If she replied “Someone is forcing me,” what kind of expression would the person on the other end of the chat box make?
In the end, she didn’t answer private questions.
Instead, when exiting the subway, she sent a voice message. “Tomorrow at 7:15 AM, let’s meet at the entrance of Jiading District Central Hospital. What shoe size do you wear?”
“Thirty-six.”
She checked her mobile banking balance, the 7,000 RMB mortgage had already been deducted. The monthly payment for this apartment wasn’t much different from renting a two-bedroom, but at least it would become her own property, and maybe even appreciate a little bit.
Today was payday, so she could place an order for something else.
She found her mother’s avatar and transferred 2,000 RMB, sending a message: My medicine entered Fudan University Tumor Hospital’s sales system, so I’ll get an inpatient bonus in September, and there will always be commissions coming in. Don’t go helping out at restaurant kitchens anymore, and take your blood pressure medication on time.
Her mother replied with a voice message, which Lian Qiao converted to text. She just urged her daughter to take care of her health.
After her promotion, not only would she be able to secure enough for her medical insurance, but she might even be able to save up a bit more to exchange for a commercial property for her mother in Anqing.
Lian Qiao searched WeChat for “AAA Bridge Loan Sister Zhou”: My salary is still enough for now, no need to apply for a mortgage deferral. Sorry to trouble you.
Sister Zhou replied: Congratulations.
Walking back to the residential complex, Lian Qiao shared the good news about Fumaining’s approval with Su Min, gossiping that the big boss’s only daughter was interning under her. Her best friend wasn’t in the company, but she had co-purchased this two-bedroom apartment in Jiading New Town with her.
“Is the young lady pretty?”
“Very.”
“Then do you have any other ideas about the young lady?” Her best friend clearly grew interested.
“What kind of ideas could I have? The watch she wears is enough to solve all our economic pressures,” Lian Qiao said. “She and I are people from two different worlds, what can I use to bridge that gap? The courage given by Fish Leong?”
Su Min retorted, “You could bridge it with your beauty, that’s not entirely out of the question. Those undergraduate boys are probably still holding a number plate for love.”
“Better to steadily grind for performance, maybe I can even fight for a promotion.” Lian Qiao spat playfully at her and returned alone to her small two-bedroom apartment in Jiading New Town.
Upon entering, she touched the patch of unevenly painted wall by the door and curled up on the sofa bed.
The spring had poked her in the exact same spot for three years, and she knew the route well, shifting her body slightly. In the first two years before buying the apartment, she had moved four times, rent hikes, landlords reclaiming properties, roommates defaulting on payments, and a single word from a landlord meant she had to move, making it hard to even get her deposit back. Now, no matter how much the spring poked her, the apartment was hers.
Her tablet opened, its screen light reflecting in her eyes as she re-watched Lipstick for the third time. The female lead was running in the rain in Glasgow. Her tablet pushed a Tantan notification, which she swiped away.
Pointless.
Ling Weiwei’s ankles were rubbed much too red.
Lian Qiao closed her eyes, refusing to recall the sight of those ankles again from when they set off in the early morning.
At this stage, all she needed to do was not offend the eldest daughter, be a qualified mentor, and strive for promotion.
At 7:15 AM, they met in the hospital lobby. Ling Weiwei was wearing another pair of single-strap heels and a beige linen short-sleeved shirt dress.
Lian Qiao said, “Today, watch me do the detailing visits until you get used to it, ”
“What’s going on? I’ve registered, why isn’t my name on the triage desk’s list?” An elderly auntie holding an outpatient form came over to ask.
“We aren’t nurses. You should go to the counter…” Ling Weiwei said.
The auntie was dressed in ragged clothes, hunched over, with completely white hair.
Lian Qiao took the payment slip and scanned the QR code in the upper right corner to pay: “Auntie, whenever there’s a code in the upper right corner of a hospital slip, just scan it first. Hurry over to the triage desk, your name will be there. Specialist appointments are very hard to get, don’t waste time.”
The auntie said, “Thank you, thank you so much. Young people really understand better. Nobody taught me… Good people will be rewarded.” She hurried onto the escalator upstairs.
Lian Qiao continued, “The first sentence when entering the consultation room shouldn’t be about the product, nor about medicine. First, let them know who you are, why you’re here, and how long it will take.” She led Ling Weiwei up the escalator.
“Why did you pay for that auntie’s clinic visit?” Ling Weiwei asked instead.
“The company pays a decent salary.” It was just that on the day it arrived, most of it was split between the mortgage and money transfers. “It was only a twenty-two RMB registration fee anyway.”
Ling Weiwei pressed her front teeth against her upper lip, the corners of her mouth curling up.
After a three-minute chat, Lian Qiao brought Ling Weiwei back to the lobby, roughly categorizing the types of doctors and communication strategies for her.
