Chapter 9

Lin Qimian watched Xu Yueliang, remaining silent for a long moment.

She couldn’t quite figure out what this little rascal was thinking. Was she hell-bent on exposing her good Samaritan act of hailing a cab for her, or did she just want a glimpse of what the beautiful and benevolent Doctor Lin actually looked like?

Or perhaps it was both. Either way, Xu Yueliang’s excitement was written all over her face—she was this close to rubbing her hands together and drooling right there in front of her.

“Looks like it doesn’t hurt anymore,” Lin Qimian concluded.

“Huh?” Xu Yueliang blinked, caught off guard.

At last, a car appeared in the distance. Lin Qimian raised her hand to flag it down.

The taxi pulled up in front of them, and Lin Qimian opened the back door. “Text me when you get home.”

“Mm-hmm, got it.” Xu Yueliang scrambled into the car with glee.

As the vehicle pulled away, Xu Yueliang craned her neck to wave frantically through the window.

Lin Qimian had no interest in such childish antics. She squinted at the license plate on the receding car and committed it to memory.

Turning back toward the hospital, she headed inside. Of course, she’d have to ditch this outfit before going home.

When she reached the inpatient building, Peng Xiaoshuai was still loitering in the same spot.

His helmet now dangled from the handlebars, and he stood there stiffly, looking downright furious—a far cry from the excited puppy she’d glimpsed earlier.

Lin Qimian had zero plans to acknowledge him, but Peng Xiaoshuai jogged after her. “Teacher Lin, hold on a sec.”

Lin Qimian kept walking. “What is it?”

Peng Xiaoshuai hurried to match her pace. “I’d like to have a chat with you, Teacher Lin.”

Lin Qimian: “Spit it out.”

Peng Xiaoshuai glanced around. “Not a good spot. Could I at least buy you a coffee…?”

“No.” Lin Qimian shut him down without hesitation and came to a stop.

She fixed Peng Xiaoshuai with a steady gaze, her voice flat and emotionless. “We’re colleagues. Colleagues can discuss anything right here at the hospital.”

Peng Xiaoshuai’s face twisted in frustration, but with Lin Qimian already turning to leave again, he threw out his real concern. “Teacher Lin, do you have a problem with me?”

Lin Qimian: “…”

Lin Qimian: “You think way too highly of yourself.”

Peng Xiaoshuai drew a deep breath. “If it’s not me, then it’s Little Moon you’re upset with.”

Lin Qimian: “????”

Peng Xiaoshuai: “You said you’d treat everyone the same, but you’re handling her differently. You wouldn’t let me watch the surgery, and now that she’s shown up at the hospital in the dead of night, you’re keeping me away from her too. I don’t know what’s wrong with her exactly, but let me remind you, Teacher: she’s a streamer with millions of fans. She carries weight. If anything goes wrong with this tooth extraction, it’ll drag down the whole hospital’s reputation.”

Lin Qimian: “…”

Lin Qimian had no idea how to respond. Peng Xiaoshuai’s tirade left her utterly at a loss.

On top of that, the evening’s ordeal had worn her out. Physically, it had been a breeze, but dealing with Xu Yueliang felt like a deep-tissue massage for her heart—aching, tingling, and downright exhausting.

So she tossed Peng Xiaoshuai a single word: “Oh.”

Her way of saying she’d heard him loud and clear.

Peng Xiaoshuai: “????”

Lin Qimian turned and strode off. Peng Xiaoshuai stood rooted to the spot, his mighty swing whiffing through empty air and leaving him stunned.

A good while later, with Lin Qimian long gone, Peng Xiaoshuai lashed out with a kick at the nearby marble pillar.

Gritting his teeth against the throb in his foot, he fired off a message to his friend: 【What’s Lin Qimian’s background? How does she get to be so damn arrogant?】

His friend shot back: 【No clue on the specifics, but she’s not someone you want to cross. Shot up the ranks fast after joining Youhai. Even the Dean grins ear to ear when he sees her.】

Peng Xiaoshuai snorted: 【The Dean grins at any pretty face.】

Friend: 【Goddess show up yet?】

Peng Xiaoshuai kicked the ground again: 【This ain’t over. I’m digging up her dirt, no matter what.】

Lin Qimian didn’t sweat making enemies. She’d never been the type to win popularity contests.

