Special

At eight in the morning, the doctors came by for rounds, and the room quickly filled up.

“Zhao Qi, your pre-meal blood sugar is 6.8. You need to keep it under control and stop eating sweets,” Zhao Qi’s attending physician, Liu Cong, said as she adjusted her glasses. Her gaze landed on Wei Yin, and she even smiled at her in greeting.

Wei Yin recognized her as the doctor who had treated her before. Back then, she had told her to rest and eat whatever she wanted.

Liu Cong said with a smile, “Wei Yin needs to eat one more meal a day. Whatever you do, don’t let her lose any weight.”

Zhao Qi protested indignantly, “Why can’t I eat this and that, but she gets to eat so much?”

“Because your condition is different from hers.”

A voice came from behind the crowd. Hua Yu had changed clothes and hurried over just in time to hear Zhao Qi’s feeble excuse.

Zhao Qi muttered under her breath, “What’s different about it? Isn’t it all gland damage?”

Hua Yu said calmly, “Wei Yin is 166 centimeters tall and weighs 87 jin. She reports hypoglycemia and malnutrition. You’re 158 centimeters tall and weigh 118 jin. Of course, those numbers aren’t everything; the main issue is that your visceral fat is too high. Your blood sugar, blood pressure, and blood lipids are all out of range. In plain terms, you have the ‘three highs.’”

That string of cold, clinical numbers made everyone around them laugh. Zhao Qi was a little embarrassed too; she scratched her head and said, annoyed and ashamed, “But I get hungry easily. Besides, I’m not fat... not fat, right... ”

“Visceral fat,” Wei Yin reminded her softly. “You’re not fat; you just have a high body-fat percentage.”

Zhao Qi: ...

“Ahhh, fine, fine, I get it. I’ll control my diet!”

Hua Yu waited until Liu Cong’s team had left before walking in. When Zhao Qi saw Hua Yu, she looked as if she’d seen a ghost. “Y-you, you’re Wei Yin’s girlfriend? Where did you steal that white coat from?!”

Liu Cong and a bunch of little nurses who were about to step out of the ward immediately pricked up their ears.

Wei Yin: ........

Hua Yu raised an eyebrow; the sharp line of her brows lifted slightly, and in a very good mood, she nodded. “Liu Cong, make a note: gland disease has increased the risk of retinal lesions; close clinical observation is needed.”

Liu Cong answered and left with regret on her face, having heard none of the gossip.

After a long moment, Zhao Qi finally reacted. “...Oh. You mean I’ve got an eye problem.”

Hua Yu had already started her rounds. She took Wei Yin’s blood pressure and oxygen saturation, listened to her heartbeat and the sounds in her chest, and palpated her glands.

By the time she was done, Wei Yin’s face was red all the way to the tips of her ears.

Hua Yu gathered up her things and said in a steady, gentle voice, “There are no tests this morning. Go outside and walk around a bit; finish these.”

She left Wei Yin a large cup of nutrient solution and a box of pastries.

Wei Yin took a sip, her eyes lighting up. “It’s peach-flavored.”

“Mm,” Hua Yu said, glancing at the peach-like Wei Yin. “Tomorrow will be cherry.”

Wei Yin asked, “What about the day after tomorrow?”

Hua Yu answered at once, “Apple, pomegranate, hawthorn, plum, red date.”

Wei Yin opened her mouth. “Why are they all red?”

Hua Yu looked at her. “Red nourishes qi and blood.”

Wei Yin took a big gulp of nutrient solution and squinted happily. “Fine. I like them all. But I’m allergic to red-fleshed dragon fruit.”

“Mm, I know,” Hua Yu said, looking at the wall clock. “I have surgery this morning. A nurse will bring you lunch at noon. If you get bored, you can go to the garden out back. You are not allowed to leave the hospital.”

Hua Yu emphasized the last four words, and Wei Yin obediently nodded. “Okay.”

Zhao Qi had already gotten her hands on the box of pastries. She opened it and let out a shriek. “Cheese cream thick milk boba square cake!”

Wei Yin said in surprise, “Can you eat that?”

It didn’t sound nutritious at all, and probably wasn’t healthy either.

Zhao Qi shouted, “Why wouldn’t I be able to? Which shop even sold this? It has everything I want to eat in one cake; they really loaded it up...”

Hua Yu took the cake away, her voice cool and indifferent. “You can’t have it. Too many calories. Unhealthy.”

Zhao Qi complained, “Then why can Wei Yin eat it? You’re giving your girlfriend special treatment!”

Wei Yin said quietly, “I’m not his girlfriend.”

Hua Yu pointed at Wei Yin and said calmly, “She needs to eat a little cake right now. Fat is a good thing, but she doesn’t have any. So this high-calorie cake with only one kind of nutrient? It suits her perfectly.”

Then she pointed at Zhao Qi. “For you, it’s lethal.”

Zhao Qi collapsed in despair.

