CH 3.3

Xiong Jianming personally drove him to the venue. It was a five-star hotel. The hospital rented a luxurious banquet hall and held a grand banquet. Celebrities from all walks of life were invited to attend the event. 

Of course, most of the guests came in for the name of the chairman and the dean of the hospital, but as Xiong Jianming was a leading figure in the field of cardiovascular surgery in Taiwan, there were many who admired him for his reputation, and Dai Xingren was naturally noticed as he followed him around.

He tried to smile at each of the important personalities introduced by his teacher, but anyone with a discerning eye could see that he was not good at smiling and was extremely uncomfortable in this kind of social occasion. 

“You’d better stop smiling, it’s more ugly than crying.” A handsome young man approached him and pushed the glasses on the bridge of his nose deliriously.

“Who are you?” Dai Xingren frowned slightly.

“Have you forgotten? I am Qiao Xuan.”

Qiao Xuan? He scanned his memory bank.

“I am an assistant to the legislator who has troubled you.” Qiao Xuan reminded him kindly.

“Jwv bl kp dso vbl hknl ralpkeldv.”

“Rv’p usw.” Pyk Dkdtald qkdyzzu alxlxclale, yde bkp lulp easrrle. “Fs, vbl Aknl Valpkeldv kp blal vseyu yp olzz?”

“Tl’zz cl blal kd y xkdwvl.” Ckys Dwyd zssjle yv bkx. “Nssjkdt yv uswa lmralppksd, kv pllxp vbyv usw esd’v oydv vs pll bkx hlau xwnb?”

“R vbkdj kv’p bkx obs eslpd’v oydv vs pll xl.” Tl pdsavle nszezu.

Ckys Dwyd pxkzle. “Zsw pvkzz esd’v jdso bso vs clbyhl. Psd’v usw altalv obyv byrrldle vbyv eyu?”

“R xyel vbl aktbv nyzz vbyv eyu.” Tl pvalpple.

“Ls sdl kp pyukdt usw olal dsv aktbv. Gp y esnvsa, usw olal iwkvl aktbv, cwv kq usw oydv vs xkm kd vbkp psnklvu, usw psxlvkxlp byhl vs tkhl kd vs psxl bwxyd psrbkpvknyvksd.”

Mbyv’p obu bl alzwnvydvzu nyxl vs vbkp nsnjvykz ryavu vseyu. Pyk Dkdtald pvyale kdvs Ckys Dwyd’p lulp yde pvyule pkzldv qsa y obkzl.

“I really like you.” Qiao Xuan smiled and stretched out his hand to pat him on the shoulder. 

Here we go again. Dai Xingren held back his soft snort. Usually, after talking to him, most people would like to retreat. This guy was really strange. 

Just like her…

Dai Xingren suddenly breathed a sigh of relief, and abruptly drove away the bright smile that suddenly appeared in his mind. He thought he had got rid of it, but in the next second, he was shocked to find that the owner of the smile actually appeared in front of his eyes. Was he crazy? How could he be under the illusion that he saw her? She shouldn’t be here―

But she was indeed there, wearing a noble white evening dress with her hairs curled up in a bun giving the full view of her beautifully curved neck which attracted the hungry eyes of the men present in the banquet. A string of delicate colored treasure necklace dangling on her chest, setting her temperament more elegant and outstanding.

It was really her! How could it be her?

Dai Xingren suddenly couldn’t breathe. She turned her face with a smile, and seemed to see him too. The smile froze on her lips for a while before a man stretched out his hand and jokingly tugged her hair at her temple. She averted her eyes from him and smiled at the man.

He glared at the man she was talking to in what appeared to be an intimate manner. There was a burning thirst in his throat, a dull pain in his chest. The man was handsome, very outstanding with a straight back and his black suit fitted him impeccably. At one glance, he knew it was hand cut by a famous master.

There was a stark and harmonious contrast between the pair of black and white, and yet he felt his eyes sting.

“What’s up? Do you have your eye on a girl?” Xiong Jianming, who had managed to get away from a group of gentlemen and noblewomen, leaned close to his pupil’s ear and asked in a low voice.

