At 5:30 pm on a weekday, Sanyuan Bridge was blocked to a blood-red color.
Qu Fanyi sat in the back seat of a taxi, with an LV old flower luggage bag beside her, which contained Chi Wei's pajamas, spare clothes and some disposable items. Next to the luggage bag was a stack of thermos tubes, which contained pearl rice, Shanghai-style braised pork, quinoa tofu and morel chicken soup made by her aunt tonight.
She was in a very good mood all day today, eagerly looking forward to Chi Wei's return, and then she would talk everything out with him. But Chi Wei was too busy today, and she didn't know what happened to him, and he was scheduled for three night shifts in a row.
When Qu Fanyi received his message, she was directing her aunt to cook. As a full-time wife, thinking about what to eat for dinner every day is a big project. Qu Fanyi needs to arrange the daily menu according to the season and the combination of meat and vegetables, and then purchase the ingredients according to the menu. Finally, she sent the cooking method to her aunt and supervised her aunt to complete it.
After receiving the WeChat message, she didn't have time to reply, so she asked her aunt to pack the dinner and rushed out in a hurry.
When Qu Fanyi arrived at the hospital, it was already the night shift. The security guard recognized her and led her into Chi Wei's office. The door was ajar, but the light was on. Qu Fanyi pushed the door open and didn't see Chi Wei.
There was a box of blueberries on the desk, packed in an unfamiliar lunch box. Qu Fanyi walked over and her eyes were attracted by the little bear fork next to the lunch box - oh, cute style.
Chi Wei's desk was very tidy. He always loved cleanliness. There was a newly printed shift schedule next to it. Qu Fanyi looked down and saw that in the doctor and nurse column, two names were always together:
Tonight's night shift, Chi Wei, Huang Nana.
Tomorrow night's night shift, Chi Wei, Huang Nana
The night shift the night after tomorrow, Chi Wei, Huang Nana. The door was open. Another nurse on duty passed by and recognized Qu Fanyi. She called out enthusiastically, "Is that you, sister-in-law? Doctor Chi is in the operating room. There's a sudden operation. I guess you'll have to wait for a while."
Qu Fanyi looked up and smiled, "It's okay. I'll just send something off and leave."
After a pause, she picked up the shift schedule and smiled gently at the nurse on duty, "You're right. Suddenly there are three night shifts. Aren't you afraid of being exhausted to death?"
"Who knows?" The nurse also smiled, "I guess she learned it from Nana. You said these two people suddenly went crazy. Last week, Nana scheduled herself 4 consecutive night shifts and said she would stay in the hospital. This morning, I don't know what Dr. Chi was crazy about, and he also scheduled himself 3 night shifts. I didn't expect an emergency to come at 5 o'clock. Two people are busy in the operating room now, complaining bitterly. We thought you two had a quarrel. "
"Ah?" Qu Fanyi was stunned, and quickly laughed, "No, no. Why would I come to deliver clothes and food after a quarrel? So, this night shift was applied for by Chi Wei himself?"
"What else?" The little nurse raised her eyebrows, "Otherwise who would dare to bully him like this?"
When the single song "Wind Blowing Wheat Waves" was played for the eighth time, Huang Nana finally couldn't bear it anymore. The shadowless lamp illuminated the operating room. This was her first operation with Chi Wei. She had heard people complain about the doctor's taste in song selection during surgery before, but she didn't expect this man's taste to be so peculiar, and he was very strict and repeated.
The operation had been going on for two hours. Even if the temperature in the operating room was low, Chi Wei's forehead was sweating because of his concentration. She glanced at him and resisted the urge to wipe his sweat for him.
"Tissue forceps." Chi Wei stretched out his hand. Huang Nana immediately regained her focus and handed it over.
Chi Wei made another gesture, and Huang Nana immediately handed over the electric knife.
"Syringe."
"It's OK, connect the tractor."
...
