The path down the mountain was secluded, desolate, and overgrown with weeds, making it difficult to walk. The sun had completely sunk behind the mountain peaks, and a magnificent, hazy orange-red hue filled the sky, dyeing half of it crimson.
Huo Chuxue followed closely behind Gui Shu, afraid she might lose him and be unable to find her way out of this wild, mountainous wilderness.
The old man was fast on his feet, not stopping for a moment, clearly accustomed to walking these kinds of mountain paths. Several times, she couldn’t keep up. Yet, she couldn’t bring herself to ask Gui Shu to stop and wait for her. After all, he was deaf and mute, and she didn’t know sign language.
After nearly forty minutes of trekking, she finally made it down the mountain.
After bidding farewell to Gui Shu, she went to the hotel alone.
One thing had been weighing on her mind the whole time. The moment she reached the hotel, she didn’t even bother to shower. She went straight to her computer.
She typed “He Qingshi” into the search bar and hit Enter. Instantly, a long list of related information popped up on the webpage. Baidu Baike listed a whole series of entries.
She skimmed through casually and saw one piece of information in the introduction:
“Currently a Specially Appointed Professor at University A’s College of Liberal Arts, teaching courses such as ‘Special Topic Literature Appreciation’ and ‘Appreciation of Poetry and Prose’.”
Sure enough, her intuition hadn’t been wrong. The aura He Qingshi gave off made her first impression that he must be involved in literary work. He possessed a kind of refined dignity unique to scholars.
A Specially Appointed Professor at University A. That was seriously impressive!
University A was a century-old prestigious institution, the best double-first-class university in the Jiangsu-Zhejiang region, with a strong faculty and ranking at the top.
She browsed through some more content.
Actually, the information about He Qingshi listed on Baidu Baike wasn’t extensive, mostly covering his biography and achievements. However, University A’s Tieba forum had a lot of gossip about him.
1st floor: “Finally managed to sneak into one of Professor He’s classes today. Holy crap, he’s so handsome, isn’t he! My old lady’s maiden heart is pounding! (heart)”
2nd floor: “So jealous you got to sneak into Professor He’s class! (rests chin, looks at sky)”
3rd floor: “Don’t be jealous, people upstairs. I’m actually taught by Professor He! (smiles without speaking)”
4th floor: “Professor He? He’s a complete relic. Can you imagine someone these days not even using WeChat?”
5th floor: “Holy shit, he’s practically an ancient deity! (jaw drops)”
6th floor: “He’s such a fossil, and he talks so rigidly! (throws hands up) (so tired)”
7th floor: “Who cares if he’s a fossil! His looks are enough! Who even cares about depth these days? Everyone just goes for the face!”
8th floor: “I’m taking my Professor He and leaving, we’re not playing! My Professor He has both looks AND depth, okay?”
…
Huo Chuxue scrolled the mouse, dragging the webpage down line by line. The thread was already piled high, with several hundred floors. It seemed this Professor He was quite popular at University A!
But thinking about it, it made sense. These days, everyone goes for the face. As long as you’re good-looking, you’ll never lack attention no matter where you are.
She read for a good while, an unconscious smile playing on her lips.
After a long time, she finally moved the mouse and closed the webpage.
The moment she closed it, Huo Chuxue suddenly realized she might have been a bit bewitched. She had actually gone and Baidu-searched a man she had only met once, a man with whom she would likely have no further interaction in the future.
She gave a wry laugh, shook her head, pressed the computer’s power button, and went straight to the bathroom to shower.
Just after her shower, Qiao Shengxi sent her a video call.
She promptly answered, propped the phone up on a stand on the bed, and spoke, “Hey, beautiful Xixi?”
Qiao Shengxi appeared on the screen wearing a black face mask, which was quite startling at first glance. Nurse Qiao asked in her sharp, thin voice, “How was your trip to Cenling today, Xiaoxue baby?”
Huo Chuxue patted her chest. “Xixi, could you not be so scary? It’s creepy!”
“Forgot to take it off when the time was up.” Qiao Shengxi chuckled, pulled off the mask, and tossed it into the trash bin by the bed. “You know, Korean products really are good. This mask is super hydrating. I’ll give you a couple of boxes to try in a few days.”
