Chapter 15 Maybe you don’t love him.
Zou Yan first remembered He Dongli's name when she was on their general surgery rotation. A seven-year-old boy was transferred from the emergency room with frequent episodes of abdominal pain. All necessary tests were performed during his hospitalization, but nothing was abnormal. During this time, the boy's symptoms had subsided. It was the start of school, and the family, a single mother anxious to return to work, couldn't find the cause. She assumed the boy was lying about school aversion and requested discharge. The attending physician sought the supervising professor's help, asking for her help. She had encountered similar patients during her undergraduate internship. After a consultation, they still found nothing unusual. The patient was discharged. The attending physician persistently urged the family, even calling back, to return to the hospital promptly if the boy had another episode. Another electroencephalogram (EEG) was performed, ultimately confirming a diagnosis of abdominal epilepsy. By the time the family arrived to express their gratitude, the female doctor had already left the department and moved on.
Teacher Zhou, the instructor, praised the female student highly. He said that acute abdomen is like opening a blind box through the belly, and that general surgery is not a place for women.
Teacher Zhou corrected me, saying that it was obvious that there were not enough samples of female surgeons in this sentence.
That day, Zou Yan's father had just finished an academic conference and stopped by to visit him. During a meal with Teacher Zhou, he mentioned He Dongli's name. Afterward, Zou Siming brought up the matter, saying that Teacher Zhou would rather praise a girl who had just graduated than mention you. He asked Zou Siming to reflect on this: a girl could endure such hardships, so why were you, a grown man, messing around all day?
On the way home from school, Zou Yan first brought up the idea of changing his major. Zou Siming asked the driver to pull over, and the two argued for half an hour. Zou Yan said he really couldn't handle the current pace. Zou Siming's boomerang stabbed Zou Yan's eyebrows again and again. "Girls can handle pressure and even be more talented than you. Are you really serious?" he asked.
This was the second time in Zou Yan's life that he hated someone so much. He hated He Dongli for easily becoming the mountain of talent that he could not cross. The first one was his brother, Zou You, who was from the same mother.
As expected, whenever his father was frustrated with his parenting, he would always think of his eldest son. If Zou You were...
Zou Yan angrily scolded, "He's gone, gone forever. If you can't let him go, go find him."
Bang, what followed was naturally a hard slap in the face.
On the way back to the hospital, there was a thunderstorm. Zou Yan walked to the dormitory building wet. When the rain stopped, he met He Dongli who was about to go out for a night run. She saw that he was all wet, walked over and asked him what happened, "You didn't bring an umbrella and you still walked back on the road?"
Zou Yan wanted to vent his anger on her. At worst, he would scold her and drive her away, and never have any contact with her again.
He Dongli took out a few crumpled tissues from her pocket and said that she was going for a run and didn't bring much with her.
Zou Yan looked at her in a trance. He Dongli was also very tactful. She stuffed the tissue into his hand and left quietly.
To this day, she has never asked Zou Yan what happened that night.
Zou Yan also felt that He Dongli treated everyone in the same way, neither too close nor too distant, and just enough time.
He had said at a drinking party with He Dongli's friends that being friends with He Dongli was like being in the comfort zone of an insurance company. He paid for her insurance regularly every year, so all risks were covered. Even if something went wrong, he didn't have to worry. At worst, the insurance would go up a few hundred yuan next year, and he could start all over again.
She never expected that her low-level mistakes, which he could not check on the operating table, would be infinitely magnified and presented to Zou Yan at a certain moment.
He Dongli was afraid to be alone in a room with her ex at one moment, and at another moment she seemed to dislike Zou Yanqing taking up their space.
The irritability and even hatred in her eyes seemed unfamiliar to Zou Yan and were not something that a talented person like her would have.
He Dongli held the phone in his hand and explained nonchalantly, "Well, he has to wait for his driver to pick him up. His driving skills are very poor, and I don't want to take the blame for him and let him get into trouble later..."
This usually steady man was truly terrible at lying. Zou Yan hit the nail on the head, "Oh, then how did he get here?"
The lying child was silent for a moment.
Zou Yan was silent for a moment before he smiled again. He uncrossed his arms, straightened his waist, and stopped embarrassing the child. "I should go back now."
Zong Chi took out the car keys and locked the car.
When he turned back to the small building opposite, He Dongli and Zou were just coming out together. Zong Chi walked over, saw He Dongli answering the phone, and walked away a few steps, as if to pick up some takeout.
