Blocking Her In

Under Tao Tao’s stunned gaze, Wei Yin left her contact information and then sent Yang Cha a message asking what Hua Yu liked to eat.

Hua Yu’s tastes were something of a mystery. Yang Cha said she rarely saw Dr. Hua express any opinion on food. The hospital cafeteria had undergone a major overhaul two years ago; apparently, a corruption case that started at the district level had been dug up root and branch, dragging a string of people down with it, including several deputy directors at the hospital. From then on, the cafeteria had transformed from a place where you could spot last week’s cauliflower snagged in some uncle’s short, bristly black hair into a clean, bright, affordable, and genuinely decent modern-day canteen.

But when the cafeteria had been lousy, Hua Yu mostly ate at the little diner next to the hospital. Even after the cafeteria improved, she still never really showed any preference for a particular dish.

In short: her nutrition was clearly balanced, but her taste was impossible to pin down.

Since Wei Yin couldn’t get an answer, she simply followed the nutritional supplement meal plan for alphas in heat.

Even though the advice usually recommended that alphas in heat eat less, move less, and stay tucked away, with nutritional supplementation aimed more at omegas, Wei Yin still put her search skills to work and dug up an alpha menu.

The ingredients were plentiful. Wei Yin made two trips, one to the supermarket and one to the wet market, before she finally bought everything she needed.

After scanning the QR code to pay, she stared at the three-digit balance on her phone and turned it off. Out of sight, out of mind.

As long as she wasn’t in debt or forced to use her credit card or Huabei, she was a simple, grounded poor person.

Her phone went “ding” with a WeChat notification. Wei Yin thought it was a payment message and didn’t open it. After she got home, she put everything away, got busy, and forgot to check WeChat.

The day was almost over. Wei Yin didn’t plan to go looking for Hua Yu. If Hua Yu wanted to be cold and didn’t want to see her, then so be it; she wouldn’t go looking for her either.

She fried herself a plate of eggs, steamed a bowl of edamame, and stir-fried a dish of lettuce with oyster sauce. Her nutrition was more or less sufficient. Carrying a pack of nutritional supplements in her mouth, Wei Yin went back into her room, washed up, tidied herself, and lay down on the bed to reply to messages.

There was only one message on her phone, from the shop that had handled her consignment last time.

She didn’t know what had happened, so Wei Yin tapped it open casually.

[Wuxi Shopkeeper]: Hello, Miss Wei Yin. When you see this, would you mind replying on WeChat? A customer has placed an order for the twelve zodiac ceramic set you consigned.

Someone ordered it?

Bought the ceramics she’d made?!

Wei Yin shot upright from bed like a carp flipping out of water, eyes wide, and even one of her socks was kicked off.

Her hands trembling, heart racing, she typed a reply.

[in]: What’s the situation?

The other side immediately sent her a photo of the contract: [We’re selling it for 5,000 on our end. After taking 30%, the remaining 3,500 can be transferred directly to the bank card you left behind. Is that okay?]

Wei Yin looked solemn and typed:

[in]: Yes.

Soon after, a text message popped up showing a change in her bank balance.

Wei Yin stared at the balance, which had instantly gone from three digits to four, and her emotions were too complicated to put into words.

This was the first time she had ever made money with her own hands. Unlike the times she’d worked as a nanny and done hard labor for others, this was a skill grounded in her own strengths and advantages; a skill that would not make her just another face in the crowd.

Before she went to Xu Ya Qing’s studio, she would also, during breaks after work, bring back good-quality clay she found along the way, wash it clean, and set it aside to pinch and shape.

If a client’s child needed modeling clay for a craft, she would keep them company and make things with them for a long time.

She had never truly put this craft down. She genuinely liked it, and she was genuinely good at it; in her dull, colorless days, it had provided a little comfort and decoration.

But she had never imagined she could make money from it.

Wei Yin took a deep breath and blinked away the moisture in her eyes.

After a long silence, she finally smiled sincerely and sent the shopkeeper a message: “Got it, thank you.”

The shopkeeper replied almost immediately: [Welcome to consign again next time. Pleasure doing business with you.]

[in]: Okay. Pleasure doing business.

She didn’t bother arguing about the 30% cut; after the percentage was calculated, that was 1,500 yuan. In Wei Yin’s estimation, her whole set being able to sell for just a little over 1,000 was already excellent.

The shopkeeper’s ability to sell it for such a high price was their skill. If Wei Yin had tried to sell it herself, she wouldn’t know the market, and she wasn’t good with words; it might not even have sold so quickly, much less at that price.

Thinking of that, Wei Yin asked the shopkeeper again.

[in]: Did you fleece some sucker?

The shopkeeper sent back a laughing emoji.

[Wuxi Shopkeeper]: To be honest, we sold your set as part of a promotion to thank an old customer.

[in]: ? ?

