Chapter Sixty Jealousy
Lin Yu abruptly slapped away Jiang Chuan's hand, which was still pinching her chin. The faint soreness in her gums and the embarrassment of being spied on made her wish she could disappear on the spot.
The air in the office seemed to be sucked away instantly, leaving only an awkward, deathly silence. Secretary Bai was the first to regain her composure, her voice carrying a calm that was trying to conceal something.
"President Jiang, I...I'm here to deliver the morning meeting materials!"
As she spoke, she took two steps back, nearly twisting her ankle. She instinctively grabbed the doorframe, pressed her folder against her chest, and awkwardly explained, "I saw your office lights were off and assumed no one was there. Sorry!"
She glanced quickly at Lin Yu, then her gaze fell on Jiang Chuan's face, as if she were waiting for her boss's reprimand.
Jiang Chuan remained calm, his gaze shifting to the doorway. He didn't show the same panic or embarrassment as Lin Yu, but simply tapped the table lightly and said, "I have to go out for a moment. Please leave the documents on the table, thank you."
Secretary Bai nodded quickly, then, as if granted a pardon, hurriedly put down the documents and retreated, making sure to close the door behind her. The office returned to silence.
"Your teeth need to be taken care of as soon as possible." Jiang Chuan stood up and tidied the table, saying without looking up, "Take a day off later, I'll take you to the hospital!"
"Now?" Lin Yu looked at his calm and composed demeanor, completely unfazed by the unexpected incident, and couldn't help but give him a thumbs up. "With this kind of drive, you'll succeed at anything!"
Jiang Chuan carefully wiped the tabletop three times with alcohol wipes until it was shiny enough to reflect light, before looking up at himself. "Your wisdom tooth on the other side has already been extracted. If you delay taking this one on the left, your whole row of teeth will fall apart like dominoes."
Lin Yu subconsciously shrank back, unconsciously recalling her terrible experience of having a tooth pulled before. But Jiang Chuan's words made her feel uneasy, and the comical image of her crooked teeth uncontrollably surfaced in her mind.
"How about...we wait a couple more days? Don't you have a meeting later?"
"The meeting starts at 10:30." Jiang Chuan threw the used tissue into the trash can, took out two more and carefully wiped his fingers clean, then looked at his watch. "I should be able to make it if I go now."
He scooped up Lin Yu's coat from the back of the chair, his movements so swift and decisive that she had no chance to back out. Lin Yu opened her mouth, wanting to remind him that she had a date that evening, but saw that he had already gotten up and started packing his things to leave.
Seeing him take a clean towel from the drawer, then turn around and turn on the ice maker by the door, pouring ice cubes into a thermos, I asked, "When is your period?"
Lin Yu paused for a moment, then thought for a second and said, "At the end of the month!"
Jiang Chuan nodded, tightened the lid of the cup, turned to look at Lin Yu who was lying on the sofa and refused to get up, and encouraged him with a smile: "Getting a tooth pulled can make your face slimmer!"
"You're kidding, right?" Lin Yu covered her face, looking at him warily.
"You can only eat liquids for the next few days, and avoid spicy food." Jiang Chuan shook the thermos in his hand, the ice cubes inside clinking. "Not only will you lose weight, but your skin will also improve!"
Lin Yu finally realized that Jiang Chuan would not let her go today no matter what, so she could only reluctantly get up and follow him out of the office.
With her head down, she texted the dean on her phone to ask for leave, submitted an application in the OA system, and canceled her noon appointment at the dental clinic.
Several people were now seated in the previously empty office area, and curious eyes were peering over the computer screens, seemingly trying to get a friendly look at them.
As she passed the break room, Secretary Bai was leaning against the counter making coffee, gently stirring it with a porcelain spoon along the side of the cup. Seeing someone pass by, she looked up, and her gaze briefly met Lin Yu's.
Lin Yu nodded politely to her. Jiang Chuan also noticed her, walked over and whispered a few words to her, then left with Lin Yu.
