Chapter 14.1 - 决明子 Cassia Seed
He Suye went to work at the hospital. Just as he got off the bus, he saw Qiu Tian walking towards the hospital gate, wearing an MP3 player and nodding his head to the music. Curious, he walked over and patted Qiu Tian’s shoulder. “Don’t tell me you’re working here too.”
Qiu Tian had an innocent expression. “What kind of world is this? You don’t even welcome my arrival, I’m so sad!”
He Suye smiled. “Welcome, just curious how no mentor can keep you in check.”
Qiu Tian sighed. “Do you think being a doctor is that impressive? There are plenty of them in the hospital. I still have to follow the boss around as an assistant. Plus, our cardiology department isn’t that great. I’ll just stay for now, maybe one day I’ll leave.”
He Suye didn’t say anything, feeling a sense of shared understanding. Qiu Tian continued, “Suye, actually, I really wanted to work under your dad, but unfortunately, I can’t. I’m not a soldier.”
He paused for a moment. “That’s right, it seems you can’t. It’s a military hospital, so you need to be in the military.”
Qiu Tian gave him an “are you that slow?” look, reaching out to pinch him. He sighed, “I really don’t get you. You didn’t even try for military medical school, and now you’re studying traditional Chinese medicine, not even going abroad. You have a dad who’s a director and a major general, and also a well-known expert in cardiology. You have such good conditions, but you’re wasting them!”
He Suye helplessly responded, “Some things can’t be forced. I prefer traditional Chinese medicine.”
Today, Professor Gu was seeing patients. The Traditional Chinese Medicine building was packed with people. He Suye and another female PhD student of his boss sat aside, checking on patients, writing medical records, calling names. Professor Gu was famously strict, and the female PhD student was glared at several times as she hesitated while writing prescriptions.
Finally, when a phone call took the professor away, the PhD student sighed, “Every time the boss sees patients, I feel like I lose a month of life.”
A nurse called, “Dr. He, Professor Gu asked you to go to the Internal Medicine building, Digestive Department.”
The female PhD student then noticed his name tag: “Attending Physician.” She inwardly sighed, realizing why the boss valued him so much. As a mere physician herself, she should probably call him “Master Brother.”
The day was busy: first, he accompanied patients in the Traditional Chinese Medicine building, then dealt with a patient in the Digestive Department, and was later called to the Hematology Department. Finally, his boss told him that he had developed a new drug and asked if he would help.
He Suye chuckled bitterly, thinking that this year-end was indeed difficult.
The application form from the University of Pennsylvania’s medical school was buried under his desk, untouched for a long time. Professor Andy had expressed several times that he didn’t want to lose such a promising talent in integrated Chinese and Western medicine, and that he would wait as long as needed.
Traditional Chinese medicine’s research at home was far behind that in America, and he felt somewhat sad about it.
It seemed that everyone was busy as the year ended. Li Jie was so confused by exams that he kept asking He Suye for help. Fang Kexin hadn’t been around for a while, and he heard that the Imaging Department was also busy. Grandma He called to say that his father was going to Japan and probably wouldn’t be home for the New Year.
Recently, He Suye had been feeling frustrated with all the busyness and had started drinking bitter tea.
Bitter tea leaves are bitter in taste, neutral in nature, quenching thirst, brightening the eyes, dispelling wind-heat, clearing the head and eyes, detoxifying, and reducing inflammation. It can also stop bleeding from external injuries and is used for treating wind-heat headaches, red and swollen eyes, sore throats, bloating, mouth ulcers, and toothaches. It is said to lower blood pressure, blood lipids, and has anti-cancer and anti-aging effects.
He preferred the bitterness of bitter tea, drinking it like plain water.
The second heavy snowfall of the year arrived, bigger and fiercer than the first. The meteorological department continuously issued warnings, and major transportation hubs were damaged, with airports forced to shut down. The city became eerily quiet, almost as if isolated.
He Suye felt isolated too. Apart from Qiu Tian and Li Jie, no one else talked to him.
Even Shen Xifan had disappeared. This girl, who was sometimes noisy and sometimes quiet, seemed to have vanished into thin air, like a snowflake evaporating without a trace, leaving no clues behind.
He Suye wondered if it would be too abrupt to send her a message. And was there even a need?
This winter was truly cold. The warmth of a cup of tea was far from enough.
The past few days, he had been researching pharmacology, busy with his boss’s new drug formulation, and learning how to use the liquid chromatograph-mass spectrometer worth 1.5 million and the gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer worth 650,000.
His desk was piled high with books, manuals, papers, and reports. His space had never been this messy before, but he didn’t have the heart to tidy it up and just let it be.
He reached out to pull the Pharmacopoeia of China from beneath the pile of books, but in the process, he accidentally toppled all the books. Among the scattered pages, he found a blue sheet of letter paper, tucked in with Li Jie’s materials.
The handwriting was Shen Xifan’s—delicate, elegant, and with a certain liveliness.
“The sky above the city was filled with large, swiftly moving clouds. Suddenly, a pigeon flew across the sky, and the fragmented silhouettes of the bird were embedded in time by the steel wires hanging from the neighboring balcony. It felt like a sorrowful note, plucking the heartstrings of someone who had lost their lover.
I thought this scene seemed so familiar. Hadn’t I seen such a sky before? I remember walking hand in hand with you on the rain-washed avenue. I asked you what happiness was, and you said happiness was living a lifetime with someone you liked, even if you argued and bickered along the way.”
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