“You have no fate with each other, I don’t think you understand this.”
On Saturday afternoon, Xiao Qiong, who had returned from a trip to Yunnan, invited Zheng Dingding, who just had surgery, to drink afternoon tea at the old place, a place in the lobby of a hotel on Lakeside Road.
Zheng Dingding called a taxi 20 minutes ahead. Once arriving at the destination, however, she received a call from Xiao Qiong, who said her dog had acute diarrhea, that she was dealing with it now and would arrive around half an hour late. Zheng Dingding expressed her understanding, telling her to take her time and that she’ll wait for her.
Zheng Dingding ordered a pot of Ceylon tea and a brown sugar banana scone. She leisurely took out a lifestyle magazine from her bag, flipping over it page by page. She took her time reading the words, carefully reading even the advertisement on the bottom right of the page word by word. Time passed slowly like this.
Suddenly, she heard two knocks.
Zheng Dingding raised her eyes, seeing a good-looking hand gently propped up on the marble tabletop, the index finger curled at the joint.
“Huh?” She lifted her face, what entered her view was a familiar – to be precise, a recently very familiar – face: Ning Weijin.
Ning Weijin was dressed in a very formal, Western style G&H suit. It was dark grey, neatly ironed and showed off his wide shoulders and narrow waist, accenting his elegant and powerful build.
“Professor Ning?” Zheng Dingding was surprised.
Ning Weijin analyzed her with a very relaxed expression, slowly saying, “It really is you.”
“Ah?” Zheng Dingding couldn’t think properly.
Ning Weijin was just about to sit down opposite her when from not too far away came a sweet female voice, “Professor Ning?” Zheng Dingding turned around, her gaze falling on the girl along with Ning Weijin. She suddenly understood the situation. Turns out Professor Ning had mistaken her for his blind date.
The girl in the red sweater stood up and waved to Ning Weijin, smiling a little shyly, “Over here.”
“I’m sorry, I’ve got the wrong person.” Ning Weijin walked over to his real date with his long legs.
Zheng Dingding bowed her head to her own red knitted sweater-covered body and thought to herself, had she known, she would have worn the purple sweater to save herself from such a misunderstanding.
She picked up her cup and sipped her tea, thinking, Professor Ning's goes out on dates very frequently, he must not have much luck in dating.
She still remembered what the interns had said, he hated girls who wore makeup, girls who wore high heels, girls who were fake, girls who ate scallion roasted pork, girls who watched idol dramas… Come to think about it, she’s not even qualified as she occasionally follows up on her idol dramas.
Wait, what does this have to do with her?
She shook her head decisively, put down her cup, and went on reading the magazine.
Xiao Qiong appeared forty minutes later, taking deep breaths as she sat down, and slowly exhaled, “I miss the air and water in Yunnan, I don’t think I can adapt to living here again. Darling, you understand once you go there how bad the air here is.”
Zheng Dingding held the pot and poured her a cup of tea, “If you have the resources, stay there. Leave this secular world.”
Xiao Qiong rubbed her nose, “The old town over there is really good, but there’s no Starbucks or Haagen-Dazs, I couldn’t really get used to that.”
“Chill, I get you. The secular world is where you belong.” Zheng Dingding pushed the cup in front of her, “those utopic places are only good for staying for a month. Stay there forever and you’ll kill yourself of boredom.”
The two people chatted like this, naturally and aimlessly. Of course, they unfortunately failed to avoid the topic of “Chen Xun”.
“Tell me, did Chen Xun contact you?” Xiao Qiong asked.
Zheng Dingding shook her head.
“Not even a phone call?”
“No.”
“Then he’s too irresponsible.” Xiao Qiong furrowed her brows, “In any case, he should give you an explanation. How can you not say a word and leave like this? Did he find another woman? Did he not consider you his girlfriend at all?”
Zheng Dingding’s eyes darkened and after a moment she said, “But I wasn’t his girlfriend anyway.”
Xiao Qiong’s eyebrows raised, “Why would you put yourself in such a low position, always being so humble?”
Zheng Dingding gently swirled her teaspoon in her cup.
