Five Years of Studying Medicine, Three Years of Flirting With Guys - Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Tang Linsheng felt a bit uneasy in his heart, walking toward the subway station with a face full of anxiety and internal struggle. He habitually licked the tubercle of his upper lip and swiped his transit card to enter the station. Just as he entered the subway station, his phone vibrated; he hurriedly opened it to look, only to find it was a message from Liu Junxian, saying she hoped to switch groups with him tomorrow because she didn’t want to go to Teacher Kong’s side, as Teacher Kong was too fierce.

The message he had been anticipating did not come, and a piece of Tang Linsheng’s heart felt empty. He didn’t particularly mind Teacher Kong; after all, when patients are sick and hospitalized, their moods are naturally quite bad. He replied to Liu Junxian’s message and then focused on walking down the stairs. While going down the stairs, the phone in his hand vibrated again; thinking it was likely Liu Junxian’s reply, he didn’t check it immediately.

He didn’t expect that by the time he got on the subway, he would discover it was actually a message from Tang Linsheng!

The Senior had accepted his friend request!

Accepted!

[Hello Senior, I am the person who ran into you in the locker room today…]

Tang Linsheng typed a few words, took a look, and immediately deleted them. Would saying they met in the locker room be too awkward? He thought for a moment and typed a few more words: “Hello Professor Tang, I am Tang Linsheng, a standardized residency trainee in Eight-West.”

He looked over these eighteen characters (including punctuation) once more, and his face, which still had some baby fat, wrinkled up. Would saying it this way be too distant?

He agonized back and forth, but in the end, he still sent those eighteen characters over.

Next was the process of anxious waiting. Professor Tang did not reply instantly, and every second a new thought popped into Tang Linsheng’s head: Does the Senior not want to chat with me? Is the Senior still on his way home? Did the Senior see my message? Will I be too bothersome like this?…

Fortunately, he didn’t wait long before receiving a reply from Tang Linsheng.

Tang Linsheng: “Mhm.”

Tang Linsheng scrolled up the chat interface several times, still in disbelief. That was it?! Doesn’t the Senior know that “Mhm” is a conversation killer?!!

His heart felt like it was being scratched and clawed for a long time before he sent another sentence: “See you tomorrow, Professor Tang.”

This time the reply was fast, but when Tang Linsheng saw that response, he almost wanted to jump up and down in the subway. He might as well just let his head and feet crash and break! It appeared the Senior not only didn’t know “Mhm” was a conversation killer, but he also didn’t know “Oh” was one too.

Looking at a single “Oh” in black text on a white background, he was so exhausted he could hardly stand. He leaned his body against a nearby railing, pressing his cheek with its bit of baby fat against the ice-cold pole; he no longer cared whether it was clean or not, he only knew that the fire raging in his heart had been completely extinguished by these “two buckets of cold water.”

…

Tang Linsheng was participating in the Cardiology quarterly meeting when he felt his phone vibrate. The last person sharing on the podium was passionately summarizing the key points of his speech; seeing that it was repetitive content, Tang Linsheng drifted and opened his phone.

With this look, it was that little kid he ran into in the locker room this morning adding his WeChat. The source showed he added him through the department group; he took a look, and the department group he had muted at noon had already occupied the first row of recent chats. Seeing that the group showed nearly 60 messages on the left, he first accepted the little kid’s friend request, then went back and skimmed through the chat history and files at a glance.

Just as he finished reading the files, his phone vibrated. He was excited to look and saw it was a greeting message from that little kid. He had just sent an “Mhm” and, out of politeness, was preparing to send his own name as well when the expert’s speech on stage ended, followed by thunderous applause. He put down his phone and clapped along.

By the time he looked again, he found the little kid had sent him another message. He had just sent an “Oh” and was thinking of replying “See you tomorrow” when he heard Director Wei next to him calling him over. With one thing after another, by the time Tang Linsheng remembered again, it was already bedtime; thinking it was too late and he shouldn’t disturb others, he put his phone down and went to sleep.

…

Tang Linsheng returned to his family’s small restaurant with a deflated, fair-skinned face. Tang’s father, Tang Hua, ran a Hunan restaurant, and Tang’s mother worked inside as a helper; the couple lived a life keeping a small restaurant that was plain but quite peaceful. The small restaurant wasn’t large, but the customer flow was significant; the taste of the Tang Family Hunan Restaurant was authentic, and Papa Tang often liked to develop new dishes, so they kept old customers and attracted new ones.

Mama Tang was on the thinner side and not very tall, wearing simple clothes and an apron. She was standing by a table settling a bill when she saw her son come in with a deflated, fair-skinned face; even his greeting to her wasn’t as passionate as before.

After settling the bill, she hurried to the counter, put the money in the drawer, and pinched the little meat pads on her son’s cheeks with a wet wipe, saying, “What’s wrong, Linlin? Are you used to the new department today?”

Tang Linsheng quickly reached out to rescue his face and puffed out his cheeks to restore the flattened flesh. Seeing this, Mama Tang let out a pfft and laughed. Her son already had a face that looked young; every time she pinched him, he would make this movement, looking exactly like a cute hamster hoarding food.

Mama Tang’s heart softened into a ball, and she poured him a glass of water. “What do you want for dinner? Your dad developed a new dish; supposedly it tastes great as a topping on noodles. Although there are no pickled peppers, it has the sour and spicy taste of pickled peppers. Tsk tsk tsk, I was salivating just from the smell this morning!” Saying this, Mama Tang pretended to suck in her saliva: “Even your favorite pickled pepper chicken feet are ready!”

