Chapter 101

Chapter 101

"How did you get her pants off?"

"If you don't cooperate with the hospital investigation team, the cops will give you a harder time."

"Still not willing to talk?"

Qi Yanyu’s head swam; he was starving and lightheaded from standing too long.

His throat was bone-dry—he hadn’t had a sip of water. He must’ve been standing for hours—maybe even all day.

When Cui Qiuli led him out of the administrative office, he saw someone standing at the door.

The guy had a slight smile, but not for him—it was meant for Cui Qiuli. "Uncle,"

Cui Qiuli looked pleasantly surprised. "Jinglan, you're a full-fledged doctor now?"

"Just a resident still," Gu Jinglan said.

After praising him briefly, Cui Qiuli muttered, "Kids these days got no skills or decency—just dragging the hospital’s name through the mud."

Gu Jinglan didn’t so much as glance at Qi Yanyu next to Cui Qiuli. He smirked faintly. "You got this, Uncle. I’ve got stuff to do."

Qi Yanyu’s eyes stayed locked on Gu Jinglan the whole time.

But Gu Jinglan straight-up ignored him, not even a look or a smirk.

Qi Yanyu felt like he’d been punched. Had Gu Jinglan heard about what happened that morning?

In a haze, he trailed after Cui Qiuli. The cop in the other room just took a quick statement and didn’t take him to the station.

Back on the gastro ward, his supervising doctor told him to rest for a day or two.

All he could think about was Gu Jinglan blowing him off earlier, chatting and laughing with others like nothing happened.

Did he forget him? Or just hate him now?

Back when he’d had that heart attack and been carried out of the Ferris wheel cabin, it was Gu Jinglan who came to pick him up.

He must’ve seen Jiang Tiyan—why else would he look so wrecked?

Qi Yanyu’s world came crashing down.

The whole time he was recovering, Gu Jinglan didn’t text him once.

When he got back to school, he found Gu Jinglan had already moved out of their dorm.

He hunted Gu Jinglan down to explain, but got the cold shoulder—like he didn’t exist.

At closing time, he camped outside the study room, waiting.

But Gu Jinglan blew right by him like he was air.

In the elevator, Gu Jinglan laughed with other students—like Qi Yanyu didn’t exist.

As Gu Jinglan left the library to go to his new dorm, Qi Yanyu tailed him the whole way, begging forgiveness to his back.

"So we’re done now? That it?"

"I was wrong—can you forgive me?"

"I'm sorry, can you just stop for a moment?"

"Can you talk to me? Cut it out, please..."

The other person didn't stop. Unable to bear it any longer, Qi Yanyu moved in front of Gu Jinglan and blocked his path. "Have you completely lost hope in me?"

At nearly eleven o’clock, the campus streetlights cast a desolate glow.

Students returning to their dorms walked in laughing groups or hurried silently alone.

He had stopped Gu Jinglan on the bridge that crossed the campus river.

Gu Jinglan merely gave him a frosty gaze, stepped around him, and kept walking.

At that moment, Qi Yanyu almost wished he could jump off the bridge. He wondered—if he jumped into the river, would Gu Jinglan still ignore him?

With no other choice left, he grabbed Gu Jinglan’s arm. "Please, just stop and listen to me..."

Pulled back, Gu Jinglan finally halted coldly—but the look in his eyes was no longer the same.

It was aversion, distrust, like strangers passing by, utterly disillusioned, completely apathetic, beyond saving.

"I’ll change. I won’t hang out with friends so much anymore—I promise."

But Gu Jinglan cut him off, clearly unwilling to hear more. "Stop messing with me, Young Master Qi."

Qi Yanyu looked stunned, as if thrown back to when they first met. Back then, Gu Jinglan had also despised him.

"There's really no chance left?" His eyes stung, welling up slightly. "Didn’t you say you liked me? If you really do..."

Gu Jinglan lowered his gaze, then lifted it again, his eyes dark. "Is this how you hurt someone who likes you?"

His words froze Qi Yanyu. His vision blurred slightly. "I—I've said it so many times... Nothing ever happened between us... I really like you... I—I only like you..."

Tears dripped from his chin, catching the light from the streetlamp.

His face was shadowed by the streetlight, hiding his grief.

Gu Jinglan seemed about to speak, but he simply looked away. "Go back early." With that, he turned and left the bridge.

Students hurried past them, while couples clung to each other, reluctant to separate.

Left behind on the bridge, Qi Yanyu stood with swollen, raw eyes.

The wind whipped away more tears rolling down his face.

...

Qi Yanyu’s memories were interrupted by the stern expression of the department chief standing before him.

Called into the office, he was told to sit and eat the takeout the chief had bought.

He picked at the food, finding it tasteless.

Known for being strict, the department chief surprisingly sent him home to rest for a few days.

The inquiry wrapped up in three days. By then, online outrage had been swiftly contained—perhaps because Kan Medical University Affiliated Hospital had a spotless reputation, or because, as a top-three national hospital, the local government also protected its name.

It turned out that the girl came from a poor family, with a sick mother and a father who was disabled due to a work injury and still owed compensation. She had tried to extort money from the school and hospital to pay for her father's surgery for his severe injury.

That day, the girl screamed and ran out of the physical examination with her clothes in disarray. Students from both their school and others who were present recorded the incident and uploaded it online, sparking fierce public backlash.

The incident spread throughout their hospital department, with most rumors saying he’d been set up, though a few spiced up the story with extra drama.

Yet, Qi Yanyu’s mind was stuck on bumping into Gu Jinglan outside the administrative office.

Maybe he was there on some errand. Or maybe he wanted to know whether Qi Yanyu had really harassed the female student.

Either way, they had crossed paths.