Cold and unyielding by nature, with a temper both odd and short, she’d only recently started playing the part of a functioning adult—putting on a facade that occasionally earned her a “Doctor Lin, you’re such a good person.”

The memory of Xu Yueliang’s expression as she said it made Lin Qimian want to chuckle.

Truth be told, as she drove home, any recollection of Xu Yueliang’s antics that night brought a smile to her face.

Xu Yueliang was just so damn amusing. No spring chicken, yet she carried on like a goofy little roe deer—jumping at shadows, her every thought plastered across her face.

Even her half-hearted attempts at secrecy came with a neon sign: “Hey, I’ve got something up my sleeve! Secrets! Watch me scheme—pretty clever, huh?”

Lin Qimian must have rallied everyone she knew around the world to vote for her. After all, today had been the happiest day of her life in years.

The car pulled into the garage, and Lin Qimian fished out her phone for a look.

No new message alerts. She tapped open WeChat and realized she’d forgotten to switch accounts.

Frowning, she flipped over to her alt account. A message from “Jiaojiao” had arrived two minutes earlier: 【Doctor Lin, I’ve made it home. Thanks for all your hard work today.】

Moments showed a red notification dot too. Lin Qimian tapped it, and there it was: a new post from Xu Yueliang.

No food to snap a pic of this time, so she’d photographed her shadow under the streetlight instead. Caption: 【Happy!】

Lin Qimian: “…”

God only knew what this girl—who’d just had a tooth yanked and nearly collapsed—had to be so thrilled about, dragging herself to the hospital in the dead of night.

To keep Xu Yueliang from getting the wrong idea, Lin Qimian opened their chat and typed back: 【Girls shouldn’t go out alone at night. Stay safe.】

Subtext: I walked you to your ride for safety reasons. I asked for that confirmation message home for safety reasons. I’m Doctor Lin—cautious, diligent, and all about safe travels.

Xu Yueliang fired back almost instantly: 【Wuwuwu, Doctor Lin, you’re the best! So caring to your patients—gorgeous and kind-hearted too!】

【Cat Cat Kisses.gif】

Lin Qimian: “…”

Should’ve just left it alone.

She shoved her phone in her pocket and climbed out of the car.

To be precise, she’d only halfway finished her bath today, but the mood to resume it was gone.

What if she slipped into the tub and Xu Yueliang came down with a midnight fever from yawning too hard and tripping over nothing? Or some other curveball that left her scrambling?

She threw together a quick bite to eat and burrowed into the sofa.

To make sure her patient was actually following orders, she pulled up Xu Yueliang’s live streaming room.

Perfect. It was still frozen on the last stream, amid a flood of worried bullet comments.

Someone had left a note under Little Moon’s status update, asking how she was doing.

Xu Yueliang hadn’t replied herself, but someone with an admin badge had chimed in: She’s fine now. Moon went to the hospital and is resting.

Lin Qimian nodded to herself, pleased. From everything she could see about Xu Yueliang right now, the girl was indeed tucked in and resting.

The one thing that grated on her was that admin’s gaudy golden crown icon, broadcasting his elite status and cozy connection to Xu Yueliang.

If he was that tight with her, why hadn’t he tagged along to the hospital?

Lin Qimian lifted her teacup for a sip and enabled dual-system mode on her phone, letting both WeChat accounts run side by side.

With this new patient-monitoring gig added to her plate, Lin Qimian didn’t sleep great that night.

Nor the two nights after.

She wasn’t the sort with phone addiction. Normally, while working or studying, she’d shove the thing as far away as possible—no interruptions unless absolutely necessary.

But these days, she found herself checking it every few minutes.

Was Little Moon the streamer live yet? Any fresh updates from her admin? Messages on the alt account from Jiaojiao? Pics of Jiaojiao’s bland, broth-like meals? Sighs over her own grim fasting routine…

Young patients usually aired their gripes on social media without hesitation.

Especially a total foodie like Xu Yueliang.

But… nothing. Zilch.

Xu Yueliang was being far too good, resting so quietly she might as well have vanished off the face of the earth.

In the empty consultation room, Lin Qimian propped her phone against the desk and rocked it back and forth.

