…………

The man was gritting his teeth and enduring the pain when he suddenly heard the noise of someone coming in. He held his stomach and straightened his body, striving to look someone indifferent.

Lan Xue was shocked by his cold and scary eyes, but she didn't cower this time. She went to the side and picked up the bottle of medicine. He carefully walked towards Wei Mingyan and handed the bottle to him.

Wei Mingyan's lip were whiter than usual due to the pain. He bit his lips lightly, his eyes staring at Lan Xue, and then after some time, he finally extended his hand. He gently said, "Thank you."

Lan Xue only watched as the man opened the bottle. Using his slender and fair hand he took the medicine out and directly swallowed it. He didn't even drink water.

Didn't he think it's bitter?

Since she was small, Lan Xue was afraid of taking bitter medicine. She swallowed some saliva and looked at Wei Mingyan with a bit of awe.

Just as she had gathered the courage to talk to Wei Mingyan about his sickness, the laughter of men came from outside the office.

Lan Xue directed her attention back to the man in front of her. His initially mild expression due to having taken his medicine changed back to a cold one. She didn't understand at first, but when two other doctors walked into the office and saw the scene within, she seemed to understand something.

The intrigue in the hospital has never been less than outside. Although Lan Xue has yet to witness it personally, she could sometimes overhear it from her cla.s.smates gossiping about various hospitals, a few stories about office bullying.

In her eyes, Wei Mingyan was obviously a bullied person. Why else would everyone go to eat lunch in groups at noon, but leave him alone in the office?

This time, Lan Xue's guess was correct. Wei Mingyan was indeed being cast aside by his colleagues. As a new doctor, he just had finished his interns.h.i.+p. In the eyes of veteran doctors, it's their right to call the shots.

However, Wei Mingyan's character was not pleasing. To others, he appeared like someone who always sits in a gloomy corner, with no smile in his face, as if he was scheming against them in the dark.

In fact, the original was indeed like that. As a newcomer doctor, his salary was not high, yet he had a lot of work. Although this was normal in every hospital, he couldn't accept it.

One time after the director arranged their duties, he directly asked him why even after he finished his entire s.h.i.+ft for this week, he still had to be on duty. Yet the director had been relieved of his.

In reality, everyone knew that the youngest daughter of the director had just been born. He has been on duty for a long time and had no time for his family. Every time he was on duty, he would extend it. Of course, as compensation, the duty on each s.h.i.+ft would be adjusted. If you've been asked to swap duties this week, later on, the person would buy you a meal. (TL: d.a.m.n, MTL is real. It's a brain-killer, and I'm a willing victim)

Everyone accepted this rule. After all, no one would truly be put in a difficult situation. You help me today, I will help you tomorrow. And it's good for everybody.

However, this young new doctor's eyes were higher than the sky and couldn't accept this little addition on his s.h.i.+ft. When he asked his question under the eyes of everybody, he almost made the director not take his planned vacation to Taiwan.

After this incident, animosity between him and the director sprouted.

The director was their direct leader. Because of this, the others no longer looked after Wei Mingyan whose face was sullen all day long. From that moment onwards, everyone gained a reason to stay away from him.

The original Wei Mingyan did not bother to get to the bottom of it. Although he was uncomfortable, he was also happy to not be disturbed. After that, he began focusing on the dean's daughter to gain her favor.  He then put these old colleagues in place.

At this moment, the atmosphere in the office that had just eased turned stiff again because of the entrance of the two doctors. Lan Xue felt it was quite awkward, but the handsome man in front of her was still groaning as if trying to endure the pain. "You go back first, thank you for your help."

"It's not a big deal. I'll go now."

Lan Xue actually didn't want to go, but she knew she would only feel more embarra.s.sed if she stayed. She left reluctantly. That was when Wei Mingyan squinted his eyes and placed his hand again before his stomach.

Such a fragile him….

Her good feelings for him actually rose again!

If she continues like this, she wouldn't be able to control herself anymore and do everything for him…

After Lan Xue left, the two doctors stared at Wei Mingyan who sat down clutching his stomach while looking down. They looked a little hesitant. Normally, as colleagues, they should be moving forward to ask him about his current situation, but since they knew about Wei Mingyan's character, they knew even if they ask him, he wouldn't answer.

When this thought came to them, they felt like it was much better to mind their own things. They bowed their heads and continue doing their work.

Doctors like them are actually very busy, especially since they work for the largest hospital in the city. Patients coming and going are scarily numerous. The doctors on duty are busy all the time. Even when they are supposed to already have finished their s.h.i.+fts, and there are other doctors on duty to take over, they would still have to work overtime to check medical records.

The director had a wife who was usually at home. But today his wife called to inform him that she would be shopping with her mother-in-law. She said he had to buy himself takeout for dinner and get off from work early to look after their daughter.

Since this was the case, he checked his own office, cleaned the cabinets, swept the floor and checked today's medical records. Then the director locked the door, ready to get off work.

Before leaving, in accordance with his usual habit, he went to the big office and inspected the place.

Then he saw Wei Mingyan burying his head on his desk.

At this sight, the director's eyebrows couldn't help but wrinkle. Even though he's the one older, he detested this guy who always looked at his face as if he owed him money. But the hospital's nurses were thinking this guy was so cool. Though for the director, being young and aloof was okay, to be sullen and offensive in words all day long, that was not okay.