[Wuxi Shopkeeper]: I put this set in the auction section. The auction period was ten days, highest bidder wins. Someone bid 4,000; then an old customer really liked your concept and left a 10,000 deposit asking us to hold it.

Wei Yin understood. If the shop wanted that 10,000, they could have said someone was still bidding. But this shop was quite honest: since no one bid over 4,000, they priced it at 5,000 and sold it to the old customer.

Not only were they honest with the customer; they hadn’t hidden anything from her either.

If it were some stingy place, they probably would have blamed her for not selling it for 10,000.

[in]: You did the right thing. I just didn’t expect it to sell for so much.

[Wuxi Shopkeeper]: Art is priceless.

The shopkeeper was probably busy, because after saying that, they disappeared; but for Wei Yin, that was enough.

This was the second person after Xu Ya Qing to acknowledge her, and to tell her through actual action that she really could make art.

Whether or not the twelve zodiac set was a coincidence, Wei Yin felt it was worth developing into a side business.

Compared to being a nanny, she preferred making crafts; moreover, making crafts could also earn her a little money.

She had just advanced one whole centimeter closer to financial freedom.jpg

Thinking of this, Wei Yin sent Xu Ya Qing a screenshot of her chat with the shopkeeper and left a message.

[in]: We can put our collaboration on the schedule.

—

The next day, at ten in the morning.

Liu Cong and Yang Cha finished their ward rounds in Hua Yu’s room and lingered without leaving.

“This patient, can you give my patient’s chart back?” Liu Cong’s expression was displeased. “Also, the little nurses at the station have been complaining. A certain someone wearing a hospital gown but refusing to behave in bed keeps sneaking into their office, operating their computers, and even making all sorts of treatment suggestions to their faces. It’s disrupting their work rhythm and seriously affecting them both physically and mentally.”

Hua Yu didn’t even look up, still holding Zhao Qi’s file.

“Zhao Qi has been in the hospital too long. If her indicators stay stable for three more days, arrange for discharge. Staying cooped up in the hospital too long puts her in a bad mood, which isn’t good for recovery,” Hua Yu said as she flipped through the records, then looked at Yang Cha. “And the supervisory inspection matter; I told you to coordinate with the department head in time. Keep after him. Did you ask?”

Liu Cong simply took the thing out of her hands. “Can’t hear you.”

Hua Yu looked up at her.

“You’re the patient,” Liu Cong said, lifting a brow. “Ignoring medical advice is rebellion.”

Hua Yu was calm. “I’m a doctor.”

“Oh-ho,” Liu Cong finally found a chance to be sarcastic, joining forces with Yang Cha. “She’s a doctooooor, huh.”

Yang Cha put on a serious face and added, “Mm, a doctooooor who admitted herself to the hospital during heat.”

Hua Yu: …

Xu Ya Qing had been watching the show from the side and laughed until she nearly doubled over.

Liu Cong pointed at Hua Yu. “Stay put and behave. Your body’s not great, and you still insist on grabbing our jobs every day.”

Yang Cha added, “Mm, overstepping.”

Hua Yu: ? ?

The two of them still had work to do, so after leaving in a hurry, Xu Ya Qing wandered over with a kumquat between her teeth. “Oh my, you’re a doctooooor.”

Hua Yu reached out. “Give me some.”

“Wait, I’ll bring you the fruit basket.” Xu Ya Qing went to a corner piled high with all sorts of care packages and pulled out a fruit basket of just the right size for Hua Yu to hold in her arms and snack from. “You can’t keep going without eating like this every day. Don’t even mention grabbing their work; even if you did nothing and just lay here not eating or drinking, you’d still croak.”

Hua Yu took the fruit basket, pulled out a banana, and peeled it, her expression faint. “I don’t have an appetite.”

Everyone’s heat had its own little quirks: not wanting to see a certain color, not wanting to smell a certain scent, not wanting to hear a certain person’s voice. Hua Yu’s was a little special; she had a mixed-type reaction of binge eating and anorexia.

It was probably because she had been hit with a scent she found nauseating before being hospitalized. For the past few days, she really hadn’t been able to eat much.

Fortunately, Hua Yu was a well-regarded doctor at the provincial hospital. Once she was admitted to her own hospital, people from various departments came one after another to bring her things.

There were so many fruit baskets she couldn’t finish them even if she ate all day.

“I told you to talk to Aunt Sun. Aunt Sun will make you nutritious meals; even if you don’t want to eat proper food, there are all kinds of desserts, snacks, fruit, and salad. Isn’t that better than sitting here miserably eating fruit?” Xu Ya Qing said gleefully, while patting her own face. “Hey, I noticed that after eating fruit for a few days, my skin’s gotten a lot more dewy.”

Hua Yu was speechless. “Beauty follows the heart; don’t get hung up on your appearance.”

