How many years ago was that phone call?

After Zeng Li got up, she brushed her teeth and recalled in the mirror.

Five years ago?

Because of Ai Jing Chu, she found Yu Yi. But after breaking up with Yu Yi, she met Ai Jing Chu in reality, not just with a voice, but actually standing in front of her, and said coldly to her in the library, “Fortunately, it wasn’t my face that was sprayed.”

However, no matter what other people say about Ai Jing Chu, no matter how tough and cold he looks, Zeng Li always feels that there must be something soft in his heart.

That day at the foot of Dongshan Mountain, the uncle guarding the gate reminded her to be cautious, but she knew he was a good man, there was no doubt about it.

Treating a strange girl so kindly, even if not to him, even if she was so humble and embarrassing, she was respected by him.

From morning to noon, Zeng Li, who was at work, was absent-minded, only thinking about what happened yesterday. She caused a big disaster for Ai Jing Chu. She didn’t know if the people in that car called the police later, and whether they went to trouble him afterwards.

Zeng Li wanted to call him and ask him, but remembering Ma Yi Yi’s prophecy, he held back.

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During the lunch break, she went out to eat and saw “Today’s Statement” broadcast on the small TV in the restaurant. It said that a BMW car hit someone on the highway in a certain city and then hit and fled.

This case made Zeng Li more and more frightened. She had never done anything bad since she was a child. She even worried about such things as not bringing her homework to school the next day, or forgetting to sweep the floor after school, let alone hitting someone else’s car on purpose.

So in the afternoon, she was really restless, and finally dialed Ai Jing Chu’s phone number.

The first time I dialed, it was disconnected after more than ten rings, and the voice prompt said that there was no answer.

She had to put her phone away and get to work.

After a few minutes, she sat back in her seat and dialed again.

This time, unlike the last time, it rang three or four times, and then it was cut off artificially.

She was stunned for a moment, listening to the busy tone on the receiver, she really felt a little bad now, worried that she had really caused him some trouble, but she was also afraid that Ai Jing Chu was inconvenient to answer the phone for other reasons, and it would be too abrupt for her to call persistently.

So, she thought about it and changed to texting.

And Ai Jing Chu who cut off her phone was in class.

He has a few classes a week specially for undergraduates, and every Thursday afternoon, classroom 101 on the first floor of the Seventh Teaching is full of seats. Considering that he was afraid that something might happen to the hospital, his cell phone was rarely turned off, but he would turn it to silent during class, so when Zeng Li called him for the first time, he didn’t hear it.

However, he was standing on the stage with a projection screen behind him and multimedia equipment in front of him. As soon as the mobile phone signal came in, the loudspeaker would make a beeping noise. At first, he thought that some disobedient student in the front row was playing with his mobile phone, so he glanced down coldly, and frowned in displeasure.

When it rang for the second time, Ai Jing Chu saw that they were all looking at him innocently, only to realise that it was his mobile phone that had received the call. Apologetically, he took it out and looked at the number. The word “Zeng Li” on it kept flashing, so he pinched it off calmly and put it on the desk.

Then, two minutes later, Zeng Li sent a text message.

Ai Jingchu was asking a student to answer a question. On the way, he saw the screen of the mobile phone on the table light up, and the content of the text message appeared automatically. When he read these words, he immediately thought of Zeng Li’s cautious look, and couldn’t help laughing.

The girl in the fourth row under the stage had already finished answering, and she was standing in front of her seat and waiting. Without his signal, she was embarrassed to sit down directly, but she didn’t see Ai Jing Chu speak for a long time. After a few seconds, when Ai Jing Chu closed his mouth and looked up from the stands again, his complexion was already clear, and there was no other expression. He just said “the answer is not rigorous enough”, and then asked the students to turn to the next page to explain the case.

After making a brief summary, he raised his wrist and looked at his watch, and said, “Ten minutes rest first.”

When he said these words, the students froze for a moment, and then heaved a sigh of relief. They are big classes with two consecutive class hours, but Ai Jing Chu rarely asks them to take a break in the middle, and will not end the get out of class early. If a student wants to go to the toilet, he can go out from the back by himself, as long as he does not disturb the class. Today, when the sun came out from the west, Ai Jing Chu allowed them to rest for ten minutes for the first time.

