Together Forever

Chapter 14.1

The Love At the Time

That evening, when they returned to the hospital, another of the patients in the room was already asleep, and for reasons unknown, she had no family or other people staying to take care of her. The family member of the patient nearest the window had pulled the bed curtains shut and was quietly conversing with the patient.

Opening her notebook, Tong Yan began reading over a stack of copied class notes that had been printed out.

In order to express that she had toiled away with great difficulty to take down these notes, Shen Yao had every so often written some words enclosed in parenthesis between the lines of the actual notes. For instance, there was "(The boy in the desk next to me is looking at me)" or "(Goddess of Nightmares's clothes are so tacky today)", or similar, and from these, Tong Yan was always able to imagine what sort of state Shen Yao was in when she was in class ... She read for a little while, then sent a text message to Shen Yao: Gu Pingsheng is back.

In less than a minute, Shen Yao called her on the phone.

"He's back? He's really back?!" Shen Yao was clearly more excited than her. "Let me tell you, you need to give him a good schooling. Such a huge thing happened, and he didn't come back until now ... But, oh well, forget it. Men always have a lot of excuses. As long as they're acceptable, then it's fine."

Tong Yan was about to die laughing listening to her, and holding her phone, she stepped out of the room.

"Did he gather you into his arms, give you fierce, hard kiss, and say, 'Wifey, it's been hard for you. Thank you."

"...... You could say he did."

Shen Yao laughed gleefully. "You're at home? Or at his home? Or at the hospital?"

"The hospital." She stood in front of the hospital room, watching as two nurses walked by. "It's the final course of chemo. Grandmother will probably be discharged from the hospital in July or so. It'll be perfect timing, and I can go back to take my final exams."

Shen Yao was now alone in the dormitory all day long and had long since been going mad with loneliness, so hearing her say this, she immediately cheered jubilantly and quickly stated, "In any case, he's back now, so make him help you keep watch over Grandmother through the night. It's in times like these that men should come forward and help. You can put 'em to the test."

Tong Yan brushed over this with a couple of vague sentences, and then picking up her notebook, she began to ask about the places in the notes where the handwriting was illegible. Shen Yao was terrible in physics as well, and for most of the notes, she had basically taken them down and then forgotten about them. She did not even know what she had written, but clinging on to face and pride, she answered with a bunch of nonsense that caused Tong Yan to grow even more confused after listening to her.

Eventually, she decided instead to ask Gu Pingsheng the next day.

When she hung up the call, she happened to hear the conversation of several personnel who were on night shift.

Within the abundant amount of gossip that was being exchanged, she faintly caught the words, "Doctor Gu." Subconsciously feeling it might have to do with him, she pretended to lower her head and send text messages while she listened carefully to the details of the dialogue. Gradually, though, she discovered that there was something not right, and listening further, she realized that by "Doctor Gu," they were actually referring to his mother, Gu Tongke.

There were many comments and opinions and all of them were good ones, such as, "Doctor Gu was so nice to people and even nicer to patients, and she took such good care of the graduate students that she mentored. No matter how busy she was, she would still go to cities in other provinces to perform surgeries, too."