Life Plan

Chapter 41, Seeing Shen Shuyi Again

Dr. Li happened to be on duty today. She had just finished her outpatient clinic when she admitted Jiang Xiaonv to the hospital. Liu Chichi and Sun Zhixiao finished giving their statements at the hospital, and she walked out of the inpatient department in a daze.

After the torrential rains following the typhoon ended, the loneliness brought by the darkness was even stronger than that brought by the dark clouds. The dim lights downstairs in the hospital ward fell on the bushes, and Liu Chichi felt as if she had returned to her internship days last year when she was constantly being switched to night shifts.

She stepped onto the wet floor and felt as if her shoes weighed a ton.

Suddenly someone stopped in front of her, and Liu Chichi subconsciously stepped aside to make way, but the person took another step toward her.

Liu Chichi looked up and saw a high bun. Her eyes suddenly reddened, and the chaotic emotions that had been swirling in her mind all day instantly transformed into an overwhelming sense of grievance. She opened her mouth, unable to control her volume, and burst into a wail like an unreasonable child: "Shen Shuyi, where have you been—"

This time, Shen Shuyi didn't frown and lean back. She simply turned and took Liu Chichi's arm, leading her to the car: "Let's find a less crowded place to cry. Don't affect the patient's mood."

An inexplicable surge of professional ethics instantly shut down Liu Chichi's tears. She followed Shen Shuyi into the car, where a pair of shoeboxes were placed in the passenger seat. She looked at Shen Shuyi with a puzzled expression.

Shen Shuyi glanced at it, inserted the key and started the engine, casually saying, "The senior citizen clothes at the intersection mall are on special for fifty yuan, and you can also get a free towel in a lucky draw with your receipt."

Liu Chichi couldn't help but feel her eyes sting again. Her hair was already stiff and dry. She wiped it, and her hair hurt slightly as it brushed against her cheek.

She was wearing a pair of fur-lined little leather boots today, which were soaked with water. Liu Chichi could imagine that her feet must smell terrible right now, so she bent down and pulled them open a little, then quickly closed them again.

Shen Shuyi suddenly rolled down the car window: "It's okay, it's normal."

Liu Chichi was still embarrassed. Shen Shuyi sighed, got out of the car, walked over to her, and opened her car door. "Take the shoe bag with you."

Liu Chichi followed behind her with the new shoes, walked around to the back door of the inpatient department, and stood next to a pool that looked old at first glance.

Many of the tiles on the outside of the sink have fallen off. The large gaps have been filled with cement, while the smaller ones are ignored. The faucet only has an empty head; the rotating handle is missing.

Shen Shuyi found a handle in her complicated keychain. This was the first time Liu Chichi had seen her complete keychain. There were three keys and one car key on it. Shen Shuyi's car had a solar-powered ornament and a wooden sign hanging on the rearview mirror, but her keychain had no exquisite decorations. Instead, it had a screwdriver, a wrench, and some uncommon miniature tools.

Shen Shuyi only said one word to her: "Take it off."

She turned on the tap, and Liu Chichi, unwilling to let the water go to waste, quickly took off her shoes to rinse her feet. The smell of fermenting sweat made her stomach churn the moment she took off her shoes, and she blushed with embarrassment. Turning her head, she saw that Shen Shuyi was already standing on the other side of the road.

Liu Chichi looked at her, but she just kept her head down playing with her phone, completely oblivious.

Some people are of similar age, but their behavior is so appropriate that it makes you want to be like them.

That's exactly how Liu Chichi felt about Shen Shuyi. Even though they were just work colleagues, when she saw Shen Shuyi today, all she could think was: "It's good that you're here."

Even Shen Shuyi's cold avoidance at this moment felt like a form of warmth to her. Liu Chichi quickly rinsed her feet; perhaps because they had been soaking in wet shoes for too long, even the tap water was slightly warm. The skin on her toes was swollen and wrinkled from being soaked, but Liu Chichi didn't have time to care. After rinsing her feet, she dried them with a towel and stepped into her brand-new cotton shoes, instantly feeling as if she were walking on clouds.

Liu Chichi felt herself come back to life. Only then did she notice that Shen Shuyi's car was covered in grayish-yellow watermarks on both sides, as if it had been driven on some muddy mountain road. There were a few gift boxes in the back seat, but with the end of the year approaching, even the shopping malls had banners with New Year's greetings, so she didn't think much of it.

Shen Shuyi escorted her home. After not seeing her for a month, Liu Chichi felt a secret joy in her heart and couldn't help but look at her from every angle.

Shen Shuyi couldn't help but laugh out loud: "What are you looking at?"

"Why are you here?"

"People from the Eighth Hospital sent me a video saying someone had been beaten, and it looked like one of the kids I was teaching. When I looked, it really was one of the kids I was teaching."

Liu Chichi felt a little embarrassed and a little indignant: "I wasn't hit."

"Okay, okay—" Shen Shuyi drawled, as if she wasn't going to hold it against her. "Has the film been shot yet? Show it to me later."

"They took pictures, but luckily I was wearing a lot of layers and my back is thick, so my internal organs and bones weren't injured." Liu Chichi felt a sense of shame about her injury, but she laughed it off, saying, "A little bit of fat is good, I'm not going to diet anymore. Are you back at work now?"

"No." Shen Shuyi noticed her evasiveness and went along with her changing the subject. "After the New Year, I'll go and handle some procedures when the center reopens. My account is locked, and I can't log in to anything. I'll take over when I get back. You should take two days of sick leave. Even though you didn't break any bones, you should still rest."

"I don't need it, I think going to work is fine."

"What's so great about going to work?" Shen Shuyi laughed at her. This time, the car was parked at the entrance of the residential area. "Go back and rest."

Liu Chichi clutched her phone. The messages from Liu Chunhong and He Qing had long since stopped vibrating. The weather was clear after the typhoon, but she felt that an even bigger storm was waiting for her. She subconsciously repeated, "Going to work is really nice."

Liu Chichi looked up at the six-story old building. Every household had security bars on their windows, with horizontal bars and vertical steel rods nailed to the walls like cages. Her light was on, and the light was on on the floor above hers. The neighbor's child upstairs had just started junior high school this year. Liu Chichi had heard him recite Li Bai's poem "Hearing of Wang Changling's Demotion to Longbiao, I Send This Poem from Afar".

More than a decade has passed since Liu Chichi first heard this poem. She seems to still remember the teacher standing on the blackboard talking about Li Bai's career changes and his longing and sympathy for his friends. She also remembers that year, someone in the class was in a relationship and used the line "I send my sorrowful heart to the bright moon, to follow you all the way to Yelang in the west" from the poem as a love letter.

That year, dating was forbidden by her parents like a monstrous flood, and she only focused on her studies.

A professional course takes at least three years to graduate, but they have only known each other for three months, yet she is being urged to get married.

Liu Chunhong once said that she was too young to distinguish right from wrong and that she should listen to her mother more to avoid making mistakes.

Liu Chichi walked into the building entrance step by step, trying her best to encourage herself: Liu Chichi, you've grown up and have the ability to distinguish right from wrong. You can refuse her.

She imagined the locked door upstairs, the shattered dishes, the twisted clothes hangers, and Liu Chunhong's eyes red with anger.

But she didn't expect that in the dark corner of the living room, there was her mother weeping with her face covered.