At this moment, there were several people scrambling to ask questions on the podium with books, most of them were girls, some were genuinely doubtful, and some were drunk. Ai Jing Chu waved his hand to tell them to wait, then picked up the mobile phone that was originally on the table, went outside the classroom to answer the phone.

Ai Jing Chu called Zeng Li’s phone back, but she didn’t hear it, and no one answered the phone.

He had no choice but to put away his mobile phone, switch to a more secluded corner at the other end of the corridor, and light a cigarette. In theory, he cannot smoke while teaching, and he seldom does so in front of the students. Teaching and educating people always has to establish a positive image.

When he was hiding in the corner of the stairwell, he happened to meet Ge Yi who didn’t take the elevator and walked down the stairs.

“Brother!” Ge Yi sweetly called Ai Jing Chu.

Ai Jingchu had a cigarette in his mouth, no time to respond, and nodded.

“I was looking for you,” said Ge Yi.

When Ai Jing Chu saw that she had something to say, he extinguished most of the remaining cigarette, walked a few steps and threw it in the trash can at the corner.

“What’s the matter?” he asked back.

“I revised that article last time, can you read it for me again?” She was preparing to evaluate her title and was busy with her thesis.

“You email me at night,” he said.

Ge Yi wanted to say a few more words, but was interrupted by a group of students who discovered Ai Jing Chu’s trace. This was the first class of the new semester, and many people wanted to ask more questions, so they huffed and surrounded Ai Jing Chu, so there was no room for Ge Yi to speak.

Ai Jing Chu had no choice but to signal to Ge Yi, and then led the students back to the classroom.

As long as you really have a question, he will answer it patiently. After a while, ten minutes will be up, and he will let everyone take their places.

At this moment, Zeng Li, who was looking for books for someone just now, returned to his seat, only then did he see Ai Jing Chu’s missed call.

She didn’t think much of it, and called him back.

“Hello.” He picked it up.

When Zeng Li heard him speak, there seemed to be an echo, as if it was in a very wide place.

“I was busy just now, and I didn’t hear the phone ring. Did those two people trouble you? Where are you?”

Hearing Zeng Li’s voice, Ai Jing Chu looked up at the more than one hundred students who had returned to their seats one after another, and replied, “I’m in the classroom and I’m about to start class.”

“Ah!” She didn’t dare to say anything, so she wanted to quickly pick up the line, “I’m sorry! I’ll call later!”

“Zeng Li—” He stopped her in time, and then raised his voice a little, attracting the attention of the students.

“What?” She put the phone back to her ear and asked.

“I’m fine with the car, don’t worry,” he said.

When he said this, his voice lowered again, slowly and deeply, as if whispering in the ear, so that the girl who was standing by and prepared to hurry up and ask him the last question felt her heart pounding.

And Zeng Li’s heart sank, and her guilt was finally reduced by half.

In the next few weeks, because of the many things at work, and the cafe was very busy at the beginning of school, Zeng Li passed it in such a hurry.

On the weekend, a few friends from the website made an appointment to have dinner together, and Zeng Li took Wu Ying along with her. After dinner, Ning Feng said that there were still a few movie tickets left over from the website’s activities, and they asked everyone if they wanted to go. Wu Ying loved watching movies the most, and said, “If you don’t want to watch it, don’t watch it”, she agreed. So, eight or nine of them went to the theatre together again.

Men sat with men, women sat with women, and Zeng Li happened to be sandwiched between Ning Feng and Wu Ying. Halfway through, Zeng’s mother called. She forgot to put the phone on silent, and the ringing was loud, so she hurriedly picked it up.

“How was the last time? At least you should call back.” Mother Zeng asked right away.

“What about it?” The movie is at the climax of the struggle between good and evil, Zeng Li is addicted to it, and is a little confused by this sudden sentence.

“The man your Aunt Qin introduced to you!”

“Oh.”

“He said that he is very satisfied with you. He said he called you, but he didn’t get through. It’s been ten days. I don’t know what you think.”

“I’m watching a movie, let’s talk later.” Zeng Li took up the line with a helpless expression.

She held the phone casually in her hand. At this moment, Wu Ying’s drink bottle fell to the ground and rolled to Zeng Li’s feet. Zeng Li bent down to pick it up for her. When she bent down, she touched the mobile phone in her hand that had not locked the keypad, and accidentally dialed a number, and the number was Ai Jing Chu’s.

