withered lover

Years later, the hospital where Du Zhinian worked changed its director.

As the saying goes: A new official has three fires when he takes office. Although the new dean does not make a big move to mobilize personnel, he always likes to hold some boring meetings.

Du Zhinian is busy with receiving and on duty every day, and in his free time he has to deal with one boring meeting after another, he is so busy that he doesn't even have time to have dinner with Shen Guiwan.

He originally wanted to watch the lanterns with Shen Guiwan during the Lantern Festival, and visit the surrounding night markets by the way, but now it seems that he may not even be able to eat glutinous rice balls.

Du Zhinian had no time to take care of things other than work. Yu Minggu called him on the tenth day of the lunar new year and chatted with him. Du Zhinian was busy at the time, so he answered a few words perfunctorily. Only after thinking about it afterwards did he realize that something was wrong.

However, that strange feeling didn't last long. On the fourteenth day of the first lunar month, Du Zhinian finally knew the reason why Yu Minggu called him that day.

Coincidentally, the fourteenth day of the first lunar month of this year fell on a Monday, and the newly appointed dean called the qualified expert director of the hospital over for a meeting.

Originally, this matter had nothing to do with Du Zhinian, but when the director of their department went to a meeting, he was called on purpose, and said that the dean personally requested it.

Du Zhinian felt confused when he heard it at first, but when he sat down in the meeting room and listened to the content of the meeting that had nothing to do with him, he was even more sleepy and yawned.

He stared blankly until the dean finished his speech, sat on his seat and stretched, ready to find a chance to slip out.

The end of the dean's speech does not mean the end of the meeting. The director of Du Zhinian's department was still chatting with the doctor he knew. After listening for a while, Du Zhinian excused himself to go to the bathroom and slipped away.

He got out of the door of the meeting room, walked quickly through the corridor to go back to the outpatient department, but met the newly appointed dean at the corner of the corridor.

"Dean." Du Zhinian stopped to greet him, with an unnatural expression on his face.

The dean put his hands behind his back and asked Du Zhinian with a smile: "Little Du, how long have you been in the hospital?"

Du Zhinian was slightly taken aback, he didn't expect him to ask himself this, but he still answered honestly: "Eight years."

He went to school early, and was forced by Du Hengyu to skip a grade in the middle. When he went to the hospital for an internship, he was two or three years younger than the interns of the same class.

"Eight years." The dean showed a surprised expression, then shook his head, "It's a pity."

Hearing the strange dean's exclamation, Du Zhinian suddenly showed a self-deprecating smile on his face.

When he was studying in various departments, many seniors looked up to him and hoped that he could stay in their departments and become the youngest director in the hospital.

But now the doctors who were at the same time as Du Zhinian have all become deputy directors, and even moved abroad, Du Zhinian is still stuck in the position of attending physician.

Why doesn't Du Zhinian feel it's a pity, but he has been restricted by others, so what can he do?

Seeing Du Zhinian's ugly face, the dean suddenly smiled and patted him on the shoulder, "There will be a new study plan in a while, and there will only be one place. Does Xiao Du have any ideas?"

"I'm not qualified yet." Du Zhinian replied with a wry smile.

This kind of single-study training is mostly pre-determined in advance. Du Zhinian doesn't think that such a good thing can happen to him. The operation is too ostentatious.

After hearing this, the dean let out an "ah" indifferently, "Your resume is too simple, and it will be very difficult to get promoted in the future."

He squeezed Du Zhinian's shoulder hard, leaned close to Du Zhinian's ear and said in a low voice, "Mr. Yu told me that you want to go out. If you are interested, you can consider it."

After the dean finished speaking, he strode away, leaving Du Zhinian standing alone in the corner of the corridor where there was no sunlight.

There was a chill in the dark corner, and Du Zhinian recalled Yu Minggu's phone call. At that time, he vaguely heard Lu Xing's voice through the phone.

That woman was always crying when she saw her, crying cautiously, just like Shen Guiwan who was holding his hand and asking him not to mention Shen Lu again.

Du Zhinian's hand hanging by his side seemed to touch his body trembling with pain again, and the moist, warm, sticky liquid climbed up his fingertips again.

He stood in that corner for a long time, until he heard footsteps from the other side of the corridor, then raised his head and let out a long sigh, turned around and disappeared at the end of the corridor.

