Hospital Encounter
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Kirimi stood under the shade of the tree, feeling the time passing by every second.
The homeowner, Sister Yang, rushed over after dropping her child off and said apologetically, "Xiao Wu, I'm sorry, but let's go in. You've checked the house. Is there anything wrong?"
Wu Jianwei pulled Sister Yang aside and said, "Wait, Sister Yang, I want to ask, who did you rent this house to?"
Sister Yang said naturally, "I rented it to your boyfriend. But after you contacted me last week and said you wanted to buy it, he gave up the lease."
After a moment of silence, Wu Jianwei asked again: "Then the studio I'm looking for you to rent has nothing to do with him, right?"
Sister Yang smiled and beckoned her to the Housing Authority. "What's the connection? My sister-in-law works as an agent. We've already found one according to your requirements. We'll take you to see it later. We guarantee it meets your requirements of a quiet environment, a small area, and a slightly out-of-the-way location."
After the transfer, Sister Yang drove her to the studio.
It was a perfect spot, far from the main city, so the rent was cheap. It was on a high floor, but not too cramped. The 50-square-meter space had floor-to-ceiling windows on both sides, and on a nice day, you could see the rolling green hills.
What she liked most was the circular desk in the center, which was large enough for her to draw her sketches. And although the studio was far from the city center, it happened to be very close to the mosaic factory.
She immediately booked this place, and it was already three o'clock in the afternoon when she returned to the agency store in the city to sign the contract.
It started to drizzle, so she bought a transparent umbrella at the bus stop and hurried to the hospital.
In the hospital, most of the people who come for treatment are accompanied by their family members or friends, and there is almost no empty seat in the waiting area.
Kirimi Wei was waiting in the corner with the registration form.
The air was filled with the smell of disinfectant and a heavy, sticky worry. This place was different from other clinics. Although there were many people here, very few people talked to each other, as if language was too heavy a burden.
As far as the eye can see, some people lowered their heads, their gazes fixed on the gaps between the tiles under their feet; some hunched their shoulders, their arms tightly wrapped around themselves; and more people had blank gazes, with only a blank gray mist in their eyes.
This is the psychiatric outpatient clinic area.
Wu Jianwei looked at them, as if she saw her former self.
The nurse pushed the door open and came out. Her voice was particularly clear in the silence: "No. 35, Kiri Mizumi."
Kirimi withdrew from his thoughts and followed the nurse into the clinic.
"Please sit down." Jin Zhou was wearing a white coat with a pen in his pocket. He raised his hand with a warm smile and guided Wu Jianwei to sit down on the chair.
"Thank you." Before Wu Jianwei sat down, she apologized for missing the appointment. "Doctor Jin, I missed the appointment last time and didn't tell you in advance. I'm very sorry."
"What's the big deal?" Jin Zhou turned around and looked at her. "You're only harming your own health, and it doesn't affect me. If you want to talk about who you're sorry for, it's yourself."
"Yeah...that's right." Kirimi hung the umbrella aside and sat firmly on the chair. "Then I forgive myself."
"Haha, you have a very good attitude." Jin Zhou looked at her medical records and said, "Teacher Zhou called me several times today, asking me to urge you to come get your medicine. It's a good thing you came on your own, otherwise you and I would have been scolded by him."
Wu Jianwei said helplessly, "Dr. Zhou is very dedicated. He always thinks I am avoiding this disease and treats me as a key subject for observation."
"Then you really didn't avoid it?" Jin Zhou clasped his hands together and leaned slightly towards her. "Teacher Zhou said that he's been your attending physician for three years and he's never seen anyone accompany you to see a doctor. You always go alone."
Wu Jianwei's expression was calm: "So what? I don't need to trouble others."
"Yes, this shows that you are still very capable." Jin Zhou always smiled faintly and encouraged her with his words.
Kiriomi: “Yeah.”
Jin Zhou chuckled softly and tapped away at the keyboard to write her an order: "Jianwei, can I call you that? I'm not much older than you, and it feels weird to follow my uncle and call you Xiao Wu. It feels like a generation difference."
"Yes." Wu Jianwei asked again, "Is Doctor Zhou your uncle?"
