She had only gotten halfway through when she caught Zhou Chengze’s fixed, probing gaze. Her voice lowered as she explained, “I mean, you can check your report on your phone now. You don’t need to make a special trip on Monday.”
Seeing how eager she was to distance herself from him, Zhou Chengze’s brows shifted slightly. He didn’t press her further, merely explaining in an even tone, “They need a paper copy, so I’ll come back for it on Monday.”
“Mm…” Lin Chu nodded lightly, her eyes already lowered. She didn’t look at him again.
Zhou Chengze lowered his eyes, concealing his thoughts, then turned, opened the examination room door, and went out.
Lin Chu stayed where she was, watching him enter the room next door. Only then did she glance at her hand. His skin’s warmth still lingered on her fingertips.
That warm sensation—she hurriedly shook her head, refusing to dwell on it, and went to the window. She pushed it open, letting the cold air in, hoping it would cool the heat in her face and her heart.
But then she remembered the sudden question he’d asked. He had recognized the scent on her.
He just thought it was Jiang Nai’s.
Lin Chu suddenly felt as if she couldn’t catch her breath. This whole thing was like a snowball growing bigger and bigger; if it went on like this, sooner or later it would get out of control.
She had to find a way to resolve it before it became impossible to undo.
When Fang Tang came back, she saw Lin Chu looking so troubled and teased, “Looks like our Doctor Lin isn’t happy with my arrangement.”
At the sound of her voice, Lin Chu gave her a helpless look. “Is it that obvious?”
Fang Tang glanced at her in surprise, then picked up the examination report on the desk and flipped through it. Casually, she asked, “That pilot just now was so handsome. Is he your future boyfriend?”
Lin Chu’s hand paused as she gathered the ECG leads. She looked up at Fang Tang. “What makes you think that?”
Fang Tang answered as if it were obvious. “Wasn’t he the first man to show up around you?”
As she spoke, something occurred to her, and she added, “Well, except for Deputy Director Qin, who’s always harassing you.”
At the mention of Deputy Director Qin, Lin Chu’s brow furrowed before she could stop it. Qin Qu was the hospital’s surgical deputy director, in his early forties and divorced. Even though she had clearly rejected him, he still wouldn’t leave her alone.
Seeing Lin Chu’s frown, Fang Tang tactfully dropped the subject and returned to what they’d been discussing. “So, is that pilot your future boyfriend or not?”
Lin Chu sighed, set down the leads in her hand, and looked Fang Tang in the eye. “That man is my best friend’s boyfriend.”
Fang Tang froze for a second, her eyes slowly widening. “Your best friend’s boyfriend?”
“Mm.”
Fang Tang looked at her ruefully. “So I put you in an awkward position? I’m so sorry! I had no idea.”
She apologized in a rush, pressing her hands together and raising them over her head, her expression one of utterly sincere contrition.
Fang Tang’s exaggerated display eased some of Lin Chu’s frustration. Lin Chu shook her head. “It’s fine. You didn’t do it on purpose.”
Fang Tang lowered her hands, but kept studying Lin Chu’s face as if trying to make something out. A few seconds later, she blurted, “But honestly, you two look pretty good together.”
Lin Chu’s fingers curled slightly, and her gaze flickered.
A good match. Those words suddenly brought back the bitter, humble crush she’d had when she was young.
“Lin Chu, don’t tell me you like Zhou Chengze too?”
Hearing the prettiest girl in her class humiliate her, her face had instantly turned bright red. She’d opened her mouth, but couldn’t utter a word.
The girl stood with her arms folded, looking down at her with undisguised contempt. “Why don’t you look in the mirror and see what you look like? A toad wishing to eat swan meat—give it up.”
A few girls around them laughed. Their laughter wasn’t loud, but it pricked her ears like needles.
So that rainy night, when Zhou Chengze asked her name—
She’d opened her mouth, almost saying her real name. But Su Yao’s mocking face suddenly flashed through her mind, and the words on the tip of her tongue took a different turn.
“Mianmian.”
It was her childhood nickname. Only her grandmother had ever called her that. Later, Jiang Nai learned it too. No more than three people in the whole world knew it.
At dusk, in one of Jingbei City’s large chain supermarkets,
Jiang Nai looped her arm through Zhou Chengze’s and pushed a shopping cart at an unhurried pace between the aisles. As if just making conversation, she asked, “How did things go with Chuchu today?”
The scene in the examination room suddenly came to mind: Lin Chu’s ears, red all over; her flustered, evasive gaze; and the sweet fragrance that had drifted into his nose, thread by thread, when she leaned close.