Zhenzhen burst in, fuming. She dropped into the chair across from her and stewed in silence for a good long moment before venting to Lin Qimian: “Teacher Lin, Peng Xiaoshuai’s gone too far!”

Lin Qimian’s eyes didn’t so much as flicker. They stayed fixed on empty space by the filing cabinet. “What happened?”

Zhenzhen slumped forward, voice dropping to a hiss: “Doctor Fang was off at that conference, so we covered their patients for those two days. Doctor Fang gets back today, hasn’t even opened their mouth, and Peng Xiaoshuai’s on my case to review the charts! Says he needs them for the teacher—can’t risk explaining any screw-ups himself.

“Then he zeros in on the streamer girl’s records. One minute it’s ‘What’s the Lidocaine dosage?’ Next it’s ‘How’d you handle the impacted alveolar bone?’ Then ‘Any post-op complications?’

“What’s his problem? He’s just salty you didn’t pick him for that surgery! Didn’t let him shine in front of his precious streamer girl!”

Zhenzhen wrapped it up with a scoff: “She wouldn’t give him the time of day anyway.”

Lin Qimian halted her fiddling. She turned to Zhenzhen and said, “The patient has a name.”

“Ah, sorry.” Zhenzhen’s face immediately turned red. “Moon—Xu Yueliang…”

Lin Qimian: “What else did he say?”

Zhenzhen: “He also asked about your recent shift schedule.”

Lin Qimian: “…”

Zhenzhen scrunched up her face. “Oh, right—he even asked in the group chat about patient follow-up calls from the customer service side…”

Lin Qimian’s heart skipped a beat.

Indeed, patient follow-up was a perfect excuse.

Peng Xiaoshuai could easily get Xu Yueliang’s phone number and call her, inquiring about her post-surgery condition.

Zhenzhen said hesitantly, “Teacher Lin, do you think he’s holding a grudge and wants to find issues from the patients we’ve taken on, then complain about us?”

“Mm, it’s possible.” Lin Qimian picked up her phone and walked out. “But our procedures have always been standard—have some confidence.”

She stepped out the door and, as she passed the opposite treatment room, happened to meet Peng Xiaoshuai’s gaze.

Peng Xiaoshuai immediately looked away, acting like a thief with a guilty conscience.

Actually, it wasn’t just possible—Lin Qimian knew exactly what Peng Xiaoshuai was thinking.

At first, he just wanted to get close to Xu Yueliang, to appear by her side and build favor, or even help boost her affection for him.

As if liking a streamer and watching her live streams gave him the right to meddle in her life.

But then Lin Qimian had cut him off.

Lin Qimian didn’t like seeing Peng Xiaoshuai discuss Xu Yueliang with a bunch of people, nor did she like the hot, greedy way his eyes lingered on Xu Yueliang.

She had blocked his chances of contacting Xu Yueliang and even handled her follow-up appointment in private time, which infuriated Peng Xiaoshuai.

Unable to understand her preferential treatment of Xu Yueliang, he could only speculate in the dirtiest way possible.

For example, that Doctor Lin looked down on a female streamer’s profession, or was jealous of her youth and beauty, so she hadn’t done the surgery properly, leading to post-op complications—and now she only dared to do secret midnight check-ups.

Hah. Lin Qimian rolled her eyes inwardly.

She didn’t think it was wrong for people to have selfish motives; she just thought this little boy was shallow and narrow-minded.

How could he not imagine that girls could also admire girls’ beauty, enjoy girls’ cuteness—and that when she, Lin Qimian, took an interest in a girl, she too could swap beams and pillars, divert flowers and graft wood, exhaust every scheme to abuse public office for private gain?

Lin Qimian took the elevator to the rooftop on the top floor.

The heat was intense enough to pour fire onto the asphalt. No one was on the rooftop, so Lin Qimian picked a secluded spot and dialed the phone number Xu Yueliang had left at the hospital.

After a few rings, the call connected.

Lin Qimian spoke in a steady, official tone: “Hello, this is Doctor Lin from Youhai Stomatology. You had your wisdom tooth extraction in our Maxillofacial Department on the 17th. To ensure your post-operative recovery, we’re conducting a patient follow-up.”

Lin Qimian paused, giving herself time to pretend she was checking records. “May I ask how you’ve been feeling these past couple of days, Ms. Xu?”