By the time the surgery ended, three hours had already passed since they had left Lanxinzhai Restaurant and returned to the hospital.
It was nearly eleven o’clock at night.
The patients who had been rushed to the hospital had all been stabilized. As long as they cooperated with the follow-up treatment, there would be no major problems.
The medical mask had been on her face for too long.
When Cen Xi finally removed it and tossed it into the trash can, two obvious red marks remained pressed into her cheeks.
After changing back into her own clothes in the locker room, the marks still had not completely faded.
“Dr. Cen, thank you for your hard work tonight.”
As Cen Xi yawned and walked toward the hospital entrance, she happened to run into several young nurses, all of whom smiled at her.
Cen Xi returned their smiles politely.
The moment she reached the hospital entrance, a WeChat video call from Lin Xingyou came through.
“Darling, did you just get off work?”
In the video, Lin Xingyou had already changed into pajamas. Judging by her appearance, however, she was clearly preparing to go out.
Cen Xi hummed in acknowledgment.
“There was a car accident in the eastern district. They were short-handed, so I came back.”
“Tsk, tsk, tsk.”
Lin Xingyou was genuinely impressed.
“Thank goodness I didn’t study medicine back then. With this workload, I’d probably be bald by now.”
As she spoke, she waved a set of electric scooter keys in front of the camera.
“Want me to pick you up? Let’s go grab some late-night barbecue!”
Cen Xi touched her stomach.
She had been standing for three hours straight. She had barely eaten anything at the Cen Family Residence, and now she really was hungry.
“Sure. I’ll wait for you.”
Their apartment was extremely close to the hospital. Walking only took about fifteen minutes.
For Lin Xingyou, riding her electric scooter over would take seven or eight minutes at most.
It was summer.
Shrubs lined the entrance to the hospital, attracting plenty of mosquitoes.
Cen Xi stood waiting for a while.
She was wearing a skirt, and her slender calves soon became dotted with mosquito bites.
A pair of headlights suddenly illuminated the area ahead.
The light came so abruptly that Cen Xi couldn’t adjust immediately.
The brightness made her close her eyes instinctively.
She raised a hand to shield them.
After a moment, once her eyes adapted, she squinted toward the source of the light.
Within the glow, she saw a familiar tall figure stepping out of a car.
She froze.
It was actually Shang Hanzhou.
Before Cen Xi could react, Shang Hanzhou had already walked over to her.
She opened her mouth and asked,
“Why are you here?”
Shouldn’t he have gone back to Lanxinzhai Restaurant after dropping her off at the hospital?
Shang Hanzhou’s dark eyes settled on her fair face.
Her skin was so pale that the red marks left by the mask were still clearly visible.
Being stared at like that made Cen Xi’s face heat up.
She began wondering whether she had also been bitten by mosquitoes on her face.
Just as she debated whether to take out a mirror from her bag and check—
Shang Hanzhou raised his hand.
Only then did she notice the exquisite takeout box he was carrying.
The Lanxinzhai Restaurant logo was printed on the box.
“You ordered this.”
He lifted an eyebrow slightly, signaling for her to take it.
As his fingers curled subtly around the handle, something trembled softly inside her heart.
It turned out he was even more considerate than she had imagined…
He had driven her to the hospital.
And he had remembered the dishes she had ordered but never had the chance to eat.
She was just about to reach out and accept it when the cheerful beep-beep of an electric scooter sounded nearby.
“Come on, Xi Baby! Let’s go eat barbecue together~”
Wearing a helmet, Lin Xingyou came speeding over on their jointly owned pink electric scooter.
Cen Xi nearly dropped the takeout box while taking it.
She hurriedly gripped it tighter.
Out of habit, she almost thanked him.
Then she remembered what Shang Hanzhou had said before, and the words “thank you” were forcibly swallowed back down.
Pointing toward the scooter, she said,
“I’m going out for a late-night snack with my friend.”
Shang Hanzhou followed the direction of her finger.
The pink scooter had an adorable pair of white wings attached to the front.
Even the side mirrors were decorated with bow-shaped hair clips.
“…”
He lowered his eyelashes.
For a moment, he was at a loss for words.
Cen Xi quickly ran over to Lin Xingyou.
The Maybach’s headlights were still on, creating strong backlighting from that direction.
Lin Xingyou squinted as hard as she could, but still couldn’t clearly make out who the man was.
“Xi Baby, is he a doctor from your hospital?”
After asking, she handed the spare helmet to Cen Xi.
Cen Xi swiftly put it on.
Since she was wearing a skirt today, she could only sit sideways on the back seat.
In a low voice, she said,
“That’s Shang Hanzhou…”
“Holy crap!”
Lin Xingyou was shocked.
To be fair, this was the first time she had ever seen him in person, even if she still couldn’t see him clearly.
“Your husband? Well, what a coincidence!”
Planting both feet on the ground, Lin Xingyou tilted her head back and called out,
“Xi-Xi’s husband, want to come eat barbecue with us?”
“…”
Cen Xi was so startled by those words that she nearly fell off the back seat.
What did she mean by…
Xi-Xi’s husband?
Only a few steps away, on the hospital staircase—
At this hour, there weren’t many people around.
Standing there with one hand in his pocket, Shang Hanzhou didn’t answer immediately.
Cen Xi quickly tried to provide him with an excuse to refuse.
“He just returned to the country and is pretty busy. Plus, he has a wound on his leg—”
Before she could finish, Shang Hanzhou nodded.
“Sure.”
What?
Cen Xi almost thought she had misheard him.
She genuinely couldn’t understand why he had agreed.
Meanwhile, Lin Xingyou had already accepted on his behalf.
“Okay! Then your car can follow ours. We’ll head out first.”
On the quiet nighttime streets of the capital—
A pink electric scooter with little wings cruised leisurely in front.
Behind it, the black Maybach followed steadily and unhurriedly the entire way.
It never once overtook them.
Sitting on the back seat, Cen Xi felt the warm summer breeze brush against her cheeks.
She turned around.
From where she sat, she could see the calm, expressionless face of the man driving behind them.
She wondered what Shang Hanzhou was thinking at that moment.
The night market where they planned to eat wasn’t far from the hospital.
They arrived within twenty minutes.
Barbecue stalls were especially popular at night.
After squeezing through the crowd and waiting for a while, they finally secured a decent table.
The two women arrived first.
Shang Hanzhou had not yet reached them.
“Our scooter is way more convenient. We can park anywhere.”
Lin Xingyou casually pulled over a dark-red plastic stool and sat down.
Her tone was full of schadenfreude.
“Look at your husband. So what if he drives a Maybach? Doesn’t he still have to obediently look for a parking spot?”
Cen Xi neither agreed nor disagreed.
She simply set the Lanxinzhai Restaurant takeout box on the table.
The moment she opened it, a rich aroma of food filled the air.
Lin Xingyou practically started drooling.
“Lanxinzhai Restaurant? Xi Baby, we agreed to go together! When did you secretly go without me?”
“He brought it over.”
Cen Xi had only just finished explaining when her phone vibrated.
Without thinking much of it, she took it out.
The profile picture at the top of the screen was both familiar and unfamiliar.
It was Shang Hanzhou.
They had added each other on WeChat the day they registered their marriage.
Afterward, he had gone abroad, and they had never contacted each other again.
His chat window had gradually sunk all the way to the bottom of her contact list.
Occasionally, she would open it.
But only to take a quick look.
“Xi Baby, what are you spacing out for? Hurry up and answer!”
It was only after Lin Xingyou reminded her that she snapped back to reality.
She quickly stood up and accepted the call.
“What’s wrong?”