Chapter 13

***

As she only intended to visit Xiaoyue’s recording studio, Yu Dong didn’t bother putting on make up as she got ready. On the subway entrance she bought a few buns for brunch.

As they just finished dubbing a TV drama the recording studio was quiet, but Xiang Xiaoyue should still be here?

Yu Dong was puzzled when she saw the empty front desk and reception room.

“Xiaoyue?” Yu Dong shouted.

“Where is she?” Yu Dong took out her phone to call Xiaoyue, and heard the familiar ringtone coming from the conference room.

When she opened the door Yu Dong saw Xiang Xiaoyue slumped on the conference table, her face full of pain.

“Where does it hurt?”

“Abdomen!” Yu Dong could barely hear Xiaoyue’s weak answer.

“I’m taking you to the hospital!” Yu Dong called for a taxi and rode it with Xiang Xiaoyue all the way to the city hospital

When they arrived at the hospital, Yu Dong was dumbfounded. Sure enough, there were no holidays in a hospital – it was very crowded.

Yu Dong saw Xiang Xiaoyue’s pale face and was very worried about her friend. In the end she felt hopeless and decided to call Xia Feng.

“You know people in the hospital!” Xiang Xiaoyue couldn’t help but exclaim after listening in on Yu Dong’s conversation on her phone.

“You’re in pain and all you care about is that I know someone here?” Yu Dong had no words.

“Eh, I feel like this is just appendicitis.” Xiang Xiaoyue said this then grabbed Yu Dong’s hand, “If I have to do surgery, remember to tell them that they can’t leave a scar!

“Shut up,” Yu Dong was angry.

“Dong Dong, you don’t care about me at all.” Xiaoyue felt wronged.

“You…”

Yu Dong was about to answer when Xia Feng arrived and upon seeing her, called out, “Yu Dong!”

“Xia Feng!” She waved at him.

Xia Feng ran over towards her and saw a beautiful woman beside Yu Dong with a painful expression. He asked in concern, “Where are you aching?”

“Here!” Xiaoyue pointed at her stomach.

Xia Feng pressed at Xiang Xiaoyue’s belly and asked, “What about here? Does it hurt here?”

“No!” Xiaoyue shook her head then said, “It was hurting on the way to the hospital but for some reason it doesn’t hurt anymore.”

Summer breeze runs over a few paces and sees a gorgeous-looking woman beside winter with painful white lips. She asks with concern, “Where do you ache?”

Xia Feng stood up, looked at Yu Dong and said, “Don’t worry, it should be acute appendicitis!”

“Handsome man, do I need to do surgery?” Xiaoyue was still thinking about the possibility of scars.

“Shut up! Is your life more important than some scarring?” Yu Dong was still astounded.

“Scarring!”

“Then just leave your appendix inside then!”

Well, the pain had already left? But no, Xiaoyue suddenly felt more stomach pains.

“Ha ha…it’d be impossible to not undergo surgery, but I can tell the doctor to be extra careful so any scarring would be minimal!” Xia Feng then turned and asked Yu Dong, “Have you registered?”

“Not yet!” Yu Dong had been too frazzled to think properly.

“That’s fine. Give me her health insurance card and ID card. I’ll do it!” Xia Feng said.

“Go on, quickly give me your ID card!” Yu Dong got Xiaoyue’s bag, luckily she remembered to take it when they left.

“Wait a bit, I’ll have a nurse come and pick you up.”

A little while, a petite nurse came over with a wheelchair and pushed Xiang Xiaoyue directly into a double ward. The nurse gave Xiang Xiaoyue an IV drip, explaining that it was painkiller.

Xia Feng returned after a while and handed the ID card back to Yu Dong saying, “I’ve registered her and a doctor should arrive soon. I still have a few other patients, so I’ll be heading back.”

“OK, thank you for coming, I know you’re very busy!” Yu Dong hurriedly said.

“Call me if you need anything!” Xia Feng smiled then turned to Xiaoyue to say, “I told the doctor, rest assured, any scarring will be minimal.”

