A big coach was parked neatly at the exit of the parking lot at the hospital.
Although it was in a dark red color that allowed it to keep a low profile, its large body and expansion box that was stretched out of the car still captured people’s attention. If anyone drew closer to it, they would see the logo of the Mercedes-Benz and English wordings for Airsun, and a few passersby were driven to take photos of it.
When Ling Ran drove his Volkswagen Jetta out of the parking lot, he saw an old man in a black Chinese tunic suit waving at him.
Ling Ran stepped on his car brake gently before he wound down the window.
“Mister Ling Ran…” The old man in the black Chinese tunic suit walked over slowly and greeted him. When he wanted to speak more, a voice was heard from behind him.
“Doctor Ling…”
In the next second, Tian Qi was seen running over to them.
Tian Qi wore a khaki-colored trench coat. The bottom of the trench coat seemed to flutter when she ran over, and she looked so fair that her skin glowed.
Ling Ran pulled up the hand brake.
“Are you okay?” Tian Qi ran to the front of his car before she slowed down suddenly. She looked slightly tense.
“What are you referring to?” Ling Ran thought for a few seconds before he answered Tian Qi with a question.
Tian Qi laughed and said, “It’s good that you’re okay. Oh yes, was the surgery successful?”
“It’s successful.” Ling Ran nodded.
He performed a few surgeries today, and he did not bump into any strange incidents or face any strange anatomical structures. Although it was his first time operating on a patient with an infectious disease, he felt lucky that there was no mistake. No matter how which standard he used to assess his surgeries today, everything went very well.
“That’s great.” Tian Qi smiled broadly and said, “I just came back to Yun Hua City. Are you hungry now? How about having a meal together?”
Ling Ran also did not want to go back home immediately. He thought for a while before he nodded and said, “Okay, where should we go?”
“Do you want to go the Shao family’s restaurant?” Tian Qi picked the restaurant Ling Ran always visited.
Ling Ran hesitated for a while before he said, “Let’s not go there today. I’m not in a situation where I can operate on anyone or perform any emergency treatment right now.”
Tian Qi blinked, and she did not quite understand what he meant.
However, Tian Qi did not feel the need to understand what he meant.
“Do you want to take a ride in my car?” Tian Qi pointed at the coach behind her and said, “You can put your car at the bottom of the coach.”
As she spoke, she took out her phone and gave some instructions. Then, the side panel between the tyres of the coach was opened, and a thick steel panel was placed on the floor. Its surface area was large enough for a small sized car to park in it.
Ling Ran parked his Volkswagen Jetta on the thick steel panel. Ling Ran got down his car, and he looked at his Volkswagen Jetta that was slowly being pulled under the coach.
“How advanced.” Ling Ran mused. He liked products that were rare and sophisticated, just like the mini scalpels for arthroscopy.
“Let’s get into the coach.” Tian Qi had been watching Ling Ran’s facial expression all this while, and she sighed in relief when she realized that he was not unhappy.
The inside of the dark red coach was plain white. The spaciousness and well-furnished space made it look like a high-end hotel room. It was luxurious and equipped with everything, but there was not too much space to put strange things around.
The coach started moving slowly. Tian Qi adjusted the light setting in the coach before she asked, “What do you want to eat?”
In just a moment, Tian Qi came up with an idea and said, “We can just eat in the car.”
Ling Ran just nodded. He did not care either way.
Tian Qi was so excited that she got up and walked two rounds in the coach. She pressed a button and said, “Go somewhere with a nice scenery. Let’s go to Goose-quill Mountain.”
“Alright.” The coach driver in front. There was a board in the middle that separated the compartments.
Tian Qi then found some pots and pans from the cupboard. She also brought out some fruits from the fridge. She then brought out a pack of frozen dumplings from the refrigerated drawer.
“What about getting some dumplings? They’re stuffed with pork meat and celery.” Tian Qi was ready to show her top-class cooking skills for dumplings.
“Sure, is there any sauce?” Ling Ran sat at the left side of the couch as if he was at home. He touched the smooth and comfortable leather. He curiously sized up the interior design and Tian Qi’s clumsy actions.
Tian Qi nodded. “I have vinegar, chilli, garlic, and soy sauce. Are they enough?”
“I need vinegar and chilli only.”
“No problem.”
Tian Qi instantly became very confident.
The coach stopped slowly at the mountainside of Goose-quill Mountain.
This place was located next to Yun Hua City. During the day, it was crowded with endless cars and tourists. At night, after all the hustle and bustle during the day was gone, the quiet unique to mountains would arrive.
The coach was parked in a very steady manner. The three expansion boxes attached to the coach were slowly pushed to the sides and the back. It increased the interior space by a huge margin, and the long, narrow width of the coach, which had been limited to its current width by road safety regulations, was now no longer limited, and it became much wider.