She patted both cheeks to help with absorption and returned to the previous topic. “So, how was your trip to Cenling? Did you have any romantic encounters?”
“It was alright. The pear blossoms on Cenling are beautiful!” Huo Chuxue sat cross-legged on the bed, facing the camera, drying her hair with a towel. “You know what, Xixi? I actually did meet a very mysterious man.”
“A man? What happened? A real romantic encounter?!” Hearing the word “man” from Huo Chuxue, Qiao Shengxi’s interest was instantly piqued, and her voice rose several pitches. “Doctor Huo, you better confess everything right now!”
Huo Chuxue briefly recounted the events of the afternoon to her best friend. In conclusion, she summarized, “Based on my years of experience judging people, that is absolutely a man with a story.”
Qiao Shengxi: “…”
Qiao Shengxi’s focus was completely different from Huo Chuxue’s. She said incredulously, “Doctor Huo, do you have a screw loose? You actually dared to barge into a stranger’s house all by yourself, and you even ate food from a strange man? Do you have a death wish?”
“You’ve been in society for so many years now, how can you still be so naive and clueless? Someone gives you something and you just eat it? Weren’t you afraid he might have drugged it? Deep in the mountains, the wilds, rape and murder… cases like that are hardly rare! Are you too trusting of others, or are you so confident in your own looks that you think no one would have ill intentions toward you?”
Huo Chuxue: “…”
She was rendered speechless by her best friend’s outburst, completely stunned. If Qiao Shengxi hadn’t brought up safety, she wouldn’t have realized at all how inappropriate her behavior that afternoon had been. She had completely placed herself in danger.
A villa appearing out of nowhere in a wild mountain range, a mysterious, enigmatic stranger full of stories, plus a deaf-mute butler—each of these three points alone was bizarre and chilling enough. And yet, she had been utterly unalert, charging in without a second thought.
But strangely, at the time, she hadn’t thought of any of this. When she saw that old villa deep in the dense forest, a mysterious force seemed to guide her to step inside. Moreover, the first time she saw He Qingshi, she didn’t think he was a bad person at all. On the contrary, she found him very amiable, and she liked listening to him speak. He was mysterious, hiding stories within him, and she couldn’t help but want to get closer, to learn more. It was a feeling she had never experienced in her twenty-seven years.
However, the truth was that Huo Chuxue wasn’t a brainless person. The hospital was like a mirror, reflecting the warmth and coldness of human relationships in the world, a microcosm of its sufferings. Before this mirror, she had seen all the beauty and ugliness of human nature and understood well the complexity of the human heart. Over the years of work, she had been calm and rational, not some naive girl fresh out of school.
Yet, her abnormal behavior that afternoon, now that she thought about it calmly, was truly inconceivable.
It was many years later that Huo Chuxue finally understood: that day, she was destined to meet He Qingshi.
She had originally planned to play in Wangchuan for another day, but because of one sentence from He Qingshi—he said he was returning to Qingling tomorrow—she drove back early.
As if guided by some unseen force, like she was under a spell.
Back in Qingling, life remained busy as ever, a constant race against time. Outpatient clinics, surgeries, welcoming new lives one by one—she was swamped at the hospital.
In her spare moments, Huo Chuxue would also unconsciously recall that brief yet incredible afternoon. She always felt that day was like a blur, a gift from heaven, allowing her the fortune of meeting a man with a story. But after all, they were just a chance encounter; they probably wouldn’t have another chance to meet in the future. This realization made her quite wistful. Maybe she should have asked for his number back then.
Time passed quickly. In the blink of an eye, more than half a month had gone by since returning from Wangchuan.
One night, Huo Chuxue was awakened from her sleep by a piercing ringtone.
As an obstetrician, being woken up by a phone call in the dead of night and called to the hospital for surgery wasn’t the first time. She was already used to it.
In the darkness, she reached her arm toward the nightstand, picked up the phone, and held it to her ear, her voice utterly weary. “Hello?”
She was too sleepy to open her eyes and didn’t even glance at the screen.
Her aunt, Fang Ru’s steady, powerful voice came from the other end. “Xiaoxue, a postpartum woman was just transferred to the department. The situation is somewhat complex. Get over here right now to be my first assistant.”