After the meeting ended, Du Zhinian was a little absent-minded, and he didn't recover until he saw Shen Guiwan's face when he came home from get off work.

He came back a bit late, Shen Guiwan had already had dinner and was boiling water to make tea.

Looking at his thin back, Du Zhinian carefully outlined the outline of his back, and said, "I won't be back so early tomorrow, so don't wait for me."

"Okay." Shen Guiwan was used to Du Zhinian's irregular working hours, so it wasn't too surprising to hear him say that.

Du Zhinian pursed his lips tightly, clasped his hands together, and rubbed the back of his hands with his fingers.

He was still thinking about what the dean said in the morning, and his mind was in a mess. The kettle in the kitchen made a "da" sound, which suddenly interrupted his thoughts.

Shen Guiwan walked to the dining table with the kettle in hand, and poured some hot water into Du Zhinian's cup.

Light brown ripples bloomed at the bottom of the cup, Du Zhinian looked at the tea bag slowly floating in the cup, and suddenly remembered that tomorrow is the Lantern Festival.

"Tomorrow is the Lantern Festival, I want to eat glutinous rice balls." He said to Shen Guiwan.

Since Shen Guiwan moved into his own apartment, the number of times Du Zhinian ordered takeaway plummeted. Basically, he could eat freshly prepared meals every day when he went home. When he was on duty or staying up late to work overtime, Shen Guiwan would cook for him. A small bowl of supper.

Shen Guiwan was pouring water, without raising his head, he asked, "What stuffing do you want?"

There seemed to be nothing he couldn't do. Du Zhinian thought about it seriously for a second, and said four ridiculous words between his thin lips: "Spicy beef."

Shen Guiwan's hand holding the kettle shook violently, the boiling water spilled over the table, and the steaming water flowed around.

"Is it burnt?" Du Zhinian hurriedly grabbed Shen Guiwan's hand to check.

Shen Guiwan shook his head, took his hand out of Du Zhinian's palm, turned around and went to the kitchen to get a rag.

Du Zhinian was afraid that Shen Guiwan would get scalded, so he asked him to stand aside and wipe up the spilled hot water himself.

The rag was a little hot after washing it in hot water, so Du Zhinian threw the rag into the sink and rinsed it in cold water for a while before wringing it out and hanging it up again.

He cleared the table and turned to face Shen Guiwan again, feeling a little guilty for no reason.

Du Zhinian thought about it carefully and felt that his request was a bit too much, so he immediately changed his words: "The supermarket sells salty glutinous rice balls filled with meat, just buy that."

Shen Guiwan looked down at the hand that was held by Du Zhinian just now, and said: "Okay."

The Lantern Festival came quietly, Shen Guiwan waited for Du Zhinian to go to work before going to the supermarket with his mobile phone.

The supermarket put up a promotional event for glutinous rice balls, but Shen Guiwan went straight through the photos without even looking at the freezer. He bought a bag of glutinous rice flour and half a catty of beef, and took a pack of dumpling wrappers to check out.

There was still half a pack of dried chili powder and unopened hot pot base in the hanging cabinet in the kitchen. Shen Guiwan calculated the amount and did not buy new ones.

He checked out and walked out of the supermarket with a shopping bag in hand, looking up recipes on his mobile phone while walking. When he reached the intersection near the apartment, a black car coming from the left suddenly honked its horn twice.

Shen Guiwan raised his head and glanced at the signal light. At this time, the green light for going straight was already on, but the car probably wanted to turn when it honked its horn.

He wasn't in a hurry to go back, he just stopped and let it go first, but not only did the car not speed up to pass, but it stopped slowly in front of Shen Guiwan, blocking his way.

The car uses a special single-sided glass, looking at the pitch-black glass, Shen Guiwan remembered what happened before his ribs were broken three years ago, and his heart skipped a beat.

He was about to run, when the car door in front of him opened slowly, and a well-made lady came down, looked at him and said softly, "Hello, Mr. Shen Guiwan."

Shen Guiwan took a step back vigilantly, the lady saw his defensive action, and sighed, "Don't worry, I won't do anything to you, I am Du Zhinian's mother, Wen Qiong."

"What is Du Zhinian's mother looking for from me?" Shen Guiwan spoke calmly, but his back was tense.

Wen Qiong smiled, and asked softly, "Are you free to sit with me in the nearby cafe?"