She froze.
Zhu Xiaoyue had been working at the clinic for two years, and all the patients knew her. Rong Jiqiao had only been there a little over two months. What gave her the right to compete with Zhu Xiaoyue?
Seeing that she remained silent, Director Lin softened her tone.
“What? Not confident?”
Rong Jiqiao snapped back to her senses and shook her head.
“No.”
After a pause, she added,
“It’s just that… my experience is too limited.”
“Experience isn’t the only standard. Ability is what matters.”
Director Lin picked up a set of documents from the desk and handed them to her.
“This is the assessment outline. Take it back and have a look. Give me your answer tomorrow.”
Rong Jiqiao accepted the papers and stood up.
“Thank you, Director Lin.”
She turned and walked out of the office.
The moment she closed the door behind her, she caught sight of a figure at the far end of the corridor.
Zhu Xiaoyue was standing there.
Their eyes met across more than ten meters.
Zhu Xiaoyue’s face darkened, and she immediately turned and walked away.
Rong Jiqiao tightened her grip on the documents in her hand.
Back at the nurses’ station, Head Nurse Wang was entering data into a computer. Seeing Rong Jiqiao return, she smiled.
“Heard the news? Director Lin wants you to take the assessment.”
Rong Jiqiao placed the materials on the desk and sat down to organize the day’s work records.
Head Nurse Wang turned toward her.
“Zhu Xiaoyue’s face turned green with envy. She passed by just now and didn’t even say hello.”
Rong Jiqiao lowered her head and continued writing without responding.
She knew Zhu Xiaoyue wouldn’t let the matter go so easily.
The next morning during rounds, Rong Jiqiao was changing the dressing for the elderly woman in Bed 12 when Zhu Xiaoyue happened to pass by with a treatment cart.
They brushed past each other.
Neither spoke.
The tension in the air was so thick it was almost tangible.
At noon, Rong Jiqiao went to the cafeteria for lunch.
She carried her tray to a seat by the window and had barely taken two bites when the chair across from her was pulled out.
Zhu Xiaoyue sat down with her tray.
Her chopsticks tapped against the edge of the plate with a crisp sound.
Rong Jiqiao looked up at her.
A smile tugged at Zhu Xiaoyue’s lips, but there wasn’t the slightest hint of warmth in her eyes.
“Nurse Rong, I heard you’re taking the assessment?”
“Mm.”
“I’ve worked here for two years.”
Zhu Xiaoyue picked up a piece of meat and slowly chewed it.
“How long have you been here?”
Rong Jiqiao set down her chopsticks and met her gaze.
“Director Lin said it would be a fair competition. Then let’s compete fairly.”
Zhu Xiaoyue swallowed her bite of food, and the smile disappeared from her face.
“Fine.”
She pointed at the assessment materials beside Rong Jiqiao with her chopsticks.
“You’d better study the outline carefully. The theory exam isn’t easy.”
Rong Jiqiao didn’t reply.
Zhu Xiaoyue continued,
“I heard a nurse last year took the test three times and still failed. In the end, she was eliminated.”
“Then she had bad luck.”
Rong Jiqiao picked up her tray.
“My luck has always been pretty good.”
She stood and walked away, leaving Zhu Xiaoyue sitting there alone.
As she exited the cafeteria, a nurse who was friendly with her happened to be coming in from the opposite direction.
The nurse patted her on the shoulder.
“Don’t pay attention to her. Just focus on preparing for the assessment.”
Rong Jiqiao nodded.
After work that afternoon, she didn’t go home right away.
Instead, she sat at the nurses’ station reviewing the assessment outline.
The theory section covered basic nursing, emergency care skills, and nursing care for common illnesses, with each category broken down into detailed knowledge points.
The practical examination included intravenous infusion, CPR, and trauma bandaging.
The case-analysis portion tested a candidate’s ability to think and respond under pressure.
Rong Jiqiao stared at the outline in front of her…
The dense, tightly packed bullet points on the page made her fingers unconsciously rub along the edge of the paper.
In her past life, she had worked for several years at a county hospital, so she was already familiar with all of this.
But in this life, she had only been at the clinic for a little over two months. Many procedures were still not fully familiar to her.
She suddenly remembered her days at the county hospital.
Back then, she used to sit alone in the duty room, burying herself in books to prepare for her nursing qualification exam.
Only, at that time she studied half-heartedly, her mind constantly drifting toward how to find a rich man to latch onto.
Now things were different.
She would rely on herself.
The printer rattled noisily, spitting out sheets of paper one after another, piling up on the desk.
Rong Jiqiao sorted the documents neatly into categories and placed them into a folder.
She looked up at the clock on the wall—it was already seven o’clock.
Duan Yan should be coming to pick her up soon.
She packed up, changed out of her white coat, and walked out of the clinic.
Duan Yan was waiting by the roadside.
Rong Jiqiao walked over. He took the folder from her hand.
“So many materials?”
“For the assessment.”
He rolled the folder up and placed it into the cup holder on the front of the electric scooter.
“Tired?”
“Not really.”
She got on the scooter.
“Why so late today?” Duan Yan asked as he started the vehicle.
“Studying materials,” she replied. “There’s an assessment next week.”
