Chapter 59 "Zhou Xuran, do you really want to eat, or do you want something else?"
After finishing his meal in the cafeteria, he went back to the clinic and took a nap. Just as work started, Lin Che looked at the outpatient registration time and saw that there was only half an hour left, so he hurried to Li Qiuyi's department to handle the consultation.
The three-year-old patient was initially suspected of having a viral infection combined with mild dehydration. After explaining the patient's condition to the family, Lin Che happened to go to their department's office to write a doctor's order for fluid replacement and fever reduction. He pinched his brows, pushed open the office door, and prepared to complete the consultation record.
Not long after I sat down in front of the computer, I heard footsteps outside the door.
Lin Che subconsciously looked up and saw a tall figure in a neatly ironed white coat appear at the door, blocking part of the light in the corridor.
It’s Zhou Xuran.
He must have just come out of the operating room, his white coat casually hanging open on his body, and he hadn't had time to change into the purple scrubs underneath. His face was expressionless as always, only his deep eyes, as he scanned the room, accurately locked onto Lin Che.
Lin Che was slightly startled. The last time they met was during the chaotic farce at the Cantonese restaurant. It seemed like quite a while had passed.
He quickly suppressed his surprise, and out of basic courtesy and vague gratitude for the last rescue, he nodded slightly as a greeting.
The attitude is distant and polite, just like treating any unfamiliar colleague who passes by.
Zhou Xuran's gaze, like a weight of substance, had been fixed on Lin Che's face since he entered the office, and he didn't look away immediately. He nodded, a slight movement that seemed a bit cold.
He didn't come in, but just leaned against the door, his slender figure carrying a natural sense of oppression.
Just as Lin Che thought he would leave immediately and was about to turn his attention back to the computer screen, Zhou Xuran's low voice rang out, clearly breaking the silence in the office:
"Are you willing to come back?"
Lin Che paused, gripping the mouse. The question came out of nowhere, carrying an indescribable feeling of familiarity and scrutiny.
He raised his head, his brows subconsciously frowned, and there was obvious confusion in his clear eyes: "What?"
He suspected that he had heard it wrong, or that the other party was asking someone else?
Zhou Xuran's gaze seemed to linger on his furrowed brows for a moment, and a very faint, elusive emotion flashed across the depths of those cold eyes.
He leaned against the door frame, his posture seemingly casual, yet with an invisible tension. He parted his thin lips and repeated, his tone clearer and more direct than before:
"I was saying, you've finally decided to come back to work?" He paused, his eyes scanning Lin Che's face before he lobbed an even more unexpected question, his tone trailing off with a subtle, almost mocking, frivolity, "Is marriage really that good?"
The air seemed to freeze for a second.
Lin Che had never expected to hear such a private, probing, and even provocative question from Zhou Xuran in the workplace.
His fingers gripping the mouse tightened slightly, and his knuckles turned white.
A feeling of being offended mixed with a sense of absurdity welled up in my heart.
Lin Che did not respond to Zhou Xuran's words immediately. He gave the doctor's instructions and wrote the consultation record before slowly standing up. The chair fell over in his movement, making a slight friction sound.
He ripped the stethoscope from his neck, the cold metal tube tangling between his fingers. He met Zhou Xuran's deep, scrutinizing eyes, his lips curled into an extremely perfunctory, even slightly cold, arc, his voice calm but every word clear:
"You'll know when you get married."
This sentence is like a polite shield, but also like a veiled counterattack, which directly blocks the topic and draws a clear line - my private affairs have nothing to do with you.
After saying that, he stopped looking at Zhou Xuran and turned around to pick up the chair that had been tilted.
However, the moment he turned sideways——
My wrist was unexpectedly grabbed by a big, cold hand!
The force was not strong, but it was extremely firm, with an unquestionable toughness, which instantly stopped him from leaving.
Lin Che's body stiffened, and he turned around suddenly, colliding with Zhou Xuran's eyes that were so close to him.
Zhou Xuran grabbed his wrist and leaned slightly closer, and the distance between them was instantly compressed to a dangerous level.
Zhou Xuran's gaze locked onto Lin Che's instantly widened eyes. His deep, magnetic voice clearly struck Lin Che's eardrums:
"When will you pay me back for the meal you owe me?"
The skin on Lin Che's wrist felt like it was burned by a branding iron. The touch that did not belong to Lu Yu made him feel a strong rejection from the bottom of his heart.
He frowned almost immediately, not hiding his resistance at all, and with a sudden jerk of his arm, he forcibly freed his wrist from Zhou Xuran's grip.
The force was so great that even Zhou Xuran's fingers paused slightly in the air.
"Let's eat," Lin Che's voice turned cold, with a distinct sense of distance. He even subconsciously rubbed his wrist, which had just been held. "Why are you getting so close?"
He turned sideways, no longer looking at Zhou Xuran, and walked straight to the door.
Just as he was about to step through the office door, Lin Che suddenly stopped.
He didn't turn around, but just turned his back to Zhou Xuran, his shoulders stiff. After a few seconds of silence, he seemed to have made up his mind and slowly turned around.
The afternoon light slanted in through the window, outlining Lin Che's slender figure. He still held the stethoscope in his hand, the cool metal tube unconsciously turning between his fingers, reflecting tiny points of light.