At this moment, Ai Jing Chu is stuck on the way home. The evening rush hour on weekends is much longer than usual. He didn’t know if there is another car accident ahead. He was in a one-way pass, and every car is moving forward at a slow speed.

Seeing the phone ringing, he glanced at the number displayed on the LCD screen of the car’s centre console, and then pressed the answer button on the steering wheel.

“Hi—” he said.

There was no sound.

After a while, he “Hello” again, but the other party still didn’t say anything, and then he heard the sound of rubbing clothes.

He knew that she had dialed it unintentionally. It was not the first time he had encountered this kind of thing, and he was almost used to it. Because his surname is quite special, starting with the letter A, it is the top contact in many people’s phone books, so he will be misdialed from time to time.

The car in front moved another two or three meters, and he was a bit late in following. A taxi in the next lane saw that they were moving faster, so they wanted to change into his lane and get stuck in front. The driver turned the steering wheel extremely fast. Everyone was close to each other in the traffic jam. He was distracted while listening to the phone, and almost hit the trunk of someone else. Fortunately, he stepped on the brakes in time.

When he restarted and moved forward, he glanced at the display screen of the central control, the phone was still on…

Zeng Li on the other end didn’t even know that she had accidentally dialed out the phone. At this moment, she had put his phone in her coat pocket by her side, and was sharing the same bucket of popcorn with Wu Ying, eating it with great enjoyment.

On the screen, an American took a flamethrower and sprayed the enemy with a sea of ​​flames, and then threw an incendiary bomb.

“Thinking of how the Yankees used this thing to deal with our People’s Volunteers, I feel cruel, and dare not move even after being burned alive,” Wu Ying said.

“You mean Huang Jiguang1?” Zeng Li said.

“Huang Jiguang is the one who blocked the hole.” Wu Ying said angrily.

“Didn’t Dong Cunrui2 block the hole?”

“Zeng Li, you’re done.” Wu Ying rolled her eyes and said, “Our party has educated you for sixteen years, so it’s useless.”

After watching the movie, Ning Feng offered to send Zeng Li and Wu Ying home.

Wu Ying said: “Well, I’m too lazy to take a taxi anyway, but I’m going to the hospital, and Zeng Li’s house is not in the same direction.”

Ning Feng replied: “It doesn’t matter, I will send her off first and then you.”

Zeng Li looked at Ning Feng’s back, and suddenly felt that he was so stupid just now, sitting in the middle and blocking Wu Ying’s peach blossoms. It wasn’t the first time Wu Ying went out to eat with them, she hadn’t noticed it before, and Wu Ying herself had a completely blank expression, thinking that Ning Feng really just wanted to send someone home.

Zeng Li waved his hand and said, “You can send Wu Ying, she is going to the hospital, it is more convenient for me to go home, and I don’t have to back up when I take the bus.”

She got on the bus alone, took out her phone to check the time, and then slowly returned Zeng’s mother’s call.

“Let me tell you, Zeng Li, today I ran into an old neighbour who said that the old woman’s house was about to be demolished.”

“Demolition? Why demolition?”

“The county is going to build a dried bean curd food industrial park, and it happens to be requisitioning that piece of land, and we’re going door-to-door to publish surveys. Be careful, don’t be fooled by the tricks played by those surnamed Zeng again. They don’t have a good thing in their family, and they are thinking about your share. It’s your name, and if they don’t give it to them, they bully our mother and daughter…” Zeng’s mother talked eloquently.

The old woman Zeng Mama spoke of was Zeng Li’s grandma.

The Zeng family used to have a courtyard house in the county seat, but the family was separated when the uncle got married decades ago. The old lady kept a small side room for herself, and distributed the rest to her sons. Zeng Li’s father didn’t get a job because he replaced the old man in the factory and had a job.

The old lady had probably been worried about this all the time, and she was also thinking about Zeng Li who married out with her mother. She was afraid that she would be wronged because she didn’t have a biological father, so before she passed away, she entrusted an acquaintance and spent some money to transfer the property rights of her house to Zeng Li.