“Gurgle—” Tang Linsheng’s face, which had been pinched a bit red, now burned completely. He absolutely would not admit that this was the Nth time he had been made hungry by his mom.

The food at the hospital cafeteria at noon must have been too unpalatable, leaving him unable to eat his fill!

Mama Tang understood in her heart and laughed softly. Tang Linsheng gave his mom an embarrassed look and said, “Mom, can I eat first?”

“Of course you can!” She shouted toward the inner kitchen, “Ah Hua, your son wants to eat!” As she spoke, she took out two small croissants from the side and handed them to Tang Linsheng; a milky aroma wafted toward Tang Linsheng’s face. “Linlin, eat a piece of bread first to pad your stomach.” Just then someone called to settle a bill, and she took the check and prepared to go over.

Tang Linsheng looked at his phone while eating the bread; by the time he finished the two croissants and a carton of yogurt, no message had arrived from the Senior on WeChat. He sighed, stood up, and went to help his father serve dishes.

By the time the shop wasn’t very busy, it was already past 8:00 PM. Tang Linsheng had already eaten a large bowl of noodles; though he wasn’t hungry, he still sat at the table to accompany his parents for dinner. Papa Tang wasn’t tall and was a bit chubby. He always stubbornly insisted that because he was a chef and had to taste dishes, it led to his middle-aged weight gain, rather than a lack of exercise. He shoveled the work every day. How could his arms not have thinned down! Fortunately, staying in the kitchen for years away from the sun, his skin was very white; after all, being a white-fat person was better than being a black-fat person.

Tang Linsheng used his chopsticks to pick up a strand of noodle from Papa Tang’s bowl to taste it, and heard Papa Tang say with a smile: “What, son, you’re not full yet? Dad will cook another portion for you?”

Tang Linsheng patted his solid little stomach and said, “It was a huge basin of noodles; how could I not be full. I’m just tasting if your bowl of noodles is too salty!” Saying this, his expression turned serious: “You have a history of high blood pressure, and it’s only been controlled passably lately. But Dad, you must pay attention to what you eat; it can’t be too salty! And you are relatively fat; Dad, find some time to go to the hospital with me to check your blood lipids, cardiovascular system…”

Seeing his son start nagging about his health again, Papa Tang quickly cut him off: “Son, son! Dad’s health is just fine!” He ate his noodles and said, “You came back in a bad mood today?”

Having the topic forcibly changed by Papa Tang, Tang Linsheng figured he should just let his dad eat in peace and didn’t continue nagging about his health; hearing Papa Tang’s question, he only gave a low “Mhm.”

Papa Tang and Mama Tang glanced at each other. He swallowed the noodles in his mouth and asked cautiously: “Didn’t succeed in chasing someone?”

“Pfft—” Tang Linsheng was drinking water; hearing Papa Tang say this, he was so startled he almost sprayed the water across the table. He quickly spat the water in his mouth into the trash can, coughing while saying: “Cough, cough, Dad, cough, how did you know?”

Seeing him cough until his face was flushed red, Mama Tang gave Papa Tang a glaring reproach and patted her son’s back, saying, “Is it someone from the same department?”

“Cough! Cough! Cough cough!”

To her surprise, Tang Linsheng coughed even harder. Papa Tang was there gloating—look at you, you were just scolding me, and you’re the one who made our son cough! Though thinking this, Papa Tang took a tissue from the table and handed it to his son for him to wipe away the tears brought on by coughing.

Tang Linsheng sat up straight, took a few deep breaths, and said to both parents: “You guessed right!” Just as Papa Tang was about to speak, he added: “But the person doesn’t like your son; I have the heart but not the strength, I don’t even have a place to start chasing!”

Mama Tang heard this and was amused: “What, you’ve chased them before?”

Tang Linsheng thought about his anonymous way of chasing back in university; he nodded and then shook his head.

“Have you chased them or not?” Papa Tang said. “Son, you’re already 23 and haven’t had a single partner! Marriage is too early; your parents aren’t in a hurry. But you should at least have one romance; as men, we must be responsible for our own feelings!”

Re… responsible? He hadn’t done anything to the Senior! Wait… does seeing the Senior’s naked body this morning count??

Seeing his son’s confused face, Papa Tang persevered: “You’ve developed feelings for the person, right? You have to go and try to chase them; only after you’ve tried will you know if you can catch them! Even if you can’t, it doesn’t matter; at the very least, you’ve gained some experience in chasing people, so when you chase someone else in the future, your win rate will be a bit higher!”

Mama Tang took over the relay and continued: “That’s right, son. You’re grown now; Mom is 100% in favor of you having a romance!” Saying this, she put down her chopsticks and raised both hands. “However, girls nowadays are very delicate; if that girl is too delicate or too demanding/fussy, then don’t chase her. Mom doesn’t approve!”

“If he catches her, she’ll become well-behaved in front of Linlin; little girls, it’s fine if they are a bit flirtatious/whiny.” Papa Tang always held a tolerant heart toward women; hearing Mama Tang say this, he couldn’t help but add this sentence. But as soon as he finished speaking, one look at his wife’s face and he knew it was wrong! Sure enough, in the next second, Mama Tang began to argue with him: “How can a girl be too fussy?! Isn’t it sickening to listen to someone being too whiny?!…”

Tang Linsheng listened to his parents’ earlier words and felt they made quite a bit of sense, causing his heart, which had sunk to the bottom, to start stirring. He was just about to say he had decided to go after the person when he felt that the more he listened to the later part, the more it felt off.

What do they mean “girls nowadays”?!

Whether a girl is delicate or fussy has nothing to do with him…

The one he wants to chase isn’t a girl!