She would teach what a mentor was supposed to teach, whether the eldest daughter wanted to learn or not.
Ling Weiwei frowned.
The eldest daughter still found it annoying, she should take her words back.
“What if the doctor refuses right away?” Ling Weiwei actually asked.
“Leaving the materials behind counts as success. Being rejected is the norm, don’t be afraid. Just come back next time, don’t pester them. Go back and think more about why the doctor rejected it when our product is so good.”
“Either the price is expensive or the effect is poor, the questionnaire feedback only has those two options, tailor the remedy to the case,” Ling Weiwei mused. “It feels like handling rejections like this is also very applicable in romance.”
What romance? Have you ever even dated? Lian Qiao didn’t take the bait, opening the CRM system on her phone and handing it to her: “Try filling in today’s visit records. When leaving a doctor’s consultation room, it’s best to schedule the next appointment.”
Her phone displayed an incoming call from a delivery runner.
Lian Qiao retrieved the courier package, took out the shoe box, and tore off the price tag: “Wear these when running around hospitals.”
Ling Weiwei turned to a corner, furtively changed into the new shoes, walked a few steps on the ground, and looked down at her feet: “ECCO really is very comfortable, much better than this dress I bought yesterday.”
Lian Qiao rolled Ling Weiwei’s shoe price tag into a ball and tossed it into her bag. There was no logo on the neckline of Ling Weiwei’s dress either.
Loro Piana. She had seen the texture and drape of that linen outside the showcase at Reel Mall. This summer dress was at least 30,000 RMB.
Lian Qiao opened WeChat, changed Ling Weiwei’s note to “Intern,” and stuffed Ling Weiwei’s original single-strap heels back into the shoebox: “Aren’t you going to thank your teacher?”
“Thank you.” Ling Weiwei looked down at the shoes on her feet, then looked up at Lian Qiao, her eyes sparkling. “You’re the first person to ever buy me shoes.”
“Your parents couldn’t possibly…” But the big boss was willing to let her look at reports, so there was communication. She didn’t mention her mother. Her own heels were rubbed raw and red, yet she was prepared to keep wearing single-strap heels to run around hospitals without uttering a single complaint. The eldest daughter wasn’t a child without a story.
Still, the shoes she bought were right on the eldest daughter’s feet, fitting her ankles snugly, neither too big nor too small.
Two seconds later, Lian Qiao snapped out of it and looked away.
“My previous shoes were all bought by the nanny. My dad doesn’t know what size I wear. Lian Qiao, I’ll work hard these three months,” Ling Weiwei added, walking back to her side in her new shoes.
Lian Qiao smiled, mentoring definitely wouldn’t be painful.
Ling Weiwei certainly worked hard.
She quickly memorized the product promotional pages, but pronounced “citrate” as “dog round acid.”
Lian Qiao’s mouth twitched, and she turned her head away. Bu Yuangang Experimental School didn’t test pinyin, did it? Next time, she’d annotate the pinyin for “citrate” on the promotional page and casually let Ling Weiwei flip to it.
She could recognize the department distribution map, but nurses would still poke their heads out to ask, “Which department is the little girl registered for?”
She kept her own little notebook to record the visiting process, pulling out a red pen to draw little hearts marking key points. When Lian Qiao passed her in the corridor, she glanced over: “Keeping a bullet journal?” Ling Weiwei didn’t even raise her head, shaking the red pen at her.
Shanghai was growing increasingly muggy, like a steamer. Summer heat mixed with the smell of asphalt rose up, and Lian Qiao walked over to the green belt to make a phone call, her dark gray pant cuffs brushing against the damp, soft flower mud, leaving a faint streak.
After hanging up a work call, her phone rang. In the family group chat, her eldest aunt tagged her: Your mother has been having tightness in her chest lately and still refuses to go to the hospital, I couldn’t persuade her.
Lian Qiao replied: As soon as the National Day holiday starts, I’ll go back and urge her to get checked.
She couldn’t afford to take unauthorized leave.
She took Ling Weiwei to Nanxiang Hospital, completing her first independent visit.
Ling Weiwei stood at the entrance of the consultation room, took a deep breath, and said, “Hello, Director Yang, I’m Ling Qiao.”
Lian Qiao stood a step behind, clenching her fists tightly to keep from laughing.
“How much does this medicine of yours cost?” Director Yang’s expression didn’t change at all.
Director Yang truly lived up to her reputation as the easiest doctor to talk to, it was worth her phone call in advance.
“It’s very expensive.” Ling Weiwei’s voice trembled slightly, “Three hundred and eighty yuan per injection.”
After a three-minute chat, Ling Weiwei walked out of the hospital and squatted down by the green belt, her white shirt practically blending into that patch of pink and white oleanders.
Lian Qiao walked over and stood behind her: “Be careful, those flowers are poisonous.”