Hua Yu put the cake into Wei Yin’s hands and told her to hold it properly. “Eat it while it’s hot. If it cools and hardens, it won’t taste good.”

Wei Yin nodded like a chick pecking at rice. She hadn’t eaten anything like this in a long time, and she was overjoyed. “Okay, I’ll eat the boba first.”

After Hua Yu left, Zhao Qi cajoled, badgered, and wormed her way around, trying to get Wei Yin to hand over a bite of cake.

Wei Yin was worried Zhao Qi would upset her blood sugar if she ate it, so she didn’t want to let her have any; but she was too slow, and Zhao Qi still managed to pry off a small piece.

“Ah, I’m alive again,” Zhao Qi said, licking her fingers with her mouth full of cake. “Sister, your girlfriend treats you so well. I take back what I said before; this cake was definitely not bought ready-made. The ingredients are way too generous.”

Hearing the word “girlfriend” again, Wei Yin set down the cake and felt it was necessary to talk to Zhao Qi.

She looked at the sixteen-year-old girl and forced her expression to be stern. “Classmate Zhao Qi, Dr. Hua is not my girlfriend. Don’t say that again in the future. It’ll make people misunderstand, and it’ll also be embarrassing for others.”

Wei Yin thought she had made herself clear enough, but Zhao Qi didn’t react badly at all. Instead, she widened her eyes dramatically. “You two still aren’t together?”

Wei Yin narrowed her eyes and glared at her, putting on her fiercest expression. “Stop making things up.”

Zhao Qi yawned and lay back on the bed. “I’m not making things up. Just look at the food and drinks; why didn’t my attending doctor prepare these for me?”

Wei Yin wanted to say this was her special treatment plan, but before she could speak, she met Zhao Qi’s look that clearly said, I know, don’t explain. Something that had never existed in the first place somehow began to feel a little shaky.

Hua Yu really was being a little too good to her; but what did she have that was worth anyone keeping in mind?

There was nothing special about her at all; maybe it was only because Hua Yu was a good person?

No matter what she was thinking, she still held firm out loud. “Anyway, I’m the person involved, and I don’t like hearing you say that. So you can’t say it.”

“Fine, fine,” Zhao Qi said, too tired to keep arguing, and closed her eyes to catch up on sleep. “Whatever you say goes. Anyway, I want to enjoy life while I can; I’m not going to hide things.”

Very quickly, Zhao Qi fell into a deep sleep as if she’d been knocked out cold. Wei Yin called her twice, but there was no response at all. If it hadn’t been for the little snores coming from her, Wei Yin would have almost called a nurse.

Looking at Zhao Qi’s lingering childishness, Wei Yin thought of what Dr. Liu had said during rounds that morning.

Zhao Qi’s condition was similar to hers; both had gland problems. Wei Yin’s was gland atrophy, while Zhao Qi’s was premature gland aging.

At sixteen, the girl’s glands had developed too quickly and were already in a state of old age. Her hormone levels were out of balance, and problems had spread throughout her whole body.

Watching Zhao Qi grow tired so quickly, like a doll whose battery had died as she slipped into sleep; one moment she was chattering away, and the next she was out cold, Wei Yin felt a little uncomfortable. She left the ward to clear her head.

Too many things had happened this week. Wei Yin hadn’t dealt with this many things in a long time. She walked to the iron chair on the hospital balcony, stretched out a foot to catch the patch of sunlight spilling through the window, and emptied her mind so she could carefully sort through everything that had happened these past few days.

She had a habit of keeping a diary, but she only wrote down very important things. Most entries were just a few words here and there, never detailed enough. So Wei Yin knew she needed to save money to pay off her debts; she knew her glands had a problem and needed daily attention; she knew that after graduation, because of the gland issue, she had faced employment discrimination and had been doing nanny work all along.

In modern society, service work was relatively lucrative; it was hard-earned money. Wei Yin had studied nursing, but she couldn’t pass the physical exam for civil service or staff positions. Being a nanny was a decent choice.

So after Wei Yin lost her memory, she didn’t resist much either. Life was still the same; nothing had changed. Work, earn money, save money, repay money.

Until the gland problem grew more and more serious.

Wei Yin hadn’t meant to make herself malnourished, and it wasn’t that she had no money for food. It was just that gland atrophy affected her hormones; everything she ate failed to be digested and absorbed. Only when she fainted and was sent to the hospital did she find out.

But living normally and eating normally was one thing; gland treatment was another.

She had just used the money she’d saved over the past few months to pay off her debts, and there wasn’t much left to cover hospitalization costs. She could only put the rest into the hospital account and sneak away.

After Hua Yu gave her a new treatment plan, Wei Yin had quietly kept an eye on things and realized that Hua Yu had arranged nutritional solutions, acupuncture, massage, and other adjunct treatments for her. There was no need for the outrageously expensive special medicine, so she felt reassured enough to stay.

But kindness between people was too rare and too precious. In the eyes of Zhao Qi and outsiders like her, Hua Yu’s treatment of her was still special.