That's how my father and I got to know each other. In the mornings, when my mother went home to get my father's hospital meals, I would follow her like a little tail and stay with him at the hospital. In the afternoons, when my mother went home to get dinner, I would go home. For lunch, either Uncle Fang or my mother would go home to get the meals, and I would stay at the hospital all day.
I've become familiar with all the uncles, aunts, brothers, and sisters in my mother's department.
Is there still a little over half an hour left before I get off work? After Uncle Zhang handed over his shift to Uncle Dong, seeing that there wasn't much to do, he took me to the office to play. Before we even got there, I heard:
"What?! Dr. Zhao is getting married?"
"Yes, I just heard her say it to me in the director's office. She even told me that I could come over for a drink at her wedding if I had time."
"No, what's going on? She's not..." Xiao Sun quickly shut up when she saw Dr. Zhang carrying me over.
Hearing this, Xiao Dong, who was following behind Uncle Zhang, quickly changed the subject and asked:
"Does anyone know what Dr. Zhao's wife does?"
I'm not quite sure.
Just then, Aunt Zhou saw me coming and quickly picked up a piece of maltose candy and put it in my mouth, while also asking:
Do you know when Dr. Zhao is getting married?
"Knowing I was in the director's office just now, I heard the director asking about it. Dr. Zhao said, 'Next Sunday.'"
"Okay, I understand. Whoever has a day off can go as a representative. I definitely won't have time; even if I do, I have to go home to take care of Old Shen."
Hearing this, he knew that this was just an excuse made up by Aunt Zhou. Everyone knew that Uncle Shen had recovered long ago and was not returning to the team because he was recuperating at home and would return to the team once he was fully recovered.
Everyone else knew that the head nurse didn't like Dr. Zhao very much. One day, it was the head nurse who led them to catch him in the act of adultery. No, that's not how you say it. It should be that she exposed Dr. Zhao's thoughts, his attempts to ruin the couple's relationship, and his involvement in a military marriage. The director even held a special meeting to say that ruining someone's marriage is immoral, especially since ruining a military marriage is punishable by a military court.
It turned out that after Zhao Meilan's face was removed by Liu Linjuan that day, she ran home crying. Zhao's father happened to be home and, not knowing why his daughter was crying, asked his wife, "
What's wrong with Lanlan? It's time for her to go to work, why is she crying all the way home?
Zhao's mother is not Zhao Meilan's biological mother, but only a stepmother. She has her own children and time to care for them, so why would she have time to care for her stepdaughter? She said:
"You know I'm not her biological mother, so I can't really help her if something happens. You're her biological father, why don't you go and ask her?"
Mr. Zhao knew his wife had always been very careful in the family, so he didn't scold her. Instead, he went to his eldest daughter's room, knocked on the door, and asked:
"Meilan, tell your father what's wrong, and he'll take care of it for you."
Zhao Meilan knew that her father was a very capable person; otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to maintain this family business under the noses of the Japanese and the Nationalist government.
At the same time, she was also unwilling to accept that Liu Linjuan had a perfect family. She ran back, constantly thinking about how Liu Linjuan had coincidentally returned at that time, and even brought so many people into the ward. The more she thought about it, the more she felt she had fallen into Liu Linjuan's trap. She said:
"I've fallen in love with someone, and I want to marry him."
Mr. Zhao, standing outside the door, was taken aback upon hearing this. He suddenly remembered that his eldest daughter had been intelligent since childhood, graduating from medical school at the age of twenty and starting work at a military hospital. For the past two years, he had introduced her to numerous promising young men, but she had rejected them all. It turned out she already had someone she liked. He quickly asked:
"Daughter, open the door and let Dad in. Tell me properly about the person you like, what kind of person he is. Dad will have someone look into him."
Zhao Meilan was delighted to hear this; in her eyes, her father was very capable. However, considering her swollen face, she didn't want her father to see it, so she didn't open the door. Instead, she spoke from inside the room:
"His name is Li Zilong, he's a regimental commander, and he's thirty-four years old."
Upon hearing his daughter say the man was a regimental commander, Zhao's father automatically disregarded the fact that the man was a decade older than his daughter. He also recalled recent rumors. He wasn't planning to go abroad; partly because he couldn't bear to leave his current business, and partly because he was worried about his wife and children back home. Hearing that the man was a regimental commander, he thought, "If this works out, I'll have a backup plan no matter what happens in the future."
But then she saw her daughter hesitate and ask:
"Tell me everything, anything else."
"He's married and has a daughter," Zhao Meilan subconsciously avoided mentioning Liu Linjuan.
Zhao's father didn't think much of what his daughter said. A thirty-four-year-old man must have a wife and daughters. His daughter hadn't mentioned the man's wife, so she assumed she was a simple, uneducated village woman back in their hometown. He figured every single one of them who joined the army got married in their hometown, had children, and then went on to serve. He simply said:
"This is easy. We'll give her wife back home some money. If you don't want to support someone else's daughter, just leave the child with her biological mother. I'll have someone investigate Li Zilong's background later. If it's possible, bring him back so we can meet him. If it's acceptable, you two can get married. Remember to get a marriage certificate. These days, no matter how many wives a man has, the government only recognizes the marriage certificate. It's legally protected. The one he married in the countryside definitely didn't have a marriage certificate; it's just a piece of paper. The government doesn't recognize that now."
Standing outside, Zhao's mother overheard that Zhao Meilan had fallen for a regimental commander. She thought to herself, "How come all the good things go to this brat?" But then she remembered something was wrong. She'd just seen the girl's face so swollen; could it be from being beaten by the man's wife? Seeing her husband about to go out to find someone, she quickly said:
"Honey, why are you in such a hurry? Meilan hasn't even said where this Commander Li is from, where his hometown is, or which unit he's in. Besides, I just saw that one side of Meilan's face is really swollen. You should ask him what happened. What if you end up not becoming our son-in-law but also offending someone? Didn't you say things haven't been going well lately?"
Upon hearing this, Zhao's father thought about it and agreed, but hadn't had a chance to ask. Inside the room, Zhao Meilan, hearing her stepmother's words, burst through the door and launched into a tirade: "Liu Shuzhen, what do you mean? You just can't stand that I'm better than your daughter! I have an education, I have a job, and the man I love is a regimental commander! You…" She rattled off a long string of words.
Only then did Zhao's father see clearly that one side of his eldest daughter's face was swollen like a bun, and he could hear her cursing.
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