Five Years of Studying Medicine, Three Years of Flirting With Guys - Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Liu Junxian, who had been listening intently to Tang Linsheng’s storytelling, was so startled by the sudden, out-of-the-blue voice that she screamed at the top of her lungs.

Tang Linsheng wasn’t scared by the voice, but he was startled by her scream, giving a violent shudder. He watched, dumbfounded, as Nurse Fang quickly covered Liu Junxian’s mouth with her hand right through her mask.

Nurse Fang straightened halfway up and glanced toward the wards, terrified that the scream would wake the patients. “What are you shouting for! It’s the old lady from Bed 3.”

As soon as Tang Linsheng saw the old lady, he remembered her—she was the elderly patient with Alzheimer’s he had admitted earlier.

With lingering fear, Liu Junxian muttered under her breath, “Who told him to set the atmosphere so well? His tone was all airy and serious…”

Tang Linsheng regained his composure. Thinking of how his own body had just trembled from the fright, he quietly shifted his position. Mm… they didn’t see my movement just now, definitely not.

“Why aren’t you dead yet?” Seeing that no one had replied, the old lady stood leaning against the nurse’s station and asked again with total earnestness.

Tang Linsheng and Liu Junxian looked at each other. What is going on here…

Nurse Fang was the first to react. She hurried out to support the old lady, trying to lead her back to the ward. “Auntie from Bed 3, let’s go back and sleep, okay?”

“What sleep?!” Upon hearing this, the old lady became even more energetic. “I’m going to buy groceries! What are you doing here?! Don’t block me!”

Receiving a look from Nurse Fang, Tang Linsheng immediately ran out from the station to help persuade the old lady. Although the old lady was thin and small, her grip on the nurse’s station was quite strong. Neither of them dared to pull her forcefully, especially since the family was around.

Thinking of the family, Nurse Fang quickly told Liu Junxian to run to Room 1 and call the family member who was staying over. To their surprise, before the family member could emerge, two patients from the same room came running out first.

Two middle-aged women, clutching their chests and wearing miserable expressions, began to pour out their grievances.

“Oh my, this old lady is just too energetic at night. She’s making so much noise I can’t sleep! Can you please move her to another room!”

“Exactly! I wanted to get some rest! I have to get a cardiac ultrasound tomorrow! Now my heart is pouring out so fast! How am I supposed to do it!”

“Think about it we’re sleeping perfectly fine at night, and she keeps waking us up. As soon as you open your eyes, you hear someone asking if you’re dead yet. Isn’t that enough to scare someone to death?!”

“Yeah, yeah! We’re here for our hearts, not for our heads!”

On one side, the two women were talking non-stop, one sentence after another; on the other side, the old lady from Bed 3 was insisting on entering the nurse’s station to buy groceries, even trying to climb over the counter.

The scene was once extraordinarily chaotic, like a chicken-and-dog chase.

Fortunately, the old lady’s family member rushed out in time. A grown man, his hair sticking up every which way, wearing a coat tossed on haphazardly, ignored his appearance entirely as he ran out to take over his elderly mother.

He repeatedly nodded and apologized to everyone: “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I’m truly embarrassed, I didn’t notice either!”

Although Nurse Fang was somewhat displeased by the commotion, she showed understanding toward the family member; after all, he couldn’t help it either. “Alright, everyone go back first, okay? I’ll call the doctor.”

The family member replied “Ai! Ai!” repeatedly and took his mother back. He suddenly thought of something, turned his head, and said, “Nurse, please have the doctor prescribe some sleeping pills!” He wore a difficult expression. “You see, it’s not good for my mom to keep disturbing others like this.”

“Okay, you go back first. I’ll call the doctor over to take a look.”

Nurse Fang called the junior doctor on duty over the phone to check on the patient. As she followed them to the ward, she turned to Tang Linsheng and Liu Junxian and said, “Don’t say the night shift is easy. See? Now we’re busy.”

Tang Linsheng: “…”

He was wrong. He would never dare again. In the future, he will definitely watch his words during the night shift the classic “instant karma” coward’s three-step retreat.

