Chapter 27 Self-Reflection: Will the puppy be able to sleep tonight?
After knocking on room 301 for two minutes without any response, Cheng Guo kicked the door and went back to get her phone.
She wasn't a heavy drinker, and right now she was in a bad mood, feeling dizzy and preoccupied with where he was at the crucial moment. She grabbed her phone, ready to fiercely comment on CS's post, only to find his previously quiet thread had suddenly become popular. Cheng Guo stared at the countless likes and comments, the countless followers, only the "1" in the following section remained unchanged. She frowned, clicked to follow him back, and sent him a message: 【Bring me an 800-word self-criticism!】
After finishing sending the message, he lay down on the sofa, satisfied, and noticed several missed calls from Ruan Ning.
She dialed the number lazily, and Ruan Ning answered instantly, immediately blurting out, "Your mother watched Chen Zhui at my house all night!"
This was more effective than any hangover cure. Cheng Guo immediately sat up, sobering up halfway, and quickly asked the other party to explain in detail.
"It's quite a coincidence. When you answered the phone on the show, Teacher Yu had just walked into my house. Teacher Yu has heard your voice for over twenty years, and with Shen Zhui constantly referring to you as 'Dr. Cheng,' no one would believe it wasn't you."
Cheng Guo rubbed her temples, feeling a headache coming on. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?"
"I was just worried about spoiling your mood. Anyway, Teacher Yu already knows, so I'll let you finish reading it comfortably first."
That makes sense.
Cheng Guo lay back down.
Yu Muying didn't contact her tonight, either because he hasn't figured out what to do yet, or because he'll come over tomorrow to talk to her in person.
As for comfort.
Cheng Guo is not feeling comfortable right now.
"Hasn't Shen Zhui come looking for you yet?" Ruan Ning changed the subject. "Zhou Nanyu said he went to the house and then left again."
At the beginning of summer vacation, Zhou Nanyu stayed at a house owned by Chen Zhui. Thinking of this, Cheng Guo snorted and chatted with Ruan Ning while drowsily fiddling with his phone...
Shen Zhui, far away in the suburbs, sneezed.
He didn't know that his door had just been knocked on, nor did he know that someone had been talking about him for a long time before going to sleep. If he had known, he would have definitely wanted to record the way she talked about him.
Chen Zhui took off his helmet and strode off the Ducati V4. The mountain breeze was cool and refreshing. Li Jierui quickly stepped forward and draped a large bath towel over him. Looking at Chen Zhui's abdomen through his soaked black T-shirt, he asked, "Brother, did you put a waterproof bandage on your wound?"
Shen Zhui looked at the director, and only after the director signaled that filming was complete did he grunt "hmm" and ask Li Jierui for his phone.
He spent the entire day shooting commercials here, filming sunrises in the morning and rainy nights in the evening. This director loves long takes, and if there's even the slightest flaw, he has to reshoot. He doesn't know how many times he ran back and forth in the rain tonight. His clothes were soaked through, and his trousers were covered in mud, but he didn't care. All he wanted to know was whether Cheng Guo had paid any attention to him today.
Li Jierui looked around. The filming was over, and more than a dozen sprinkler trucks were quietly parked on the mountain road. The various departments, exhausted from a day's work, were finishing up in an orderly manner. Qi Yun and the brand representatives were chatting and laughing not far away. He handed over Chen Zhui's phone along with a power bank. "One good news and one bad news. Which do you want to hear first, bro?"
Shen Zhui didn't want to hear any of it and simply took the phone.
“I can definitely explain it faster than you can see it yourself,” Li Jierui said in a low voice.
Shen Zhui had set up message notifications on Xiaohongshu, and his phone kept buzzing with notifications all day. When Li Jierui kindly helped him charge his phone, he inevitably saw some of the messages.
“The good news is that Dr. Cheng has forgiven you,” Shen Zhui looked up and saw Li Jierui looking at him with sympathy. “The bad news is that you’ve been exposed.”
Surprises followed one after another. A thought flashed through Shen Zhui's mind, but Li Jierui immediately slapped it away, saying, "Sister Qi told you not to have any ulterior motives and not to respond."
"..."
What kind of twisted thinking is it to announce a relationship?