“Thank you, handsome! ” Xiaoyue shouted as Xia Feng left.

“So loud, aren’t you in pain?” Yu Dong was exasperated.

“I feel a lot better!” Xiaoyue regained her spirits, and naturally started to gossip. “Who was that handsome guy? Not just handsome, he’s a doctor and a gentleman, his voice was super gentle too!”

“What are you planning?” Yu Dong asked.

“This sister’s all alone, what do you think. How can I let that excellent specimen go!” Said Xiaoyue, “Introduce me!”

“You yourself think he’s a catch, how can I leave him to you!” Yu Dong said.

“Oh, are you aiming for him?” Xiang Xiaoyue wasn’t discouraged. “Then I won’t rob you your target. When you catch him though, don’t forget to introduce me to one of his colleagues!”

“……”

Then an old doctor in his 50s came in, looked at Xiang Xiaoyue’s situation and said, “Your condition isn’t that serious. I’ll slot you in my schedule and do your surgery then. Rest assured, Xia Feng told me about your worries, I won’t leave you any scars.”

“Thank you Doctor!” Yu Dong thanked him.

Appendix surgery was a minor operation that only took around 1 hour to do.

At the end of her operation, Xia Feng dropped by again to see how Xiang Xiaoyue was, only leaving once he determined that she would be OK.

Yu Dong waited with Xiaoyue until her parents arrived before leaving the hospital. Before she left, Yu Dong dropped by the oncology department, but the nurse informed her that Xia Feng was doing an operation.

……

When Xia Feng finished the operation, he took out his phone and saw he received a message from Yu Dong, telling him that she had gone home.

Xia Feng smiled, replying that he received her message.

“Today was exhausting!” Shao Yifan streched on his chair and said, “How did I become a doctor with this brain of mine anyway?”

“I always thought you’ve just been just winging it?” Xia Feng raised an eyebrow.

“Thanks to that, I’ve been a doctor for eight years!” Shao Yifan said sadly, “It’s only through hard work that I even survived till now.”

“Well, you survived so far. Look at our director, he’s been a doctor for 30 years. Keep looking like you know what your’e doing and I’m sure you’ll last that long too.”

“Hey!”

“Stop yelling and let’s go eat!” Xia Feng gave him a pat as he stood up.

The two went to the hospital canteen. Actually, it was already way past the canteen’s opening hours, but because doctors had uncertain meal times, the canteen set up a small booth open 24 hours.

They saw another person when they arrived and they greeted him.

“Director Wang!” Xia Feng gave a polite greeting to the Director. It was Director Wang who did the operation on Yu Dong’s friend today.

“Yes! Just finished an operation!” Shao Yifan said.

“Go ahead and eat.” Director Wang was just about to leave when he suddenly remembered. He turned to Xia Feng and said, “That young girl with appendicitis seems to like chili pepper very much, so remind her to take it easy for now.”

“Alright!” Xia Feng nodded and said, “Sorry to have bothered you!”

“It was nothing, it isn’t easy finding a girlfriend while being a doctor. Doctors have to care more about others than our personal lives. Besides, treating a beautiful girl wasn’t a hassle!” After that, Director Wang cheerfully left.

“What girlfriend? Did Yu Dong get sick?” Shao Yifan asked.

“No, it was Yu Dong’s classmate!”

“Is she pretty?” Shao Yifan focused on this, “Right, Yu Dong majored in broadcast hosting, most women majoring in this are beautiful. Is she single? Can you help introduce me?”

“…” Xia Feng’s answer was to just leave.

…………

In the evening, Yu Dong went to work by bus again.

The bus driver saw Yu Dong and said enthusiastically, “I’ll be listening to your broadcast as soon as I get to the terminal!”

“Is that right? Do you like my program?”

“It’s really good, I recommended your broadcast to my colleagues, and they all said your voice was very good.”

“Thank them for me.” Yu Dong smiled.