This matter was done behind the backs of other sons and daughters-in-law, and everyone didn’t know until the old lady passed away. At that moment, the sky was almost turned upside down, but luckily it was not revealed until after the funeral, otherwise the old lady would have been shaken out of the coffin to make it clear.

Then, the name of the house belonged to Zeng Li and could not be changed, but it had been occupied by them all the time.

Even Zeng’s father was not happy, thinking that his daughter had been given the share that should belong to him.

Zeng Li’s mother went to make trouble a few times, but she couldn’t help it, so she put it down.

Seeing that Zeng Li’s mother was going to dig out decades of old accounts on the phone again, Zeng Li hurriedly said: “Mom, the phone is almost dead.”

Only then did Mother Zeng think of another thing, “Hurry up and call that Gu Haidong. You’re already twenty-five, and you don’t like this or that. What kind of one do you want to find? You should weigh it yourself. Don’t pick one here, one here, and finally pick a ‘leaky lamp’. Just accept it when you see it.”

“Got it.” I don’t know if other people’s mothers are like her mother and Wu Ying’s mother. They used to be afraid that their daughters would fall in love, but suddenly they were afraid that they would not be able to get married.

“Also,” Zeng’s mother added, “don’t put your heart on Yu Yi, he won’t want you anymore, and you still have to give him room with a face!”

As soon as he heard Yu Yi’s name, Zeng Li’s eyes turned red, she stopped talking, and hung up the phone without saying a word.

Afterwards, she quietly squeezed her mobile phone, sat in the car home, stared at the neon lights outside the window, and did not move for a long time.

After a while, she sorted out her mood and called the man on the blind date last time.

The person who introduced her to her blind date was a friend of Zeng’s mother, an aunt named Qin. She was very fierce. She could turn black into white with one mouth, and there was no one around who was not afraid. Naturally, Zeng Li couldn’t offend her, so she didn’t even dare to neglect that blind date.

“Hi, is this Gu Haidong? I’m Zeng Li.” She said.

“Oh oh, hello.”

“I heard that you called me a few days ago, but I’m sorry I didn’t answer it.” She explained in a good-tempered manner.

“It’s all right, so are you free now? After dinner, let’s watch a movie together?”

“I just got out of the movie theater.”

Gu Haidong on the other end of the phone said “Oh”, and said unwillingly, “Then have a cup of tea or coffee.”

Zeng Li originally wanted to reject him directly, but remembering Aunt Qin’s tough face, she held back and replied casually, “Okay.” She thought that it would be better for the two of them to clarify in person while no one else was around.

So, Zeng Li got off the car at the next stop, took a taxi to the agreed place, and when he arrived, Gu Haidong was already sitting there waiting for her.

The last blind date was due to the presence of elders. The two parties just met briefly and exchanged information about their work and family background. There was no in-depth communication. However, during the conversation, Gu Haidong’s high-profile and faint self-righteousness made Zeng Li feel uncomfortable.

After chatting about some things, Gu Haidong started to get down to business.

“I heard that you’ve never been in a relationship, is it true?” Gu Haidong took a sip of his coffee, and smiled ambiguously.

“Aunt Qin said?”

“Well, you will be twenty-five soon this year, right? Twenty-five, but you have never been in a relationship before, a little…” After finishing speaking, he smirked again.

Zeng Li looked at him, and suddenly felt a sense of disobedience. I don’t know what’s wrong with this society. If a woman is too old and hasn’t dated, some people will think that there is something wrong with her. If she has, they may have to question whether she is a good woman.

“Aunt Qin doesn’t know much about the situation. In fact, I talked about it once before.”

“How did you separate?”

“Can I not talk about this?”

“To what extent?” Gu Haidong glanced up and down at Zeng Li when he asked this question.

She thought it was ridiculous, where is love and marriage? This is business!

Seeing that she didn’t answer, Gu Haidong’s heart sank, he took out the cigarette case and started smoking in front of Zeng Li.

At this moment, Zeng Li really wanted to borrow a cigarette from him so as to completely overturn her image, but she was afraid that he would sue her elders.

The two were speechless for a long while.

Zeng Li regretted that she didn’t make an appointment with Ma Yi Yi or Wu Ying when she came here just now. She called in ten minutes or something so he could find an excuse to slip away.

Just when he was depressed, Zeng Li’s cell phone rang, and a text message came, and the sender was actually Ai Jing Chu, and there were only four words in the text message: “It’s Qiu Shaoyun3.”