“I really thought you guys would get together this time and your wish would be fulfilled. Who knew it would turn out like this.” Xiao Qiong gathered her composure, “Dearie, I’m going to be frank with you, this time, if he comes back to find you again, you really have to think things through and seriously consider whether you can accept him. He won’t be loyal to you and you won’t be the one in his life. You have to constantly face the potential threat of another woman and that will be exhausting. Sure, I admit he’s handsome and charming, but what use is that when he’s not completely yours?”
Zheng DingDing continued to be silent.
“Also, you said you’ve known him since your first year of high school. You’re almost 25 years old now, it’s been nearly ten years! If it was supposed to happen, it would’ve happened long ago.” Xiao Qiong pressed, “You have no fate with each other, I don’t think you understand this.”
Zheng Dingding admitted, “I know all this, I’ve just never met a better person than him. I also don’t know what’s wrong with me. After he entered my life, no one else could move me.”
“I can’t relate to this, I’ve never loved anyone, I don’t know what possessed you.”
Xiao Qiong finished talking. Both sides remained silent.
Xiao Qiong stirred her coffee with a silver spoon, seeing from her peripheral vision a male and female couple not too far away. The girl who was wearing a red sweater stood up, staring at her male companion in shock, her entire face red, shouting, “You’ve crossed the line!” Done speaking, red-sweater-girl picked up her bag and averted her face. She left the man, walking towards the exit with her head held high. The man had no intentions to chase the girl and instead sat in his seat playing on his phone with his head down.
Xiao Qiong felt it was quite interesting and sneered. Zheng Dingding snapped back into the present and moved her gaze to see Professor Ning’s blind date walk away. Professor Ning was calm as ever, taking his time to do his own thing.
“Honey, look at that handsome guy across from you. His legs, tsk tsk, so seductive.” Xiao Qiong said, “Elegant, slender, well-contoured, powerful.”
The object of discussion Professor Ning felt that someone was looking at him and looked up, his gaze colliding with Zheng Dingding.
Zheng Dingding was someone embarrassed under his gaze, turning her head to say to Xiao Qiong, “Uhm, that’s actually the male doctor who operated on me.”
“No way, what a coincidence? He operated on you? Then he’s seen you?”
“Isn’t this normal? Everyone who’s lying on the operating table has to be naked in some way.”
“After the surgery, don't you feel embarrassed to come face to face with him again?”
“It’s okay, I guess. I’m not going to see him again once I go for the next checkup anyway.”
“Anyway, honey, he’s still looking at you.”
Zheng Dingding quietly looked back, and once again she met Professor Ning’s quiet, determined eyes. He sat elegantly, expression relaxed, his gaze on her very natural.
“Stop talking, maybe he heard us.” Zheng Dingding retracted her gaze again, coughing a little, “Talking behind people’s backs is really impolite.”
Xiao Qiong casually smiled and changed the subject.
After a while, Zheng Dingding inadvertently turned back and found that the sofa was no longer occupied while the table had two full glasses of lemonade. Ning Weijin had left.
Her encounter with Professor Ning and that day’s subsequent failed blind date was quickly shoved to the back of Zheng Dingding’s mind. It wasn’t until the beginning of the month on the road to the hospital for her checkup that she realized it might be awkward seeing Professor Ning.
She came very late, fortunately missing peak hour. The outpatient hall had no other patients. Ning Weijin who was wearing a mask was looking down, very focused as he wrote something down.
Zheng Dingding knocked on the door. Ning Weijin gave a ‘en’ but didn’t look up.
“Professor Ning? I came for a review.” Zheng Dingding said.
Ning Weijin heard her voice, put down his pen and looked up at her, “Has there been any discomfort around the wound?”
“No.” Zheng Dingding said, “It’s only a little red, and a little itchy after showering.”
Ning Weijin pondered for a few seconds, stood up and pointed inside, “I’ll help you check.”
As Zheng Dingding sat on the examination room bed, Ning Weijin closed the curtains behind her. She suddenly felt some inexplicable discomfort. Although this wasn’t her first checkup, there was always another person present in the previous checkups. Today, however, there were only the two of them in this confined space, she wasn’t used to it.
