Chapter 21: I Have More Money Than You (1/2)

All of a sudden, Cheng Xi’s phone rang. But instead of alleviating the tension between the two, her crisp ringtone only made the atmosphere even more oppressive.

Cheng Xi didn’t pick up the call. She tried her hardest to ignore the tension emanating off of Lu Chenzhou by looking at him straightforwardly without any intent of deflection. “Do you have any particular misgivings against doctors?”

“Misgivings? Is it a misgiving to rightfully deny that I am ill?” Lu Chenzhou’s voice was steeped in disdain and an indistinct anger when he replied. “If being aloof is truly an illness, then how many people in the world are currently suffering from this incurable disease?”

Clearly, he was quite self-aware and even unexpectedly logical about his own situation. Cheng Xi was even starting to doubt her own diagnosis.

She didn’t intend to argue with him, though. For a psychiatrist, listening to one’s patients was a necessary skill to have. When she did reply, she deliberately spoke very softly and warmly. Her voice, already pleasing, became as soothing as the March wind, comfortably caressing one’s ears. “Are you disgusted when they act like that towards you?”

“Would you like to be treated differently, like a monster?”

Cheng Xi shook her head. “No one’s saying that patients who have unusual mental diseases are different or are monsters. Mental diseases are just that: diseases. Just like how we can catch the cold and become feverish and cough, mental diseases are just the result of a key part of our body malfunctioning. It is wholly unrelated to age, unrelated to level of education, and certainly unrelated to monsters or things of the sort.”

Such an explanation was feeble at best, and Lu Chenzhou’s face returned to his normal frosty expression, aloof and grim. “If that’s the case, then why are you unwilling to be my girlfriend?”

“No, it’s not that I’m unwilling. Rather…”

“Then let’s go.” He interrupted her halfway, and immediately turned around and left shortly after, leaving Cheng Xi with no time to react.

She decided to follow him. “Where to?”

He didn’t answer. The driver drove towards them, and then he opened the door to let her in.

Cheng Xi stood still, not moving.

“Are you scared?” He cocked his head back slightly as he looked at her.

“No. But I feel like you should inform me of our destination, as a basic courtesy.”

Lu Chenzhou simply replied, “My office. Are you coming?”

Even though she didn’t understand why Lu Chenzhou wanted them two to go to his office, Cheng Xi nonetheless still got into the car.

At this point, she couldn’t shirk back from her duty as a psychiatrist.

During the drive, Lu Chenzhou didn’t speak a single word. Cheng Xi, on the other hand, finally answered the call from before; it was from her colleague.

Once the call connected, she immediately heard her colleague’s exaggerated tone say, “Oh, Dr. Cheng, you’re famous! Go on WeChat, quickly!”

She refused to explain to Cheng Xi exactly what was going on, so Cheng Xi had no choice but to hang up and open WeChat, just as she had been instructed to. The first thing she saw was an image that had been posted on the psychiatry department’s group chat. It was from an unknown person’s friend group’s chat. She opened it and read the caption: “This actually happened in our hospital! In order to lighten his girlfriend’s workload, some rich guy booked all of her appointment slots for the next few days.”

The colleague who had sent out this image then said, “Someone posted this image onto Weibo, and then it started trending from there.”

The others laughed. “Hahaha, will there be reporters here to interview us tomorrow?”

“Heh, don’t talk about tomorrow. Just this afternoon, the media has already been calling us to confirm the story.”

“Then has our Dr. Cheng really become famous this time?”

“Call her out; we’ve got to get her to treat us to a meal.”

…

The group chat kept getting peppered with new messages. Cheng Xi looked at the shrinking scroll bar, sighing in dismay.

“Mr. Cheng,” she said as she showed him the chat messages. “Thanks to you, I’m famous now.”

Lu Chenzhou glanced at her phone, and then coolly said, “You’re welcome.”