Chapter 27 Moving Forward: Share a Little of Your Sweetness with Me.
Considering that Liang Minghe had voice-over work in a few days, and that the examination revealed that he only had a common impacted wisdom tooth without serious oral inflammation, making the extraction procedure relatively simple, the doctor simply scheduled the surgery for that day.
During the procedure, Liang Minghe recalled Kong Feifei's miserable state and refused to let Zhou Jinqin accompany him. Unexpectedly, the doctor brought five or six interns over to watch under the guise of learning, and in the end, he was not allowed to have any dignity.
When it was over, Liang Minghe came out rubbing his cheek, looking rather sour. He leaned close to Zhou Jinqin's ear and said regretfully, "If I had known it would turn out like this, I should have let you stay with me."
He hadn't expected that his tooth extraction would be so easy, without any pain or discomfort. On the contrary, being surrounded and discussed by onlookers made him feel utterly hopeless.
Zhou Jinqin used an ice pack to apply to his face, and she said with a mix of amusement and exasperation, "But if that's the case, there's a high chance that one more person will be looking at your teeth."
“You’re different from them,” Liang Minghe muttered. “Anyway, you already know everything about my oral health, so it won’t hurt to take a look.”
Recalling those deep kisses day and night, Zhou Jinqin's face flushed red. She covered his mouth and warned, "Okay, stop talking."
"Ouch, that hurts!" Liang Minghe exaggeratedly protested.
"He's lying to you, the anesthesia hasn't worn off yet," the dentist said with a smile, exposing his lie.
As she spoke, she picked up a wisdom tooth wrapped in a sealed bag and asked Zhou Jinqin, "Look, your husband is so handsome that even his wisdom teeth are perfect. Are you planning to take it home as a keepsake?"
As if she were some lecherous scoundrel, Zhou Jinqin blushed and hurriedly waved her hand to refuse: "No, I have no use for this if I take it back. You can do whatever you want with it."
“That works then,” the dentist said with a grin. “Since neither of you wants it, I’ll keep it to make models for teaching purposes.”
Even after arriving home, Liang Minghe remained depressed. Zhou Jinqin assumed it was due to the death of a friend, but it turned out he was only upset about the doctor saying he was an idiot.
When Zhou Jinqin brought out the freshly cooked porridge, Liang Minghe was sitting upright on the sofa, flipping through the medical journals she subscribed to, his brows furrowed, looking extremely serious.
She asked him, amused, "Have you figured anything out yet?"
This page was filled with technical terms that Liang Minghe couldn't understand. Even a short sentence contained four molecular names that he had never heard of before. Of course, an outsider without a natural medical spiritual root couldn't understand a thing.
Liang Minghe, holding the ice pack pressed against his cheek, looked at her and honestly shook his head: "Don't you think I'm an idiot?"
Zhou Jinqin was both amused and exasperated: "Why do you think that way? Everyone has their own expertise. If you were to ask me about art, I would actually know nothing about it either."
Liang Minghe said sullenly, "I'm afraid you and I won't have anything in common."
"So how have we gotten along these past few days?" Zhou Jinqin took the magazine from his hand, closed it, and tossed it aside. "Nobody's always thinking about discussing work after work. Besides, if I really wanted a husband who could talk to me about this kind of thing, why didn't I just look for one at the hospital? Why did I choose someone completely unrelated like you?"
“Yes, why did you choose me in the first place?” Liang Minghe asked.
“Hmm…” Zhou Jinqin looked him up and down for a long time. “Of all the people I’ve ever met, you are the most handsome one.”
His eyes held a hint of resentment: "So I'm just a vase you keep at home?"
Instead of answering directly, Zhou Jinqin pointed to the strange and beautiful objects in the house and asked him in return, "What about them? Are they just pretty vases in your eyes?"
Yesterday, Zhou Jinqin tidied up a display cabinet and put it out specifically to display the pile of worthless trinkets that Liang Minghe brought back from the ancient town. On the contrary, she put a pile of valuable items that Liang Minghe and his father had given her at the bottom of the box, claiming that this was a solemn way of preserving them.
Liang Minghe subconsciously retorted, "Of course not, they all have different meanings in my heart."
Zhou Jinqin suddenly smiled, revealing shallow dimples. She looked at the man in front of her and said in a gentle and sincere tone, "You are the same to me."
Liang Ming's heart skipped a beat. He wanted to kiss her lips, but then realized the strong taste of blood in his mouth. In the end, he gave up and kissed the back of her hand instead.
The man's emotions visibly rose, and he asked her with a smile, "Does this count as a confession of your feelings to me?"
"You're so narcissistic." Zhou Jinqin blushed and, afraid he would pester her, quickly stuffed a spoonful of porridge into his mouth to shut him up.
Liang Minghe easily swallowed the soft porridge. Instead of saying anything that would make her blush, he asked curiously, "I thought you wouldn't want to touch these things anymore after you resigned from the hospital."
Zhou Jinqin thought for a moment and frankly analyzed herself: "I am not resolute enough, too empathetic, and even a little weak. I am not the kind of person who is suitable to hold a cold scalpel and stand rationally in front of the operating table."
"But my mother doesn't think so. She thinks it's just a matter of time, just like how she was afraid to hold the fish-killing knife at first. She thinks that people will naturally become numb once they get used to it. But it turns out that it's not that simple."
