CH 39

Throughout June, Jiang Chen spent all his extracurricular time on the program he was designing and the business he had received in the hacker forum. Time passed slowly, and the Jiang family returned to the warmth and tranquility along with its passing.

Jiang Zhuo’s recovery went very smoothly. It was estimated that it would take at least three months for him to walk alone with a cane, but now it only took less than one and a half months. Judging from the recovery situation, he might even be able to resume normal walking in less than three months.

When Yang Si saw Jiang Zhuo standing up by himself and walking towards her on crutches, she covered her mouth and wept with joy. Jiang Chen stood on the side, hugged her shoulder silently, and then stretched out his other hand to greet his father who came towards them. Jiang Zhuo quickened his pace and hugged his wife and son.

Shi Fengyue stood at the entrance of the rehabilitation training center, silently looking at the family of three huddled together not far away. He stood there for about half a minute, his long eyelashes half drooped, then turned and left.

Jiang Chen caught a glimpse of Shi Fengyue’s passing figure from the corner of his eye, let go of his parents, and said with a smile, “Dad, you and Mom can rest for a while, I’ll go out and buy some drinks.”

“Okay.” Jiang Zhuo smiled brightly, leaned the crutch against the bench, sat down slowly by himself, and winked at Jiang Chen after sitting upright: “Bring me a bottle of ing good.”

Jiang Chen pursed his lips, raised his eyebrows to signal him to look towards the side, and as expected, Yang Si snorted, “Jiang Zhuo, you’ve just recovered and already you’ve begun to act gleeful?”

“I’m just asking my son to buy me a drink!” Jiang Zhuo sat on the sofa alone, but his handsome face was full of grievances: “How am I gleeful?”

Seeing her husband’s pitiful face, Yang Si was annoyed and amused at the same time, and said, “Do you think your son will buy it for you? Did you gorget who found out the last time you smoked secretly? And the last time you drank old Li’s wine it was our son who smelled it on you. Let me tell you, Chen Chen and I are on the same side, don’t think you can influence him.”

Jiang Zhuo looked up with surprised realization: “I just said that your mother was not in the hospital, how did she find out that I was drinking, so it was you who told on me to your mother?”

Jiang Chen smiled innocently and harmlessly. Jiang Zhuo slapped the stool: “You kiddo!”

“You can’t control your mouth and yet you dare to be fierce to my son?” Yang Si cast a disapproving glance at him, thought for a while and said to Jiang Chen, “Buy your father a glass of milk, with just brown sugar. He should replenish his blood after surgery.”

“Honey, it’s been more than a month since I finished the operation.”

“Still.”

Jiang Chen obediently nodded, waved to the two of them and turned to leave.

Jiang Zhuo snorted: “This brat, when he was young, he consciously kept the secret between us men, but when he grew up, he learned to tell on me.”

“What secret?”

Yang Si sat down next to him: “The secret of how it was you who wanted to watch a movie, and said you would take your son to watch cartoons, but you ended up being so fascinated by it that you forgot him at the popcorn place, and caused him to go to the hospital for eating too much. Or is it the secret of how you took him to learn how to ride a bike, but then went fishing by yourself, letting him ride the bike alone and almost falling into the river, changing his clothes before coming back and pretending nothing happened?”

“That was all many years ago, but…..how do you know!”

“Have you forgotten what your son liked to do most when he was a child?”

Jiang Zhuo hesitated: “…..Discuss reason?”

Yang Si nodded: “When your son was young, not only did he like to seriously discuss reason, but he also liked to quote from other sources. Before elementary school, he was best at using his own examples to reason and increase the degree of persuasion.”

Jiang Zhuo: “…..”

Jiang Zhuo changed the subject: “I nearly suffocated staying in the hospital for so long, and now that I can walk on my own with a cane, how about the three of us go to a nearby park for a picnic this weekend, and continue the family ritual once again.”

“You want to drink again, don’t you?”

Jiang Chen’s footsteps faltered, and a few seconds later, he couldn’t help lowering his head and laughing. He walked out of the rehabilitation center amidst the gradually fading conversation.

There was a garden between the rehabilitation center and the inpatient department. If one wanted to get out of the hospital, one needed to go through the garden and a corridor, and go around to the lobby of the outpatient department.

Jiang Chen walked in the garden at a leisurely pace. What he thought might be blurred memories in his mind was actually extremely clear childhood pictures. The family of three going on a trip together, going to an amusement park, visiting a museum, going to the movies, and going on a picnic…..

Since elementary school, almost every weekend, his parents would take him out, even if it was just to go window shopping outside without buying anything, and then to have a meal, they would still persist on going out as a family.

Jiang Zhuo once said: This is a ritual, a ritual for our family of three.

This ritual lasted from when Jiang Chen could remember to his first semester of high school, when it was cut short by a car accident, and since then, it had never continued.

For countless weekends afterwards in the first life, Jiang Chen locked himself in the dormitory or library to study, and then threw himself to work overtime in the company. Later, he transmigrated to the interstellar era, and the dates were no longer counted by the week. But he still stayed up late and working overtime for two days, and because of this, some people regarded this as a peculiar little habit of his.

Now, this weekend ritual, it seemed, could go on again.

Jiang Chen stood in the center of the arch bridge, holding the stone railing with his hands, and looked down at the koi carp wagging their tails in the pond. The sunlight shone on the waves and fish scales, and the waves glittered brightly, as bright as the smile on the corners of his eyes and lips.

