The next day, at the hospital.
Dr. Gao finished his morning clinic and saw off the last patient, realizing that ti had unknowingly reached noon. Just as he took off his glasses, a colleague ca over from another office and asked if Dr. Gao wanted to go to the cafeteria to have lunch together. Dr. Gao nodded in agreent and then followed his colleague to the cafeteria.
While eating, the colleague sitting opposite him was constantly swiping on his phone. Gao Chuan never had the habit of playing with his phone during als, so he silently watched the male doctor across from him chuckle at his phone screen while eating his food quietly.
It seed the colleague had co across so interesting international news and showed it to Dr. Gao while sharing his own views on the trending topic. Expecting Dr. Gao to also join in on the discussion, he was surprised when Dr. Gao stopped picking food with his chopsticks and asked with a hint of confusion, "Is this Weibo?"
The colleague was also surprised by the question and nodded, "What about it?"
"Nothing, just asking." Dr. Gao shifted his gaze away and continued to chew on the greens in his mouth. Although his colleague was around his age or even a year or two older, it seed that he was more in tune with the things younger people are into.
After lunch, Dr. Gao returned to his office and, for so reason, thought of the Weibo page that Jiang An showed him last night. On a whim, he took out his phone, downloaded Weibo from the app store, finished setting up his account using his mobile number, and briefly browsed through the app’s page settings. He went to the trending search page, entered Jiang An’s userna, and sure enough, a user’s page popped up.
He took a close look at the girl’s profile picture, a hand-drawn cartoon image of a doctor, and then the personal signature beneath it read "Bald-headed dical Student of Our Ti." The corners of his mouth lifted slightly as he scrolled through Jiang An’s Weibo posts, which were mainly star-chasing replies interspersed with a few everyday updates.
Jiang An: Go big brother!
Jiang An: Frantically calling out for my big brother!
Jiang An: Another day overdosed on shipping couples!
As he scrolled down one post after another, Dr. Gao couldn’t help feeling dazzled. Surprisingly, he even found a few pictures of two n hugging each other. Puzzled, he turned to Baidu to look up the celebrity Jiang An liked. He didn’t bother to read through the dense descriptions on Baidu, glancing only at the uploaded portrait photos and feeling they were just ordinary internet-celebrity faces, wondering why modern girls were into this kind of style.
Faced with a topic he had never ventured into, Dr. Gao chose to give up proactively. After scrolling through Jiang An’s hopage for a while longer, he logged out.
After finishing surgery in the afternoon, Dr. Gao drove ho as usual. Sohow, as he was about to reach his neighborhood, he detoured to a fruit store he usually frequented, eyed the freshly stocked strawberries, and asked the shop assistant to weigh out several pounds. When Gao Chuan got ho with a big bag of strawberries and found that Jiang An had not yet returned, he went straight to the kitchen and washed the strawberries thoroughly in a dish.
Then he rembered the userna Jiang An had created for him, "Little Dummy Who Loves Strawberries," and the corners of his mouth curled slightly, thinking to himself that the young girl was quite self-aware.
Loving strawberries was news to him, but "Little Dummy" was indeed apt.
After cleaning the strawberries, Dr. Gao put so into a fruit bowl and walked into the living room, placing it on the coffee table in front of the TV, then changed into a set of comfortable ho clothes in the bedroom.
Jiang An didn’t co ho until eleven o’clock at night. When she arrived at the entrance, she noticed that the lights in the living room were still on. She tiptoed in without seeing anyone, then walked to the kitchen and poured herself a glass of water.
She had co back to pack her things, as her ntor was taking her to a dical conference, with a flight scheduled at eight o’clock the next morning. She was late because she was busy with things at school.
As Jiang An sat drinking water and looking at ssages on her phone, the kitchen light suddenly turned on, illuminating her silhouette. The orange glow cast on her slender figure, the girl spun around to find that Dr. Gao had already been standing behind her.
The man clad in a white sleeping robe looked at Jiang An’s worn-out expression and asked, "Why are you back so late?"
Jiang An set down the phone she was browsing through and explained word by word: "There were so issues at school that took a while to handle."
Gao Chuan stood still and simply uttered a "hmm," then asked if Jiang An had finished her al.
Thinking about the bread she gnawed on the bus ride ho, Jiang An nodded.
Suddenly rembering the strawberries he put in the fridge, Gao Chuan was about to speak when he saw the girl hurrying away from the chair, "Dr. Gao, I’m going to pack my things now. I have to catch a flight tomorrow."
The girl’s tone was a bit anxious. She had just jumped down from the tall chair when she was pulled back by the man. Jiang An, surprised, turned around to hear Gao Chuan staring at her, asking, "What flight?"
"I’m going to a conference with my advisor, leaving at eight tomorrow." Jiang An hadn’t planned to tell Gao Chuan, but since she bumped into him, she had no choice but to explain.
Realizing he was still holding Jiang An’s arm, Gao Chuan imdiately let go. Upon hearing she was heading out, he asked indifferently, "How long will you be gone?"
Jiang An secretly rubbed her wrist and answered truthfully, "About a week."
This summit was global, and many international experts would attend. Her advisor wanted to take Jiang An to familiarize her with the dical background. At the conference, Jiang An wouldn’t just be attending; she would also serve as an assistant, taking care of her advisor’s daily needs. It was a rare opportunity, and Jiang An treasured it greatly.
Gao Chuan’s eyes dimd a bit upon hearing the girl’s words, his facial expression still undisturbed, he lightly said, "Shall I drive you to the airport tomorrow?"
Jiang An waved her hand to indicate it wasn’t necessary, saying she had arranged to leave with a classmate. After saying goodnight to Gao Chuan, she rushed into her bedroom to pack things she would need for the week.
Gao Chuan was left standing alone at the junction between the kitchen and living room, his eyes montarily unfocused, lost in thought. After a long silence, he turned off the lights and returned to his bedroom.
From next door, the faint sound of the girl dragging her suitcase could be heard. The man lay flat on the bed, silently listening, and before long, he drifted off into a deep sleep.
The next day, Jiang An set an alarm especially early. With disheveled hair, she rushed out of the bedroom to wash up when she heard the sound of the front door opening. Gao Chuan, carrying breakfast, had already entered the living room. He saw the girl hustling out of the bathroom and wanted to call her over to wash up and have breakfast.
Since she was in a rush, Jiang An walked out with her suitcase and simply grabbed a bun from the table and ate it as she bid farewell to Dr. Gao, opening the door and leaving.
Gao Chuan sat down alone to eat his breakfast, thinking about getting a carton of milk from the fridge. As soon as he opened the fridge door, he was greeted by a half-fridge full of strawberries, a bright red swath. The man’s gaze lingered for a mont. Then he thought that Jiang An wouldn’t be around for the next week and he didn’t like to eat these, so he took them all out and dumped them in the trash.
During his lunch break, Gao Chuan ca across Jiang An’s social dia post with a photo she took on the plane, captioned with a new journey. The man opened their chat thinking to ask if she had arrived, hesitated with his fingers hovering for a few monts, then exited the interface.
Privately guessing the ti - half a day had passed - she should have arrived by now, he surmised.
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