426 Afraid of Pain (1/2)

”Shall we go and get something to eat?” After Doctor Zhou came out of the ICU, he felt refreshed, and the tiredness from the past few days seemed to have been swept away from his bones.

As for Ling Ran, he was truly energized and refreshed, since he drank an Energy Serum.

Ling Ran rubbed his stomach and asked, ”How about we order delivery from Shao family's restaurant?”

”Let's not. Every time you eat something from Shao family's restaurant, you have the feeling that you're preparing to work.” Doctor Zhou shook his head and said, ”Let's make some porridge, let Lu Wenbin cook pork trotters, add some ribs, slice up some pork shank and braised pork, add a bit of pork tongue and some vegetables or something, and it should be quite delicious.”

Ling Ran agreed. He took out his phone and asked, ”Would you like plain porridge or some other kind of porridge?”

When Doctor Zhou saw him and open Meituan, he quickly stopped him and said, ”Don't do that, it's just some porridge. Why should we order food delivery? We can cook some ourselves.”

”Do you cook porridge?” Ling Ran looked at Doctor Zhou skeptically. Ling Ran's impression of Doctor Zhou was someone who did not look like he would take the initiative to ask for work.

Doctor Zhou wore a smile akin to the smart monk, Ikkyu, and said, ”How about this? Your team has a WeChat group, right? Ask them if they want to eat what I just mentioned, and have those who want to eat give their names.”

Ling Ran decided to show Doctor Zhou a certain degree of trust, after all, he was already slacking off in terms of asking the others whether they wanted to eat.

So, Ling Ran did according to what Doctor Zhou said and roughly repeated Doctor Zhou's menu in Ling Treatment Group Group Chat.

In less than half a minute, a voice message from Zuo Cidian appeared in the WeChat group. ”Doctor Ling, Doctor Lu and Doctor Yu are currently debriding a patient, and all three of us would like to eat what you just said. I'll make the porridge. Doctor Lu and the others have big rice cookers, what kind of porridge do you want to eat?”

”Ask him whether he knows how to make sheng gun congee [1].” Doctor Zhou licked his lips and said, ”A married man in his forties should have made meals for his wife for some years. I don't know how good are his cooking skills, though...”

Ling Ran entered the words ”sheng gun congee” in the WeChat group before he said to Doctor Zhou, ”As far as I know, Doctor Zuo does not like others to talk about his marital status.”

Doctor Zhou looked at Ling Ran, whose expression was as serious as he looked like when he did debridement. Hence, Doctor Zhou nodded and said, ”Well, if Doctor Zuo knows how to make sheng gun congee, I will not talk about his marital status. Look at the group, ask him to prepare some kind of sheng gun congee, I think fish fillet congee would be alright... Some people aren't accustomed to pork liver. Beef would be good as well...”

Ling Ran then opened the WeChat group in front of Doctor Zhou and saw an answer from Zuo Cidian in the group. The big words were very clear, [Then, let's make sheng gun congee. How about beef congee? After being married for so many years, I am most confident with making beef congee. I think if I cooked it better, my wife would have been reluctant to leave me.]

Doctor Zhou looked at Ling Ran and laughed. ”It seems that not only did you misjudge Old Zuo's point of view in terms of marriage, Old Zuo himself also made a wrong judgment in his own marriage.”

…..

The small cafeteria in the Emergency Medical Center had always been prepared for the medical staff.

Sometimes, doctors of the other department, who were bored with the big cafeteria, would also go to the Emergency Department for food. Of course, most of them were young resident doctors or attending physicians who would frequently come to the emergency room to provide consultation. The older ones would usually have their meals at home, and those with higher positions would usually have meals outside.

Zuo Cidian hummed a song while he cooked beef congee.

The tenderloin was delivered by a delivery service, and the quality was surprisingly good. The seasoning and oil were from the kitchen, and they were readily available to everyone.

Zuo Cidian even recalled the joy he felt when he was young. At that time, he was still a happy and single young man. He cooked sheng gun congee in the town hospital's kitchen alone. At that time, the meat used for his porridge was sent it by the patient's family, the rice was sent by the patient's family, and the seasoning was also sent by the patient's family...

”I have to say, we lived a more comfortable life during the time I was younger.” Zuo Cidian sniffed the smell of porridge, smiled at the young doctor in front of him whose name he could not really remember, and said, ”We were poor at the time, but we received good benefits. During the first five years I was a doctor, I never spent my own money to buy food.”

The ordinary-looking doctor looked at Zuo Cidian with a judgmental gaze, ”I heard that at your time, you will get an equal share of food with your colleagues from the same communal pot, right?”

Zuo Cidian stared at the doctor for a few seconds and asked, ”How old do you think I am?”

The ordinary-looking young resident doctor looked at Zuo Cidian and guessed. ”Fifty-eight?”

”You...” Zuo Cidian was so angry, he trembled in anger. ”Which part of me looks fifty-eight years old?”

”The crow's feet... eye bags... laugh lines... forehead wrinkles, neck wrinkles, perioral wrinkles, glabellar wrinkles, tear troughs, oral commissures, marionette lines, infraorbital folds...” The ordinary-looking young resident doctor spoke faster and faster, and his tone also gradually became livelier.

Zuo Cidian's facial expression slowly became serious. ”Today's beef congee is only for the people in our treatment group. It's not for you. I'm saying this in advance lest you overthink things.”

As Zuo Cidian spoke, he put ginger slices in the pot, let it stew on medium fire, and put the marinated beef into the porridge.

The white porridge churned about continuously under the push from the flames.

The tenderloin quickly became dark red, and it started churning around with the white porridge.

It looked like Coca-Cola coming out from a geyser, tripes floating to the surface of a hot pot, and Zidane joining China's national football team—it was so eye-catching that it was hard to not want to eat it!

”I...” The ordinary young resident doctor regretted his words immediately. He wanted to say some words in a normal conversation to ease the awkward atmosphere.