Inexplicable.

Zeng Li thought about it for a while, but didn’t understand what was going on, thinking that he sent the wrong message. In the blink of an eye, Zeng Li suddenly remembered the conversation she had with Wu Ying in the movie theatre, and then looked through the call records. Sure enough, he saw that the latest record in the recent calls was Ai Jing Chu. Then she guessed that she probably made an error by not locking the keyboard.

She turned back to open the text message, read the four words again, and then couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

With Zeng Li’s smile, the dimples at the corners of his mouth were slightly revealed.

Gu Haidong’s eyes moved slightly, he was a little stunned.

Sensing that the other party was looking at her, Zeng Li hurriedly raised her hand to slightly cover the lower half of her face, lowered her head a little, and quickly closed her mouth.

“What’s the fun?” Gu Haidong couldn’t help asking.

“A joke from a friend.”

“Read and listen?”

Zeng Li put away his phone, and smiled again, “It’s a good joke, but it’s not funny at all when you read it.” Afterwards, Zeng Li sat with the other party for a while, bored.

When parting, Gu Haidong asked: “Can I continue to contact you?”

Zeng Li was a little surprised, but she didn’t expect that he still had a good impression of her, so she hesitated and said, “Mr. Gu, your qualifications are very good, but you are not suitable for me.”

“What do you feel dissatisfied with?”

to tell Zhou Wen, “If you are free, take her there, she can’t find it.”

Zhou Wen couldn’t help but cast a sideways glance at Gu Haidong, thinking that this man was really hateful, he even bullied him into Shi fu’s territory.

Tiny!

Does he know how boring it is to study orthodontics? Did he know how difficult it is to find some gossip about Teacher Ai? Did he know that every time Teacher Ai was in class, people from other departments would come to observe, making it difficult to occupy a seat? Did he know that all the boys, represented by her boyfriend’s dormitory, hoped that Ai Xiaocao1 would be famous as soon as possible every day, so that the female compatriots would be disheartened so that they could have their chance?

However, this man actually competed with Teacher Ai for food here.

Without delay, she turned around and said to her junior sister, “Hold on for a while, I’ll be right back.” Afterwards, she asked Zeng Li to follow.

It was the first time Zeng Li was misunderstood like this, but she didn’t feel embarrassed. She was secretly grateful to Ai Jing Chu, this way at least she could hide from Gu Haidong for a while. Zeng Li couldn’t help but look back at the man named Ai Jing Chu. He was in front of another treatment chair, turning on the light, holding a dental mirror, looking slightly sideways at the inside of the patient’s mouth, and never looked up again. Just now, he must have seen her predicament outside, so he helped her out. Otherwise, according to his personality, how can he have such idle time to talk when he is at work?

Seeing this, Gu Haidong took a few steps forward, trying to call Zeng Li to stop.

Zhou Wen immediately turned back on purpose and said, “Shu mu2, if you feel tired, there is a bed in Teacher Ai’s office. You can lie down and rest first, and wait for Teacher Ai to get off work.”

Zeng Li gritted her teeth, ignored Gu Haidong, and ran away with Zhou Wen. If he misunderstood, he misunderstood, it was better than letting Gu Haidong stick to a piece of brown sugar.

She followed Zhou Wen to the corridor and turned a corner, then walked to a door next to the boiling water room at the end.

Zhou Wen opened the gate and returned the key to Zeng Li, saying, “This is the common room shared by Teacher Ai and Teacher Lu, but Teacher Lu doesn’t have an outpatient clinic today, so he definitely won’t come, so you can do whatever you want.” Originally, Zhou Wen didn’t distinguish between “l” and “n”, and was often laughed at, but at this time, she was extra careful in her words.

Zeng Li waited for her to leave before looking around the room.

It was a very small room. There was a washbasin under the window on the other side of the room that could hold water. The other items were just a locker, a three-seater sofa, and a desk at the entrance. Where could there be a bed for the rumour-making bed that Wen Zhou was talking about?

Crowded, but well organized.

Zeng Li put down the bag and sat on the sofa. Out of politeness, she didn’t dare to touch anything in the room, so she played with her mobile phone. After a while, it was twelve o’clock. She felt that Gu Haidong should have left early, if she still didn’t give up, she really had nothing to do.