After Fang Ru was promoted to Head of the Obstetrics Department, she rarely took to the operating table herself. Any surgery that required her personal involvement was bound to be a major, quite tricky one.
Huo Chuxue was someone Fang Ru had personally trained, and they were also relatives. Their tacit understanding and coordination were better than with other doctors in the department. Moreover, her skills were among the best in the department. For major surgeries, Fang Ru usually requested her to assist, either as the first or second assistant.
Huo Chuxue didn’t dare delay. She ruffled her fluffy, messy hair, jumped out of bed, and changed clothes. “I’ll be right there.”
—
The moment Huo Chuxue arrived at the hospital, she went straight into the operating room.
Inside, the shadowless lamp shone brightly. It was silent, seemingly quieter than any previous surgery. The atmosphere was stagnant and oppressive, very off. She keenly sensed it.
Qiao Shengxi softly briefed her on the parturient’s condition: “Zhang Shulan, 63 years old, 39 weeks pregnant, placenta previa, umbilical cord around the neck twice.”
“That’s it?” She was somewhat surprised. Aside from the pregnant woman’s advanced age, this surgery didn’t seem to have any other difficult or complicated aspects; it was just an ordinary cesarean section. Why would Fang Ru personally perform the surgery and specially call her in the middle of the night to be the first assistant?
“That’s it,” Qiao Shengxi said. “That’s the gist. It’s the postpartum woman’s personal situation that’s relatively complicated.”
“How so?”
“Lost her only child in middle age. This is a test-tube baby.”
Huo Chuxue: “…”
Once everything was in place, Fang Ru immediately decided, “Begin the surgery!”
The surgery proceeded methodically, with everyone cooperating seamlessly.
Not long after, an infant’s cry rang out. A new life was born—a boy.
Qiao Shengxi carried the child to show the new mother, smiling as she said, “It’s a son. He’s very cute!”
The woman’s eyes misted over as she looked at the tiny infant. “Wonderful, truly wonderful! Thank you! Thank you all!”
With the child born, Fang Ru sighed with relief. “Xiaoxue, I’ll leave the rest to you.”
Huo Chuxue, extremely calm, nodded. “Okay.”
She immediately began the suturing.
Her hands continued their suturing motions as she glanced down at the laboring woman lying on the operating table. The woman was elderly, with swarthy skin, a face etched with deep furrows, looking utterly world-weary.
The woman was conscious and, sensing Huo Chuxue’s gaze, gave a gentle smile. “Thank you, doctor!”
In that moment, Huo Chuxue thought this woman looked extraordinarily beautiful!
“You were amazing!” The medical mask hid Huo Chuxue’s expression, but her words carried profound admiration.
—
Outside the operating room, the woman in labor’s elderly husband, wearing a black cotton-padded jacket that was faded and worn, his figure bloated, back slightly hunched, looking decrepit and aged, kept his head bowed.
He paced back and forth outside the operating room, anxious and uneasy.
After working for so many years, many doctors had already grown numb to life and death, yet they were still moved by this couple. After all, a child wasn’t a cat or a dog that you could just have and then ignore. You had to raise it to adulthood, provide for its education, watch it start a family and build a career. All of that was no small sum.
The moment he heard the door open, the man rushed straight up to Fang Ru, gesturing frantically. “Doctor, how is my wife? Is she okay…”
The man was deaf and mute. None of the medical staff present understood sign language. However, Fang Ru probably could guess what he was asking. She wrote on a piece of paper she had prepared earlier: “Don’t worry. Mother and child are both safe!”
Then she handed the paper to the man to read.
Immediately after, Qiao Shengxi brought the child over to show him, not noticing that he couldn’t hear. “It’s a boy. He’s very beautiful!”
The man looked at the note, then at the child in the swaddling clothes, and solemnly bowed deeply to all the medical staff, his eyes brimming with tears.
When he raised his head again, Huo Chuxue, standing in the corner, finally got a clear look at his face.
She quickly walked forward, grabbed the man’s wrist, utterly unbelievable. “Gui Shu?”
At the same moment, a series of hurried, rhythmic footsteps sounded beside her ear.
Hearing the sound, Huo Chuxue abruptly turned her head. A young man’s handsome, tall and straight figure unexpectedly burst into her line of sight.
It was He Qingshi!