Chapter 21.1 (1/2)

Final Chapter (1)

Vital signs monitor, intravenous infusion pump, ventilator, syringe pump … The green lights of these various pieces of equipment were flas.h.i.+ng. There were doctors and nurses, garbed in isolation gowns, discussing in low tones and checking the numbers on the equipment.

All these had once been very familiar to him.

This was the hospital he and his mother had once worked in, and therefore, his access to and time in the ICU were not being restricted.

He waited until the elderly man was sound asleep before he stepped into the isolation change room outside the ICU and removed his isolation attire.

“The chief physicians of the various departments are all carefully keeping watch on Elder Gu’s sickness. Nephrology even brought over 301 Hospital’s [301 Military Hospital] Dong Changting. He’s considered an authoritative voice and leading professor at the transplant centre.” Beside him, the doctor who had always had quite a good relations.h.i.+p with him, Doctor Liao, was speaking in a quiet voice. “The situation may not be considered a good one, but you were in this profession before and should be able to accept whatever comes.”

When Dong Changting came today, he had arranged ahead of time to have dinner with Gu Pingsheng.

Gu Pingsheng purposely did not show up.

In regards to this person, Gu Pingsheng had probably let go of all resentment toward him after his teenage years. As a young child, when he returned to China with his mother, he had still held some expectations and hope in his heart, and after time and again missing chances to see him, some bitterness had even started to build.

And hidden behind that bitterness were actually very clear and evident feelings of insecurity and inferiority.

To a teenager, the term, “father,” itself, encompa.s.sed a power within it that could not be suppressed. Furthermore, that man truly was very outstanding, so outstanding that a sense of inadequacy and low self-esteem from being rejected had been produced in Gu Pingsheng, a mere ordinary Catholic school student at the time.

But after navigating through that age of feeling bewildered and hesitant about the future, the power held by that word had naturally dissipated.

Without answering, he handed the isolation gown to a young nurse. There were traces of dampness on his body from perspiration.

“Why hasn’t your wife come all this time?” Doctor Liao also handed his gown over.

“We haven’t officially gotten married yet, so it’s not very suitable.”

“Back when I was on interns.h.i.+p with you, you could be considered the beau of the faculty. I never would have thought you’d be enchanted by a young girl.” Doctor Liao let out a chuckle. “But that little girl really is a great girl. Just look at the divorce rates after SARS. This type of thing is not something that you can just say you’ve accepted it and then it happens. I’ll say, what are you waiting for, not getting married all this time?”

“She hasn’t graduated from university yet.” His tone when he answered was placid as still waters. “After she has successfully graduated, we will marry.”

Doctor Liao gave an “oh” and pressed the switch that controlled the gla.s.s door.

When the door slowly opened, he at last finished his musings, and with a faint smile, he patted Gu Pingsheng. “Born in the ‘90s?”

This question really did leave Gu Pingsheng taken aback.

After he had walked out of the hospital and sat into a taxi, he thought about that phrase again.

From when he began teaching Tong Yan’s cla.s.s, he had noticed that this generation of students was very unique. He had not grown up in the country, but when comparing Pingfan’s approach to life with those students’, they truly were quite far apart.

He very distinctly remembered that one time, he had seen a girl, with her hair dyed pink and wearing a sky blue-coloured bow, das.h.i.+ng into the office to beg the teacher for the Foundations to Law course to “cut her some slack,” and he had suddenly had the urge to laugh.

And there were also those pink love letters with heart shape cutouts that he had received when he was teaching Tong Yan.

When Gu Pingfan saw them, she had once sighed over how, in the past, if something like that were to occur, it would at most be an anonymous confession of feelings. The kids nowadays, though, were acting as if they were worried people would not know they had a crush on their teacher …

But after all, they were still just kids.

As he leaned back in the front pa.s.senger seat, he remembered those words she had once said: “to have a child who can miss you with me.”

A big kid raising a little kid?

It seemed one was not enough, either. Supposedly, foreign nationals in China had no limitations on their family planning. But Pingfan had also mentioned that if both parents were only children themselves, the couple would be allowed to have two children.

In that case, including her, there would be three. The responsibility of providing food, clothing, shelter, and other necessities for the three kids would fall on him.

It seemed, this truly was quite a nice idea.

Tong Yan left that sentence on the wall.

Worried that her eyes were too swollen, she in the end still made a phone call to Grandmother, stating that she might be home a little late. Fortunately, it was winter, and the meat did not need to be placed into the refrigerator straightaway. So, carrying a bag of chicken dripping with blood, she strolled to a KFC near the community compound to take care of dinner for herself.

It was not certain whether it was because of the chicken or because her face was swollen after being hit, but when she was ordering, the server took several extra glances at her.

Standing beside a sink, she soaked a napkin in cold water. Then she selected a table in a corner and took a seat at it, pressing that wet napkin against her cheek while she gnawed on a spicy chicken wing.

The gla.s.s wall in front of her faced the road as well as the main entrance of the community compound that was across the way.

After nibbling down two chicken wings, she happened to notice a taxi stopping in front of the fresh fruits store, and her intuition told her it was him returning home. As predicted, the person who stepped out from that low interior of the vehicle and quickly straightened himself was Gu Pingsheng.

Clamping a wing between her teeth, she pulled out her mobile phone and swiftly used the selfie mode of the camera to look over her own face.

It was completely better. Sure enough, her body was one that withstood attacks.

That person off in the distance was selecting fruit with head lowered, and the fruit storekeeper’s wife was holding something up and chatting with him. Due to his height, he had politely bowed his head somewhat to watch the storekeeper’s wife speak.

Tong Yan sent a text message to him: I got off work late. Oh, very poor me. I’m eating junky fast food right now.

She saw him, on that side of the road, pull out his mobile phone from his pocket and look down at it.

She carried on with chomping on her chicken wings, but her eyes were fixed on him. Although the gla.s.s was a little dirty, it did not hinder her from admiring the beauty.

Putting away the change the fruit storekeeper’s wife was handing to him, Gu Pingsheng slipped his wallet and phone back into the pocket of his trousers and set the fruits he had just bought onto one of the fruit stands for the time being.

Then, he turned around and began to cross the crosswalk that was on the road. Halfway across, he happened to encounter a red light, and he stood amongst the vast throng of people, waiting patiently for the red light to turn green.