"Just like how I haven't been able to calmly watch her kill fish for over twenty years, I started studying medicine at seventeen and have been in this profession for eleven years, but I still can't look at death with a calm and numb heart."
Her smile was gentle, but her composure concealed a resolute determination.
"Although my mother forced me to study medicine, to be honest, I also have a heart for saving lives."
"Since we can't be on the front lines, it's good to take a step back and use our past experience in the auxiliary aspects of medical backend."
With this in mind, almost all of Zhou Jinqin's recent job search targets are related to pharmaceutical research and development.
After finishing her last interview on Monday, Zhou Jinqin successfully received offers from all the companies she had interviewed with.
Among a variety of positions, she ultimately chose to join the medical department of a well-known foreign pharmaceutical company, where she would work as an MA (Medical Consultant) with an annual salary of 500,000.
This job is back-end oriented, mainly responsible for the formulation and support of medical strategies, including writing scientific research articles, designing and applying for projects, database mining and analysis, and other long-term content-oriented work. It is perfect for someone like Zhou Jinqin who can endure loneliness and stay calm.
Of course, the requirements for this job are extremely high.
Nowadays, most foreign companies no longer accept fresh graduates when recruiting for medical consultant positions. Instead, they require applicants to have a medical doctorate and more than three years of work experience.
Zhou Jinqin fits the bill perfectly. She entered a prestigious university's eight-year clinical medicine program with the third-highest score in the city, and graduated with top marks every year, eventually joining a top-tier tertiary hospital affiliated with the university. The standard residency training period is three years, but she received a one-year exemption due to her outstanding academic performance, completing her training at the beginning of her third year and subsequently beginning a year of chief resident work.
Zhou Jinqin's excellent professional skills, coupled with her humble and stable attitude, made it inevitable that she would get this job.
She looked at the email on her phone, hesitated for a moment, and then sent her mother the message that she had successfully landed a job.
These days, Lü Jianying has acted as if her husband's infidelity never happened. Apart from her previous statement that family scandals should not be aired in public, she has not brought it up again.
It was this natural loyalty and willingness to compromise in marriage that led her to refrain from any resistance, no matter how dissatisfied she was with Liang Ming and her son-in-law, because the marriage was now a reality.
Of course, this does not mean that she has begun to accept Liang Minghe, but rather that she has to compromise with reality.
Lu Jianying remained indifferent, pretending that Zhou Jinqin didn't exist. Instead of focusing on her daughter's marriage, she devoted all her energy to finding a job for Zhou Jinqin.
Zhou Jinqin hates her mother's past control and oppression, but as she told Liang Minghe, she is absolutely weak and empathetic, which makes it impossible for her to treat her mother, who is trapped in a thorny thicket, with absolute indifference.
Lu Jianying replied quickly, simply congratulating her with a smiling emoji.
She seemed happy, but Zhou Jinqin couldn't see clearly.
Just like when she confidently brought home a perfect score on a test, Lü Jianying told her that there were others who got perfect scores this time, and she was still not allowed to slack off.
Zhou Jinqin didn't know whether a cowardly, disobedient, and undignified daughter was something a mother should be happy about.
She didn't want to think about such meaningless questions anymore, so she turned off her phone, put it in her pocket, and strode forward.
Zhou Jinqin was actually very calm about the job application result, but Liang Minghe was very happy. That day, he endured the pain and cooked three dishes and a soup for her himself. He even went to a DIY experience store to make a very exquisite cake.
Sometimes you have to admit that artists have an absolute talent for hands-on work; even when paintbrushes are replaced by piping bags, they can still bring figures to life.
Looking at herself wearing cat ears on the cake, Zhou Jinqin smiled and praised him, "You're really amazing."
Liang Minghe cut off the piece containing her whole, scooped out a spoonful from the edge, and fed it to her mouth: "I don't want you to always be struggling with an uncertain life. Now that your life is on the right track, of course we should celebrate."
Looking into his beautiful crescent-shaped eyes, Zhou Jinqin couldn't help but soften. She opened her mouth and took a small bite, saying with some regret, "It's a pity you can't eat it right now, so Tuantuan and I will have to try it for you."
When it comes to preparing desserts, Liang Minghe always considers the kittens. Even though it's just a human-to-human treat, he still prepared a mini kitten cake just for Tuantuan.
She watched Liang Minghe feed Tuantuan cat-shaped cream, smiled and promised, "When your teeth are all better, I'll buy another one and we'll celebrate again then."
“No need for next time.” Liang Minghe stood up, his gaze fixed intently on her.
"Huh?" Zhou Jinqin looked at the cake in her hand, somewhat puzzled.
Liang Minghe had just had a tooth pulled yesterday, and his mouth still hurts. He also has a bloody taste from time to time. Because of this, he hasn't taken the initiative to kiss Zhou Jinqin for a whole day.
But at this moment, looking into her bright, sparkling eyes, he felt a little restless.
Liang Minghe cupped her face and gently pressed his lips to hers, where there was still some cream on them.
His voice was very soft, like an ambiguous spring breeze: "Just a little bit of your sweetness is enough for me."
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Author's note: Thank you for the nutrient solution! [heart emoji]
I tagged this story with "redemption." While there's a certain element of mutual redemption, I wanted to express more about Xiaoqin's self-redemption. Although she's occasionally timid and fearful, she's mostly ambitious, hardworking, and doesn't compromise with her trauma; she's a very goal-oriented girl. [fireworks]
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