Chapter 51: Memorial
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu
Life in Kuake City was truly slow. Apart from a few restaurants run by Chinese people, the other—ethnic—restaurants wouldn’t even open before 10:00 a.m. This became even more exaggerated in the winter. Businesses wouldn’t open even until noontime. Two weeks after Zhang Fan’s team arrived in Kuake City, they were informed that they could all take two days off to rest. Li Hongtu happily went out to explore and take pictures, which was his hobby. He carried a camera with a tripod and went searching for places with the least people.
Since Zhang Fan didn’t have any surgeries to do, he decided to go to Chasu City to continue Li Xiao’s massage treatment. Just as he was about to leave, Wang Yanan found him. “You’re going back to Chasu City?” she asked Zhang Fan.
“Yeah, I’ll be back by this afternoon.”
“Let me go back with you. It’s really boring to stay here without any surgeries.” They could leave Kuake City because they didn’t belong to Kuake City Hospital anyways. Not to mention, Kang Hua had especially had Tang Jingjing tell Zou Pingshan that he should treat Zhang Fan well.
“Sure. Have you told Vice Director Li that you’re going back to visit Chasu City?”
“Yeah, he agreed already.”
Zhang Fan thus drove Wang Yanan to Chasu City. Wang Yanan wasn’t very curious about why Zhang Fan had a car. Her family was well off, so she felt that it wasn’t rare to see someone having a car. Rather, she was highly curious about why Zhang Fan knew how to drive, since both of them had just recently graduated from college. Why did he know how to drive when she didn’t? She didn’t even ask where Zhang Fan got his car from. She just kept asking if it was easy to learn how to drive. Halfway to Chasu City, since Wang Yanan saw that few cars were on the road, she excitedly asked Zhang Fan, “How about letting me try to drive? I’ll only drive for ten minutes!”
Zhang Fan ignored her. Although there weren’t many cars on the road between Kuake City and Chasu City, he still wanted to live a long life. He found that Wang Yanan’s personality was just like a man’s, wanting to personally control everything.
“So stingy.” Seeing that Zhang Fan was ignoring her, Wang Yanan reclined the seat and took a nap.
Zhang Fan was driving under the blue sky with a warm sun, and could see snowy mountains in the distance. If only the woman riding in his car was gentler, he would feel so blessed. When he first got acquainted with Wang Yanan, he felt that she was the icy type, but now that he was more familiar with her, he discovered that she was no different from how a man would be! She was so direct!
Zhang Fan’s car was almost completely new. However, he didn’t have any CDs with music to listen to. It wasn’t that he didn’t like listening to music, but rather that he felt like CDs were a waste of money. Since the road leading from Kuake City to Chasu City was mountainous, the radio signal was almost nonexistent as well.
Wang Yanan really did fall asleep in Zhang Fan’s car. When he arrived in Chasu City, he pushed her, and said, “Wake up, where do you want to go? I’ll drop you off.” Wang Yanan opened her eyes, looked outside the car window, and said, “The staff residential apartments of the Chasu City Bureau of Public Health. Wake me up when we get there. I’m going to sleep for a little while longer.”
When Zhang Fan arrived, he had to drag the still half-asleep Wang Yanan off his car. At this time, her mom coincidentally came out and saw her. Her mom exploded with anger to see her daughter getting off a car while looking half-asleep. She grabbed the car door and interrogated Wang Yanan. “What’s going on, Yanan? Weren’t you supposed to be in Kuake City?” She then glared at Zhang Fan. “What exactly is going on here!?”
Since Zhang Fan couldn’t drive the car with Wang Yanan’s mother holding onto the car door, he decided to get off the car. “Hello, Ma’am. I’m a coworker of Wang Yanan.” Hearing that he was a coworker made Wang Yanan’s mother’s expression relax significantly. She asked, “Where are you going?” This time, it was evident that she was talking to Zhang Fan.
“Mom, he’s my coworker. He has business here in Chasu City, so I decided to get a ride from him. We have no patients to see today since it’s a rest day for us. Stop asking so many questions and go home already.”
“Why are you in such a hurry? Since you’re here already, you should invite him in. Your dad and uncles are chatting inside. I was about to go out to buy some groceries. What’s your coworker’s name?” Wang Yanan’s mom felt quite a headache about her daughter. Wang Yanan worked together almost exclusively with men, and had yet to get a single boyfriend even at her age. Although Wang Yanan wasn’t worried about this at all, her mother was really anxious. Her mother tried to introduce several men to her daughter, but Wang Yanan refused to even try and meet them! When Wang Yanan’s mother saw the situation before her just now, she had gotten the impression that Zhang Fan and her daughter might have some type of romantic connection, which was why she started prying.
Zhang Fan broke out into a cold sweat from hearing the invitation. This sounded like he would get interrogated by Wang Yanan’s entire family! Still, Wang Yanan became impatient before he did. “Mom, stop dawdling here. Hurry and leave already. He still has something to do.” She dragged her mom away. Before Wang Yanan left, she said to Zhang Fan, “When are you going back to Kuake City this afternoon? Call me and give me a ride back when you do.”