Even if he didn't understand what Wei Mingyan was currently doing, he didn't plan to do anything. He merely frowned and then was about to leave. But when he was about to turn around, he noticed that the man's long and slender hands were hanging perpendicular to the table.

This was not normal. He was burying his head on the table, his hands hanging down; his head and body were so close. He must not be able to breathe freely that way, right? And also, who on earth sleeps like that?

The kid might not be pleasing to the eyes, but the director was also a doctor. After discovering that something was wrong, he immediately walked towards Wei Mingyan. "Wei Mingyan?"

He yelled but the other didn't respond. He reached out and patted Wei Mingyan's shoulder. The man moved a little, and the director saw some beads of sweat on his forehead.

The lips were white, the forehead sweating, and the face looked pale.

Is this kid sick?

The director didn't have time to think more about it, he immediately shook the man's body to wake him up.

The sick young doctor opened his eyes slightly, the feebleness in his voice made his tone less cold than usual. "Director?"

"Are you feeling unwell?"

Seeing that he could still blink and talk, the worried director who seemed concerned about his condition seriously asked, "Do you know what your illness is?"

Wei Mingyan's eyes gradually regained focus. He straightened his body and sat up, the waist upright. If it wasn't for the paleness on his face and the cold sweat on his forehead, even the slightest sign of weakness wouldn't be seen from his expression.

"Stomach pain, same old problem, nothing big."

His voice was neither high nor low, and it was the most annoying tone for the director.

If it was before and he heard him talk like this, the director would have already left. But he was a doctor. He couldn't help feeling responsible when seeing a sick patient. "Hurry and take your medicine, or just take care of it. Ask your family to make you warm soup every day. Soup good for stomach, you should know about it."

When he heard the word 'family', the young doctor's eyes seemed to have become dimmer, fleetingly at lost. "Okay, thank you, Director."

This kid seems to be thanking him for the first time.

The director was amazed at the fact that the doctor he quite disliked knows how to express grat.i.tude. He carried his things away and walked out of the office in a good mood.

Just when he arrived at the parking lot, his footsteps halted.

No, why did he only remember now that Wei Mingyan seems to have no more family left?

Then, aren't the words he just said meant to poke at sore spots of that person's heart?

Wei Mingyan shouldn't be thinking he said that deliberately, right?

Then he thought of how the kid was feeling ill like that, yet still tried to make his expression normal. Nevertheless, he should be in pain. When he spoke, the cold tone of that child seemed to have become quite fragile. Suddenly, the director looked down to his feet. What should he do?

Although the kid was usually not pleasing to his eyes when he thought that this kid was just a few years older than his eldest son and that today he didn't appear to see Wei Mingyan appearing at the cafeteria, which meant he didn't eat anything this day…

The director was less than fifty years old, but because he had stayed up late at night for so many years, he seemed to have aged fast and was now usually living like an elderly. He had always advocated health, and despite not being very proficient in Chinese traditional medicine, he did learn a thing or two from his friends.

A person with stomach pain that had not eaten anything this day…

He endured and endured, but thinking of Wei Mingyan's face earlier, he still didn't manage to resist turning around and reentering the hospital.

…

Wei Mingyan had a perforated stomach.

The news quickly spread throughout the office.

Every doctor knows that stomach perforation could cause people to collapse. If not treated on time, the patient's life might even be in danger. If the director had not come to his aid when Wei Mingyan fainted, with his colleagues busy eating, even dilly-dallying before coming back, Wei Mingyan's body in the office would have already turned cold.

Wei Mingyan, who was hospitalized due to gastrointestinal perforation, appeared very melancholic. At least, that was how he looked like in the director's eyes.

At his first few skipping of meals, it was still okay. Later on, Wei Mingyan's bad eating habits had been cultivated. Despite being someone who must take care of his stomach, he had no choice but eat pitiful takeaways every day.

The surgery department was far from where Mingyan had been confined, but since his subordinate was sick, the director had no choice but go, whether willing or not. When went to see the young doctor, he listened to the diagnosis from his colleague and then said a few good words.

Sure enough, he learned that the handsome young man used to basically go just anywhere to eat.

The director visited Wei Mingyan three times. Every time he went there, he would see the good-looking young doctor reading a book. He was actually reading a medical book. As he saw this, as the older one, the middle-aged director slowly put away his prejudice against the other.

Anyways, young people like Wei Mingyan who are not impetuous at all were really rare.

After seeing him like this a few times, he discovered that Wei Mingyan doesn't have any opinion against him, and he was used to how people treated him.

Right now, he suspected that when Wei Mingyan questioned about the s.h.i.+fting that day, Wei Mingyan had not related it to how he almost not let the director take his trip to Taiwan.

The director's put up a complicated expression on his face.

Initially, the director thought, the kid was a little rascal. It turned out; he was actually a silly person. (TL: MTL said it's a little weasel, then a straight silly spore (?))

Yet due to Wei Mingyan's gloomy face, he had secretly guarded himself against him for a long time.

He was actually just a good boy diligent and eager to learn but didn't truly understand the world.

On his fourth visit, the director brought him the stomach soup made by his wife.

By then, he's been thinking the kid was weird.

While it's true that he has no more family members to care for him, he also still has no girlfriend.