“A high price for an appointment with me?” Huo Mian asked.
“Yeah.”
“How does the person look like?”
“She looks like… a young girl. She said she’s got a rare illness.”
“But I don’t treat rare illnesses.” Huo Mian smiled in resignation.
“I explained it to her, but she still insisted on seeing you. So, the registration office asked me to seek your opinion.”
“I see… Let her in. We’ll just take the usual appointment fees,” Huo Mian instructed.
Nodding, Chen Jie left and Huo Mian continued reading the reports.
Five minutes later, a knock came.
“Come in.”
“Dr. Huo, I’ve got an appointment with you.”
“Oh. Come in and take a seat.” Huo Mian put down her black ball pen and beckoned at the girl.
The girl wore a simple white long shirt, a pair of pale blue jeans, and a pair of white sneakers.
With her long hair draping down her back, she wore a black baseball cap.
She looked mysterious with half of her face covered by a black mask.
Glancing at her, Huo Mian wondered if she was a movie star or an internet celebrity who was trying to hide her face from people.
“Dr. Huo, it’s hard to get an appointment with you. They took a long time to agree to my request to see you,” the girl sat down and began to complain.
“It’s not their fault. I’m pregnant and have a smaller workload. I don’t see patients now and only manage the daily operations of the hospital.”
“Oh, I see…” The girl drawled.
“What’s troubling you?”
“I… I have lots of strange spots on my face… I don’t know what disease it is.”
“Spots? You should see a doctor in the dermatology department.” Huo Mian wasn’t familiar with this area and didn’t dare to give her opinion on it.
“Dr. Huo, you can’t push me to other departments. I know the doctors usually push their patients to other departments because they don’t want to take responsibility.”
“No. It’s not like that; you misunderstood me. I meant that my specialties are OB/GYN, neurology, and orthopedics… I know something about neurosurgery, too. But I can’t treat other illnesses. If I make a mistake, I might delay your treatment.”
“I don’t care; I trust you, Dr. Huo.”
The girl was stubborn. Hearing her sweet voice, Huo Mian sighed in exasperation.
“Take off your mask then. I’ll see the condition of your skin. Is it okay for you?”
The girl didn’t answer.
“Don’t worry. No matter who you are, I won’t tell anyone about your information. It’s our basic professional moral rules to protect our patients’ privacy. Trust me.”
“Um… Okay. But, Dr. Huo, my face might scare you… I hope you don’t have trypophobia.”
“No.”
“You must brace yourself. The spots are many and scary…” the girl warned Huo Mian.
“Don’t worry. I can eat wontons even in front of a corpse… I won’t be scared.”
Huo Mian stood up and took out a pair of sterilized gloves from the disinfection cabinet. Putting them on, she walked from behind her desk and stood before the girl.
She took off the mask from the girl’s face.
When the mask was taken off, Huo Mian froze, feeling as if she dreaming.