He took a face-to-face photo with Zou Yan, who was still as good-natured as he was last time at the Liang family. He even reminded Zong Chi, "Her good friend brought her some butterfly cakes, and she's picking them up right now."
Zong Chi wasn't particularly enthusiastic. He usually kept his composure until he knew everything, but he had no reason to be rude to a man who came late at night to give a gift to a female colleague.
The two of them brushed shoulders, only a step away from each other. Zong Chi turned back and asked, "Doctor Zou, is your friend's grandmother's injury any better?"
Zou Yan subconsciously turned around. His expression, calm from just now, gradually became distorted, at least unhappy.
Zong Chi was playing with his car keys. Across the street, he controlled the car on the opposite side, unlocking and unlocking it. Before speaking, he glanced at He Dongli, who was not far away, as if he didn't want to hurt her by mistake. "Don't get me wrong, she won't tell me."
Zou Yan fell silent again.
Zong Chi's smile was so wide that even the chilliest breeze couldn't shake off the airs of a young master who'd grown up surrounded by wealth and luxury. He Dongli returned, and Zong Chi decided to call it a day, finally offering a mild compliment, "So, even a doctor can't be without a doctor friend, right?"
He Dongli, carrying a bag, arrived at the door and heard Zong Chi politely say to Zou Yan, "Goodbye, Doctor Zou."
Before Zou Yan could say anything, Zong Chi turned to He Dongli and said, "You're eating this sugar and oil mixture so late at night, aren't you afraid of getting diabetes?"
He Dongli ignored him, took out a box from the bag and handed it to Zou Yan.
Zou Yan vaguely felt that the way He Dongli stretched out his hand seemed to be giving him their wedding candy.
He didn't take it. "Take some with you to the hospital. I'll come get it from you when I'm hungry." After saying that, Zou Yan turned around and got into the car.
The car drove away. He Dongli turned to look at Zong Chi, "What did you say to him?"
Zong Chi showed her his car keys. "How can I, whose Chinese is not very good, talk to your highly educated doctor friend? My liver, gallbladder, spleen, stomach, and kidneys are all in good health. I don't need him."
"He specializes in acute abdomen. Don't be too confident. You might find yourself lying under his laparoscope one day."
"Please hope for my well-being. Even if it hurts like hell, I won't let him operate on me."
"Okay, may you live a long life." He Dongli said, and turned to go in. She reached out and touched the iron gate, and then the person behind her sneezed loudly, and then stopped her from closing the door.
Zong Chi pulled the door out of her hand and closed it in no time.
The light from the room didn't reach the door, so Zong Chi couldn't see her face clearly, but he could imagine it clearly. Finally, he said something irrelevant, "If I'm a hundred years old, you'll be ninety-nine."
He Dongli ignored him and went inside. Zong Chi followed her to the entrance again. The stairs leading to the second floor had a door stop that was useless. It could only stop children or cats at most.
Zong Chi looked up at the dark upstairs. He put his hand on the door and touched it, but didn't feel any dust.
He Dongli came out and placed the box and miscellaneous paper boxes that had been used to install the coffee machine at the entrance. Seeing Zong Chi's posture, he thought he was going to go upstairs, so he reminded him very objectively, "The upstairs belongs to the landlord, you are not allowed to go up there."
Honestly, given the location, even renting just the large downstairs room wouldn't be cheap. Zong Chi knew the income level of doctors like her, and she also remembered how she hadn't taken advantage of the Xu family's favors in recent years to maintain the stability of her mother's current relationship. Perhaps after separating from him, mother and daughter would remain mother and daughter. Ms. Yu felt sorry for her daughter, so it wasn't impossible for her to provide her with some private financial support.
After He Dongli threw away the box of the coffee machine, she put all the foam seals inside together, so that if there was any problem with the machine, she could take it back and pack it for return. In the eyes of the people at the stairs, it seemed that she really liked the gift from Mr. Zou, and she was reluctant to put the box away.
So, he couldn't help but ask, "What, crazy woman in the attic?"
He Dongli wanted to scold him, saying, "You haven't treated your epilepsy for so many years. People have died."
Zongchi didn't even doubt the credibility of her words. Since she didn't have the patience to talk to him properly, he simply choked her, "Oh, you killed him?"
He Dongli clearly breathed a sigh of relief. Even if he went upstairs and was pursued by the deceased landlord's wife or sued by the landlord's daughter for trespassing, she wouldn't care. She turned back to her room and called Chen Xiangyang again in a low voice, asking how long it would take for his driver to arrive.