“I also want you to think about what Dr. Cheng said,” Li Jierui added.
"..."
We really should listen to Dr. Cheng.
Chen Zhui took a deep breath, unlocked his phone, and among the countless message notifications, one private message stood out—
[Cheng: Bring me an 8,000-word self-criticism!]
A smile involuntarily crept onto his lips. A head leaned in from beside him, and Li Jierui exclaimed, "Hey bro, are you even going to get any sleep tonight?"
It was late at night, and Cheng Guo was probably already asleep. Chen Zhui put away his phone and strode towards the nanny van with great energy, instructing Li Jierui, "Go and urge Sister Qi."
Go home as soon as possible, write your self-criticism as soon as possible, and see Dr. Cheng as soon as possible.
Cheng Guo was woken up by a call from the property management. She hadn't registered as a visitor beforehand, so Yu Muying's car couldn't get in. After verifying the information with the property management, Cheng Guo hung up the phone.
Cheng Guo tapped her forehead after notifying her that she had 99+ new followers on Xiaohongshu.
CS sent a text message at 6 a.m., densely packed together, which reminded Cheng Guo of her various medical books. She muttered to herself, "How can he write so much?" As she scrolled up the message, she couldn't help but laugh when she saw that she had shamelessly made him write an 8,000-word self-criticism before seeing her again.
Without time to read the self-criticism, Cheng Guo got out of bed and quickly washed up. Just as she finished wiping her face, Yu Muying arrived.
She bent down to open the shoe cabinet to get clean slippers, and Yu Muying took the opportunity to look around.
After Cheng Guo moved out, Yu Muying didn't come over often, but she could still see the changes at a glance. Cheng Guo, like her, was a person without any interest in life. She didn't have the leisure to raise fish, and her home was mainly simple. The house hadn't changed much, but little touches of life were revealed in every place, which made it come alive all at once.
Cheng Guo handed the shoes to Yu Muying, and only when her gaze fell on the small fish on the shoe cabinet did she realize that she had forgotten to feed them last night. She washed her hands, opened the jar, pinched out a few fish food pellets and threw them in. Yu Muying's gaze shifted from the two toothbrushes on the sink in a mouthwash cup to the small fish scrambling for food.
“Let’s talk.” Yu Muying walked into the living room. Instead of choosing the more comfortable and intimate sofa, she sat at the dining table, which was more suitable for conversation, and gestured for Cheng Guo to sit opposite her.
"Why don't you want to pursue a PhD this year?" Yu Muying asked first.
She has been a teacher for over twenty years and is used to facing, intimidating, and persuading students.
“I haven’t saved enough for my tuition yet,” Cheng Guo continued, seeing Yu Muying frown. “My dad transferred money to me, and I want to save it myself.”
"You want to pursue a professional doctorate?" Yu Muying frowned even more deeply, instantly understanding Cheng Guo's intention.
“Yes,” Cheng Guo admitted directly. She no longer hid anything and told her all her thoughts and plans. “University A has a part-time professional medical doctoral program that requires five years of clinical work experience. I’ve calculated that I can save up enough tuition fees by then.”
Yu Muying thought Cheng Guo had gone mad. "Do you think you can just arbitrarily arrange your own life just because you pay your tuition? Have you considered the difference between a professional doctorate and an academic doctorate?"
Yu Muying was furious. Her chest heaved, and her voice rose uncontrollably. "A professional doctorate already has less room for promotion than an academic doctorate. You have to wait until you have five years of work experience before pursuing a doctorate. By the time you finish your three-year doctorate, your classmates and alumni will already be associate chief physicians. The further you go, the harder it is to get promoted. What will you have to compete with others?"
"And speaking of your health, Cheng Guo, do you want to do clinical work for the rest of your life? You're young now and can handle it; you can work seven or eight night shifts a month without any problem. But when you're thirty or forty, when you get married and have children, your life won't just consist of yourself, but also your family and your children. Will you still be able to handle seven or eight night shifts a month then? What will you do then?"
“Mom,” Cheng Guo got up, poured a glass of water, and pushed it to Yu Muying, “Since you know that doctors are tired and have difficulty taking care of their families, why did you make me study medicine in the first place?”
