Chapter 14: Hoping Shen Chaoyi Would Keep Her Distance

“Don’t keep brooding like this. You have to be at least a little nicer to Doctor Shen, got it?” Yi Changhuan had been talking for a while, but Yi Qingzhuo didn’t respond.

Ever since she came back, Yi Changhuan had gradually gotten used to having this quiet, withdrawn daughter in her daily life.

So she continued instructing, “Once you’re discharged, you absolutely have to treat Doctor Shen to a meal. Whether she comes or not is her choice, but we have to show our gratitude. We can’t overstep and make her dislike us, understand?”

“She got scolded?” Yi Qingzhuo blurted out after listening for a long time.

It seemed her frequency was different from others—the things she focused on were just as different.

Yi Changhuan was caught off guard by her words and paused for two seconds. “Yeah, I heard it was even from the teacher who valued her most. See? What a good doctor. She got scolded because of you, and you gave her that attitude, but she didn’t even get mad. She’s doing her duty. You can’t act like that anymore, or your mom will get mad too.”

Yi Qingzhuo narrowed her eyes, a depth of meaning in them that others couldn’t understand, and that even she couldn’t fully decipher.

“Did you hear me? A Zhuo, Mom’s been talking so much, and you don’t even react?” Yi Changhuan said discontentedly.

Her daughter’s personality was really worrying.

“Huh?” Yi Qingzhuo snapped back to reality, noticing Yi Changhuan’s displeased expression.

She pressed her lips into a slight smile. “Got it, Mom.”

“Mm, good girl.”

“Doctor Shen, off work?”

Shen Chaoyi shrugged her shoulder bag. “Yeah, are you on night shift, Chen Ya?”

“Yep.” Just mentioning the night shift, Chen Ya’s eyelids drooped, and she looked completely listless. “You go home and get some rest, Doctor Shen. There’s surgery tomorrow.”

Working the night shift in the emergency department was a brutal battle. Every time she finished, she felt like her soul had left her body and she’d never get it back.

Chen Ya threw her head back and let out a long sigh, envying every colleague who got off work on time without having to cover night shifts.

“Alright, I will.” Shen Chaoyi smiled, picked up the prepared folder, and turned to leave.

Chen Ya watched her retreating figure and said suspiciously, “Doctor Shen, you’re going the wrong way. The door is the other way.”

After saying that, Chen Ya muttered under her breath, “Sure enough, two surgeries back to back would wear anyone out. Even iron men can’t take it—her sense of direction is gone.”

Hearing her reminder, Shen Chaoyi turned back and waved the folder in her hand. “I still have something to do. I’m not leaving yet.”

“Huh?” Chen Ya was puzzled and pointed in the direction Shen Chaoyi had been heading.

Was she going to see that Yi Qingzhuo again?

“Chaoyi, you…” Han Yecheng had just come out of the office when he saw Shen Chaoyi in her changed clothes and wanted to greet her.

But probably due to the distance and the constant flow of people in the corridor, Shen Chaoyi turned a corner and disappeared.

“Doctor Shen is off duty?” Han Yecheng handed the medical orders to Chen Ya.

Wasn’t that the direction of the wards? Why was Shen Chaoyi going over there after work?

Chen Ya pursed her lips in dissatisfaction. “She’s off duty, but she’s probably going to see that Bed 7 again. I don’t know why Doctor Shen cares so much. Doesn’t she know who that person is?”

“Bed 7?” Han Yecheng took a moment to recall, then remembered who that was.

He frowned as well. “She’s off duty, so why go? She’s been so tired all day—busy with emergency treatment and surgeries—and now she has to worry about that kind of person.”

“Exactly. And you don’t even know how Bed 7 treated Doctor Shen during rounds today. Couldn’t be bothered to respond, didn’t want to talk, acting all aloof and superior. She doesn’t even think that without Doctor Shen, she’d be dead. And she still acts like she couldn’t care less about Doctor Shen.” Chen Ya was even indignant on Shen Chaoyi’s behalf.

But the person in question, Shen Chaoyi, seemed oblivious, smiling warmly and being easygoing with everyone.

Han Yecheng bit his lip and stared thoughtfully in the direction Shen Chaoyi had gone.

“Doctor Han, earlier Doctor Shen said she knew Bed 7, but it doesn’t seem like Bed 7 knows her. How could Doctor Shen know someone like that?”

Chen Ya rested her chin on her hand, a flash of insight crossing her mind. “I bet Doctor Shen just felt sorry for her—all alone, seriously injured, no one by her side. So she deliberately said that to stop others from looking down on her?”

Han Yecheng came back to his senses, clicked his pen cap shut, and lightly tapped Chen Ya on the head.

“Alright, stop being so imaginative. Go do your work. Don’t gossip about Doctor Shen behind her back with your group of friends.”