The nearby top-tier hospital didn't offer same-day appointments, but fortunately there was a chain dental clinic across the street where Jiang Chuan had received treatment before, so he took Lin Yu there directly.
After the X-ray, the two waited in the brightly lit waiting area for their number to be called. Lin Yu leaned back on the sofa and suddenly asked, "Your company has pretty high hiring standards!"
Jiang Chuan didn't react for a moment, and looked at her with a slightly blank expression.
"With such a beautiful secretary in the company, wouldn't you be full of energy at work every day?" Lin Yu pursed his lips, crossed his arms, and leaned back on the sofa with a half-smile.
She didn't know why she suddenly blurted out such a sentence. It was originally just a casual joke, perhaps to ease the tension before the tooth extraction, or perhaps just to catch a glimpse of his rare flustered appearance.
But to Jiang Chuan, it sounded like Lin Yu declaring his ownership in front of him. He curled his lips into a smile, a hint of amusement in his eyes.
"You mean Secretary Bai?" He paused, raising an eyebrow slightly. "I'll ask my senior brother for you later, since he's the one who recruited him."
Jiang Chuan cleaned himself up completely, then turned his head to observe Lin Yu's slightly tense expression. "I'll definitely remember to lock the door next time, okay?"
"Why did you lock the door?" Lin Yu looked down at the upside-down medical record in her hand, deliberately avoiding looking at him. "I didn't do anything sneaky!"
Jiang Chuan casually draped his arm over the back of the sofa, his gaze lingering on Lin Yu's face. After a while, he softly asked, "Are you jealous? Banban!"
Jiang Chuan's counterattack only made Lin Yu, who was already in a bad mood due to her toothache, even more annoyed. She turned her face away and snorted coldly, "What are you jealous of? I'm afraid she'll misunderstand what happened this morning!"
"What misunderstanding? You think we're kissing?" Jiang Chuan chuckled softly, leaning forward. "So what?"
"No, you..." That's right, you're not embarrassed, but others are. This statement is perfectly exemplified in Jiang Chuan's case.
But Lin Yu thought again, after all, Secretary Bai and Jiang Chuan were colleagues, and he should only have a handful of opportunities to meet her, so he couldn't possibly embarrass her like this.
The electronic call system sounded from the information desk. Lin Yu looked down to check the number in his hand, and he and Jiang Chuan walked into the consultation room one after the other.
The doctor was sitting at the instrument table. He looked to be in his early forties, slightly overweight, wearing a white surgical gown. A mask covered most of his face, but behind his goggles, a pair of bright eyes with a warm smile were visible.
He first glanced at Jiang Chuan standing to the side, then turned to Lin Yu, his gaze gentle and kind. "Don't be nervous, it's a small problem. Clear your mind and just follow my instructions, okay?"
"OK, OK!" Lin Yu nodded hurriedly, handed him the CT scan, and obediently lay down on the blue treatment chair next to him.
The doctor pointed to the arrogant white shadow lying horizontally in the alveolar bone on the CT scan and said in a light tone: "It has fully grown out, but it is a bit far from the adjacent teeth. There is no inflammation and it is not touching the nerve. It is easy to treat."
Lin Yu nervously twisted his fingers, staring at the doctor timidly as he asked, "Doctor, do we need surgery?"
"Relax!" The doctor skillfully manipulated the cold instruments on the stainless steel tray and said with a smile, "You won't feel anything after the anesthesia!"
He put a sterile cloth over Lin Yu's chest and casually turned on the overhead operating light. Lin Yu squinted at the sudden brightness.
"If you're scared, just hold your boyfriend's hand! Pain diversion is a family secret recipe here!"
The doctor gave Jiang Chuan a wink, and the latter understood and took Lin Yu's left hand, which was clenched tightly in front of her chest. Almost instinctively, she clasped his hand back, her fingers gripping his thumb tightly, not even bothering to correct the doctor's misunderstanding.