Chen Xiangyang, over there, heard the sound of mahjong tiles being thrown, and he smiled and told Dongli, "It's almost done!" He then explained to Dongli, "Because Zong Chi wanted to take you there personally, I told the driver to go home, but he still wanted the driver to pick him up again, even though the driver was already on the subway." "Well, I can't argue with him. Dongli, you should be more considerate of the working man." Then again, he barely touched the steering wheel three times a year. After that incident, his family wouldn't let him drive himself...
He Dongli didn't wait for Chen Xiangyang to finish speaking before he received a phone call and returned home empty-handed.
At the hotel, Chen Xiangyang, distracted by a phone call, confronted Liang Jianxing. Liang Jianxing used his hand to push the cards over one by one. He won money for Mr. Zong, but he still worried about when the driver would pick him up.
Chen Xiangyang squinted his eyes due to the smoke, "Grandma will know."
Liang Jianxing understood immediately, but he didn't ask any more questions. Instead, the two friendly businessmen brought by Chen Xiangyang started chatting and asked, "Why, Mr. Zong had been in a car accident before?"
Chen Xiangyang put it simply, "He's just an old boy, and he's too precious to be around."
He Dongli hung up the phone, feeling like his heart was filled with cotton. Chen Xiangyang was talking about the kidnapping incident when Zong Chi was transiting in Hong Kong.
In principle, he was taking the blame for his father; however, his motivation for flying was because of He Dongli. After they had an argument on the phone, Zong Chi flew back without caring.
He blamed her in front of his family doctor and his mother, saying that if you want to break up, please do it in person. People who break up over the phone are classless.
Zong Chi's mother was Yu Weishi. The first time He Dongli met her, she understood the magic of the secrets Zong Chi shared with her about his parents. His mother was beautiful, charming, and almost an oriental beauty on a par with Wushuang Wuchen.
Yu Weishi had told Dongli that when Xiaochi and her classmates went camping together and brought them to a suburban villa for dinner, she knew Dongli must be special. Please trust a mother's self-awareness. Xiaochi is just about to set her eyes on you.
Because of the kidnapping incident, Zong Chi refused to seek medical treatment in Hong Kong and flew back to Shanghai to show He Dongli his injuries.
He Dongli cried so hard that she felt dizzy. After she stitched up Zong Chi's wound, she stayed with him all night. The next morning, before returning to the hospital, his mother specially prepared breakfast for Dongli to take to the hospital. He Dongli still remembers Yu Weishi's words:
Considering that he's been so reckless in staying in the country for you, please understand how a mother feels. I know he has a bad temper, but if two people can't accommodate each other and even put each other down, then the truth is, you may not love him.
Don't love him.
Don't love him.
he.
The temperature has dropped a lot in the past few days. He Dongli forgot where she put the air conditioner remote control. When she lived alone, she didn't often turn on the heating in winter.
When Zong Chi came in from the corridor outside, he saw that she had finally turned on the heating.
The remote control was thrown on the sofa, and the host invited the guest to sit anywhere. After that, she turned around and went to the bathroom. When she reached the door, she closed the sliding door.
When He Dongli came back, he had obviously washed his face. It was not noticeable on his face, but after wiping his eyes, he looked as if he was trying his best to stay awake.
Zong Chi turned to look at the person at the door. Spread across his knees was a popular science book about daily life in the Tang Dynasty that he had managed to find on her mobile bookshelf. He looked at the person who walked in, following his gaze, and then said, "The books on your shelf shouldn't be confidential. You're still a patient at work, right?"
He Dongli followed him and said, "Look, if you like it, you can take it away."
"So unimportant?"
"I've read it. It was given to me by a professor I know. This is a regular copy. The signed copy is with my mom."
"Is your mother okay?"
"fine thanks."
The open room connected to the bedroom, and Zong Chi could take in all the displays and furnishings at a glance. In the vast space, the only sound was the movement of his fingers turning the pages of a book.
Sasha stopped talking, and he asked, "She and Xu Maosen haven't got their marriage certificate yet?"
He Dongli suddenly turned around and looked at Zong Chi with an inexplicable warning of overstepping his bounds.
Zong Chi was not afraid at all. He closed the book on his lap, stood up quietly, and threw the book on the coffee table. He knocked over a wicker storage box, but he didn't care.
She walked towards He Dongli, saying as she went, "Don't get me wrong, I don't mean anything else. I just want to remind you that this kind of de facto marriage will be at a disadvantage when it comes to the division and inheritance of property in the future without sufficient reserves and agreements."
