Shortly after seven o’clock the next morning.
Yu Qingyu gazed at the faint dark circles under her eyes in the mirror. After washing up, she quietly applied her makeup.
Once finished, her face appeared bright and exquisite, with just the right touch of allure in her eyes and brows. There was no trace of the sleepless night spent tossing and turning over love, nor of the heartache and sorrow she had felt.
After clocking in at the hospital, she headed straight to the cafeteria.
After breakfast, Yu Qingyu changed into her white coat, opened her computer, glanced at the day’s surgery schedule, then closed the window and quietly began writing patient reports.
At eight-thirty, she took the resident trainees on rounds.
For each patient, she carefully examined their postoperative recovery, wound condition, and drainage tubes, personally demonstrating and instructing the resident physicians on how to dress wounds and apply casts.
She was meticulous, thorough, and highly responsible.
The patients and their families in the ward trusted her deeply. Even though she appeared young, her steady demeanor put everyone at ease.
After rounds, Yu Qingyu went straight to the operating room.
After changing and strictly disinfecting, the first surgery officially began.
The patient had tenosynovitis in a finger, with limited flexion and extension, recurring episodes that had long affected daily life.
Fortunately, the surgery wasn’t too difficult and was completed smoothly in just over ten minutes.
As she was explaining postoperative care instructions, the operating room door was pushed open. A nurse looked anxious.
“Dr. Yu, the emergency department just sent in a patient with a severed finger! Director Peng is still tied up in surgery and can’t leave. He asked you to go immediately. The patient is in Operating Room Four.”
Yu Qingyu gave an OK sign and calmly finished explaining the remaining tasks.
The finger reattachment surgery lasted over four hours.
By the time she walked out of the operating room, she was so hungry her legs felt weak, and her hands were nearly exhausted. She left the final suturing to the resident trainee and stepped out of the operating room first.
Just as she returned to her office, a female intern pushed the door open and placed a packed lunch from the cafeteria on her desk.
“Dr. Yu, your meal.”
Yu Qingyu, who had been looking down at her phone, glanced up. Her eyes were bright and captivating.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Please eat it soon—it’s been sitting for a while.”
After the intern left, she opened the email Jiang Zhou had sent, deleted it without reading, and cleared Huo Zhili’s WeChat and contact information along with it.
She could love him for twenty-six years, but she could also, without hesitation, completely erase him from her world.
Setting her phone aside, she opened the lunchbox.
Whether it was because she was truly starving or because the cafeteria food was genuinely tasty, she finished the entire box of food cleanly.
Huo Corporation
Huo Zhili’s flight had been rescheduled to the afternoon. An unexpected incident had kept him buried in the Huo Corporation office all morning, handling affairs.
After a simple lunch, the office door was gently knocked. Jiang Zhou pushed it open, bowed slightly, and reminded him:
“Mr. Huo, it’s almost time. We should head out.”
Huo Zhili leaned lazily in his office chair, his fingers unconsciously rubbing the surface of the desk. He looked up and asked:
“Did you send the surveillance footage?”
“It was sent to Miss Yu’s email early this morning,” Jiang Zhou replied promptly.
Huo Zhili said nothing more. He stood up, grabbed his jacket from the back of the chair, picked up his phone from the desk, and strode directly out of the office on his long legs.
Settling into the back seat of the car, he lowered his gaze and opened the WeChat chat window with Yu Qingyu. His fingers typed out a line of text on the keyboard, but after staring at the screen in silence for a moment, he deleted every single word.
He then casually slipped his phone into his pocket, slowly closed his eyes, and exuded an almost imperceptible gloom around him.
Boren Hospital.
After lunch, Yu Qingyu had just finished replying to an email from Johns Hopkins University when the internal phone on her desk suddenly rang.
A crisp voice came through the receiver:
“Dr. Yu, a patient has been sent to the emergency room and requires surgery from you.”
“Alright, I’ll be right there!” Yu Qingyu responded, rising from her seat. She closed her laptop, tucked her phone away, and walked out of the office.
A short while later, dressed in sterile surgical attire, she strode into the operating room with two resident doctors in tow.
The patient was a woman who had accidentally torn her Achilles tendon while playfully roughhousing with her partner at work.
On the operating table, Yu Qingyu worked steadily, explaining each key point and precaution of the procedure step by step. The residents beside her listened intently, cooperating seamlessly.
The surgery lasted over three hours.
During the final stages, considering the irregular shape of the wound and the difficulty of suturing, she didn’t leave immediately. Instead, she entrusted the final suturing steps to the residents, overseeing the entire process from the side, correcting their techniques and reminding them of details as needed.
“The wound is aligned. You handle the rest; I’ll head out first.” Yu Qingyu glanced at the time and softly instructed.
As soon as she stepped out of the operating room, a nurse approached her. “Dr. Yu, the next patient is already prepped in Operating Room Six.”
Yu Qingyu gave a slight nod, her tone carrying a hint of weary resolve. “Understood. Looks like I won’t be going home again tonight.”
She was well aware that her schedule was packed with surgeries today, and she had already been working nonstop.
“It’s alright, you can catch up on sleep the day after tomorrow,” the nurse gently comforted.
“Mm, I’ll change into sterile gear and head over,” Yu Qingyu replied with a faint smile before turning toward the changing area.
At seven o’clock the next morning, after performing over a dozen consecutive surgeries, Yu Qingyu’s steps felt somewhat unsteady.
She first went to the cafeteria, bought breakfast, and found an empty table to sit at.
“Morning, Dr. Yu,” Xu Borui greeted as he approached with his tray.
Yu Qingyu looked up and responded flatly, “Morning.”
“Just finished your shift?” Xu Borui asked with concern, noticing the heavy dark circles under her eyes.
Yu Qingyu gave a soft “Mm,” not wanting to say another word at the moment. She quietly lowered her head and sipped her porridge.
Xu Borui peeled a boiled egg and casually asked, “So… have you accepted the invitation from Johns Hopkins? Have you discussed it with Zhili?”
At his words, Yu Qingyu’s hand, holding the spoon, suddenly froze. The wound in her heart, which had only just begun to scab over, was torn open once again.
After a moment of silence, she replied with the same flat tone, “Mm.”
Was there any need for discussion?
Not anymore.