The emotions in Lin Che's eyes quickly subsided. The emotion that he had just been eager to avoid had disappeared. Instead, he looked straight at Zhou Xuran who was leaning against the door frame with a penetrating, almost scrutinizing calmness.
"Zhou Xuran, do you really want to eat, or do you want something else?"
He tilted his head slightly, and the corners of his lips seemed to twitch ever so slightly, as if he was mocking himself, or as if he was indifferent as if he had seen through everything.
He raised his hands, palms facing up, and made an extremely frank yet distant gesture towards Zhou Xuran, with the stethoscope hanging down and shaking gently.
"Here..." He said calmly, pausing for a moment before adding with a hint of helplessness, "But there's nothing here."
Zhou Xuran maintained that seemingly leisurely leaning posture, with his arms folded across his chest. The purple scrubs open inside his white coat made his complexion look even colder.
He watched Lin Che's series of actions and words that were eager to draw a line between them, and the subtle curve at the corner of his mouth finally deepened, forming a playful smile with obvious sarcasm.
"Heh," he chuckled, his deep voice remarkably clear in the quiet office. "It's just a meal. Are you so anxious to draw a line between us?" He took a small step forward, shortening the already short distance between them. His shadow almost enveloped Lin Che.
He leaned forward slightly, his gaze level with Lin Che's, locking his eyes tightly with hers. He parted his thin lips slightly, and spoke clearly, word by word, the meaningful "he" with a deliberately sharp and testing tone:
"He's restraining you like this? He can't even make the decision about a meal?"
The air froze instantly.
The word "he" undoubtedly refers to Lu Yu.
The last trace of expression on Lin Che's face disappeared, leaving only complete calmness.
He met Zhou Xuran's intense gaze, and even slightly twitched the corners of his mouth, revealing a very faint and cold smile.
"It's not him." Lin Che's voice was low, but incredibly firm. Every word was like knocking on ice. "Zhou Xuran, it's me."
He paused, his eyes frank and direct, with an unquestionable sense of clear boundaries:
"It's me who's drawing a line between me and you."
Lin Che took a deep breath after he finished speaking. He stopped turning the stethoscope and simply held it firmly. He looked directly into Zhou Xuran's eyes, which were filled with unknown emotions. He finally asked the question that had been lingering in his heart for a long time, even since he had helped him at the Cantonese restaurant, or since he had tirelessly sent flowers several times before. "Zhou Xuran, I still don't understand. What exactly are you trying to do?"
The sarcastic and playful smile on Zhou Xuran's face froze for a moment. He avoided Lin Che's clear and scrutinizing eyes and fixed his gaze on the slightly tilted work badge on Lin Che's chest.
He didn't answer the pointed question.
The arms folded across his chest slowly dropped. He took a step forward, closing the distance once again, and the refreshing air enveloped him once again. Lin Che's body instantly tensed, bracing himself for another touch, like a stressed cat, but Zhou Xuran's hand simply reached for his chest.
His cold fingertips accidentally brushed against the fabric of Lin Che's white coat. Zhou Xuran stretched out his index and middle fingers, gently pinching the edge of the work badge on Lin Che's chest that had his photo and name printed on it, straightening it so that it hung neatly in the middle of his chest.
His action was so natural that it seemed like a friendly reminder between colleagues, and he was so focused that it seemed as if the only thing in front of him was the crooked plastic sign.
After doing all this, he withdrew his hand and raised his eyes to look at Lin Che again. His gaze was still deep and unfathomable, but his tone was calm, as if he was stating a simple fact, as if the tense questioning just now had never happened:
"I just want to have a meal with you."
This understated response, this deliberate avoidance of the main point, this as if all the previous temptations and offenses hadn't existed...
An indescribable feeling of suffocation suddenly blocked Lin Che's heart, as if a ball of wet cotton was stuffed in it, unable to go up or down, heavy and suffocating.
All his questions and declarations of demarcation seemed to have hit an invisible, unbreakable wall.
Zhou Xuran told him through his actions: You draw your boundaries, and I do what I want.
Lin Che's Adam's apple rolled, and he forced himself to suppress the frustration. He stopped looking at Zhou Xuran's irritating face and raised his hand, putting the stethoscope back on his neck with a rather heavy hand. The cold tip of the stethoscope pressed against the skin on the side of his neck, bringing a sharp, sobering tingle.
He took a last glance at the stubborn and stubborn man in front of him, his eyes filled with complete powerlessness and a coldness that showed he had given up on communicating.
He practically gritted his teeth, squeezing out a response that was clearly filled with anger and impatience:
"I can't eat you to death."
After saying this, Lin Che didn't stop to even try to fix the tilted chair. He turned around abruptly, the hem of his white coat stirring up a gust of wind as he strode out of the office.
The footsteps quickly disappeared into the corridor.
Zhou Xuran was the only one left in the empty office.
He stood there, his gaze still fixed on the direction of the door where Lin Che had disappeared.
After a few seconds, he slowly lowered his head and looked at his fingertips that had just straightened his work badge, as if he could still feel the momentary stiffness and body temperature under the fabric.
A very faint, yet extremely clear arc, a chuckle of some kind of secret joy after the prey finally reacted and a piece was finally placed in the chess game.
A low, magnetic laugh rang out softly in the quiet office.
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