Jin Zhou: "Yes, so you see my name is Jin Zhou, my father's last name is Jin, and my mother's last name is Zhou."
Kiriomi: “Oh.”
Jin Zhou wrote out the list and handed it to her, saying gently, "Jianwei, I have a question for you. The early symptoms of anxiety disorder aren't obvious, but you've already had severe somatization. How did you keep it a secret from your family for so long?"
Before Wu Jianwei could speak, Jin Zhou said, "Let me guess. Did they say it was hypoglycemia when the disease occurred?"
Kirito: "You are a doctor, so don't ask me."
"Haha, why do I always feel passive when chatting with you?" Jin Zhou picked up the cup and took a sip of water, then continued, "Do you know why my uncle is worried that you deliberately didn't come to get the medicine?"
Kirijianwei: "Is there any other reason?"
Jin Zhou: "He's afraid that you came to Qingting to avoid your family. When your illness reaches a certain stage, you'll unconsciously want to distance yourself from those close to you."
Kirimi shook her head slightly: "I haven't, I'm much better now."
"Well, thanks to your active cooperation with the treatment, you're indeed much better." Jin Zhou raised his eyes, motioning the nurse to step aside, then spoke slowly, "Jianwei, although Teacher Zhou is my uncle, we absolutely respect the patient's privacy, so he didn't tell me the cause of your illness. The cause is very complicated, often with multiple factors superimposed on each other. For subsequent treatment, it is important for the attending physician to understand your complete condition, so are you willing to tell me?"
Kirimi Wei: "I just need to keep taking medicine to stay stable. I don't need any further treatment for the time being."
Jin Zhou: "Yes, but this does not affect our communication about the condition."
Kirimi nodded slightly, then seemed to waver, then smiled faintly. "Well, what worries me most is why a psychological consultation is so expensive. I was probably only a little anxious at first, but when I saw the bill, I thought going crazy would be fine."
"Well...actually, I think it's very expensive too." Seeing that she was unwilling to say, Jin Zhou chuckled twice and didn't ask any more questions.
Kirimi shrugged slightly and stood up with the prescription in hand. "Can I go now?"
"Wait." Jin Zhou also stood up. "Let me say a few more words. Actually, no one wants those around them to worry about them. It's a very normal psychological reaction. But you have to know that when a person's psychological defenses become weak, they need someone behind them even more. Don't be afraid to speak up. They will support you and understand you."
Wu Jianwei only responded with a "Yeah."
Jin Zhou had no idea what to do when faced with a patient who was both cooperative and perfunctory. He sighed and instructed, "Jianwei, if you have a panic attack, you must seek medical attention immediately."
Kirijian Wei still responded in a calm tone: "Yeah."
"Okay, that's it for today." Jin Zhou walked to the door two steps faster than her and opened it for her. "The pharmacy is at the end of the corridor, turn left. Remember to come for a follow-up appointment in two weeks."
"Okay, Dr. Jin, thank you." She nodded, turned sideways and passed by the door, her figure disappearing in the halo of the corridor.
There were crowds of people in front of the pharmacy, with four long lines. Wu Jianwei quietly stood at the end of the shortest line. However, this line seemed to be frozen in time, becoming the slowest one.
She sighed in her heart, isn't that what life is like? We think we've chosen the shortest path, but often we wind up going further.
By the time I got the medicine, the sky outside the window had become dark.
She walked out of the outpatient building carrying a plastic bag. Before she went down the stairs, a hint of coolness touched her cheeks and drizzle began to fall from the sky again.
She stopped and stood under the eaves, skillfully tearing open the plastic seal of the medicine box, picking out the pills one by one and stuffing them into the medicine box she was carrying.
After packing the medicine, she looked at her empty hands and suddenly remembered something. Just as she was about to turn around, a voice penetrated the rain and hit her ears.
"See the micro."
Wu Jianwei suddenly turned around: "Doctor Jin?"
Jin Zhou walked up to her with a smile in his eyes and handed her the umbrella: "You forgot to take your umbrella."
"Yeah, I remember that too..." Her fingertips touched the slightly cool ribs of the umbrella. "Thank you. Are you still seeing patients? Sorry to bother you again."