Zhang Fan immediately drove off as quickly as he could. That had been so scary!
Li Xiao hadn’t gone out anywhere today. She was waiting at home for Zhang Fan to arrive while performing the rehabilitative exercises that he had taught her. When Zhang Fan entered her home, he saw that Li Xiao was wearing sportswear. She was exercising in the living room. A big smile appeared on her face when she saw Zhang Fan. “Doctor Zhang, how are my movements? Are they standard enough? I’ve been feeling like it’s much easier to bend my back compared to just a few days ago. My entire body feels so much lighter.”
“You’re doing pretty good. Sister Li, remember not to rush; take everything gradually. Otherwise, everything will have been for nothing,” Zhang Fan reminded her.
“Alright, I’ll definitely watch out. Please have a seat while I clean myself up. I didn’t think that you would arrive so early today. I’m still covered in sweat. Please wait for me while I shower. Have some tea and smokes while you wait.”
“Sure. No need to mind me.”
Li Xiao’s assistant soon prepared some tea for Zhang Fan while also bringing him an ashtray and some smokes. Zhang Fan bowed to the assistant and thanked her. The assistant didn’t say anything and simply smiled.
When Zhang Fan began the massage treatment, Li Xiao asked, “Doctor Zhang, is your massage technique something that you’ll only teach to men but not women?” Li Xiao had asked her older sister to take her CT scan to Shuitanzi Hospital, one of the top hospitals in Beijing. The orthopedic specialist doctor there had recommended immediate surgery, saying that she would soon have even worse back problems if she didn’t, yet after the past few weeks of massage treatments, her back was getting better every day, with the pain much lighter now. This helped Li Xiao understand that Zhang Fan was truly amazing.
Zhang Fan maintained constant force output in his hands as he answered, “Haha, that’s a funny joke, Sister Li.”
Actually, Li Xiao wanted to make a move on Zhang Fan’s massage techniques. After the massage was finished, Li Xiao invited Zhang Fan to dinner, but he refused. He ate some hand-grabbed mutton at a random restaurant outside, and then called Wang Yanan to let her know that he was leaving. When he picked up Wang Yanan, her mother stood by her side, and treated Zhang Fan incredibly politely. Her mother even placed a lot of food inside Zhang Fan’s car.
Since Zhang Fan and Wang Yanan had been temporarily assigned to Kuake City Hospital, there was no need for them to go to Chasu City Hospital. Thus, they directly returned to Kuake City. When he arrived at Kuake City Hospital, he saw Wang Sha walking over in his direction. When Wang Sha saw Zhang Fan, she sped up and came over to greet him. “Zhang Fan, long time no see. There’s something I want to trouble you with. Are you busy right now? Is it convenient for you?” Wang Sha also nodded in greeting to Wang Yanan.
Zhang Fan immediately knew that this would be related to Li Hui. He forced himself to say, “I’m not very busy right now. How have you been?” Zhang Fan really didn’t want to get involved with this former couple’s matters. It was quite evident that Li Hui had been the unfaithful party and was in the wrong. However, this wasn’t something that the law could do anything about, so what was Zhang Fan supposed to do?
“I’m doing quite well. I’m about to get married soon. You definitely have to come!” Wang Sha was all smiles as she said this.
‘So she really did get engaged after all!’ Zhang Fan thought to himself.
Wang Sha brought Zhang Fan over to the private house where he previously lived instead of a hospital dormitory. The dormitory now had far more people than before since so many fresh college graduates had just joined Kuake City Hospital. However, Zhang Fan only saw a young woman that he didn’t know here. Everyone else was currently on a work shift at the hospital. “I hope that I can ask this of you. I have some things here that I’d like to ask you to give to Li Hui. It’s not convenient for me to go see him, so I can only ask you.” She handed Zhang Fan a bag that wasn’t particularly large or small. Just as Zhang Fan wondered about what could possibly be inside, Wang Sha smiled and told him, “It’s nothing much. They’re just some things that Li Hui gave to me before. It’s not appropriate for me to keep them, but it’s a pity to throw them away, so could you please give them back to him so he can do what he wants with them?”
Wang Sha then placed the bag in Zhang Fan’s hands. Zhang Fan saw that Wang Sha’s eyes were reddening, and that she was doing her best not to cry. Actually, it wasn’t only just “things” inside the bag she gave Zhang Fan. That bag also contained seven to eight years’ worth of feelings. The prime of Wang Sha’s youth was contained inside this bag. From now on, she and Li Hui would truly become strangers, and would no longer be friends. Wang Sha was the decisive type. Once she truly gave up on her ex-boyfriend, she would give up for certain. She wouldn’t hesitate one bit afterwards.
“I’ll be troubling you.” Her voice sounded slightly teary. She was basically holding a memorial for her lost youth and feelings.
“It’s no trouble at all. If there’s nothing else, I’ll be leaving now. You should have a good rest.” Zhang Fan was loudly cursing at Li Hui inside his mind. That bastard had done this to Wang Sha, but the result was that it made Zhang Fan feel so awkward as if it had been Zhang Fan who was the one that cheated on Wang Sha instead.
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