Just then, the emergency department called, saying an arrhythmia patient was being transferred to Cardiology and asking a nurse to come pick them up. Tang Linsheng and Liu Junxian set off for the ER.

While in the elevator, Liu Junxian bumped Tang Linsheng with her shoulder.

Tang Linsheng: “Hmm?”

Looking like she both wanted to know and didn’t, Liu Junxian asked with a mix of tension and anticipation: “What happened next in that story?”

“…This story tells us,” Tang Linsheng acted profoundly, as if he were stroking a long white beard, “the ultimate lesson of this story is that life is filled with physics knowledge everywhere, and we must have eyes that are good at making discoveries!”

Liu Junxian: “…EXM???”

She widened her eyes and asked again: “That’s it???”

Tang Linsheng spread his hands: “That’s it! What else did you think? As successors of socialism, we must be proactive and master”

“Holy crap!” Liu Junxian couldn’t hold it back and blurted out a curse. Just as the elevator doors opened, a doctor was standing there. His white coat was unbuttoned, revealing fashionable clothes underneath. He was looking down at his phone; startled by a woman suddenly shouting “Holy crap!”, he almost dropped his phone on the floor.

“The lady has quite a personality,” he remarked with a tease as he walked into the elevator.

Tang Linsheng: “…”

Liu Junxian: “…”

Refusing to let it go, Liu Junxian stood behind the doctor and whispered her follow-up: “Then explain to me why only the sister’s face was in the mirror and not the brother’s!”

Tang Linsheng: “The mirror part is just because of mirror imaging. Because the sister was older, ate more, and grew taller! This also tells us that as good children, we must eat properly to grow tall.” He gestured toward the nearly ten-centimeter height difference between them. “Nonsensically making up a story even when the logic isn’t straight.”

“…Shut up! Don’t rely on your face to act cute! Acting cute with your words is shameful!” Liu Junxian was practically coughing up blood… she had actually been scared by this stupid story Tang Linsheng made up!

The elevator announced the first floor. As the doctor in front walked out, still looking down at his phone, he said airily: “I’m freezing to death.”

Tang Linsheng was left in a daze. Looking at Liu Junxian, he saw she was just as confused as he was. It was only September… How could it be cold? It wasn’t until they arrived at the ER that Liu Junxian suddenly went “Oh!” and said, “That guy was saying your explanation was too cold (a ‘cold’ joke)! Hahahaha, thinking about it that way, the story you told is really cold!”

“Has Bashi arrived? Bashi?” Tang Linsheng was about to argue back when he heard someone in Internal Emergency call out. He had no choice but to “slap” Liu Junxian twice through the air and run over to receive the patient.

After finishing the patient handover with the ER and pushing the bed toward the elevator with the security guard, they saw the doctor from earlier coming out of Emergency Surgery. He was holding a stack of test results, walking toward the elevator while looking down. The security guard, having worked at the hospital for several years, recognized him. When he saw him, he greeted: “Hello, Dr. Chen. On night duty today?”

That “Dr. Chen” finally pulled his gaze away from his phone. He looked up, smiling like a sunny boy: “Bingo! You got it.” After that, he went back to playing on his phone.

===

After the two groups parted ways, Dr. Chen tossed the test results onto his desk and ran to the duty room to sleep. But he was just lying down when his phone rang. When he saw the caller ID, he was delighted. Not at all angry that his game had been interrupted, he picked up and said, “My brother! Calling me in the middle of the night because you miss me? You’ve been back in the country so long and only just thought of me!”

“…Come to Bashi (Cardiology Ward 8) for a consultation.”

“Not coming. It’s the middle of the night and I want to sleep. Can’t you solve it yourself?” Dr. Chen crossed his legs on the bed and said, “You haven’t even treated me to dinner since you came back!”

There was a long silence on the other end of the line, so long he almost thought the call had disconnected.

“Chen Tianyu,” the other party’s tone was dead serious. “I brought a bento. It’s my treat.”

“Deal!” He jumped up from the bed, grabbed his white coat from the bedside, and threw it on. “I’m coming!”