"I've finished seeing patients today." Jin Zhou's face was gentle. "I was just about to go to the second inpatient department for rounds and thought you might still be there, so I ran into you."
"Oh." Kirimi glanced down at his empty hands and was startled. "Don't you have an umbrella?"
Jin Zhou spread his hands frankly: "My original plan was that if I hadn't met you, I would use your umbrella."
"Then your plan has failed." Wu Jianwei opened the umbrella and said, "Let's go. I'll go with you. Just consider it a thank you."
"Let me do it." Jin Zhou took the umbrella handle and raised it slightly higher. "Actually, you're quite tall, but the height you raise it to is still likely to poke my head."
Kirito chuckled softly, "Oh, okay."
At this time, a nurse passed by, her eyes paused on them, and she asked in a low voice: "Doctor Jin, are you on night shift today?"
Jin Zhou turned back to the nurse and said, "Yes, I'm in the second inpatient department tonight."
The nurse laughed and said, "Several patients are asking when it's your turn."
"Okay, I'll go right away." Jin Zhou smiled and nodded to the nurse, and the nurse also walked into the rain with an umbrella.
The rain was falling heavily. There were no trees to block the view on this road, so the wind blew the rain in a diagonal line.
Wu Jianwei's umbrella was not big. Jin Zhou turned sideways and tilted the umbrella towards Wu Jianwei. The space under the umbrella suddenly became quiet, and the two walked side by side towards the inpatient building.
"No, I won't get wet." Wu Jianwei subconsciously stood a little further away from him.
"I'm not taking care of you just because you're my patient." Jin Zhou said in a gentle tone, "This umbrella is yours, so of course I should let you have more shade."
"Well...that makes sense." Wu Jianwei stopped being humble.
After walking for a few minutes, they passed the first inpatient department. Suddenly, she heard a name.
A soft voice called out, "Yan Xiu."
She subconsciously turned her head and saw Meng Yanxiu standing by the car door in front of the hospital building, holding a long black bamboo-handled umbrella. The umbrella was slightly tilted, covering Song Yan in front of him.
The drizzle formed a dense curtain at the edge of the umbrella, making the world on the other side seem a little blurry.
After just one glance, Wu Jianwei quickly withdrew his gaze and stared ahead calmly.
Jin Zhou followed her gaze and said casually, "That's Dean Song's daughter. The one next to her should be Dean Song's son-in-law. I've seen them a few times in the hospital before. Do you know them?"
"I don't know him." Wu Jianwei continued walking, and there was no emotion in his voice.
Jin Zhou frowned thoughtfully. "I hope Dean Song's hospitalization won't affect the approval process for the psychological counseling room equipment upgrade."
"Yeah." Kirimi stopped in front of the second inpatient department. "Is this the place?"
"Yes, I'm here." Jin Zhou handed the umbrella back to her, the handle still warm to the touch. "Thank you for the umbrella. Be careful on the road and get enough rest."
Kirijianwei: "Okay."
"Jianwei." Jinzhou called her again, "I hope that one day, I can see someone accompany you to the hospital."
Wu Jianwei nodded to him and said, "Let's go. Goodbye."
Jin Zhou watched her back disappear around the corner before turning around and walking into the inpatient building.
Wu Jianwei didn't go far. She deliberately detoured from the way she came and walked slowly along the tree-lined path outside the outpatient building. This detour took her more than ten minutes to reach the main entrance of the hospital.
She crossed the street and walked to the bus stop, where she stood alone, her eyes fixed blankly on the wet ground. She didn't notice a black car slowly approaching.
The wheels rolled silently over the puddle without splashing any water.
She subconsciously took a half step back, the car door opened, and someone stepped out of the back seat. Parking was not allowed here, so the car slowly drove away.
In an instant, the familiar smell was immersed in the rain, and she slowly raised her eyes.
Meng Yanxiu was seen holding a black umbrella, standing quietly in the rain, looking at her.
Long before she saw Meng Yanxiu and Song Yan, Meng Yanxiu had already seen her walking side by side with the male doctor, talking and laughing.
Wu Jianwei turned his face away, and the silence solidified into an invisible wall.
Meng Yanxiu took a step forward, tilted his umbrella slightly, and covered hers. He looked at her with deep eyes: "Awu, who is he?"
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