“It won’t stay like this forever if you don’t do clinical work,” Yu Muying said.
Cheng Guo looked at Yu Muying quietly, then suddenly smiled, "Mom, you still love Dad, right?"
Her fingers tightened around the water glass, causing ripples on the calm surface and spilling a few drops onto her hands and the table, but Yu Muying was completely unaware.
“You resent him, but you also love him and admire him,” Cheng Guo continued. “You resent that he didn’t fulfill his responsibilities as a husband and father in your marriage, but you also admire his talent and acknowledge his achievements. You hope I can achieve something like him, be admired by others, and let him see how outstanding your daughter, whom you raised alone, is, no less than anyone else who caused you worry. You want him to regret it—”
"Don't mention him!" Yu Muying raised her voice, feeling her sore spot had been touched.
“But Mom,” Cheng Guo softened her tone, then continued firmly, “I don’t have talent. You know best how I earned my grades, point by point. I’ve tried my best, but I still can’t keep up with Jiang Heng—”
“He has your father’s strong support. In every aspect, his resources are better than yours. He’s always been on the right path!” Yu Muying’s eyes reddened. “If you had stayed at the First Hospital and worked alongside Director Guo, you wouldn’t be any worse off than him!”
“I want to rely on myself,” Cheng Guo began, then paused for a moment before saying, “That’s the right path you think I should take, but I want to follow my own pace—”
Before Cheng Guo could finish speaking, Yu Muying's face turned completely cold. She didn't want to continue the conversation, so she got up, went to the entrance to change her shoes, opened the door, and turned back to face her before leaving.
“How many people are truly talented? How many people have real skills? Do you know how difficult it is to rely on yourself alone? Do you know how many people want to get on your father’s side of the family, how many people want to get on your teacher’s side of the family? And you,” Yu Muying laughed, not finishing her sentence, “Cheng Guo, pursuing a professional master’s degree was your first mistake, and this is your second.”
“I don’t know when my daughter started to lie to me, giving up the good marriages I chose for her time and time again for a boy. How old is he? He was 19 when we met, and he’s 21 this year. What else can he bring you besides novelty? Novelty will wear off, feelings will fade. You’re working while he’s studying. With such a gap in experience, how long do you think you can stay together? Life is long, and love is between two people. You can’t control it alone. Only your career is your own.”
Cheng Guo pursed her lips.
Yu Muying had always known about Shen Zhui.
Yu Muying looked at Cheng Guo. The mother and daughter looked seven parts alike. Looking at the stubborn Cheng Guo, she felt as if she were seeing her younger self.
"Only your career truly belongs to you," she repeated. "I hope you can be as clear-headed this time as you were last time."
Last time...
After Yu Muying finished speaking, she turned around and pushed the door open to go out. She paused as she took a step. The door to room 301 next to her had opened at some point. The 21-year-old Shen Zhui she had mentioned was standing by the door, looking cold and staring at her with bloodshot eyes.
Cheng Guo swallowed, her heart feeling like it had been hit, and she felt a sharp pain.
Yu Muying showed no remorse. She turned to Cheng Guo and said, "Your father has already arranged for someone to prepare the expert recommendation letter for you. Today is the last day to register, Cheng Guo. Don't let me down."
She then turned to look at Chen Zhui, "If she can abandon you once for herself, she can abandon you twice. She doesn't owe you anything."
The elevator doors opened and closed, sweeping away Yu Muying's retreating figure.
Cheng Guo looked at Shen Zhui, moved her lips, and for a moment didn't know what to say.
With a bang, Shen Zhui slammed the door shut and strode toward her. Cheng Guo unconsciously took a step back, and Shen Zhui followed closely behind, standing in front of her with an overwhelming sense of pressure.
The door closed behind him, and the light in the entryway dimmed.
Chen Zhui gripped her wrist tightly, his breath close to hers. "Is what she said true?"
-----------------------
Author's Note: I've been so confused about the days, I thought yesterday was the 21st! [laughing and crying emoji][laughing and crying emoji] The story is almost finished, so I'll be writing as fast as I can these next couple of days. Please check back regularly. It will be available for purchase after I mark it as complete!
Shen Zhui's red eyes are likely due to staying up late. [newbie]
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