She slowly unbuttoned her sweater, and asked casually, “Professor Ning, are Dr. Chen and Dr. Fu not here today?”
“They took a leave of absence today to go back to school for the exam.“
“Oh, it’s quite tough being medical students.” Zheng Dingding gave a short laugh, trying to hide the tension.
Ning Weijin said nothing, quietly waiting for her to finish taking off her clothes.
When her fingers gripped the bottom of her undershirt, strange emotions she never knew existed before bubbled from the bottom of her heart. Zheng Dingding suddenly stopped her movements, tentatively stating, “Actually, feeling some itchiness after a shower is normal, right? It’s just a little itchy. Other than that, there are no problems.”
“Really?” Ning Weijin’s voice was steady, slower than before, “I still recommend checking it.”
Zheng Dingding secretly inhaled, her movements continued to pull off her undershirt and unhook her undergarment.
“I’m done,” she said once she laid down.
Ning Weijin turned around, walked closer and once again helped examine her.
He bent down, first looking at the scar on her left breast with his eyes, then extended his index finger to the edge of the scar, gently pressing: “Does this hurt?”
“Yes, slightly.”
“What about here?”
“Slightly painful too.”
She could feel his fingers’ rhythmic pressing on the outer edge of her left chest due to their close proximity. His body’s clean scent permeated into her nose and his warm, long breaths were also on her bare skin, leaving her with a strange feeling in her heart.
Then he moved his hand away from her chest and ordered her to raise her left arm, and then he examined her armpit, asking her if she was in pain. She shook her head, said she felt nothing. He added more force, and she suddenly laughed.
“What are you laughing for?” He glanced at her sternly.
“It tickles.”
“Endure it.” He said briskly.
He took back his hand and went to the scar on her left breast. His clean, slightly cool fingers continued to press on top of it. He looked hard and focused on the scar, which was less than a centimeter.
Zheng Dingding looked down to see him examining her chest as if he was doing research. Although his behavior was very professional and his actions had no ulterior motives, she could not help but feel uncomfortable. Perhaps this is all because she felt awkward with having a man look so closely at her private parts, and for so long, too. Even though he was a doctor, he was still one of the male population.
Thinking up to here, it was quite normal for her to feel embarrassed and uncomfortable.
“Did you apply the ointment I prescribed to you every day?”
“Yes, I apply it every night.”
“Last time the scar was six millimeters. Now it’s one centimeter. There’s also small bumps and signs of wound contraction on the scar.” He looked up, and his sharp eyes caught her puzzled ones, “Do you have a tendency to scar easily?”
“Huh? I really don’t know. I’ve never had surgery until now and have never had external wounds.” Zheng Dingding pondered, other than getting bitten by mosquitoes, she’s really never had any other external trauma.
“Go to the dermatology department for an examination.” Ning Weijin retracted his hand and turned around, “If it really is cicatricial diathesis, it’ll be a bit troublesome, especially since you’re a woman. A scar would look ugly.”
“Oh, ok.”
Zheng Dingding redressed and followed Ning Weijin out. Once he sat, he wrote three lines and signed the medical file and told her to go to the dermatology department.
Zheng Dingding took her file and at the same time saw a familiar object. Professor Ning’s soft and cute back pillow – this was Ning Weixuan’s hippo pillow that she bought from her store.
She was surprised for a minute. Ning Weijin followed her line of sight and saw his pillow, “Is there a problem?”
“No problem at all, it’s just-“ Zheng Dingding pointed at the hippo, “I just didn’t think you would bring this into the office.”
“I carelessly took it.” His tone was soft, “It’s quite useful.”
Zheng Dingding accepted the praise gladly and said goodbye, taking the medical file, just as a slim, tall female doctor holding a bowl of cherries came in, smiling gently, “Senior Ning, would you like some fruits? Don’t worry, I’ve washes these twice. They’re very clean.”
“Thank you,” Ning Weijin’s tone was detached, “but I don’t like cherries. You’d be better off giving it to the others.”
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