Jiang Chuan's palm was dry and warm, carrying a steady sense of power that strangely permeated through his skin, like the only reliable anchor in a storm, briefly stabilizing Lin Yu's mind amidst the surging panic.
The cold needle pierced his gums, and the anesthetic was slowly injected. Lin Yu gasped in pain. In less than ten minutes, his left cheek and half of his tongue completely lost sensation, feeling like a piece of dead flesh that didn't belong to him.
The doctor instructed Lin Yu to open her mouth wide and gently poked her gums with tweezers. After receiving a response that she felt no sensation, the doctor used a cotton ball to wipe away the saliva that had accumulated in her mouth.
Lin Yu closed his eyes tightly and obediently opened his mouth wide, not daring to explore the bloody scene that was about to unfold.
The doctor disassembled a disposable razor blade, attached it to a scalpel holder, and made a cut into Lin Yu's affected area. Blood immediately soaked through the cotton ball stuffed in his mouth. Then, a bone chisel and dental drill were used in turn.
The metal drill emitted a sharp buzzing sound, causing the entire skull to resonate in unison, as if someone were using a chainsaw to work inside Lin Yu's skull, sawing a deep groove into his horizontal wisdom tooth.
Jiang Chuan suddenly felt a sharp pain in his palm. He looked down and saw that Lin Yu's fingernails were deeply embedded in his flesh, forming a white crescent moon shape at the base of his thumb, like a tattoo tailor-made for him.
The doctor turned around, put down the drill, picked up a bone chisel, pressed it against the indentation between the teeth, and pressed down hard with his wrist, trying to completely peel the front half of the tooth from the root.
Lin Yu's senses were filled with these cold, hard, and chilling sounds. Even though she couldn't feel pain, the immense downward force gave her the illusion that her entire jaw was about to be ripped off.
Jiang Chuan sensed her fear, gripped her hand tightly, and gently wiped away the cold sweat seeping from her forehead with his other hand.
The perception of time is stretched infinitely on the examination chair, like enduring a century of torment, but perhaps only a few seconds have passed.
The front part of her tooth finally came out with a thud, and half of it bounced off the inside of her cheek. The doctor used tweezers to pick it out and threw it into the trash can.
In contrast, the subsequent treatment was gentle and simple. The dentist pulled the back half of the tooth root out of the gum, held it with tweezers like a trophy, and presented it to the weak Lin Yu standing to the side.
"How about it? It's quite big, isn't it? Do you want to take it home as a souvenir?"
Lin Yu glanced at the bloody tooth root, immediately closed his eyes tightly, and frantically waved his hands.
The doctor laughed as he threw his spoils into the trash can. While stitching up Lin Yu's wound, he said to Jiang Chuan, whose hand was scratched raw, "Your girlfriend is quite strong. Do you need me to stitch you up a couple of times too?"
Lin Yu then realized that she was still gripping Jiang Chuan's hand tightly, and she hurriedly let go.
Seeing the deep bloodstains on his hand, he wanted to apologize but could only make a weak "ah-woo" sound. He could only blink his wet eyes at Jiang Chuan to express his apology.
"All done." The doctor used tweezers to remove the blood-soaked cotton ball from Lin Yu's mouth, replaced it with a clean one, and placed it on the wound, instructing Lin Yu to bite down. A nurse then began cleaning the instruments.
"Bite for forty minutes, do not spit, do not lick the wound, and do not suck anything."
Apply ice for 20 minutes at a time within 48 hours.
As the doctor spoke, he pointed to the white wall behind him covered with instructions. "All the other instructions are there. Take a picture with your phone and remember to come back in three days to have the stitches removed."
Jiang Chuan took a picture of the notice on the wall with his phone, then turned around and helped Lin Yu, who had survived the ordeal, to her feet.
She was completely exhausted, as if she had just been pulled from the deep sea while drowning, and her legs were trembling. Jiang Chuan took the ice pack from the nurse, carefully wrapped it in clean gauze, and gently applied it to her numb left cheek.
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