The dumplings that were immersed in the water that Tian Qi had added cold water to thrice after the water boiled had now become cooked.
She opened the sunroof of the coach, made the light inside the coach dimmer to allow some starlight inside.
Ling Ran took the initiative to get up and put the sauces and dishes on the table. Then, he watched Tian Qi who used a colander to fish out the dumplings. The freshly cooked dumplings were stuffed full with ingredients, and they gave others the feeling that they were very heavy.
“Try it.” Tian Qi was slightly nervous as she looked at Ling Ran. Although the dumplings were made by Aunt Liu, Tian Qi was the one who cooked them.
Compared to the previous spoon-feeding sessions, this spoon-feeding was obviously more commemorative.
Ling Ran did not hold back at all. He picked a dumpling and dipped it in a little bit of vinegar and chilli before he blew at it and put it into his mouth.
The thin dumpling skin was torn through in one bite, and the thick broth gushed out.
“Whew.” Ling Ran sucked in a breathe. It was slightly hot, yet it tasted great.
Tian Qi laughed and said, “You can take two bites.”
“If I can’t eat one dumpling in one bite, the broth stuffed in the dumpling will be wasted,” Ling Ran answered firmly.
Tian Qi was stunned. She asked, “Why? The broth is still there.”
“If you eat a dumpling in two bites, you must make the dumpling vertical. If that’s the case, the first bite you make will be the first half of the dumpling without any broth, because the broth will flow to the other half. But when you take the second bite, the broth will be too thick.” Ling Ran spoke of his own experience as he picked up another dumpling.
Tian Qi was dumbfounded by what she heard. She immediately picked a dumpling and covered her mouth with the dumpling between her hand and mouth before shoving it in.
Ling Ran quietly picked up the third dumpling. This time, he observed the appearance of the dumpling before he put it into his mouth.
He was slightly hungry.
It was tiring enough to perform a full day of surgeries. The last AIDS-related knee arthroscopy even took a lot of energy from Ling Ran… as well as his spirit.
Ling Ran took a cup and drank all of it at once.
“Are you not in a good mood?” Tian Qi got another cup of lemonade for Ling Ran.
“Some patients simply can’t be treated.” Ling Ran turned the cup around before he took a small sip from it.
“So… you’re feeling slightly frustrated?” Tian Qi asked Ling Ran tentatively.
Ling Ran exhaled again, but he did not say anything.
All this while, the surgeries he performed had been limited to surgeries for traumatic injuries alone. Regardless of whether it was the M-Tang technique, finger replantation, Achilles tendon repair, and meniscoplasty, the surgeries he performed could heal the patients and let them recover to a normal state if the surgery was performed well.
Compared to them, AIDS was not that simple. Although the development of modern medical technology had improved to the extent where AIDS patient could now live for a long period of time, their immunodeficiency caused by HIV was always a ticking time bomb.
Surgeons could never do anything to defuse that bomb.
Meanwhile, Xu Yongchang’s actions today inevitably made Ling Ran become alert. He could not help but think of another serious question. ‘Why?’
And when he pondered about this kind of question, he would eventually get an answer that would just make him gloomy.
“When I was young, I always wanted a deer, like Bambi. But my father said that deer were too dangerous. Later, he gave me a horse, and I named it Bambi. It was an Arabian horse, and it actually grew very big. It was white and pretty, but I still kept calling it Bambi…” Tian Qi tried to comfort Ling Ran with stories.
She looked at Ling Ran and said seriously, “When I was sixteen, Bambi got into an accident. My father helped me bury it in our family mountain creek of our family ranch. I was extremely sad and extremely depressed. Then, one day, I ran out and played. As I continued playing, I went near the mountain creek, I saw a deer in front of Bambi’s grave. At that moment, I felt really relaxed.”
Ling Ran could not help but looked at Tian Qi.
“What I want to say is, life continues in different ways. Don’t take too many responsibilities on your shoulders… Even the top veterinarians and zoologists could not save Bambi… This is just like what my father said, there’s always a limit to human abilities…” Tian Qi’s eyes were watery as she spoke.
Ling Ran looked at her. He thought of the moment Department Director Huo patted his head today. The feeling had been strange, but it was not bad. With slightly stiff actions, Ling Ran extended his hand and patted Tian Qi’s head gently.
“It’s okay, didn’t you find a deer?”
His long fingers, light pats, and gentle breathing…
The sudden intimate contact made Tian Qi feel slightly at a loss for what she should do, and she felt her heart skip a beat.
She nodded vigorously and said, “Scarlet Bunny is a big deer now. He has his own herd. My father bought the nearby ranches, and we make sure no one can enter the mountain. The herd of deer live a good life now…”
