A peculiar gloom hung over Gu Manor after the snowfall, like a beast in silent slumber.
After having breakfast in the dining room, Ming Li tried to subtly ask if Gu Qingshuang had returned during the night. The servants all replied that they hadn’t seen her. Even Gu Xueqiang had seen no sign of her.
Ming Li understood the situation. As she picked up her bag to head out, she instructed a servant, “If Miss Qingshuang returns, please be sure to call me. Her phone is still with me.”
She had intentionally kept Gu Qingshuang’s phone, wanting to ensure she was the first to receive any news about her. In the modern world, one could hardly move a step without a phone. Although Gu Qingshuang wasn’t a heavy user, she wasn’t immune to its necessity.
Once everything was settled, Ming Li slowly drove out of Gu Manor.
Along the way, the phone in her passenger seat buzzed incessantly with incoming messages. While waiting at a red light, Ming Li took a quick glance. They were mostly WeChat inquiries and urgent prompts, asking where Gu Qingshuang was and stating that the flight was about to board.
Ming Li wasn’t entirely familiar with Gu Qingshuang’s schedule, but she knew she had just finished an ER shift yesterday and shouldn’t have been due at the hospital today. However, the contact sending the messages was labeled: Dr. Huang Qi, Cardiology.
It seemed they had a prior engagement.
Yet, Gu Qingshuang didn’t seem like the type of person to have friends at the hospital. To be precise, she didn’t seem like the type to have friends at all. At the very least, since their marriage, Ming Li had never seen her chat or laugh with anyone; most of the time, she wore a cold expression, acting indifferent toward everyone.
The only exception was last night at the banquet. When she saw Chun Liuyi, the way she had protected her—that was the posture of someone defending a friend.
Ming Li was curious, but she couldn’t bypass the phone’s lock to reply. She could only ignore it.
Not long after, Dr. Huang Qi called.
Ming Li answered. “Hello?”
“Hel… lo?” Huang Qi clearly recognized that it wasn’t Gu Qingshuang’s voice. She sounded startled for a moment before asking tentatively, “Is this Dr. Gu Qingshuang’s phone?”
“Yes,” Ming Li replied. “But she isn’t able to take calls right now.”
“Ah? What is she busy with?” Huang Qi sounded helpless. “The plane is about to take off. This is the only flight today. If she misses it, she’ll have to wait until tomorrow, but the conference starts then. This flight can’t be delayed.”
She spoke in a single breath, her irritability palpable even through the receiver. Ming Li, however, remained calm and composed. “She’s feeling a bit unwell and likely won’t make this flight. I apologize for the trouble; please go ahead without her. I will do my best to ensure she arrives on time tomorrow.”
If there were no flights, there were high-speed trains. At worst, they could use the Gu family’s private jet. As long as Gu Qingshuang wanted to be there, there were ten thousand ways to arrive on time.
Ming Li’s words were tactful and airtight, leaving no room for anyone to take offense.
Huang Qi deflated like a punctured balloon. Out of professional courtesy, she asked, “What happened to Dr. Gu? Is it serious?”
“Just a bit of a cold,” Ming Li lied smoothly.
“You’re her wife, right?” Huang Qi asked. “The lady who showed up at the hospital the other day.”
“Yes,” Ming Li confirmed.
Huang Qi sucked in a breath as if to say something, then hesitated. After a few false starts, Ming Li prompted her, “Is there something else you’d like to say?”
“It’s nothing major,” Huang Qi said, weighing her words. “Just… give Dr. Gu some comfort. The hospital administration has their own considerations when making decisions. Although yesterday’s incident wasn’t huge, it involved Lu Shuang. It’s understandable that the hospital decided to send Gu Qingshuang away on this business trip instead.”
“Sigh, it’s really not a big deal. Once the trip is over and she returns, the gossip will have died down. Tell her to treat it like a vacation.”
Huang Qi was a warm-hearted person. In just a few sentences, she had laid out the context for Ming Li.
As it turned out, this conference trip wasn’t originally meant for Gu Qingshuang. However, because of the “farce” that took place at the hospital yesterday, the administration had made a last-minute swap, essentially exiling Gu Qingshuang to a week-long training seminar elsewhere.
It was clearly a targeted move.
No wonder Gu Qingshuang’s expression had been so grim when she returned yesterday. Ming Li’s mind raced with a thousand thoughts, but she remained polite, thanking Huang Qi and assuring her that the responsibility for any delay wouldn’t fall on her.
Her voice was gentle and her tone soothing, leaving a warm impression.
Huang Qi even chatted for a few more minutes, laughing as she remarked, “I suppose only someone with your temperament could handle Dr. Gu.”
Ming Li smiled. “Thank you for your hard work, Dr. Huang.”
“Not at all, it’s the least I could do.”
The moment the call ended, Ming Li’s smile vanished. Weariness flooded her features. She reached up to rub her cheeks, which felt stiff from the forced pleasantry, and continued driving.
Zhu Hanxing had taken a special leave of absence to accompany Ming Li to the doctor. This was despite Ming Li’s repeated insistence that she only needed the address and that Hanxing didn’t need to show up in person.
By the time Ming Li arrived, Zhu Hanxing was already sitting in a corner, wearing a hat and a mask, scrolling through her phone.
The moment she saw Ming Li, Hanxing jogged over. “Little Ming! What’s the word?”
Using a goofy tone to lighten the mood was Hanxing’s specialty. Ming Li gave her a helpless look. “Aren’t you afraid of being recognized?”
The hospital Hanxing had recommended wasn’t as high-end as Huaxing, but it was one of the top private hospitals in Jing’an City. Appointments with specialists were hard to come by, and despite the price, the place was crowded.
Hanxing shrugged indifferently. “What’s there to be afraid of? At worst, tomorrow’s headline will be: ZHX Pregnant.”
Ming Li: “…”
Zhu Hanxing was truly shameless when it came to making jokes at her own expense.
As Ming Li followed her toward the consultation room, she teased, “Do you even have a partner? How would you get pregnant?”
“And that’s the real mystery!” Hanxing stopped in front of the corner-most door, rapped her knuckles against it, and grinned. “The tabloids will just make someone up for me.”
Ming Li: “…Impressive.”
The doctor performed a very detailed examination on Ming Li before writing out a referral for imaging.
As Hanxing asked about her condition, the doctor adjusted his glasses. “There doesn’t seem to be anything physically wrong.”
“Then why the scans?” Hanxing asked.
![After the Cannon Fodder Awakened, She Married the Female Lead! [Quick Transmigration]](https://i1.wp.com/dobytranslations.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/quick.png?resize=151,215 "After the Cannon Fodder Awakened, She Married the Female Lead! [Quick Transmigration]")