Zeng Li waited for another ten minutes, but Ai Jing Chu still remained silent.

She knew that he was just trying to save her from a siege, not really wanting to have lunch with her, just like in Dongshan, just like he was invited by Director Li to have a dinner.

So, she wanted to say hello, return the key, and let him continue to do his work, leaving her alone. Unexpectedly, as soon as she got up, she heard someone knocking on the door. She opened it and saw Ai Jing Chu standing at the door with a box of lunch in her hand.

He said, “Sorry, I’m late.”

Zeng Li replied: “It’s okay, don’t worry.”

“It’s too late for lunch, let’s make do with this first, and go to have a big meal in the evening.” He said, put the boxed lunch on the table, and went to the locker to take off his white coat.

Zeng Li hurriedly said: “No, no, you can do your work. Thank you for helping me out just now, I will go back first.”

Ai Jing Chu turned his back to her, the hand hanging the clothes froze, his eyelids drooped, his tightly pursed lips moved, turned around after a while, looked at Zeng Li and said lightly: “I’m not busy now.”

The six words that Ai Jing Chu uttered unhurriedly overwhelmed Zeng Li, and even made her not know how to answer the words.

Next, Ai Jing Chu didn’t continue talking, but turned around and went to wash his hands at the sink. With that old-fashioned bar of soap, he silently rinsed his hands twice, from fingertips to crevices, palms to backs, and finally wrists.

“I don’t know what your taste is, so I ordered a few home-cooked dishes.” He said to himself, and then laid out the food, as if he didn’t feel that Zeng Li’s words just now were a farewell.

Those dishes were not Zeng Li’s favorite, but they were the most suitable for her teeth.

She stood where she was, not knowing how to advance or retreat. If she left like this, it would seem really bad.

Zeng Li never dreamed that she and Ai Jing Chu would share the second meal of their lives like this.

In fact, while waiting for him just now, she thought that if they went to dinner together, she should definitely pay for it this time. Because he helped her so many times, she crashed his car, besides, don’t all the patients in the society treat the doctor to dinner? How can a doctor invite a patient to eat…

At this time, the only two chairs in the room were moved to the desk, and the food box was placed on the desk. Zeng Li was sitting in front of the desk, and Ai Jing Chu was sitting diagonally opposite, blocked by the computer mainframe.

He has been busy for a long time, seems to be hungry, moving his chopsticks quietly and quickly.

And Zeng Li had just changed to a thicker steel wire for the braces, and the increased force made the teeth a little sore, which was not very comfortable. Fortunately, the dishes he ordered were either tofu or eggplant, both of which didn’t require much chewing.

Ai Jing Chu has always been reticent, especially during the meal. Zeng Li also has a temperament that doesn’t like to talk, so the two of them passed in silence for a long time.

Just when Zeng Li thought that this silence would last, he heard Ai Jing Chu say: “Do you have a break at noon at work?”

“No rest.” Zeng Li replied.

The room was quiet again, and after a while, Ai Jing Chu asked again: “How about lunch?”

Zeng Li took a look at him, and felt that Ai Jing Chu was a little different from usual, as if he was looking for something to say, not his style at all. He asked her these irrelevant questions a little bluntly. Could it be that he also felt awkward, so he was looking for a topic?

“We order takeaway, or bring your own food in the morning, or you can take turns eating out with your colleagues. Anyway, there is no shortage of people.” She added a few more words cooperatively.

“It’s tighter than our consultation time.” Ai Jingchu said.

“But we’re just wasting time, how can you be so busy.” Zeng Li smiled sheepishly.

“The hours of the outpatient clinic are quite regular, unlike in the operating room.” Ai Jing Chu replied.

Speaking of the operating room and eating, Zeng Li suddenly had a question and wanted to ask, so he asked curiously: “During the operation, can the doctor eat?”

Ai Jing Chu glanced at her, not understanding why she would ask such a weird question, so he replied: “No.” If you can eat inside, is it okay?

“Don’t some surgery take more than ten hours? You can’t even eat?” Zeng Li asked puzzled.

“Cannot.”

“Stand?”

“Not necessarily, it depends on which part the surgery is performed on.”