Even though Yu Dong didn’t really expect much when she started hosting the show, anyone would be happy when someone touts your program as their favorite.

Yu Dong entered the studio with snacks as usual.

“Thank you for the food as usual!” Senior Yu said happily.

“Thank you for helping me with the calls usual!” Yu Dong replied.

“Oh, it’s nothing.” Senior Yu smiled and said, “Ah, that’s right, there’s something I want to show you!”

Yu Dong looked the paper that Senior Yu passed her. It was the listening rate of different radio stations at various times. She saw that Midnight Phantom was also included in the ratings.

“First in this time slot?” Yu Dong was shocked.

“Although the listening rate isn’t very high, it’s still pretty high for a midnight slot!” Senior Yu was very happy, as if it was his own program that won first place.

Yu Dong was also very happy, so Midnight Phantom featured nothing but light and happy songs that night.

“Well, it’s that time again, we’ll pick up another call from the audience!” As Yu Dong said these words, Senior Yu motioned that there was already a call.

“Hello, this is Fish Jelly!”

“Hello Fish Jelly, this is Mr. Strong!”

Ever since she started calling listeners that didn’t want to be named Mr. Strong and Ms.Beautiful, new callers would start calling themselves the same

“Hello, Mr.Strong. Do you have any stories to share with us tonight?”

“I don’t, I just wanted to talk to someone!”

Yu Dong frowned, but still asked, “What do you want to say?”

“I don’t know what to say. I’m just thinking, the city is so big, but no one wants to listen to me.” said Mr. Strong

Yu Dong suddenly thought of a movie she had seen before her rebirth and asked tentatively, “You’re not on a rooftop, are you?”

“How’d you know?” Mr.Strong said, astonished.

“You shouldn’t have the urge to jump anymore then.” Yu Dong made her voice as calm as possible.

“I’m not stupid, why jump off a building!” Mr.Strong said.

“That’s good!” Yu Dong smiled and said, “This conversation just reminds me of a story about a man living alone in the big city. He was very lonely and often comes home from work everyday without anyone to talk to but his dog. After a while, he suffered from depression so he started to call a radio station every day to chat with the host, who told him that life should be taken one step at a time, so the man took one step out of the rooftop.”

“….” There was a sudden silence on the other end of the phone.

The message area also had nothing but a wolf howling, listeners started condemning Fish Jelly for telling them a chilling midnight horror story!

“Fish Jelly, listening to your story made me feel like I’m not in such a miserable situation after all. There seems to be people who are much more vulnerable than me. You can be rest assured, I won’t step out of the rooftop. I’m going to go home now!” Mr.Strong said, as if he just had an epiphany.

“Good luck to you!” Fish Jelly hung up the phone and said tonight’s closing remarks, “Do you all remember what I said at the end of yesterday’s show? If life is making you feel lonely, then you must remember, there’s someone out there waiting for you! When you finally meet, you’ll be able to ward off the lonely cold with each other’s warmth.”

After two hours of live broadcasting, Yu Dong left the broadcast station.

Xia Feng was standing quietly at the gate waiting for Yu Dong to approach, smiling and handing her a cup of milk tea.

“Why’d you come?” Yu Dong was surprised Xia Feng came by.

“I just got off work and decided to stop by!” Xia Feng didn’t mention that he parked his car nearby before she even started her broadcast and quietly listened for the full 2 hours.

“You work such long hours, you should be back at home sleeping as much as possible.” Yu Dong felt distressed.

“I’m not going to work tomorrow anyway!” Xia Feng said.

Hearing this, Yu Dong felt a little better but said, “You can’t keep doing this, you’ve only slept for a few hours these days.”

Xia Feng suddenly laughed.

“What are you laughing at?”

“I just remembered what Director Wang said,” Xia Feng told her with a smile, “He said it’s not easy for us doctors to find girlfriends, so we should treasure them more.”

“So you came to pick me up?”n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

In the end no matter how far we go, we’ll inevitably be missing home, because there’s always someone who’ll be thinking of you.

****