He Dongli was sitting at the bar, listening to him in silence for a long time.
This prompted Zong Chi to remind her, "Hmm? Are you listening?"
"Zongchi, what are you doing here?"
"What do you mean?" He looked into her washed eyes.
"Didn't you say you were here on a business trip? Didn't you come to discuss the acquisition?"
The person opposite smiled and took a step closer to her. "It turns out doctors aren't that busy. They also watch the news."
"Zou Yan saw it. He couldn't figure out how to pronounce your name, so he came to ask me. That's how I saw it."
Zong Chi's smile dropped to zero in an instant. "Oh, so you're just as uneducated as me."
"It's normal not to know rare characters." He Dongli was objective and defensive.
"Then what's wrong with the perfunctory Yan? Isn't he perfunctory Yan?" Zong Chi's face changed immediately, and he argued and nitpicked.
It would have been fine if he hadn't mentioned it, but when He Dongli did, he couldn't help but pick on him. "Which Chinese teacher taught you to use derogatory terms when introducing people's names? I'm saving your face by saying your Chinese isn't very good. Next time I introduce you, I'll say you're the Zong in Zongsang. Are you happy with that?"
"I'm happy to do that. It's not like your mother hasn't scolded me before."
"You deserve to be scolded." He Dongli admitted that she just couldn't help herself. She had clearly thought about not getting entangled with him a few seconds ago, let alone talking nonsense with him. If she said one more word to him, she would fall into his maze. She was so angry that she couldn't even be reborn...
But she still couldn't help it.
It was already late, and she had been busy all day. Reasonably speaking, Zong Chi shouldn't be lingering here and disturbing her normal rest. However, he came down from the top floor of the hotel today. Everything was irrational.
Since she could let another man in in the middle of the night and accept his gifts, Zong Chi felt that all the manners and patience he had taught her before could be fed to the dogs!
"Why should I be the one to scold?" He just stretched out his hand, and He Dongli almost predicted it 100%, and moved around without leaving a trace, dragging a swivel chair between them.
The chair spun and hit Zongchi's knees, and he stopped the chair with his hands.
The first time Yu Xiaohan caught her daughter alone with Zong Chi was in the small house in Tongcheng where they used to live. During the National Day holiday, Dongli did not go to Xu's house, and Yu Xiaohan was worried about her daughter and came to the house to look for her.
That time, He Dongli had a slight fever afterwards, and Zong Chi drove to buy medicine.
He Dongli thought he was back, and she lay on the pillow in a disheveled state, asking him to find the nail clippers because her nails were chipped.
Yu Xiaohan watched her daughter's fever rise to 39, and then she smelled an indescribable odor in the bathroom.
After that, Zong Chi learned his lesson and would tie the bag of offspring in a knot before throwing it away.
However, it did not affect Yu Xiaohan from talking about him, Xiao Zongsang, in front of and behind others.
*
He Dongli walked around to the back of the bar, opened her laptop, and started reading documents at the desk.
There were two boxes of butterfly cookies sent by Jiang Xingyuan on the bar. She opened a box and ate a piece, chewing it until it was crispy.
The person across from the bar, watching and standing, also reached out to try to take a piece. He Dongli did not invite or stop him. Instead, he used a tactic of marking him, watching his movements.
Zongchi was not fond of sweets. He would only eat plain glutinous rice dumplings during the Lantern Festival, and only plain glutinous rice dumplings during the Dragon Boat Festival, without any beans or meat.
At this moment, he opened the butterfly cake himself, and He Dongli did not share a bite with him.
After he put the food in his mouth, He Dongli belatedly realized his hospitality and asked, "What would you like to drink, coffee or tea?"
Zong Chi glanced up at her, and He Dongli lazily explained, "It's too sweet to eat alone."
"Who drinks coffee so late?"
He Dongli followed him, stood up and made tea for him, specially brewing it lightly.
When she placed it next to Zong Chi, he just looked at her warily several times.
He Dongli pretended not to notice. After he had finished eating the cake and drinking the tea, she added tactfully based on the established facts: "The butterfly cakes were sent by Jiang Xingyuan. She also knows you. They were in the same class as you at No. 1 Middle School."
The tea drinker studied the camellia-shaped handmade cup in his hand. He was not shy about eating people's food, and his arrogant tone was as arrogant as if even dogs would dislike him. His first question was, "Um, man or woman?"
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