Did That Doctor Successfully Remarry Today? Chapter 8 - 7 Thank You, Dr. Gao

Jiang An had no choice but to obediently walk ahead, leading Gao Chuan upstairs. The old residential building was dilapidated, with a few flickering lights inside the worn stairwell that barely illuminated the path forward.

"Co in, Dr. Gao," Jiang An said, taking out her keys to open the door in the dim light, leading Gao Chuan inside.

The apartnt was small in size, and the furnishings were rather simple; perhaps because it hadn't been lived in for a long while, dust pervaded the air.

"Sorry about this, Dr. Gao, it's been too long since soone lived here. I might need to clean up a bit." Jiang An, also realizing the clutter, picked up a crumpled piece of paper from the floor and threw it into the rubbish bin in the corner sowhat embarrassingly.

"No worries. Could I get a glass of water?" Gao Chuan followed her in and casually closed the door behind him.

Slightly startled, Jiang An ca to her senses, hurried into the kitchen to boil water for her guest.

Gao Chuan watched the girl scamper into the kitchen and started to walk around on his own, observing the small but warm apartnt. In the center of the living room hung a photo of a family of three by the seaside; the man on the left dressed in a pure white military uniform must be Jiang An's father.

In the photo, Jiang An looked just like a little girl, her childlike appearance hardly different from now, grinning at the cara. Perhaps it was the age of losing baby teeth, as the spots where her two front teeth should be were empty, paired with her round face making her look particularly adorable.

Gao Chuan stared at this old photograph, his lips involuntarily curling up in silence.

So she has always smiled like this.

Fifteen minutes later, Jiang An ca out of the kitchen with a kettle of boiling water, and saw Gao Chuan browsing through the books on her bookshelf. Hidden behind golden-frad glasses were a pair of dark pupils; his quiet and earnest deanor made him hard to interrupt.

Realizing that Jiang An had arrived in the living room, Gao Chuan put the book back on the shelf and returned to the sofa. He drank a few sips of the warm water Jiang An had placed on the table and watched her start to busily clean up the room, both of them remaining silent.

"Have you contacted the funeral ho yet?" Finally, Gao Chuan couldn't help asking.

Jiang An was still sweeping the disorderly floor when she heard him ask, her movents paused before becoming flustered.

"Not yet."

Gao Chuan volunteered, "I know a friend who handles these things. Let help you take care of it."

Bizarrely, it struck Gao Chuan how odd his behavior was at that mont. In nearly ten years of practicing dicine, he had never cared so much for a patient.

Inside, he sought a suitable reason, yet found no perfect excuse.

Still sweeping the floor, Jiang An heard Gao Chuan's offer and, after a long silence, finally agreed.

"All right, thank you, Dr. Gao." Now alone in this city with nowhere to turn, the sowhat overly eager Gao Chuan appeared to her like a lifesaving straw.

Gao Chuan's play with the cup halted, the transparent liquid refracting a silvery-white light down the side of the cup. His long fingers rewrapped around the water glass, and he turned to look out the window where the sunshine warmly poured in.

It seed because the house had been devoid of sunlight for too long, Jiang An walked over to pull back the curtains. The gentle sunlight climbed up the lattice window, pouring in patch after patch, lighting up the girl's entire face.

Gao Chuan gazed at the girl standing in the light, her graceful figure frozen in that radiant mont of sunshine.

It turned out that there really were people as warm as the bright sun, whose re encounter could illuminate half a heart.

——————

The day of the funeral, a drizzle hung in the sky.

With the help of Gao Chuan and friends, the funeral went smoothly.

Fang Qing had cut all ties with her family after marrying Jiang An's father, and since the mother had kept it secret all along, Jiang An obediently never inquired about her maternal relatives. As a result, almost no relatives attended Fang Qing's funeral, with more attendees being her forr students.

The girl, dressed in a black suit with a pure white chrysanthemum pinned to her chest, stood alone in a corner, tearfully watching as many students Fang Qing once taught ca from far and wide to send her off on her last journey.

As an outsider of the family, Gao Chuan hid in another corner. Only after everything was done did the two et. Once again, Gao Chuan drove the utterly exhausted Jiang An ho, with a still chilly atmosphere all along the way.

He knew the girl probably didn't even have the strength to speak right now.

By the ti the car arrived at the foot of Jiang An's building, it was evening. Gao Chuan woke Jiang An, who had fallen asleep in the passenger seat, her eyes bleary and veiled with layers of fog.

She had a nightmare, where she was gripped by a fierce monster, and across the shore, Fang Qing kept shouting loudly, "Anan, Anan..."

The girl, forehead covered in sweat, suddenly grabbed at sothing in front of her, as if clutching at a lifesaving straw amidst despair. When she opened her eyes, she found it was Gao Chuan's sowhat cold palm she was holding.

Her hands were clammy from the nightmare's sweat, and the moist touch still sparked an electric current that surged through Gao Chuan's body. Before he could pull his hand free, caught by the girl, he caught sight of her misty eyes.

Those eyes seed like they could make one fall into the galaxy at the end of the universe, with stars twinkling bright and charmingly.

Jiang An, realizing her nervousness, quickly let go of Gao Chuan's hand.

"We're here," Gao Chuan said, returning to the driver's seat, his gaze turning to the window.

"Oh, okay, I'll get out," Jiang An, not sure to whom she was speaking, hurriedly unbuckled her seatbelt, opened the car door, and got out, while Gao Chuan also got out of the car.

Both stood on opposite ends of the car, instantly at a loss for words.

Everything seed like waking from a deep dream, and Jiang An, looking at the man a few ters away from her, felt a sudden pang in her nose.

At sunset, the sky was filled with layers of clouds, and swathes of crimson colored the entire sky.

Unbeknownst to her, Jiang An had moved closer to Gao Chuan. She slightly leaned forward and wrapped her arms around the man in front of her; his coat was heavily draped at his waist, Gao Chuan's nerves tensed, his hands finding no natural place to rest.

The world fell silent at this mont, Jiang An's head buried in the man's warm chest, seemingly able to feel their disorderly heartbeats.

"Dr. Gao, thank you, thank you," Jiang An seed to cry, her voice sowhat blurred, sounding muffled to Gao Chuan's ears. He slowly reached out to stroke her back, but the girl instantly pulled away.

"Dr. Gao, you are a good doctor, you will surely get better and better," Jiang An said as she held back her tears, her sudden smile blooming brightly like sunlight.

Gao Chuan looked at the girl standing before him, as if choking back words, as if he wanted to say sothing but couldn't speak a word.