Village Doctor's Women-Chapter 221 - 215 Are you dating Xu Qian?

It was quite a coincidence. Shortly after the brain death was confirmed, a transplant schedule arrived from the provincial capital of Shan Province. The organ retrieval was scheduled for that very evening. They had even sent a helicopter, planning to transport the organs directly for surgery in the wee hours after the procedure was completed.

Two resident physicians accompanied them, waiting for Liang Xiu to finish the surgery. A few minutes before midnight, they urged Dr. Liang to proceed, but she snapped back at them, deliberately waiting until after the hour had passed.

The two doctors from the provincial capital were puzzled until Liang Xiu explained it was the patient’s son’s birthday. At that, everyone fell silent and waited together for midnight to arrive. After all, they couldn’t let a child’s every birthday be the anniversary of his father’s death.

A one-day difference might not seem significant, but for a child who didn’t understand much yet, the memory would have a profound effect.

According to the information Wang Jian received, Yangyang’s father’s organs had saved two lives. One person received a heart, and another received a liver.

***

Several more days passed just like that. The documentary crew continued to film as usual, but Wang Jian’s cases were mundane, mostly common colds and fevers. The true difficulty of making a documentary about a village doctor was only now becoming apparent. Finding compelling material was as unpredictable as filming wildlife in nature; there were no guarantees, and everything depended on waiting. Otherwise, the footage would be bland.

Whether Angel and her crew were distressed by this, Wang Jian didn’t know. But for him, this was exactly what he hoped for. Isn’t it best if the villagers don’t get sick? So, a doctor being idle is a good thing...

However, Wang Jian didn’t dare voice this thought. A jinx circulated in the hospital where he used to work: if you ever said you were idle or that things were quiet, trouble was sure to come knocking. Similar superstitions included not eating apples during a shift. The bad omens always seemed to come true while the good ones didn’t; there was something truly mystical about it.

Wang Jian knew this all too well from his time as a doctor in the city. At first, he was skeptical, but over time, after witnessing it himself, he became a firm believer and grew particularly cautious about tempting fate. Call it psychological comfort or irrational superstition, Wang Jian believed in it all the same.

Whenever he could steal a free moment, Wang Jian would take out his phone to scroll through his social media feed. Zhang Li and the others had posted pictures from Demon City. Seeing their two-bedroom apartment and its nice environment put Wang Jian at ease. Although it was in the suburbs, the rent wasn’t cheap. The best Wang Jian could do was to like their post and leave a comment wishing them well.

Right after posting his comment, Wang Jian noticed a new friend request.

"I’m Li Liping."

Wang Jian paused, then accepted the request without hesitation. The app automatically opened their chat window. After waiting a few minutes without a message from her, he took the initiative and typed, "Take care in Demon City. If you feel unwell, just come back with Zhang Li."

She replied with an "OK" sticker.

"Alright, don’t worry. You and Qianqian take care at home as well."

Seeing Li Liping’s message, Wang Jian put his phone down. But a moment later, the screen lit up again with another message from her.

"By the way... what are your future plans for you and Xu Qian?"

When Wang Jian saw this text, a jolt went through him. He frantically typed back, "What do you mean, ’future plans’?"

Li Liping sent another message with a cute emoji. "Don’t pretend you don’t know," she wrote. "I’m talking about you two."

Li Liping had been there when Wang Jian’s older brother, Wang Xiang, had visited, but how she knew about this puzzled Wang Jian.

"..." Wang Jian fell silent for a moment, still trying to feign ignorance. "What about us?"

Seeing the *Typing...* notification, Wang Jian felt a surprising pang of nervousness. He had used this app for a long time, but this was a first. What drove him even crazier was that Li Liping must have gotten busy with something. The status flickered on and off for over ten minutes, and Wang Jian’s heart rose and fell with each change.

"You and Xu Qian are dating..."

"Right?"

After a long wait, Li Liping sent two consecutive messages.

Wang Jian was completely dumbfounded. She really knew! He was still in the clinic, and even though he was slacking off, the TV crew was filming, and... Chairman Kang was there too. I really don’t want to die of embarrassment.

Wang Jian typed, "When did you find out?"

Li Liping replied, "At first, I just thought it was strange. But last night after you all got drunk, something happened, and then I was sure of it."

Last night?

"What happened last night?"

The sudden question left Wang Jian bewildered. With Zhang Li and Li Liping leaving, he had let loose the night before, drinking to his heart’s content until he passed out. If asked what had happened, he could honestly say he had no recollection whatsoever. Now that Li Liping had brought it up, a few images flashed through his mind like flashbacks. He only remembered that after he got drunk, someone had helped him back to his room.

"Did you help me back to my room?" Wang Jian guessed what Li Liping was referring to. "Right?"

"Yes." Seeing that Wang Jian remembered something, Li Liping didn’t hide it. "It was me. You were all drunk at the time, and I was the only one who was reasonably sober. So I took each of you back to your rooms..."

As he listened to Li Liping slowly recount the events of the previous night, Wang Jian also recalled his dream. He remembered everything he had experienced in it vividly. He hadn’t thought much of it before. After all, it was just a dream, and the woman in it was just a dream maiden. So what if she was wonderful?

But now, based on what Li Liping was saying, Wang Jian no longer dared to dismiss it as mere fantasy. He could do as he pleased in his dreams, but not in reality.

Li Liping continued slowly, "I took you back to your room, and then I took Lao Zhang back too..."

"Wait a second." Hearing this, Wang Jian felt that something was off. At first, hearing Li Liping’s account, he had assumed she was the woman from his dream, but now things clearly weren’t adding up. "You weren’t in my room last night?"

"I was."

After Li Liping sent that message, Wang Jian grew even more confused.

"Actually, I had a dream last night," Wang Jian slowly typed. "There was a woman in it, and we... Was that woman you? Or was it someone else?"

***