“What kind of assessment?”
She briefly explained it to him.
After listening, Duan Yan’s lips curved slightly.
“Zhu Xiaoyue? That colleague you complained about before?”
Rong Jiqiao hadn’t expected him to remember her.
She had only casually mentioned that annoying coworker a couple of times when venting.
She nodded, eyes smiling.
“Yeah.”
“She’s probably going to be furious this time.”
“How do you know?” Rong Jiqiao asked.
“Because you’re better than her,” Duan Yan said firmly.
Rong Jiqiao glanced at him.
Under the streetlights, his profile looked both sharp and soft at the same time.
She just kept looking at him.
There wasn’t really anything to criticize about his appearance.
High nose bridge, slightly upturned tip, a clean jawline, and a faint curve at the chin.
His eyelashes were longer than most men’s, casting a shadow over his eyes as he focused on the road ahead. His gaze was calm and steady.
The warm orange glow of the streetlights passed over him, shifting light and shadow across his face.
Suddenly, she asked,
“You trust me that much?”
Duan Yan adjusted the handlebars.
“Of course.”
He paused slightly.
“You’re the smartest person I’ve ever met.”
Rong Jiqiao hugged his waist, leaning against his back, laughing so hard her shoulders shook.
Duan Yan really had no shame when it came to saying things like that.
She knew exactly what kind of person she was.
A bit clever, yes—but never used that cleverness on the right path.
And when something big happened, her brain tended to fail her completely.
There was no way she could possibly be the smartest person Duan Yan had ever met.
He was just sweet-talking her for fun.
……
The next evening, Duan Yan came home after a night shift and pushed the door open.
Rong Jiqiao was curled up on the sofa, memorizing exam questions. Hearing the sound, she looked up.
Duan Yan walked toward the tea…
A few steps earlier, he came in holding a heavy plastic bag and directly tossed it in front of her.
A thick stack of A4 papers slid out.
Rong Jiqiao froze. She picked up the top sheet and looked at it.
It was all past nursing skills examination question banks, complete with practical scoring rubrics and standardized criteria, neatly bound together.
“Where did you get this?” she flipped through a few pages, her eyes lighting up.
These question banks weren’t even available inside the clinic.
Duan Yan took off his security uniform jacket and casually draped it over the back of a chair.
“My colleague’s wife is a nurse at a tertiary hospital.”
Rong Jiqiao looked at the stack of more than two hundred pages with suspicion.
“They just gave it to you that easily?”
Duan Yan unbuttoned the top two buttons of his shirt and walked toward the kitchen, tossing out casually,
“He ate five hundred yuan worth of barbecue with me. If you don’t pass, remember to pay me back five hundred.”
Rong Jiqiao: “…”
This guy really had a sharp tongue.
With the question bank in hand, Rong Jiqiao’s review progress sped up dramatically.
During the day she handled patients at the clinic, and after dinner she buried herself in practice exams.
Three days later.
Two in the morning. Only a desk lamp was on in the living room.
Rong Jiqiao held a pen, staring at a mock exam multiple-choice section, the words beginning to blur into double images.
She forced her eyelids open, marked two answers, and then her head tilted—she fell asleep directly on the paper.
The sound of a lock turning came from the door.
Duan Yan had just finished his part-time work at a construction site.
He smelled faintly of dust and sweat, carrying a cold, gray fatigue with him.
The moment he entered the hallway and saw the warm yellow light in the living room, he slowed his steps.
The coffee table was covered in test papers. Rong Jiqiao had half her face pressed against several A4 sheets, breathing steadily, a red pen still loosely held in her hand.
Duan Yan stood there for two seconds, then turned and quickly went to the bathroom, washing off the dust and smell in a rush.
When he came back, he stopped beside the coffee table, bent down, and took the pen from her fingers.
His fingertips naturally slipped under her cheek and the paper, lifting her up.
She was sleeping deeply. Losing balance, her body instinctively curled into his arms, forehead pressed against his chest.
Duan Yan supported her knees and carried her into the bedroom, placing her in the center of the bed.
Just as he straightened up to withdraw his hand, a hand suddenly reached out from under the blanket, grabbing blindly and tightly clutching his collar.
Rong Jiqiao’s brows were tightly furrowed, her mind flooded with the cold suffocating sensation of seawater from her past life pouring into her nose. She gasped for breath, knuckles turning pale.
“Don’t go.”
Her voice was muffled and hoarse, driven by pure survival instinct.
Duan Yan looked down at her.
Her grip tightened again. Her whole body curled up tightly.
He stared at her trembling eyelashes.
After half a minute.
Duan Yan pulled her fully into the bed, then used his free hand to pull the blanket over them, wrapping them tightly together.
Rong Jiqiao, sensing warmth, instinctively clung to him—arms and legs wrapping around him like an octopus, cheek pressed against his neck.
Duan Yan leaned against the hard wooden headboard, letting her cling to him.
He didn’t close his eyes.
His gaze stayed fixed on the dim ceiling, his breathing completely unsettled.
Then his eyes shifted to the corner of the wardrobe drawer, where a small edge of a package was exposed.
A condom.
Duan Yan pushed Rong Jiqiao slightly.