“What about going to the toilet?” Zeng Li finally asked what she wanted to ask the most. She glanced at the food in front of her, and it was obvious that this question was not…suitable for the occasion.

“Hold it.”

“What should you do if I can’t bear it?” She chased after him fiercely.

“As a last resort, you can only change people, and the assistant will hold it up, and then wash your hands again, disinfect them, and change your clothes.”

Asked here, Zeng Li instantly felt that the image of all doctors grew taller.

Ai Jing Chu finished eating before her, “Eat slowly, I will lie on the sofa for a while.”

He left the table, walked over to the sofa and sat down. After sitting down, he slowly leaned his back on the sofa. When his neck touched the headrest and his whole body relaxed, his cervical spine and shoulder blades were tingling. He took a deep breath and frowned tightly.

Zeng Li turned his back to him, not seeing his frowning eyebrows at the moment. She was embarrassed to dawdle alone, so she quickly swallowed it two or three times.

Then, she cleared the table, took out the toothbrush, toothpaste and cups in the bag, and prepared to rinse her mouth. Before orthodontics, she really couldn’t understand the taste of the gap between the braces and the steel wire filled with food residues, so she must brush er teeth after eating every time, otherwise she will torture people to the point of collapse.

Zeng Li went to the washroom, took a glass of water, stirred it a few times with a toothbrush, and squeezed toothpaste after wetting it with water.

“You always brush your teeth like this?” Ai Jing Chu behind him suddenly said this on the sofa, which was beyond Zeng Li’s expectation.

She didn’t expect him to be watching her.

“What’s wrong?” She had lived for a quarter of a century, and she didn’t think there was anything wrong with brushing her teeth like this.

“It is better to dry the toothbrush head before putting it in the mouth.” Ai Jingchu said, “Brushing teeth is to clean the teeth by friction. When it is dry, it is most effective and will not fill the mouth with foam.”

“But it’s hard and dry, and it’s so uncomfortable to brush.”

“If you wear aligners, you should choose a toothbrush with a smaller brush head and soft bristles.”

He got up, opened the locker next to Zeng Li, and took out a new toothbrush from the upper drawer. Then he went back and took the cup to the boiling water outside the room to get a cup of hot water.

“You can add some salt when you are at home.” Ai Jing Chu said.

After a few minutes, he dried the water on the toothbrush and handed it to Zeng Li.

Zeng Li re-squeezed the toothpaste according to his words, and brushed his teeth under the supervision of a doctor of dentistry. Feeling stressed, she did not know how many times more carefully than usual, and she almost took care of each tooth one by one.

She suddenly thought, if Ai Jing Chu falls in love with someone in the future, will he still ask the other person very awkwardly when he is about to kiss them: “Have you brushed your teeth?”

Thinking about this, Zeng Li couldn’t help being happy.

Ai Jing Chu saw her smiling strangely, so he asked, “What’s the matter?”

“It’s nothing.” Zeng Li said so, but the smile in her eyes was rippling.

Immediately, she felt that it was not too difficult for her to get along with this serious dentist.

After staying for a few minutes, a student came to the office to look for Ai Jing Chu, and Zeng Li took the opportunity to leave and go to work.

For a whole afternoon, probably because of the rain, there were very few readers in the library. She found a travel magazine by herself, and slowly flipped through it for a long time.

When it was almost five o’clock, the phone rang. She opened the drawer and looked, and it turned out to be Deng Gang, her former stepfather.

“Uncle.” Zeng Li shouted.

“Xiao Li, I haven’t seen you for a long time.”

Zeng Li didn’t know how to answer the call, and smiled awkwardly at the phone.

“You and…” Deng Gang asked hesitantly, “How are you and your mother doing recently?”

“Ok. What about you?”

“Me too, I’m on a business trip in A City today, how about going out for dinner tonight?” Finally, he added two more words, “You guys.”

He spoke vaguely, but Zeng Li could fully understand that “you” referred to her and mother, but…

“My mother… my mother went on a trip with her friends, and she won’t be back until next week.” She had no choice but to lie.

“Oh-oh-yes,” he replied.

After hanging up the phone, Zeng Li stared blankly at the rainy day outside the window, and didn’t move for a while.

After a while, she checked the time, then called Wu Wan Xia next door to stand for her, and she secretly left early through the back door half an hour earlier.