Dai Xingren turned a deaf ear, staring straight at the beautiful woman in the distance with burning eyes. 

“No way, right?” Xiong Jianming drew in a shocked breath as he followed the focus of his gaze, “She is Mo Chuan Ya!”

“The professor knows her?” He turned his head abruptly.

“Of course I do, how could I not?” Xiong Jianming scratched his head with a bewildered expression. “Why do you have to like her over everyone else?”

“Can’t I like her?” he asked in return.

“You’re not serious, are you?” Xiong Jianming was horrified.

“So what if I’m serious?” He insisted on knowing the answer.

“You! You brat!” Xiong sent a polite fake smile to the suspicious Qiao Xuan, then pulled his uneducated pupil into a corner and advised him bitterly. “Yes, I do hope you can marry some rich girl. It will definitely help you in your future, but she – no way! Do you know who she is? She is not something you can climb up to!” 

The words of his mentor were like a death knell, ringing in Dai Xingren’s ears. He didn’t see why he should mind, he didn’t want to get involved with her in the first place, did he?

“How hard is she …… to reach?” He asked in a bitter voice.

“She is Mo Chuan Ya.” Xiong Jianming sighed.” Our hospital is invested in by the Mo family, and the hospital is named in honor of her grandfather. The current chairman, Mo Li Yi, is her mother. The Mo family is a long established and powerful family in Taiwan, with a strange tradition that they have been headed by a woman for two generations in a row, and I think the next heir should be Mo Chuan Ya. The daughters of the Mo family are not allowed to be married off, they can only carry on the tradition and marry a man who would become the member of their family after marriage. And as old families like that are very family oriented, they can’t accept a son-in-law of unknown origin, you know your father!”

“Don’t say it.” Dai Shengren’s cold voice stopped his mentor from bringing up the past that had hurt him. His bitter eyes were like the sky before a storm, obscure.

“Xingren, ah, I didn’t mean to expose your scars, I just…” Xiong Jianming rubbed his hands in annoyance.

“I understand what the professor means.” He whispered, with a flat expression like a robot without emotions.

“But Professor, I believe that all people should be equal in this world. There is no question of who is above who. Whether rich or poor, no matter where they come from or who they are, they all have to face the same life and death situations, don’t they?”

Xiong Jianming was speechless.

“He’s the rookie doctor you told me about? Noticing that his sister’s eyes kept lingering on a certain young man, Mo Chuan Sen couldn’t help but be curious and gently tweaked his chin and decided to ask it.

“He is not a rookie!” Mo Chuan Ya intuitively defended Dai Xingren. “He is only an R2, but he has already got a lot of experience in the field, and he is very much appreciated.”

“Good to know, he is great.” Mo Chuan Sen rolled his eyes. His casual remark had provoked a stern protest from his sister, which shows that she has long been in love with that man.

“Are you laughing at me, brother?” Mo Chuan Ya sensitively picked up on the meaning in her brother’s words. “I’m not?” Mo Chuan Sen spread his hands in a pose of injustice. His eyes sparkled with interest, “Aren’t you going to say hello to him?”

“No need.”

“why?”

“I just don’t want to!” Mo Chuan Ya puffed up her cheeks and looked at him, blaming him for making things difficult for her even when he knew she was in a difficult situation. “He doesn’t want to see me anyway.”

“How do you know he doesn’t want to?” Mo Chuan Sen teased his sister. “Maybe he’s regretting not being nicer to you before?”

“He wouldn’t.”

“That’s because he didn’t know you were a Miss Mo from the Mo family before, but now he does.”

“He’s not the kind of person who wants to climb the ladder of power.” Mo Chuan Ya hated the cool tone of her brother’s voice.

“You mustn’t belittle him like that.”

“Angry?” Mo Chuan Sen raised his eyebrows obliquely. She didn’t say anything. 

“Come on, don’t be mad, I’m just kidding.” Mo Chuan Sen said, lowering his stance to coax his sister. “You know I’m just a little bit cautious. I don’t like every guy who tries to chase you.”

“He’s not trying to chase me.” Mo Chuanya pouted, not stealing her demeanour. 

“That makes me even more angry, why doesn’t he want to chase after my sister? My sister is so well endowed, lovely and generous, what is his complaint?”

