These two single adults trying to connect and explore the possibility of teaming up for life nearly cost them their lives.
Chapter 11
During Liu Zhengliang's night shifts, the emergency department in this small city wasn't always busy. Sometimes several nights would pass without any patients. With fewer young people and even fewer going out after dark, by seven or eight o'clock when middle-aged and elderly residents were already heading to bed, the streets emptied and accidents decreased. When elderly patients did have emergencies, their chronic conditions had made them experienced enough to know exactly where to go.
During idle moments, Liu Zhengliang would pull out his phone to play games. He was playing Honor of Kings when he noticed his friend Ai Chen was online on WeChat during the late night hours. Ai Chen casually invited him to team up. Liu Zhengliang played as a marksman while Ai Chen consistently chose Zhong Kui. They coordinated perfectly - one responsible for firepower while the other scouted and ambushed from the sidelines.
After six matches, Liu Zhengliang asked Ai Chen: "Why aren't you sleeping?"
Ai Chen typed back: "Can't sleep. By the way, what's your educational background?"
Liu Zhengliang replied: "PhD, jointly trained by Peking Union Medical College and Johns Hopkins."
Ai Chen felt she couldn't quite grasp this answer: "So, do you plan to work in emergency medicine long-term?"
Liu Zhengliang responded: "I'll probably work here for a while. Standard procedure requires rotating through other departments. In this profession, we have to keep learning - might even need to write papers for journal submissions. Can't always rely on the basic skills learned in school, that wouldn't help with professional growth either. Emergency medicine itself requires the experience of a general practitioner, otherwise misdiagnoses are likely."
Having only completed twelve years of education with three years of vocational school that taught her little, Ai Chen felt tremendous pressure from Liu Zhengliang's response - mainly because she didn't understand several terms he'd used. She wished she could express her cleverness and agility through Zhong Kui's bush-ambushing tactics in the game, but after just a few exchanges with Liu Zhengliang, her usual intellectual confidence completely vanished. In Ai Chen's world, she was surrounded by simple-minded men who'd resort to fists or knives over minor disagreements and end up in jail - around them she never felt inferior, but with Liu Zhengliang, she did. If he had been condescending, she could have kicked him, but this young man was reasonable and straightforward, leaving her no grounds for anger.
Staring blankly at her phone, she searched for definitions of "paper," "PhD," "joint training," and "general practitioner." Her previously excited and joyful mood plummeted to rock bottom with insecurity. Would this man ever be interested in someone like me? Before, my smiling face could make anyone weak - that trick should still work, so why do I feel weak first? Intelligent men are just sexy.
Ai Chen confided in her best friend: "This guy is really educated, I quite like him. But would he ever be interested in me?"
Her friend asked: "How educated are we talking?"
Ai Chen said: "There were at least four words in one sentence of his that I had to look up. We might not have enough common topics."
Her friend responded: "Forget about common topics - what's his expression when he looks at you?"Ai Chen pondered for a moment: "Probably when someone avoids eye contact, it means they have a guilty conscience."
Her best friend replied: "Exactly. I've never met a man who doesn't feel guilty when he looks at you. Why bother with common interests? What matters is that you find each other pleasing to the eye, that you want to be together after work, that they stick to you like plaster - tearing it off would take a layer of skin. Why talk so much? Even common topics eventually run out. Between men and women, it's all about attraction. You find him exciting, he finds you captivating - that's enough."
Whenever Liu Zhengliang and Ai Chen had free time, they'd message each other on WeChat to play games. They could even voice chat while gaming, but eventually that wasn't satisfying enough, so they started meeting at coffee shops after work. In a small city like Fushun, there were no theaters, art galleries, or museums - not that Ai Chen would understand them anyway, and Liu Zhengliang wasn't particularly interested either. There were cinemas, but after watching a few movies, they ran out of new entertainment options.
After playing together for a month, Liu Zhengliang started feeling restless. He told his parents that he'd been spending time with a girl recently, playing games and meeting often, and he felt quite good about her - he wanted to develop their relationship further.
Liu Zhengliang's mother asked: "What does this girl do for work?"
Liu Zhengliang replied: "She's in the funeral services business."
His mother's face immediately turned pale: "What's wrong with our family that we've sunk to this level? You're a doctor, you hold a scalpel. What does she hold? A funeral banner or does she break the mourning pot? Does she sing opera, perform Errenzhuan, or dance as a spirit medium?"
Liu Zhengliang said: "She doesn't do those things, she just runs the business."
His mother insisted: "That's still not acceptable. You save people, she sends off the deceased - you're not on the same wavelength. If you two get together, what will people say? They'll say our family really knows how to make money - selling umbrellas with one hand and salt with the other, umbrellas on rainy days and salt on sunny days. Your family would have it all figured out - making money whether you save patients or not."
Liu Zhengliang argued: "Mom, you can't say that. I just have a preliminary idea, we're just getting closer, nothing substantial has happened. I can tell she's interested, and I think she's quite pretty, very warm-hearted, and kind."