Ling Weiwei half-turned her head and blinked: “The pretty ones are always poisonous.”
Her amber pupils were lighter in color under the sunlight, looking quite pretty. The pair of ECCO flat shoes on her feet were stained with flower mud.
That small patch of smooth white skin on the back of her neck was half-hidden by her white shirt collar, and the other half was slightly pink from the sun.
Oleanders were poisonous, so even close at hand, they must never be touched.
Over the next forty-one days, she led Ling Weiwei through all the secondary hospitals in Jiading, savoring their various cafeterias.
During her first blind visit, Ling Weiwei was chased out by a doctor holding a promotional page.
“Come get a popsicle.” Lian Qiao took her to a convenience store.
After the second rejection, Ling Weiwei stood in the corridor for ten seconds, fixed her expression against the window glass, and turned to walk into the next consultation room.
Lian Qiao almost wanted to applaud for her.
By the third time, she picked up the promotional page herself, patted off the dust, and said, “At least this time he listened to me read out the drug name!”
Lian Qiao smiled.
When parting ways at night, Lian Qiao closed her eyes for a while on the subway.
The next morning when they met again, Ling Weiwei handed her a cup of iced Americano.
She had bought the same drink at the convenience store the day before, and Ling Weiwei had seen it, Lian Qiao figured.
“No sugar added,” Ling Weiwei also said.
Lian Qiao accepted it.
They waited in the corridor of Anting Hospital. Ling Weiwei said, “You’re putting on that fake smile again.”
“What?”
“You have three types of smiles, don’t you know?” Ling Weiwei drew out her words. “The fake smile for doctors. The smirk for Chen Khan and Wang Jianguo.”
“What’s the third kind?” Lian Qiao raised an eyebrow.
“…For me.” Ling Weiwei paused, pointing at her own face. “A sincere smile.”
Lian Qiao’s smile froze on her face.
She raised a hand to rub her cheek, trying to wipe away the smile.
“I didn’t.”
“You did.” Ling Weiwei looked at her, her eyes a bit too bright. “But it doesn’t matter, you treat me differently, and I’m very happy.”
They entered the consultation room and came back out.
“Since your observation skills are so good, did you observe our competitor in there with the director just now?” Lian Qiao put on a straight face.
Ling Weiwei bit her lower lip and shook her head.
“The teacup on her desk had Funder Pharmaceuticals printed on it.”
“Ah.” Ling Weiwei suddenly understood. “That kind of observation doesn’t count! I usually observe people.”
“Can you be a bit more proactive?” Lian Qiao encouraged her.
Ling Weiwei proved to be even more proactive. On Thursday, July 28th, wearing those ECCO flats, she walked alone into the Jiading Malu Town Community Health Station.
Lian Qiao waited outside.
“You young girl, instead of learning properly, you’re selling health supplements to cheat us elderly folks out of our money!” An old woman’s voice pierced through the health station doors, louder than any drug promotion. Passersby at the entrance were already poking their heads inside to look.
“I am a pharmaceutical representative,” Ling Weiwei’s voice came from inside.
“Isn’t that just selling medicine?”
Lian Qiao squashed her anger down in her heart and walked inside. The old woman had white hair, plenty of vigor, and had blocked Ling Weiwei in the middle of the triage desk. That stack of nifedipine promotional flyers was still clutched tightly in Ling Weiwei’s hand.
Lian Qiao walked up to the old woman, leaning her shoulders slightly forward, bending down like a junior who had made a mistake facing an elder: “Auntie, I’m sorry. You’re right, selling medicine is just selling medicine, it’s not any more noble than selling health supplements. You’re right to scold us.”
Ling Weiwei stared wide-eyed from the side.
The old woman opened her mouth, then snorted again: “Young people these days…” She pushed her vegetable cart past them, still muttering, “Drug sellers sure know how to talk…” Her anger turned into confusion, likely never having seen anyone admit a mistake so promptly.
Lian Qiao stepped back a couple of steps to clear the passageway and bowed: “Take care on your way back, Auntie, mind your health.”
By the time the old woman walked away, Ling Weiwei was still standing in the exact same spot. A burning gaze remained fixed on her spine, never shifting. Lian Qiao didn’t even need to turn around to know: Ling Weiwei was looking at her.
“Let’s eat at the community cafeteria for lunch? It’s right next door,” Lian Qiao said.
Her phone rang. “0556” popped up on the screen.
Anqing’s area code? Her mother only ever used WeChat voice calls.
Lian Qiao walked quickly to the end of the corridor, her fingertip pressing onto the answer button, trembling slightly.
“Is this Ms. Lian Qiao? I’m Dr. Wang from the Cardiology Department of Anqing Municipal Hospital. Your mother fainted on the road, and 120 brought her in for hospitalization.”