She came out of the unit and took a taxi to the mall.

She rarely buys things for men, and she doesn’t know what to choose for a while.

So she called Ma Yi Yi.

Ma Yi Yi knew that Gu Haidong was watching over her every day recently, and thought that there was some progress, so she teased her and said, “Yo, it’s developing well, and they’ve started sending tokens of love to each other.”

“Stop being so talkative.” Zeng Li smiled.

“If you buy it for Gu Haidong, let me tell you, don’t worry about it. Even if you give him a mouthful of spit, he will die of joy.”

When Ma Yi Yi finished speaking, Zeng Li suddenly heard Wu Ying’s voice from the other end of the receiver. It seemed that the two of them were together, and Wu Ying interrupted loudly from the side: “Who are you giving saliva to? It’s also a skill to send saliva. It depends on whether it’s spit on the face or lip to lip…”

Zeng Li happily put down the line, and continued to wander around the mall alone.

Later, I finally picked the jacket and shirt that were the safest options. She is an incompetent person. She pondered about the colour and size for a long time, but she couldn’t make up her mind. In the end, she kept confirming with the salesperson whether she could change it if it was not suitable.

When Zeng Li was sitting in the restaurant near Deng Gang’s hotel and waiting for Deng Gang, she remembered Ai Jing Chu’s words at noon. He seemed to have said that he would have dinner with him tonight, but whether it was a polite remark or a matter of fact, she was not sure.

Just like a colleague or a friend who is not very close, he casually said during the conversation: “Take you to dinner another day.” Or sometimes, when the stepfather’s friend came to the house and the time was short, and the mother didn’t cook a good meal, she would usually say: “Next time you say hello in advance, we will make a new meal.”

As for whether this “another day” and “next time” are tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, or the day that will never be met, many people will not delve into it carefully.

Zeng Li has always been cautious, she weighed it quickly in her heart, and felt that judging from the friendship between her and Ai Jing Chu, it was probably a virtual polite remark.

But out of awe of a doctor who will treat her for two or three years, she took the initiative to pick up her mobile phone and send a text message:

After she read it carefully, she sent this cryptic sentence.

As soon as she put down her phone, Deng Gang came.

It’s been a long time since she’s seen him, and it seems that the hair on the top of his head has thinned a lot. He pulled out his chair and sat down, and the first thing he said when he saw Zeng Li was: “Girl, order more delicious food, don’t save me money.”

This sentence caused Zeng Li to sigh in his heart.

When she was in high school, she lived on campus. Whenever Deng Gang passed by the school to see her, she always said the same thing. Before that, even her biological father did not spoil her that much.

She once cried secretly, and then secretly became happy again.

A few years later, when she was about to accept Deng Gang’s fatherhood, her mother told her that they were going to divorce.

Zeng Li dug out what he had bought and gave it to Deng Gang.

“Uncle Deng, give it a try and see if it suits you.”

“It’s so beautiful.” Deng Gang said with a smile.

He didn’t intend to try it on at first, he just said it was suitable, but at Zeng Li’s insistence, he took off the coat and put it on.

“Ah, it seems to be a little bigger.” Zeng Li regretted and blamed herself.

“No, it’s right, it’s just right.”

The shoulders of the jacket were made a little wider, which made the sleeves a bit longer. It was obviously one size too big, but Deng Gang praised it all, saying it was suitable, and even said that he liked to wear loose clothes when he was older.

Zeng Li had all kinds of feelings in her heart, and she didn’t argue with him.

At this moment, Ai Jing Chu returned to the office after finishing his work with the last patient, washed his hands and opened the locker to change clothes, then went out, turned around and locked the office.

He took out his phone casually, and only then saw the text message from Zeng Li.

There are white walls on both sides of the corridor, and the floor is covered with blue plastic floor. The nurses who have not yet finished get off work are packing up equipment in the consulting room with the students.

Ai Jing Chu stood in front of his office door, with one hand in his trouser pocket and the other hand holding the phone, quietly staring down at the jargon Zeng Li sent on the screen. All around you could hear the rhythmic sound of the stainless steel trolley wheels pressing against the floor, and the humming of children waiting for the elevator not far away.

After a long time, he pulled his right hand out of his pocket, clicked on the reply column, and replied her three words: no need.