His eyes shifted, and he placed the package of steak in the cart. His voice was even. “You know how your best friend would react, don’t you?”
Jiang Nai looked up at him and pressed, “How would she react?”
Zhou Chengze glanced at her, a trace of curiosity in his voice. “You don’t know her? Aren’t you the one closest to her?”
Jiang Nai’s expression shifted for an instant, but she quickly recovered and smiled. “Of course I know her. That’s why I’m asking you. I was worried Chuchu might cause you trouble. She’s timid, and she always gets nervous around strangers. She can be a little hard to like.”
“She wasn’t any trouble. And we’re not exactly strangers, are we?” Zhou Chengze replied casually, his eyes on the seasonings aisle as if he were looking for something.
“Not strangers, then we’re…”
Before Jiang Nai could finish, he suddenly turned the cart and headed straight for the body wash aisle. His gaze swept over the rows of brightly colored bottles, then stopped at a sakura-pink one.
He picked it up and read the label.
Jiang Nai came over to take a look, even more curious now. “What made you think of buying body wash all of a sudden? There’s still half a bottle at home.”
Zhou Chengze looked down at the bottle in his hand and rubbed his thumb over it. His tone was casual. “I smelled it on you once that night. It was sweet, really sweet. I thought it smelled nice, but forgot to ask. Then I smelled it on Lin Chu again today, so I asked her what brand it was.”
“Is that so?” Jiang Nai’s expression changed slightly, but she quickly concealed it behind a natural smile.
Her voice sounded no different from usual, but there was a hint of something in her eyes. “It’s not like you to notice things like that. Usually, you can’t even tell when I change my perfume.”
Zhou Chengze put the body wash in the cart, his expression unchanged. “That scent never did anything for me. This one smells nice. Why did you stop using it?”
Jiang Nai’s smile was a little strained, but her tone stayed light. “Then I’ll just use this from now on.”
As she spoke, she picked up the sakura-scented body wash from the shelf and unscrewed the cap to smell it.
It was faint, almost scentless. Where was this supposedly sweet fragrance?
Jiang Nai’s gaze darkened, but she quickly smiled again and took another bottle from the shelf, placing it in the cart. “Then let’s get one for Chuchu too. After all, she did my boyfriend a huge favor.”
Zhou Chengze said nothing.
Jiang Nai noticed his calm reaction and reached out of her own accord to take his hand, smiling brightly. “Come on, let’s go check out the fresh food.”
Zhou Chengze looked at the hand she had taken in his. His palm rested against her cool fingertips, and for a moment he felt dazed.
He remembered the first time they’d held hands, many years ago.
Her fingers had been slender and soft. The moment he took her hand, he could feel her whole body go rigid, as though she’d been frozen in place. Even her breathing had turned careful.
He hadn’t been able to see her expression then, so he’d asked her curiously, “What’s wrong?”
Several seconds passed before she answered, her voice soft and low, trembling with embarrassment. “I’m a little nervous…”
That girl’s soft, gentle voice had been like a warm breeze blowing into his heart. He had never forgotten it.
Thinking of that, Zhou Chengze looked at Jiang Nai beside him.
These days, Jiang Nai spoke and acted with complete confidence. She never got flustered or nervous. She seemed like an entirely different person from the girl she’d once been—the one who blushed, stammered, and froze at a single touch from him.
Of course he knew people grew up and changed. But sometimes the change still seemed so great that it didn’t feel quite real.
Suddenly, another person’s face flashed through his mind.
Lin Chu in the examination room that day, her ears red with nerves and her fingers trembling; the flustered way her eyes darted away when he looked at her; that awkward, helpless air…
She was seven or eight tenths like Jiang Nai had been back then.
As soon as the thought occurred to him, Zhou Chengze frowned, feeling that something was off about him.
Why was he comparing Lin Chu to Jiang Nai?
Zhou Chengze pulled himself out of his thoughts and tightened his hold on Jiang Nai’s hand. He looked down at her, the corners of his lips lifting slightly. “What do you want for dinner tonight?”
Jiang Nai looked up at him, her eyes curving into crescents. “Are you going to cook for me?”
“Mm. I’ll let my beautiful girlfriend choose what’s for dinner,” Zhou Chengze said with a smile.
When Jiang Nai got home that evening, she saw Lin Chu had just come out of the bathroom. She went over to her of her own accord and sniffed with a smile. “That really does smell nice.”
Lin Chu stared at her, taken aback. “What does?”
(End)