An old man came out of the house with a hoarse voice, holding a bowl in his hand, and the smell of stinky winter melon filled the air.
"Old Qiu, this is the little girl we told you about last time. She's a skilled doctor and kindhearted. Your son Sanchou was given to her."
"Yes, Lao Qiu, come quickly and let Xiao Ruan take a look at you. When you came here yesterday, you couldn't even walk. Let Xiao Ruan treat you too."
"Xiao Ruan is a miracle doctor who can cure any disease with his hands! Come quickly!"
These days, Old Qiu listened to the old friends praising Ruan Tang. She had heard of her name before she had even met her, so she came down with her bowl of rice.
Ruan Tang was instructing the elderly man, who couldn't lift his hands, to massage a few more acupuncture points. "If I have time someday, I'll get some silver needles and give you a few acupunctures. The effect will be even better if combined with massage."
A stinky winter melon smell drifted closer. Ruan Tang sniffed and turned her head, only to see a familiar face.
The four eyes met in public.
Old Qiu looked at Ruan Tang with great interest. "When I encounter troublesome and difficult people, I can't help but feel a headache. Only my son Sanchou can heal my wounded heart..."
Ruan Tang said quietly, "Troublesome and difficult? Three hours of consultation? Did it give you a headache?"
The four eyes collided once again in public.
Old Qiu trembled. What a damn fate!
"Old doctor? Why are you silent? Do you want to take some Sanchou to calm down?"
Old Qiu took a big bite of the stinky winter melon and calmed himself down: "Wang Cuizhen?"
Ruan Tang nodded generously.
"Why did you act like that yesterday? Don't you look normal now?"
"If I say that I was enlightened after listening to you for three hours and that you completely brainwashed me, would you believe me?"
Old Qiu curled his lips. "I'm not stupid. My old buddies have been praising you like a fairy these past few days. Do fairies need a mortal like me to brainwash them? I'm very clear about my level. I can only persuade people, not cure those with mental illnesses."
I almost said directly that Ruan Tang looked like she had a mental problem yesterday.
"So, you called in sick today to avoid me?"
Facing Ruan Tang's sincere question, Old Qiu nodded. "This is the first time I've seen someone so willing to spend money just to chat with someone."
Normally, an hour is considered a generous amount of money.
She planned to ask the staff to raise the price again after she got to work, otherwise she would not be able to bear it if she encountered someone like Ruan Tang who wasted money again.
After they met, Old Qiu could tell that Ruan Tang was just pretending to be sick and came to see the doctor.
Old Qiu finished the last few mouthfuls of porridge and asked, imitating Ruan Tang's tone, "So, were you here for me yesterday?"
Ruan Tang nodded. "I'm so sorry for disturbing you yesterday. I came here because I admired you, but I benefited so much from chatting with you that I lost control and forgot to consider your physical condition. It's my fault..."
Old Qiu was stunned when she heard this. She had an illusion that the person who argued with her when they met just now must not be Ruan Tang!
Ruan Tang is a graceful lady, speaking elegantly, how could she be so close to being killed? It couldn't be her!
Calm down! Calm down! Don't let the sugar-coated bullets fool you.
Old Qiu shook his head, and his head hurt again.
"Just be direct and get straight to the point. What do you want from me?"
Ruan Tang: "Among the people in Beijing, where do you rank in terms of your attainments in psychology?"
The old people finally found an opportunity to interrupt and hurriedly told Lao Qiu everything.
"Of course he's number one! Old Qiu is in Beijing and has no rivals in the country!"
"If it weren't for the fact that Lao Qiu saw that there were always young girls hanging around the Women's Hospital and that they often got into trouble, Lao Qiu wouldn't have volunteered to come out."
"I'm not exaggerating, but with Lao Qiu's level of skill, he has no problem supporting himself with his pension."
Ruan Tang then asked, "Does Dr. Qiu admire anyone in this field?"
"I seem to have heard that Junior Brother Qiu is quite awesome."
"Is that the one who once pursued Old Qiu's junior brother?"
"That's him. After that fellow apprentice's wife died, he came several times, but was rejected by Old Qiu every time."
Ruan Tang's throat tightened with excitement when she heard the name "Zong". Just as she was about to speak, she heard the elders change the subject to Lao Qiu rejecting her junior apprentice several times.
Ruan Tang couldn't help but gossip, "Sisters and brothers from the Qimen sect, isn't it great to get married? You know each other so well."
Lao Qiu came out after washing the dishes. "It's not good at all. He likes to drink soy milk, and I like to eat three kinds of stinky food. I hate his sewer odor, and he hates my toilet odor. We'll have a fight in three days, and he'll kill me in a month."
Ruan Tang asked curiously, "Why kill you? Why not you kill him?"
"Then I am not as good as him! Although I am his senior sister, my understanding is not as good as his, and I haven't studied as hard as him.
At that time, I was young and admired the strong, and I also had some feelings for my junior brother. Later, I heard that my second junior sister said that she was studying hypnosis. I was scared when I heard it, for I was afraid that I would pass out and die because of the dispute over the three smelly things in soy milk.
Later, I rejected him because of our different lifestyles. When he got married and lost his wife, he came back to me and said he had become a military doctor. But what was missed was missed. I had never been married, and I didn't want to raise his children.
After Lao Qiu finished speaking, he was silent for a long time.
She seemed to be lost in her memories. After a long time, she raised her head and looked at Ruan Tang.
"You're here for your senior brother, right? Dean Ruan Tang."
Ruan Tang nodded and apologized again, "It happened for a reason. I didn't mean to hide it."
Old Qiu shook his head indifferently and said, "Come to my house."
Ruan Tang took two steps forward, supported Lao Qiu, and helped her back home.
As Lao Qiu entered the study, she found an iron box from the bookshelf.
"These are all the letters that my senior brothers sent me. They have been sacrificed all the time."
"Can I see it?"
Old Qiu nodded. "There's nothing to hide. We can't be husband and wife, but we're still senior and junior sisters. Most of the letters are about academic discussions on psychology."
After hearing this, Ruan Tang opened the top letter.
Old Qiu said to himself, "Back then, my senior brother was so unexpected. He wrote to me two weeks ago saying he was coming soon. He found a modified version of Sanchou and said it was delicious. He ate a bowl of it with plain porridge. He even suggested living with me."
I didn't think about it. I just made up an excuse. My junior brother had been worried about me for thirty years. So I wrote him a letter. Thirty years later in Beijing, I also learned to drink douzhi. I don't know if he received the letter. He disappeared after that.
Ruan Tang patted the back of Old Qiu's hand silently and soothingly.
Old Qiu shook his head. "Ten years! Ten years have passed in the blink of an eye. I've always felt that Senior Brother Zong died suddenly. Is there some hidden reason? I asked Senior Brother Zong's daughter, and the higher-ups said he died saving people. But he's a psychiatrist, unlike other surgeons and internists, who don't have to go to the front lines and are always in the rear. How could he die saving people?
"Master Brother Zong has been a dedicated person in his life. He's only obsessed with two things: psychiatry and me. He's definitely not someone who wanders around, and he doesn't have the enthusiasm of an average doctor. He doesn't even bother to look at anything other than psychiatry."
Ruan Tang looked up from the letter at Old Qiu, "Do you suspect that there's something fishy going on with Elder Zong?"
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