In the music of "Wind Blowing Wheat Waves", the two cooperated tacitly. Huang Nana never said that Chi Wei's eyes were particularly beautiful, with long eyelashes and deep double eyelids. Although he always wore glasses, at this moment, Chi Wei, who was covered tightly by the surgical gown, was only able to identify him as his, and that was his special eyes: focused and indifferent.
"Okay. Prepare to close the chest." Chi Wei reminded, Huang Nana nodded, and began to count the instruments for the second time. The operation was successfully completed, and Chi Wei breathed a sigh of relief. He was highly focused just now, and only now realized that sweat beads were gathering on his forehead. He turned slightly, lowered his head, and rubbed his forehead on Huang Nana's shoulder.
This contact made Huang Nana freeze in place, "Chi, Doctor Chi?"
"Have you finished the inventory?" It was still a cold voice.
Huang Nana took a deep breath: "Yes."
"I'm suturing the abdominal cavity now, and you count it again after that."
Huang Nana's heart pounded, and a smile appeared on the corner of her mouth.
The Sanyuan Bridge on the way back was still blocked. Beijing's evening rush hour lasts from 4:30 to 8:00. Qu Fanyi's trip took two hours and she stayed for five minutes.
She had an empty stomach. She had asked her aunt to pack all the food and brought two sets of tableware, thinking of having dinner with Chi Wei. The taxi stopped and stuck on the road. Outside the window was the gorgeous sunset of Beijing. Qu Fanyi looked out the window without saying a word. Her cell phone rang beside her. It was her mother-in-law.
"Hello?"
"Xiaoyi! Did you know that your dad has a friend in Chiwei Hospital?" Chi's mother's voice was unusually serious. "Today, she sent me his schedule for this week and asked us what happened. How come Chiwei just got married and suddenly applied for a series of night shifts for himself?"
Qu Fanyi hummed and didn't say anything.
Chi's mother came to her senses: "Are you quarreling again? Oh, is the matter from last night not resolved yet? You said Chi Wei is really something. But I just checked your father's circle of friends and found something. Here, I sent you the picture. Our Xiaoyi is a smart person, take a look and see how to deal with it."
As Chi's mother said this, the phone next to her ear vibrated. Qu Fanyi received a screenshot. She clicked it and found that it was posted by Huang Nana more than ten minutes ago. Two people in green surgical gowns took a selfie. Huang Nana smiled and leaned half of her body out from behind Chi Wei, looking at the camera with a naughty face: "Record the first surgery with Dr. Chi! Dr. Chi Wei praised me!"
The cold air whizzed around her neck, and Qu Fanyi adjusted the air conditioner blades upwards. After hanging up the phone, she took out her phone and took a closer look at the photo. The mother-in-law was really helpful. She quickly sent Huang Nana's information to me, with a face full of hatred: "This girl is a nurse transferred from 301 Hospital. She used to work in the cardiology department, and this time she was transferred to the operating room. Her qualifications and education are ordinary. Someone wanted to match Chi Wei with her before, but Chi Wei didn't like her. I didn't like her either."
Qu Fanyi quickly browsed through it, replied with a cute and obedient expression, locked the screen, looked out the window, and thought about it in a mess: "What about Chi Wei? What is his feeling towards her? Did the two of them know each other before? Have they been on a blind date?"
For some reason, I remembered Qiu Ning'er's previous Weibo: "If a man is not hungry at home, he is probably full outside."
I felt inexplicably panicked-so what is the relationship between the two of them?
The more I thought about it, the more confused I became. I simply reached out for my phone to open Qiu Ning'er's Weibo and planned to learn more. Ever since Sheng Yiqing mentioned Qiu Ning'er to her, Qu Fanyi has taken her Weibo as her guiding principle, and would check her homepage every now and then to learn. To show her piety, she also paid special attention to her super topic and signed in on time. She was originally socially anxious, and when she learned last night that Sheng Yiqing had brought Qiu Zining along, she was both happy and afraid, thinking about spying on her secretly, but she didn't dare to make friends in person.
