Chapter 43 Meals with Meat
These days, it's rare to see female doctors, especially one as young as her, so the cafeteria lady immediately assumed that Du Ruoxia must be a nurse.
Du Ruoxia: "I am a new surgeon."
The older woman was astonished: "A doctor? The one who uses a scalpel? How come this young lady works so hard? But being a doctor is good too. Just keep doing this job, and you'll find a good young man to marry. You'll live a good life. I'll introduce you to someone someday."
Du Ruoxia smiled shyly and said, "Sister, I'm already married."
"So early? How old are you?" The older woman asked in surprise, her face showing a desire to gossip. However, since there were still people waiting in line behind her for food, she didn't press the matter further.
Because the lunchbox was filled to the brim with meat and vegetables, Du Ruoxia couldn't close the lid and had to hold it carefully in her hands.
As Du Ruoxia walked out of the cafeteria with her lunchbox, she ran into Gao Yuyang.
Gao Yuyang looked at her and the lunchbox in her hand and asked in surprise, "Aren't you supposed to get off work at 12 o'clock? How come you finished getting your food so quickly?"
Du Ruoxia explained, "The cafeteria has braised pork today. Director Jiang gave me a dozen minutes' advance so I could get my food for him too."
"Director Jiang is the easiest to talk to." Gao Yuyang said with envy, "I'm just a brick, I'm moved wherever I'm needed. I've been busy all morning, I almost broke my legs."
Du Ruoxia: "You need to learn to say no."
"I ended up in this tiny clinic because I said 'no' too often," Gao Yuyang shook his head.
In the first two years after graduation, he was full of vigor and even a bit arrogant. But some places don't care about your ability at all. He was sent to Yuyang County just because he said the wrong thing.
"Gold shines wherever it is. In our line of work, the most important thing is your own ability. You have to believe that God will not bury your talents."
"Oh, right." She held up the lunchbox in her hand and extended an invitation: "I'm going to deliver lunch to Director Jiang now. Would you like to eat together later?"
“Okay.” Gao Yuyang nodded immediately and said, “You go first, I’ll come find you in a bit.”
The county hospital was a bit small and had a lot of internal conflicts. He felt that the phenomenon of cliques was very serious. He had been there for more than two months and still couldn't quite integrate. So he assumed that Du Ruoxia, who had only been there for a day, was similar to him.
Gao Yuyang followed the crowd to get his food. By the time it was his turn, there was no more braised pork, but there were still several other dishes available.
He chose cabbage and pork dumplings, and also ordered a plate of stir-fried water spinach with garlic.
After getting his food, he hurriedly took the lunchbox to the surgery department to find Du Ruoxia.
As soon as I opened the door, I could see Du Ruoxia chatting enthusiastically with Director Jiang, Xiao Aying and Jiang Xiaoli.
Seeing this, Gao Yuyang couldn't help but feel a little envious.
Du Ruoxia has already integrated so quickly.
"Hey, you're here!" Du Ruoxia waved to him, then turned to Jiang Xinmin and said, "Director Jiang, you're busy, I'm going to have lunch with them first."
Jiang Xinmin nodded, "Okay, go ahead. Just come to work at 1:30."
Du Ruoxia carried the lunchbox out with Gao Yuyang. Xiao Aying found an empty space in the clinic courtyard, set up a small table, and Jiang Xiaoli brought over four chairs. The four of them sat together to eat lunch.
"Would you like some braised pork? Please don't be shy," Du Ruoxia said.
Du Ruoxia, Xiao Aying, and Jiang Xiaoli chatted while eating, while Gao Yuyang, who wasn't familiar with them, appeared somewhat expressionless.
Du Ruoxia got tired of the braised pork after eating just two pieces; it was all fatty meat, and she couldn't bring herself to eat it.
"Water spinach is still the best; braised pork is too greasy."
Xiao Aying laughed, "So many people are dreaming of not being able to get a single bite! Xiao Li and I are so busy that we can't even find time to go and get the meat."
Du Ruoxia casually said, "I don't like eating fatty meat."
“Fat meat is good.” Xiao Aying gave her a look that said, “You don’t know how to enjoy life.” “It’s only when you bite into fatty meat that it tastes so good. When you line up at the supply and marketing cooperative with your meat coupons, the fatty meat is always the first thing to be snatched up.”
"Oh, I see." Du Ruoxia thought to herself, how come it's the opposite of modern times? Later, everyone basically preferred to eat lean meat.
Then I thought that it might be because fatty meat is high in fat and oil, and people in this era often eat less, so fatty meat can increase calories.
Jiang Xiaoli, who had only been a nurse for a month, said happily as she ate, "The benefits at the county hospital are amazing. If I could have this free lunch every day, I could work here for the rest of my life."
Du Ruoxia shook her head: "That's too exaggerated."
“Not an exaggeration at all.” Jiang Xiaoli looked up at her, swallowed a mouthful of rice, and said, “Dr. Du, I can tell your family is well-off. You don’t know about those companies outside, including the cannery where my mother works. They don’t provide meals. The price of each meal is cheaper than outside, but it still has to be deducted from your monthly salary. I dare say, you can’t find many companies in the whole of Yushi that provide meat and vegetables for every meal for free, like the county hospital.”
Du Ruoxia: "Really?"
“Yes,” Xiao Aying nodded.
"Do you know how much doctors earn?" Du Ruoxia asked curiously.
Du Ruoxia belatedly realized that she had started the job without even asking about the salary.
"Hehe, then you'll have to ask Dr. Gao," Xiao Aying said.
Gao Yuyang said, "I make about sixty yuan a month."
Jiang Xiaoli said enviously, "Wow, doctors' salaries are higher than ours nurses'."
Du Ruoxia nodded thoughtfully, then, thinking of Luo Xiaojuan, asked, "Does our hospital still need any intern nurses or doctors?"
Xiao Aying shook her head, "Our hospital isn't very busy."
In reality, the intern nurses and doctors are basically just people who don't know anything and come to learn. Generally speaking, unless the hospital is short of staff, people without real skills really can't get into the county hospital.
After eating, the group took their lunchboxes to the sink to wash them and then returned to their respective posts.
Du Ruoxia had nothing to do in the afternoon. Only two customers with minor scrapes came in, and she helped disinfect and bandage them, finishing her work quickly.
Looking at Dr. Jiang Xinmin in the waiting room, he was already dozing off on the table.
If Du Ruoxia were a lazy bum, she would probably be very glad that she came to the right place.
Unfortunately, she wasn't someone who would simply give up; she still had some ambition, otherwise all those nearly forty years of studying in her previous life would have been for nothing.
Du Ruoxia counted the days; there were only two years left until the college entrance examination was reinstated, so she would still have to work hard to earn a degree by then.
They whiled away the hours until five o'clock when they were supposed to get off work. Jiang Xinmin packed his bag and left immediately, turning back to remind her, "Come to our department again tomorrow. You'd better bring your own hammock or something and put it in the small room at the back, so it'll be convenient for you to take a nap at noon."
“…Okay.” Du Ruoxia’s lips twitched slightly, thinking to herself that this Director Jiang really knew how to enjoy life.
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