Seeming to have made up his mind, Fang Rongxi began to busy himself starting from that night.
Perhaps because Wei Jinlin had said something to his uncle, Ji Binglv, who had previously turned the Fang family away at the door, actually made contact with Fang Rongxi, putting Fang Long in a wonderful mood because of it.
The day after the banquet was the day Professor Gu held his consultations.
Fang Fengqin had tossed and turned on his large bed for half the night the previous evening, but early the next morning he still obediently crawled out of bed and drove to the hospital.
He had never experienced a true estrus period, but his pseudo-estrus was like a time bomb buried deep within his flesh, unaware of when it might suddenly explode.
Rongcheng First People’s Hospital.
Fang Fengqin wore a cap and a face mask, leaving not a single patch of skin exposed across his entire body.
He walked with his head down, hurriedly heading toward the sixth floor of the outpatient department, his hands shoved into his pockets. His right fingertips gently pinched the letter, its corners slightly curled.
When the elevator stopped upon reaching the third floor, someone stepped inside. Fang Fengqin kept his head down, retreating slightly into the corner while simultaneously reaching up to pull the brim of his cap down further.
Having applied a suppression patch while also wearing a blocking collar, although his gland had been touched a few times by Shen Jiyun the previous night, it had not been bitten down upon. By now, the scent of white pine had faded to almost nothing.
The brim of his cap blocked his vision, allowing Fang Fengqin to see only a man and a woman standing diagonally in front of him. When the elevator reached the sixth floor, he stepped out first.
Without registering for a number, Fang Fengqin followed the letter to find Professor Gu’s consultation room. He paused at the door for two full seconds before finally raising his hand to knock.
“Come in.”
A slightly deep voice sounded from inside the room. Fang Fengqin pushed the door open, the corners of his lips beneath the mask pressing together nervously.
Professor Gu was a lean, thin old man who looked to be around sixty years old.
“Where does it hurt?” Professor Gu dragged his mouse to check the registration records, wearing a pair of round reading glasses perched on his nose. He lifted his gaze to look at Fang Fengqin, his eyes showing confusion at the sight of someone wrapped up so thoroughly.
Fang Fengqin said nothing, pulling out the envelope and handing it across to him.
Professor Gu hesitated. “Comrade, we do not accept gifts.”
Fang Fengqin was rendered speechless. “Take a look at this.”
Professor Gu adjusted his glasses. The yellow envelope was stained with a bit of moisture, likely from Fang Fengqin’s hand sweat, and had a few large, chicken-scratch characters scrawled across it.
“To my beloved teacher Gu Dai^_^(smiling face)”
With its cheeky, smiling expression, Professor Gu abruptly closed his eyes the moment he caught a glimpse of it.
Seeing him unfold the letter with a complicated expression, Fang Fengqin reached out to pick at the seam of his trousers, looking somewhat constrained as he sat to the side.
Professor Gu read through Qin Tingfeng’s letter in ten lines at a glance, his initial look of disdain gradually growing solemn.
By the time he finished reading, a deep gravity had settled between his brows.
“That punk told you to come find me?” Professor Gu asked him in a deep voice.
Fang Fengqin nodded, licking his slightly dry lips. “Doctor, I…”
“How many years have you been taking that kind of injection?” Professor Gu furrowed his brows slightly.
He was referring to the high-concentration suppressants Qin Tingfeng had been giving Fang Fengqin.
Fang Fengqin recalled for two seconds, then said with some hesitation, “Seven years.”
Seven years?
Professor Gu said nothing, pulling his phone out of his pocket to dial a call.
The ringtone sounded for a few seconds before Fang Fengqin heard Qin Tingfeng’s ingratiating voice come through from the opposite end. “Teacher, did that kid go find you?”
“You still have the nerve to ask?!” Professor Gu said in a tone of extreme disappointment. “You actually dared to prescribe this kind of medicine to him? I see you have not learned your lesson enough!”
“Hey, hey, hey, calm your anger, please save this little brother already.”
Fang Fengqin lowered his gaze, staring at the winding, light-blue veins sprawling across the back of his fair hand.
Professor Gu spent a full ten-or-so minutes chewing out Qin Tingfeng before finally hanging up the phone. He wrote out several inspection orders for Fang Fengqin and told him to go draw blood.
When the ward door opened, Fang Fengqin accidentally bumped into someone as he turned right upon leaving. He murmured a low apology and hurried away with rapid footsteps.
“Big brother?”