“Fine, fine.” Chen Ya didn’t dodge in time and took the hit. She glared at Han Yecheng, then grabbed the records and walked away.

As she left, she muttered, “Doctor Shen is still the best. No matter how anxious she gets, she never raises her hand.”

Meanwhile, the Shen Chaoyi that Chen Ya was talking about knocked on Yi Qingzhuo’s hospital door.

Yi Changhuan wasn’t in the room—she’d probably gone back to get something.

Shen Chaoyi stepped lightly, her high heels making almost no sound as she moved silently.

Yi Qingzhuo lay on the hospital bed, her face pale, a stark contrast to her jet-black hair.

Her eyes were closed; she seemed to be asleep, but her brows were still tightly furrowed, not relaxed.

Without waking Yi Qingzhuo, Shen Chaoyi stood by her bed, motionless, watching her.

At that moment, the face on the bed, as pale as paper, overlapped with the stubborn face from the video. They were clearly the same person.

But the Yi Qingzhuo in the video was like an Asura crawling out of hell—just one look from her could scare a child to tears.

The Yi Qingzhuo on the bed seemed to have shed that impenetrable armor, becoming fragile and unsteady. Yet, she held on with a stubbornness deep in her bones, refusing to fall, standing tall.

Her face was still covered in scattered injuries—bruises of all colors.

Perhaps Shen Chaoyi’s gaze was too direct. The alert Yi Qingzhuo quickly sensed something unusual and snapped her eyes open.

Their gazes collided in the air.

The rationality forcibly awakened from deep sleep allowed Yi Qingzhuo to quickly hide her emotions. She pulled the corners of her mouth into a faint, indifferent smile. “Doctor Shen.”

Progress—she even knew to smile and take the initiative to greet her.

Shen Chaoyi thought to herself and smiled back. “Mm, do you feel any discomfort?”

“No.” Yi Qingzhuo responded, then remembered Yi Changhuan’s endless reminders, so she paused and added, “A bit better than yesterday.”

“Good. Make sure to stay on bed rest and take care of your wounds so they don’t scar. All your wounds are superficial—it would be a shame to leave marks.” Shen Chaoyi emphasized the scarring issue again.

The old scars were already permanent, but now there were many more, mostly on her arms and legs.

Come summer, when she wore less, everything would be on display.

Yi Qingzhuo was a little dazed. She glanced at her bandaged arm. “Mm, got it.”

Shen Chaoyi nodded, placed the folder on the bedside table, and said, “This folder has information about recovery after rib fractures. After your mother comes, make sure to show it to her, or you can look at it yourself when you’re feeling better. Ribs aren’t like arm or leg fractures—just resting and letting them heal isn’t enough. Ribs are very complicated; you need to be more careful with them to avoid any lasting problems.”

After saying that, Shen Chaoyi’s gaze lingered on the red string tied around Yi Qingzhuo’s wrist. She pursed her lips, hesitated for two seconds, and then spoke. “I noticed you’ve fractured your ribs before, and your hands have old healed injuries too. They look like they’ve been there for a while.”

These weren’t recent wounds—they dated back five or eight years, and the recovery hadn’t been good.

Clearly, they hadn’t received proper treatment or had enough rest.

“Those were injuries I got in prison.” Yi Qingzhuo’s expression changed. Usually, she kept silent whenever anything from the past came up.

But a nagging desire to make Shen Chaoyi keep her distance took over. Yi Qingzhuo even deliberately emphasized the word ‘prison’.

As if to remind Shen Chaoyi—and herself.

That she, Yi Qingzhuo, was a murderer who had served ten years in prison.

Shen Chaoyi had expected this outcome, but when Yi Qingzhuo said it without a trace of emotion,

it was as if she could see the eighteen-year-old Yi Qingzhuo being thrown into a prison as dangerous as a dragon’s den. She had no experience in such things, so she couldn’t imagine what had happened.

But seeing the scars and Yi Qingzhuo’s fierce temperament, Shen Chaoyi’s heart trembled inexplicably.

It also rendered the words she had carefully prepared useless in the face of Yi Qingzhuo’s indifference.

Shen Chaoyi’s reaction didn’t escape Yi Qingzhuo’s notice. It was expected—no surprise.

Yi Qingzhuo was satisfied with the fear mixed with shock in Shen Chaoyi’s expression, but the hand at her side clenched uncontrollably.

“Doesn’t Doctor Shen know about my past?” Yi Qingzhuo asked with a half-smile.

She brought it up lightly, even with a smile.

Shen Chaoyi took a step back, her delicate brows slightly furrowed.

Yi Qingzhuo gave a casual, seemingly mocking laugh, but in an instant, only desolation remained in her eyes.