Liu Zhengliang's father, who had been listening nearby, couldn't take it anymore: "Stop right there. You two are like vehicles on different roads. What kind of business is she in? Is there any glory in that? If you have no self-respect at all, then why don't you become a forensic pathologist? Then you'd be in the same system, and you wouldn't have to treat living people anymore. Being a forensic pathologist would be perfect - stable doctor-patient relationships, no medical dispute instigators, all your patients would be quiet and peaceful. After you finish your work, you could pass them directly to her - she could handle the funeral procession with all the music and ceremony. Seamless connection, one-stop service."
Seeing that both his parents had such a negative view of Ai Chen, the small flame in Liu Zhengliang's heart was extinguished. When Ai Chen later contacted him to play games or suggested going to movies or meals via WeChat, Liu Zhengliang found excuses to decline.
The first rejection could be explained as genuine busyness.
But by the second and third time, Ai Chen understood.
The girl confronted Liu Zhengliang directly: "What do you mean by this?"
Liu Zhengliang evaded: "I'm really busy."The Fushun girl wouldn't tolerate nonsense, shutting Liu Zhengliang down with a sharp "get lost." We're all adults here—I thought you were a decent guy, and I noticed you checking me out too. That's what I call fate. Everything was going fine, like a piece of meat almost in my mouth, then you pull this stunt. Ai Chen was definitely not happy.
After a few more questions, Liu Zhengliang said, "My family thinks it's inappropriate, and I'm worried you might misunderstand, so I'm trying to avoid any awkwardness."
Ai Chen thought to herself, I finally found a decent guy, and your family thinks it's inappropriate? Just like that? She said, "Inappropriate? How about my dad and I come over to your place to discuss it? I'd like to see what's so inappropriate."
This was pure bullying. Liu Zhengliang didn't respond.
Ai Chen understood. "Get lost, then. I get it—you're looking down on my business."
After a long silence, Liu Zhengliang managed, "That's not it at all. Every trade has its master."
Ai Chen stopped talking, glaring fiercely at Liu Zhengliang before turning and leaving without a trace of hesitation.
Liu Zhengliang had always been obedient since childhood. Even as he gradually realized his parents weren't particularly educated and their guidance wasn't reliable, he still habitually followed their lead. This might be a cowardly aspect of his personality or a problem rooted in his family, but in this situation, he genuinely felt the mismatch in social status himself.
After performing several surgeries in Neurosurgery, Liu Zhengliang's reputation spread throughout Fushun's Wanghua District. The funeral service hustlers outside the Second Hospital, the unlicensed drivers transporting patients, the caregivers making rounds in every ward, and the postpartum nannies—dozens of people chatting in their downtime—all knew a skilled doctor had arrived at the hospital.
Zhang Dexu, who handled funeral services, remarked, "Since he showed up, haven't you noticed? Emergency cases have dropped significantly."
A caregiver added, "Even the elderly in their seventies and eighties with chronic conditions know which department to go to now. They go where they're supposed to. The emergency room is only for sudden major incidents. Take your daughter, for example—in all my over ten years here, I've never seen anyone in her condition leave the operating room alive."
A nanny chimed in, "I heard he's a Ph.D. who was sent here as punishment for some mistake."
An unlicensed driver speculated, "Must be a lifestyle issue, right? Any other problem would've gotten him stripped of his medical license entirely."
Within the hospital, these groups had long formed a macroscopically static yet microscopically dynamic survival chain—a common sight in hospitals across China. The people in this ecosystem were like creatures in a balanced aquarium: there were water plants, scavengers, hermit crabs, yellow croakers, barnacles, razor clams, coral polyps, and shrimp. This kind of aquarium never needs water changes—it maintains its own ecological cycle. It looks clean from the outside, but every creature in its designated role is struggling to survive, putting on a show for observers. You can see each species seemingly thriving, yet also witness them avoiding enemies and bullying the meek. In this space, they sometimes repel each other, sometimes attract. Hermit crabs look down on scavengers, razor clams constantly intimidate shrimp, yellow croakers bother no one, and barnacles try to take advantage of everyone.Dean Long's office had a fish tank just like that. Every day, when the old man saw several middle-aged women downstairs discussing business during their lunch break from his windowsill, he would turn back to look at his fish tank.
The feeling of being watched by Big Brother at all times immediately surfaced.
Recently, while Liu Zhengliang was on duty, several nursing assistants were joking around with him. Just then, emergency services brought in another patient. Che Mingming ran over to call Liu Zhengliang. As the two rushed toward the operating room, Che Mingming said, "Open craniocerebral injury."
Liu Zhengliang ran to the bedside. Chen Junnan had just finished taking the blood pressure and said, "Blood pressure 120 over 80, heart rate 60."
Liu Zhengliang put on gloves and gently parted the wound on the patient's head, clearly seeing brain tissue protruding. He immediately bandaged the wound with gauze while telling Chen Junnan, "You handle the central venous catheterization."
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