Hearing Mrs. Mo's words, Debbie looked Sheffield up and down; the young doctor was focused on examining his patient. She asked Mrs. Mo, "Really? He looks so young. Yet, he has already performed such a difficult surgery? Honestly, he looks like a university graduate. How old is he? Twenty-one, twenty-two years old?"
"I haven't asked him that." The Mo family members had never asked Sheffield about his age. The topic had never come up during their conversations.
"Dr. Tang is twenty-six," the doctor standing next to them cut in to tell Debbie. He had been waiting for a chance to talk to the big star.
"Twenty-six?" Debbie threw a glance at Sheffield's face. He looked much younger than his age. She then commended, "Well, twenty-six is also a very young age for such accomplishments. And he's also making ward rounds with other doctors. Is he the director of your department?"
A female doctor replied this time, her eyes filled with admiration, "Dr. Tang is the deputy director of the neurology department. He's also doing a research and development project right now. Quite amazing, isn't he?"
Debbie nodded repeatedly. She was glad to have met such a handsome and hard-working young man. Unable to hold back her curiosity, she blurted out, "Does he have a girlfriend?" Sheffield and Terilynn were about the same age. If he didn't have a girlfriend, she wanted to try and pair them up.
Evelyn was still talking over the phone. Her voice trailed off as her attention was drawn to her mother's question. 'What is Mom trying to do here?'
Sheffield was done with the patient. He turned to Debbie and said with a broad smile, "Mrs. Huo—"
Before he could say anything further, the doctor, who had cut in to talk to Debbie earlier, interrupted him. "He is the future son-in-law of the president of our hospital. We envy him for his good fortune."
Sheffield cursed the talkative doctor a million times in his mind. He had wanted to tell her that he didn't have a girlfriend.
Disappointment was written all over Debbie's face. "Oh, you already have a girlfriend. I see. Well, that's only obvious. You're such an outstanding young man after all." Introducing Terilynn to him seemed impossible now.
Sheffield was overwhelmed by an urge to strangle his fellow doctor. As he read the ECG monitor of the patient, he explained, "No, Mrs. Huo. Please ignore my colleague. I don't have a girlfriend yet. I'm only friends with the president's daughter. There's nothing romantic between us." If he didn't explain himself now, it would be less likely for him to get together with Evelyn.
When she was done with her phone call, Evelyn turned to look at Sheffield, who was explaining himself to her mother. She said nothing.
Several young nurses in the ward admired Evelyn's beauty. "Wow! Mrs. Huo, your daughter is so beautiful."
"Everyone in the Huo family is so good-looking, including you, Mrs. Huo!"
Despite always hearing abundant compliments about Evelyn from everyone, Debbie, as the doting mother she was, never got bored of it. She smiled from ear to ear. "Thank you. You are all lovely too."
Sheffield turned to look at Evelyn and asked Debbie, "Mrs. Huo, your daughter is indeed gorgeous. Does she have a boyfriend? If not, I can—"
Evelyn didn't expect Sheffield to be bold enough to say that to Debbie in front of so many people. Afraid of being discovered by her mother, Evelyn interrupted nervously, "No, you can't!"
Seeing the warning in her eyes, he smiled. "Please, don't take it seriously. I was just kidding." Then, he turned to the patient's family and said, "He is recovering quite well after the surgery. I'll prescribe two boxes of medicine to lower his blood pressure. Also, make sure to watch his diet. A low-salt diet is preferred at this moment…"
After giving some more instructions to his family, he turned to Debbie. "Mrs. Huo, we're moving to the next ward. It was nice meeting you." He looked at Evelyn with a broad smile. "Bye."
"It was nice to meet you too!" Debbie exclaimed. Watching his receding figure, she couldn't help but sigh. 'If only he could be my son-in-law…'
As the doctors left Ward 9, a nurse asked Sheffield eagerly, "Dr. Tang, do you really plan on chasing after Miss Huo?"
"Are you not dating Miss Xiang?" another nurse asked curiously. She wondered if she would have a chance to be with Sheffield if he was still single.
With the same smile on his face, he answered casually, "Well…Evelyn Huo is such a pretty girl after all. It's only natural for men like me to want to court her."
He just shrugged off the matter, and the nurses didn't bother to dig deep.
Debbie said goodbye to the Mo family and left with her daughter. Once they were back in the car, she asked, "Evelyn, what do you think about that young doctor?"
Evelyn asked absentmindedly, "What do you mean?"
"He is handsome and talented. He has already become the deputy director of his department at such a young age. What do you say we introduce him to Terilynn?" Debbie asked.
'What?!' Evelyn was snapped back to reality. She answered hastily, "No! He's not the right person for Terilynn!"
Seeing the confusion in Debbie's eyes, Evelyn managed to collect herself quickly. "No…um…I mean, Terilynn loves men like Tayson. But, this one is a doctor… And Dr. Tang looks like a playboy. Terilynn wouldn't like him."
Debbie sighed. "Ah! Well, it looks like we will have no chances to become family."
Evelyn's lips twitched. After a short pause, she asked tentatively, "Do you really like him that much? You want him to be your son-in-law?"
Debbie snorted, "I want, but what's the point of talking about it now? You have Joshua, and he is not your sister's type." It was a real pity that they had missed such a handsome young man.
Evelyn couldn't believe that her mom would be so taken in by Sheffield. "You seem to like him very much." And this was only the first time her mother had met him.
Debbie had no intentions of hiding her admiration for the young doctor. "Of course! He's handsome, talented, polite and ambitious. I have never seen a better young man."
Evelyn went silent.
She recalled what people often said. It was important for a son-in-law to get on the good side of his mother-in-law.
Her phone tinkled all of a sudden. It was a WeChat message.
She absentmindedly opened the application and saw Sheffield's message. "Honey, have you left the hospital?"
When Evelyn saw the word "Honey," she quickly put her phone away with a guilty conscience. She stole a glance at her mother, who was now lost in her own thoughts. After making sure that Debbie wasn't watching her, Evelyn heaved a long sigh of relief.
She took a deep breath and silently moved towards the window. She took out her phone again and tapped on Sheffield's dialogue box. "You did it on purpose, didn't you?" she wrote. She knew that he had deliberately showed up with his doctors to meet her mother.
Sheffield's reply came soon along with a cute emoji. "You are so smart. So, is my mother-in-law satisfied with me? Did I behave well in front of her? Did she like me? Did I do anything wrong?"
Evelyn pursed her lips. 'Satisfied? My mom is more than satisfied, ' she thought, as she stole a glance at her mother, who was still pondering over something with a smile on her face.