“Brother, you!” Mo Chuan Ya glared at her brother, angry and amused, but after a couple of seconds, a sweetness melted in her chest, slightly dissolving the bitterness that was swirling around, “You still love me the most.”

“Of course I love you.” Mo Chuan Sen smiled and took his sister in his arms, looking down into her eyes with a glowing expression.  “Didn’t I tell you? I like you the most in the whole Mo family. If it weren’t for you in Taiwan, I might have stayed in the United States and would not come back.”

“You have the nerve to say that.” Mo Chuan Ya looked at him askance. “Grandma and Mum are furious with you, saying you’re always in America and don’t know what you’re doing. When they heard you bought a decommissioned fighter jet a while ago, they went crazy.”

“To be honest, I didn’t buy it personally. I bought it together with my other three friends.” Mo Chuan Sen explained lazily.

“It doesn’t matter how many people you bought it with, but now you’ve made a name for yourself in Taiwan as number one prodigal sons. People fly small planes at best, but you play with fighter planes, that’s too much, isn’t it?”

Faced with his sister’s accusation, Mo Chuan Sen just laughed aloud, unconcerned.

“You’re still laughing?” Mo Chuan Ya could not help him. “You’re a naughty boy, just because your grandmother loves you.”

Mo Chuan Sen shrugged and was about to say something when there was a sudden noise, as if someone was arguing, and the two siblings turned their heads together to see what was going on.

The main protagonist of the flea-fighting turned out to be the newly appointed Vice-President of the National Assembly, and the one who had no choice but to play along with him was Dai Shengren, who had offended him once.

“Why are you here too? How dare a small resident physician like you come to this kind of place?” The Vice-President seemed to have had too much to drink as he went so far as to not put up a front in public and undermined people in a very rude manner, “I mean, Professor Xiong, is this your student? How do you teach your students?”

Seeing that his mentor was being swept in this storm, Dai Xingren took the initiative to step forward, “I am the one who offended you, please just scold me directly.”

He straightened his back and remained solitary and refused to bend his waist in the face of super heavyweight political figures.

“What are you talking about?” The Vice-President was so angry with him that he blew a gasket, “Do you mean I’m using your teacher as a punching bag? Do you think I’m talking about that day now?”

Was he not? The corners of Dai Xingren’s mouth turned up mockingly. The vice president became even more furious.

“Good boy! I knew I shouldn’t have let you go that day easily, but you’ve brought yourself to me today, so it’s your bad luck!” With that a glass of champagne was splashed all over Dai Xingren’s face and the crowd erupted, not out of sympathy, but simply to watch the show.

When Xiong Jianming saw his beloved pupil being insulted, although he was furious, he could only smile in order to calm down the situation, “Vice President, don’t be angry. It’s this kid who doesn’t know how to be polite. I’ll apologise for him and let’s put this matter behind us, shall we?”

“Who asked you to apologize? What’s the point of apologizing? If you want to apologise personally then make the boy himself apologize to me! If he gets down on his knees and begs me, I’ll let him go for your sake.” The Vice President made an unreasonable offer.

“Well ……” Xiong Jianming cried out in disgust. It was hard enough just to ask him, a tough student, to apologize, let alone having to get down on his knees, which was simply too much to ask.

“This person is really outrageous!” Mo Chuan Ya became more and more irritated and was about to take a sudden step.

“What are you doing?” Mo Chuan Sen stopped her.

“Brother, don’t stop me, don’t you think that old man is too arrogant? It’s our hospital’s memorial reception and he’s deliberately making a scene!”

“He’s being outrageous.” Mo Chuan Sen agreed. “But it isn’t smart of you to go over there like that.”

“Me!” Mo Chuan Ya was dumbfounded. Her brother was right. She shouldn’t make the situation worse by being impulsive. She took a deep breath, thought for a moment, then summoned the waiter and gave her instructions to ask the chamber orchestra on stage to play a waltz. Mo Chuan Sen nodded approvingly at her and she smiled lightly as she approached Dai Xingren in the lightest and most

graceful gesture and extended her hand towards him—

“Will you dance with me?”