Xu Ya Qing pointed at her. “You look like that and you’ve got no right to lecture me!”

Then her eyes rolled. “Oh, wait, no. You like Wei Yin, so you really weren’t picking based on looks. But I’m not saying Wei Yin is ugly; she photographs well. With her on livestream, the number of followers went up quite a bit.”

Hua Yu held the banana peel out in front of Xu Ya Qing, her voice weak enough to sound cool and detached. “Mm. Once she fills out a little more, she’ll look even better.”

Xu Ya Qing: “Oho.”

“Yesterday I called Yu Tiantian,” Hua Yu said, lifting her eyes and calmly bringing up business. “She wanted to visit, but I refused. I also gave her a few connections.”

“Real connections?” Xu Ya Qing asked. “You’ve got a handle on those three research directions of hers?”

Hua Yu answered her questions one by one. “Real. Sort of.”

Xu Ya Qing had no objection. “As long as you’ve got a handle on it. Need me to do anything?”

“You should look into it too,” Hua Yu said. “I’ll give you a few connections as well; you do the background checks on these three projects.”

Xu Ya Qing pointed at herself, startled. “Me? I’m an art student; are you kidding?”

Hua Yu was very calm. “Didn’t you quit your job?”

Xu Ya Qing stressed, “I quit so I could work on my studio!”

Hua Yu nodded. “Mm. Sounds like you’re pretty free, so take on two jobs.”

Xu Ya Qing immediately got anxious. “What do you mean free? I’m busy by myself, okay? And I’ve never even had any contact with the background checks you’re talking about…”

“Get familiar with it ahead of time,” Hua Yu said, her tone deepening. She looked at Xu Ya Qing, her gaze earnest, carrying a trace of seriousness and tolerance. “Aunt isn’t that old; she can still work for another ten-plus years. But whether you’re running your studio or doing something else, as long as it’s your own business and not working for someone else, you need to learn how to go out.”

“Go out, investigate, use your eyes to look, your mouth to communicate, and your feet to visit the site in person. No matter what business you’re doing, you can’t build it with your door shut.”

That hit right on the mark. Even someone as rebellious as Xu Ya Qing couldn’t come up with a rebuttal for a moment.

“You asking me to do background checks definitely has something to do with Yu Tiantian, right?” Xu Ya Qing said.

Hua Yu didn’t hide it. She simply explained her future plans in brief: “If she still has even a little conscience, and knows which projects can’t be done, then I may not necessarily have to do anything to her. The main thing is Wei Yin’s side; she needs to explain everything honestly.”

Xu Ya Qing got goosebumps all over. “You really can’t provoke someone who’s this protective. How many years have you been stewing in jealousy? You still can’t swallow that breath?”

Hua Yu ignored her and looked out toward the corridor outside the ward. After a moment of daze, she said, “Wei Yin last messaged me 22 hours ago.”

She asked Xu Ya Qing, “Where did she and you go for dinner yesterday? Did she say anything?”

Xu Ya Qing looked away and walked toward the sofa with her back to Hua Yu, touching her nose; a trace of guilt flashed across her face.

Said what?

Of course she said something; she said she wanted to max out your card, and she knew you wouldn’t reply to her messages or allow visits when you were conscious.

Thinking of this, Xu Ya Qing lit a stick of incense for Hua Yu in her heart.

Wishing you luck.jpg

“She didn’t say much. She didn’t want to eat out, so she went home,” Xu Ya Qing said.

Hua Yu frowned. To protect Wei Yin’s privacy, she had removed herself from the home monitoring app after Wei Yin logged in, and she didn’t know what Wei Yin had been doing at home.

Wei Yin’s sudden disappearance left her with an indescribable anxiety.

Faintly, she felt a little empty.

“Did she contact you later?” Hua Yu asked.

Xu Ya Qing stared at the ceiling and said nothing, still full of guilt.

She had said something, all right; she had said she wanted to work with Xu Ya Qing on a studio and ditch Hua Yu to go solo.

Hua Yu frowned. “Why aren’t you answering?”

Just then, Yang Cha’s bright voice came from outside the ward as she led someone this way, sounding especially cheerful.

“Dr. Hua is lying down right now; her legs have been cramping these past couple of days, so she can’t stand up.”

“She woke up, she woke up yesterday!”

“You stay with her first; I still have something to do, so I’m heading out.”

The person outside thanked Yang Cha. Her voice was soft and sweet, a voice both people in the room knew extremely well.

The ward door was pushed open from the outside.

The newcomer stood at the doorway with a lunch box in hand, her gaze sharp, landing straight on Hua Yu’s face without the slightest obstacle.

Keeping that broad, planted stance in the doorway, the person raised a hand, bent one finger, and knocked on the door without looking away, her eyes still fixed on Hua Yu’s face.

Each syllable was clear, enunciated one by one.

“Can this omega come in, Dr. Hua?”