Working in the same hospital, Gu Jinglan must have heard about the incident.

What must he think of me?

With his rap sheet, Gu Jinglan must have thought, "Now he's harassing a girl—hardheaded and beyond redemption, same old Yanyu."

As these thoughts swirled in his mind, Qi Yanyu noticed the chart he was filling out had smudged.

He startled, hastily smearing away the blurred ink.

"Are you listening?" the deputy director in the outpatient clinic asked them. "The patient just described his symptoms. What do you think his condition should be?"

Around one in the afternoon, when Qi Yanyu went to the cafeteria for cold leftovers—loading his tray with sad-looking greens and rubbery tofu—he heard a wave of laughter as a new group walked in.

They were medical students from the Respiratory Department. He recognized one of them.

Gu Jinglan, along with a lively, outgoing female intern with a bold, pretty face—nothing like Xia Yiyi or the fiery, outgoing Yi Na.

A handful of other Respiratory Department students tagged along. Qi Yanyu only recognized one as a former classmate from the neighboring Clinical Class One.

After getting their food, they grabbed chopsticks and scouted for seats. "Isn’t that your classmate? Why not say hello?" the Class One student mentioned Qi Yanyu in front of Gu Jinglan.

The Class One student lived next to their dorm and had even received expensive gifts from Qi Muyao. Naturally, he hadn’t forgotten Qi Yanyu, the wealthy heir.

"He's eating alone. Wouldn’t we be bothering him?" the female intern, Liu Mengyue, asked.

"Then forget it," the Clinical Class One student said. "That Qi dude’s a loner anyway. Who can understand the minds of the rich?"

So the group of five or six plopped down at another table.

The cafeteria was dead quiet past one, just a few stragglers. The silence was broken only by the occasional sound of cleaning staff passing through.

The liveliest spot was Gu Jinglan’s table, buzzing with banter and crack-up laughter.

Occasionally, bursts of uproarious laughter erupted. "Yeah, that’s exactly what my senior did last time—got chewed out for no reason, hahaha…" Liu Mengyue clapped her hands and doubled over in laughter, leaning against Gu Jinglan.

Gu Jinglan didn’t pull back, clearly aware of the girl’s fondness for him.

Not far away, Qi Yanyu picked at his cold food, ears burning with their laughter and gossip.

He couldn’t bring himself to ditch his tray and bolt.

But he didn’t dare turn his head, let alone openly observe the relationship between the pretty girl and Gu Jinglan.

He might already have someone new.

The more he told himself this, the shakier his spoon hand got.

Qi Yanyu felt a clogged, swollen feeling in his chest, like the side effect of his stomach going too long without the comfort of warm food.

Even though he had discovered his heart condition years ago, Qi Yanyu still couldn’t always tell if it was stomach pain or heart pain.

Perhaps this heartache wasn’t the same as that heartache. What he felt now might simply be an emotional resonance.

Amidst the laughter and chatter of his companions, Gu Jinglan lifted his gaze and saw that person carrying his mostly untouched tray to the recycling station before dumping it.

That person walked out of the hospital cafeteria—quiet and solitary.

·

At two in the morning, Qi Yanyu took in three rounds of patients.

Patient Wang, a 56-year-old man from Room 1304, had slipped out of his ward and was stopped by a new intern nurse, throwing a fit in his room.

As the only doctor left in the gastroenterology department, Qi Yanyu was called by the nurse to calm the old man who was insisting on leaving the hospital.

Qi Yanyu glanced at Old Man Wang’s medical records before entering Room 1304. To the man acting like a petulant child, he said bluntly, “You have a gastrointestinal tumor, and it’s not in the early stages. To put it plainly, if you sneak out and die, no one will notice or grieve. Otherwise, why are you alone in this ward? Where are your children? Your spouse? Who’s here to accompany you?”

Qi Yanyu knew the patient’s situation—his spouse had divorced him, his children were scattered north and south, and none had returned. A hired caregiver had been chased away by the old man, who couldn’t bear the expense.

The words cut so deep that Old Man Wang almost passed out in fury. “I want to report him! What’s his name?!!”

Only the nurse tried to soothe him. After Qi Yanyu left, she coaxed the old man, “Don’t even think about it. He’s well-connected.”

Old Man Wang was stunned. “What connections?”

“He’s a relative of the higher-ups!” the nurse blurted out.

Last time, when he was accused of assaulting an underage female student, he managed to suppress the media fallout within three days and emerged completely unscathed. Later, the entire hospital was warned not to gossip about the incident. Clearly, his arrogance and detachment came with privilege.

So, the hospital staff speculated that he must be related to Dean Gu—possibly even cousins with Gu Jinglan. Otherwise, why would Gu Jinglan pull strings to cover for him?

Gu Jinglan, the future successor to the dean’s position, had grown up under the eyes of the senior staff. Never before had he gone to such lengths to arrange things for someone else.

“Die unnoticed and unmourned”—it sounded as if the words described himself.

Qi Yanyu lowered his head, staring at his open palms, his wrists. Perhaps all it would take was a long, unnoticed stretch of time to slit his wrists and achieve death.

What was keeping him going now?

Was it just to see if Gu Jinglan had a girlfriend? If it were just about chasing after him, could he even win Gu Jinglan over now?

Though it had been Gu Jinglan who confessed to him first, in their relationship, Gu Jinglan had always been the one in control.

Why bother dying?

Would it really be that simple?

What if he wound up transmigrating into an even worse novel?

Then he wouldn’t even get to see the one he wanted to see anymore.

Qi Yanyu curled his lips in self-mockery, shoving his hands back into his coat pockets, no longer staring at the veins in his wrists.

But the next day, Qi Yanyu regretted it.

He should’ve jumped into the second novel earlier.