li complained, rubbing his stomach.
"How about we grab something to eat nearby?" Brother Wang suggested, glancing at the shops across the street.
Lin Xili subconsciously followed his gaze and froze instantly.
Two people were sitting by the bright floor-to-ceiling windows of the dessert shop across the street.
Who else could that man in the dark coat be but Huo Nanchen?
A woman sat opposite him; she looked very thin and was looking down, holding a cup in both hands, seemingly saying something.
Huo Nanchen was listening quietly, though his expression was obscured by the distance.
But that focused demeanor was something Lin Xili rarely saw in him when he treated outsiders.
Didn't he just arrive in Hong Kong?
Besides his hospital colleagues, he actually knew other people?
And it was a woman?
Lin Xili's heart was suddenly gripped, and an unfamiliar, bittersweet feeling surged up uncontrollably.
Looking at the scene through the glass window, which seemed to be a self-contained world that could not tolerate any outside interference, she suddenly found it incredibly jarring.
"Xi Li? What are you looking at? Do you know someone there?"
Brother Li noticed her absent-mindedness and followed her gaze to see a man and a woman in the dessert shop across the street.
"Hey, that guy looks pretty good. Is he your friend?"
Lin Xili snapped out of her daze, quickly suppressing all outward emotions and reverting to her usual aloof and distant demeanor.
She shook her head: "I don't recognize it, I must have mistaken you. Let's go back, there should still be food in the cafeteria."
She looked away, got into the car with Brother Wang and Brother Li, and didn't look back at the other side again.
Who is that girl?
What is their relationship?
Is she his patient?
Does he treat other female patients the same way he treated her?
Only she knew that these questions were spinning uncontrollably in her mind.
For the first time, she couldn't help but feel a strong desire to explore Huo Nanchen's simple, almost blank world.
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