Qiu Ning'er posts about three or five microblogs every day. She clicks on the homepage and scrolls down the screen with her finger. When she scrolls to one, her thumb stops:
"I met a good wife and mother when I went out to party! What bad luck! It's okay if she doesn't drink, but she got a call before playing for two minutes and wanted to run away as if she had received an imperial decree. She is dressed in rich clothes, but she is more pitiful than anyone else. Her life is destined to be a slave for men."
Qu Fanyi read this microblog over and over again three times, and then looked at the time of posting. It happened to be the time when she left last night. Only then did she know that the woman had stabbed her in the back. A surge of anger surged from the soles of her feet, and her fingertips trembled. She took a deep breath and typed a long line of replies to curse back, but at the end, she felt tired and gave up.
Qu Fanyi fell down in her seat dejectedly. She blocked Qiu Ning'er and threw her phone aside. Looking out the window, tears flowed one by one.
A little south of Sanyuan Bridge is Liangma Bridge, which is adjacent to the embassy district, making this area more fashionable. The Liangma River is bustling with people on weekends. The riverside scenery is great in summer, and there are fashionable people both inside and outside the river. Men and women in their spare time play Frisbee, camp, read books and chat on the shore.
There are open-air restaurants along the river, with tables and chairs placed in a mess. Chen Zhuan made an appointment with a study abroad agency.
Since he started preparing for the application to study abroad, he has been preparing for the application almost every weekend. Chen Zhuan's TOEFL score has just come out. Fortunately, he has worked in a foreign magazine in recent years and has not fallen behind in English. He listened to American TV series for a week before the test, and watched the oral and writing questions twice three days before the test. In the end, he went on the test half-naked. The score was 98, which was neither high nor low. Fortunately, the production management major he wanted to apply for did not require a high score, so he passed it smoothly.
"You can write a rough essay for me first. It should be combined with your work experience and the reason for choosing the school. I will help you polish it after you finish writing it. The schools we have initially decided to apply to are NYU, USC, UCLA and AFI. Among them, UCLA prefers students with work experience, and your experience will be very suitable. In addition, two letters of recommendation are required, probably in August, preferably from industry leaders. Aren't you currently working in a foreign magazine? Is there any way to get a recommendation from your senior executives in the Asia-Pacific region... Hmm? ... Mr. Chen?" The agent called out. The light of dusk was just right. Sitting in an open-air cafe, there was a cool breeze, bringing the smell of river water and willow trees. But Chen Zhuan was absent-minded. While the agent was talking, he was thinking about his own thoughts, his eyes drifting on the cruise ship in the river, and his fingers tapping lightly on the table. "Mr. Chen..." The agent called again. "Ah?" Chen Zhuan reacted and glanced at the agent, "Sorry, I was distracted."
"Are you too busy at work?"
Chen Zhuan shook his head, paused, and looked at the agent: "Regarding the time of going abroad, is it possible for me to apply this year, postpone it for a year, and wait until the year after next to enter the school?"
"Why?" The agent was stunned, "This year's exchange rate is good, and there is less competition. The US dollar has been inflating. The rent and tuition fees may increase next year. Do you have any additional considerations?"
"I just want to stay in China for another two years..." At this point, he shook his head, "Forget it. I was just thinking about it. What were you talking about just now?"
"Letters of recommendation." The agent pushed the computer over and pointed to the screen, "According to the requirements of these target schools, two letters of recommendation are required. I suggest that one of them should be from the boss of your company in the Asia-Pacific region, and the other can be from your clients in the media field. Of course, the greater the international influence of the company, the better."
Chen Zhuan glanced at the documents and nodded, "Understood."
According to the timeline, all application documents will be prepared in mid-August. You can start to receive news from around December, and the offer will probably come after February. Apply for a visa, then resign, and find a reliable tenant for the house before leaving. The rent can offset part of the loan, and the remaining tuition and miscellaneous fees will probably have to be paid by working in the United States. He used most of his savings from work to buy a house in the past two years. He is frugal in his daily life, and the occasional luxury is probably a date with Sheng Yiqing...
It seemed as if a small hand was tugging at his heart. The understated "Actually, I don't like you that much", the thin tone, cuts at his throat like a blade. He admits that he thought of her again.