Suddenly, a conversation broke the silence in this corner.

“…..the only son of the family, do you know that if you don’t accept this operation, while he might not be able to do anything about you, but I really won’t be able to explain it. Feng Yue, you must also think about Uncle Yang, being a hospital director is not easy to do either.”

“Uncle Yang, I remember we made an agreement from the beginning.”

Jiang Chen recognized Shi Fengyue’s voice almost immediately, it was as deep and indifferent as before, and difficult to distinguish his emotions. But he was a little surprised, the other person seemed to be the hospital director.

“Yes, when you entered the hospital, I promised you that in addition to the regular consultations, the operation arrangement and acceptance of patients is entirely up to you. I have never interfered with you before this, but this is different, his identity is different. The success of the operation on the patient in 506 attracted the attention of several famous professors of orthopedic surgery in Yan City. They are all full of praises for you, and his family also decided on you to be his doctor because of this. Moreover, they have even hired a team to cooperate with you in this operation. Once this operation is successful, not only will you become famous in one fell swoop, but also for the hospital…..”

“No need to say anymore, Uncle Yang, I don’t want to take it.”

“You don’t want to, but I have to take care of this matter, Feng Yue, just for the sake of Uncle Yang who has watched you grow up, promise this time, Uncle Yang will put down my old face and beg you, okay?”

Shi Fengyue said lightly: “I can’t communicate with that family.”

“His family…..” Director Yang was silent for a while, and said, “I’ll help you communicate and definitely let them…..”

Shi Fengyue interrupted him: “Uncle Yang, you know me.”

The wind blew through the leaves, and amidst the rustling wind, a soft sigh sounded, and then the sound of footsteps gradually fading away.

Jiang Chen was sitting on the stone railing, his head turned sideways to meet Shi Fengyue who rounded the corner.

Shi Fengyue’s gaze was mild, and he glanced at him as a greeting, then turned and left in another direction.

Jiang Chen stopped him: “Why did you accept my father’s surgery?”

Shi Fengyue paused, turned his head to look at him, stared at him with calm eyes for a few seconds, then slightly parted his pale lips: “Then why do you trust me?”

Jiang Chen was puzzled, but Shi Fengyue seemed to be suddenly interested. He turned around and walked towards him.

“From the moment you learned my name, you had absolute trust in me. I am curious, where does this trust come from? Because of my name? Or because of my resume? But while my resume looks good, there are many doctors who are better and more experienced than me in China. Moreover, I had just returned to China without any fame or experience in surgery, but you only trusted me to do the surgery.”

Shi Fengyue stopped in front of Jiang Chen, leaned over and stared into his eyes: “Tell me why you trust me.”

Shi Fengyue’s dark orbs gleamed bright, and his thick eyelashes shaded them, leaving a shadow over his eyes, covering the young man reflected in them. Those sharp eyes seem to imprison him in a place where there was nowhere to escape.

Jiang Chen calmly leaned back a little, his eyelids slightly lowered, and after a few seconds, he suddenly raised his eyes and said, “So, that’s why you took on my father’s surgery, and it’s also…..why you don’t accept those people’s surgeries.”

Two pairs of eyes met, and Jiang Chen said with a slight smile: “Dr. Shi, the trust between doctor and patient originally needs to be accumulated through a period of treatment, and most patients who can show absolute trust from the very beginning are desperate and see you as the last life-saving straw. If you ask patients to trust you absolutely when they first see you, then that is a tall order.”

“You didn’t answer my question.” Shi Fengyue straightened up slowly, tilted his head, and looked at the dimple at the corner of his mouth, and smiled suddenly: “But you are very smart.”

Jiang Chen lowered his flickering eyes, and asked with a smile, “Could it be that I’m not right?”

“You are right.” Shi Fengyue took two steps forward, leaning on the stone railing with his hands, looking down at the koi in the pond, with a lazy and tired expression: “Patients who don’t trust me at the beginning often don’t cooperate with follow-up treatment which may also bring on a lot of trouble.”

Jiang Chen tilted his head, stared at Shi Fengyue for a few seconds, and suddenly realized.

“What you want is not trust, you just fear trouble.”

Shi Fengyue didn’t answer, but this already answered for him.

Jiang Chen laughed, and suddenly remembered the rumors about Shi Fengyue that he had heard in his first life. If they knew that Shi Fengyue’s willfulness and ignoring patients in need was not arrogance or perverseness at all, but just a fear of trouble. And once they expressed absolute trust, Shi Fengyue would not refuse, he wondered just how much they would regret it.

He was suddenly curious: “Since you are so afraid of trouble, why do you want to be a doctor?”

Shi Fengyue’s eyelashes seemed to tremble. He stared at the ripples in the pond, then suddenly straightened up and looked down at Jiang Chen: “Since you are so smart, why do you still follow the prescribed order.”

The two looked at each other, and they saw something in each other’s eyes. One smiled and the other raised an eyebrow, and then looked away tacitly.

Jiang Chen glanced at his watch and said with a smile, “My parents are still waiting for their drinks, so I won’t waste the doctor’s time, I’ll be going first.”

Shi Fengyue nodded, and a second before Jiang Chen was about to walk out of sight, he said casually, “Good luck on the final exam.”

Jiang Chen paused, looked back and smiled, “Thank you.”