A youthful female voice rang out. Hearing her number being called, Shen Yue tugged at the hem of Shen Jiyun’s shirt. “It is our turn.”
Shen Jiyun snapped back to his senses, slowly withdrawing his gaze.
It was already approaching noon by the time the test results came out. When Fang Fengqin returned to the outpatient clinic holding his test slip, there was someone inside.
He sat near the door, lowering his wrist where a cotton ball was pressed, but after a dozen minutes the bleeding still had not stopped, oozing out slightly from the tiny needle puncture.
With his pale arm bent slightly, Fang Fengqin sat alone by the doorway, feeling a rare sense of bewilderment.
He did not know what to do.
Half a minute later, the door opened. Just as Fang Fengqin tried to get up, a distinct-knuckled, large palm extended out before him, re-pressing a fresh cotton ball onto his blood-drawing site.
It was a pale, powerful hand, large enough to circle Fang Fengqin’s arm with a single grasp. Fang Fengqin froze, his gaze falling upon the back of this hand.
Beside the veins on the back of the hand was a small, medium-sized black mole.
How familiar.
Holy shit.
Fang Fengqin felt his scalp go completely numb all the way down to his spine. Feeling someone trying to lift the brim of his cap, he immediately reached out and slapped the hand away, clutching his report sheet and bolting away swiftly as if seeing a ghost.
Throughout the entire interaction, he did not utter a single superfluous word, taking less than a minute.
Shen Jiyun had not expected him to react so violently, his brow furrowing slightly.
“Big brother?” Shen Yue looked over at Shen Jiyun in astonishment. Watching the figure of that person running off, she asked in confusion, “Is that not the person who rode up the elevator with us?”
When Shen Yue returned to the sixth floor after finishing her checkup on the third floor, that exact person had happened to be standing in the corner.
“Do you know him?” Shen Yue asked weakly.
Shen Jiyun’s gaze had already landed on a report sheet left behind on the bench. He bent down to pick it up, finding several rows of professional medical indicators printed across it.
“An acquaintance,” Shen Jiyun said casually. “Let us go home.”
“Do I have to have surgery?” Shen Yue asked him with some hesitation. “I… I do not want to drag you down anymore, big brother. It is okay even if I do not get the surgery.”
Shen Jiyun frowned, his tone weighting slightly heavier. “Let us go home.”
Fang Fengqin hid in the parking garage for half an hour before daring to come out. Goodness only knows how thoroughly his psychological state had collapsed the moment he recognized Shen Jiyun.
Why on earth was this guy like an unshakeable ghost haunting him everywhere!
Fang Fengqin leaned back powerlessly against the driver’s seat as his phone rang incessantly beside him. Wei Jinlin had called him over a dozen times all morning.
“Hello?” Fang Fengqin said in an unkind tone. “You had better actually have something important.”
“Big brother, come pick me up for our date this afternoon~” Wei Jinlin chimed in with an overly sweet tone from the other end. “I miss you.”
Fang Fengqin closed his eyes with a headache. “What kind of nonsense are you pulling now…”
“My dad wants to see you, to discuss our wedding date~” Wei Jinlin interrupted Fang Fengqin’s words and continued, “When would you be convenient?”
Fang Fengqin fell silent for a moment.
“I will pay a personal visit then.”
After managing to placate Wei Jinlin, Fang Fengqin crept back toward the outpatient department like a thief.
By the time he entered, Professor Gu had already pulled up his lab test report on the screen, analyzing it with furrowed brows.
Fang Fengqin waited nervously for him to pronounce the ultimatum.
Professor Gu stared at one string of metrics for a very long time, only pulling back his gaze when Fang Fengqin grew impatient from waiting.
Professor Gu said, “Your condition is extremely pessimistic. Have you ever looked into pheromone dysregulation syndrome? Your gland and uterine cavity have barely developed at all. The reason you feel pain is because they are undergoing pathological changes.”
“If you continue injecting suppressants, it is equivalent to cutting off your own path of survival.”
Fang Fengqin’s face slowly drained of color. Even though he had anticipated it long ago, hearing the news in reality still caused his heart to sink heavily.
He asked softly, “How many years do I have left?”
“Did Qin Tingfeng say you would only make it to thirty?” Professor Gu shook the letter paper in his hand, producing a faint rustling sound. “He misjudged. At the rate this is developing, you have twenty-five years at most.”
Fang Fengqin was already twenty-three years old this year.
He lowered his gaze powerlessly, his fingers hanging limply by his sides, stripped of even the strength to close into fists.