The sunset sank little by little, and the remaining light shone on the sparkling Liangma River, with golden and silver threads floating and flickering. The waiter at the restaurant on the river bank put away the parasol, brought out a small candlestick of one inch square and placed it on the round table, waiting to light it when night falls. The agent closed the computer and suddenly sighed: "This place is really good. It's suitable for bringing my wife here. You old..."
Chen Zhuan raised his eyes and glanced at him.
The agent suddenly stopped talking.
To be honest, this client is his favorite one. He is good-looking, speaks little, works steadily, and has no messy b things. When he first met him, he thought he was a serious cool guy. Later, when he got familiar with him, he found that he was quite talkative and sometimes even had a bit of meanness.
So he also relaxed, and sometimes even joked with this handsome guy. But soon he found that this handsome guy had too strong a sense of boundaries and was indifferent in his bones. Just like an iceberg, digging down, he dug a little different mud, thinking that it might be a volcano? However, digging down again, he found that the person was completely an iceberg, cold on the outside, and even colder in his bones.
After the agent left, Chen Zhuan sat alone in his seat for a while until it was completely dark.
Two girls passing by came over to chat and asked if they could share a table together. However, he was in such a bad mood that he just said "hmm" without thinking, got up and left.
Neon lights flickered by the Liangma River, and the whole river was inlaid with blue and yellow edges, which was glittering, modern and beautiful. The sound of saxophone came from a distance across the water. Chen Zhuan walked along the river and passed by several men fishing at night.
He began to miss Sheng Yiqing again. If thoughts were a room with windows, she had actually been standing outside the window, and her shadow was projected into the room. Several times, she even wanted to break through the window and occupy his entire mind, but fortunately he pushed her down in time.
The wedding anniversary is August 25th, of course, this day will soon become their divorce anniversary.
So what is their relationship from today to the day they divorce? Do they want to meet? Do they want to talk?
Then, from the day they divorced to when he went abroad, what is their relationship? Friends? Strangers?
So he would leave, and then she would meet a new man, and maybe continue this marriage model, or maybe, she would suddenly change and choose another person for life...
…
He stopped with a tight chest. It was useless to think about these things, and Chen Zhuan finally told himself: Just like she said to herself, she never liked you that much.
What about you? Chen Zhuan wanted to ask himself. But soon he felt that this question was meaningless. He couldn't tell what he felt at the moment. He just felt that it was dark, and the city became dim and boring.
The moon rose above the city, the elevator door opened, and he looked out through the window in the corridor. The family in the opposite community still locked the curtains tightly. The lights were not on. Like a closed eye. I don't know where she went.
He retracted his gaze and walked to the door expressionlessly.
The combination lock was set by them together on the day they got the marriage certificate, 119825, wedding anniversary.
With a ding, the combination lock was unlocked, and as the door opened, a beam of light shone on his face.
He was startled, is there anyone?
When he saw the scene inside the house, he was stunned for a moment--
The lights in the living room were on, and a woman with dishevelled hair sitting on the sofa, working overtime. The woman was sitting cross-legged, facing the computer, and seemed to have taken a shower at his house, her hair was not dry, and she was wearing his loose T-shirt, frowning as she read the documents. There was a box of Chinese takeout that had not been opened on the coffee table.
"..."
However, whether intentionally or unintentionally, the woman did not look up at him even when she heard the door open.
So Chen Zhuan stood at the door and looked at her, holding back the anger in his chest for the whole afternoon.
It seemed as if they were scattered in an instant, and the house was messed up by her again. He hated messes the most, but at this moment, he felt that this mess was good.
He didn't move, and Sheng Yiqing continued to stare at his screen. After a long time, Sheng Yiqing couldn't hold it anymore, so he diverted a little attention from the screen to him, a little uncomfortable: "... Ahem... You're back?"
"Yeah."
The man at the door responded slowly, lowered his head to take off his shoes, and after a while, he raised his head and said calmly:
"Why are you coming to my house?"