To Xu Nuo’s surprise, there should be a three-day military training before starting work. Xu Nuo was almost dumbfounded. In her freshman year at the university she had made an excuse for being absent from the military training by saying she had to handle some family affairs and ask for a leave to stay at home for more than half a month. Only later had she learned the mixed-race drillmaster was so handsome. How could she know she had to take part in the military training when she started work? What a reward she had got!
Dressed in a loose camouflage coat, and standing with about twenty new staff, Jiang Youyou was actually full of interest. She tried to do every move in place, trying to meet the standard.
Dragging her exhausted body back home, Xu Nuo complained to Bai Zhehan and then complained to her father. On the dinner table, the two men took turns comforting her.
Xu Changchun picked up some fried lamb with cumin that Xu Nuo liked very much to her bowl. “Of course you’ll have to endure such hardships right now, otherwise how can you take over my company in the future? For this reason, you’ll have to stay and learn management methods in every department of your company.”
Bai Zhehan said, “just try to bear it for the future. Rest earlier at night, I won’t keep you company tonight, is it OK?”
Xu Nuo was about to collapse. “No, I don’t want to go to work. I want to be back with my mom. If I work in our family company, I won’t have to take part in the military training at least. Look at my neck, and it has been tanned!”
“Just ask your mom to send you some skincare products. Hasn’t the military training been over?” Xu Changchun thought nowadays the children were too delicate.
“I don’t understand, Papa. Why must I try to get a job here, and work here for at least two years, since our family is so rich? If you like the company, you can just buy it directly.” Xu Nuo felt a bit puzzled. With her family’s financial resources there wouldn’t be any problem for them to purchase the company.”
Bai Zhehan rubbed her hair, “You don’t know about the adults’ affairs. Just do as we arranged. Whatever happens, just stick to your job. You’ll understand later.”
Xu Nuo looked at Bai Zhehan and felt obsessed with him for a moment.
The first time when she met him was in the hospital. On a bleak winter afternoon when she suffered from an attack of asthma, Bai Zhehan lifted up her clothes with his soft fingers and gentle breath. His cold stethoscope touched her skin, which filled her with uneasiness and shyness.
“It doesn’t matter. Take good care of yourself and wear more clothes.” Bai Zhehan read her case history for a while and said, “Whenever you feel uncomfortable, give me a phone call.”
Because of what Bai Zhehan said, Xu Nuo, who was just back home from abroad for less than half a year, would intentionally turn off the air conditioner at home, wear a summer pajama and open the window to let wind in. But by doing so, she might catch a cold and cough bitterly. Then Xun Changchun would sent for Doctor Bai to treat her at home.
Sometimes he would bring an acupuncturist with him and sometimes he would come alone. As long as he came, Xu Nuo would be fine for a short period.
Sometimes when Xu Nuo was having an intravenous drip at home, Bai Zhehan would have tea in the immense living room with the business tycoon Xu Changchun, who would usually appear in newspapers or magazines. A small cup of Gongfu Tea made by Xu Changchun himself. He liked this young man, who was firm and resolute. while he was looking at Xu Nuo, his gaze was tender. This young man really resembled himself at his young age.
“I’ve learned something about your experiences and know that you’re one of the youngest pathology post-doctors. But now you’re only working as an ordinary surgeon. Do you have a different future plan for yourself?” In his daughter’s bedroom Xu Changchun had read all materials about Bai Zhehan’s personal information she had collected. In an exclusive interview with him in the latest issue of a medical journal, he could get to know his past, present and his splendid future, although the report was a bit shocking.
“I’m longing for your suggestion, Mr. Xu.” Bai Zhehan thought his opportunity was right in front of him.
“Personally, I reckon you still have much room for the future. Many of my friends in the medical field have suggested I set up a research center of my own, but I still search for a proper candidate for the leader of the research center.” Xu Changchun gazed at Bai Zhehan. “I have enough funds and a marketing network, I wonder if you’re interested in it or not.”
Bai Zhehan’s eyes sparkled with hope on hearing Xu’s words. Thus the clinical trial program was developed later. And Jiang Youyou was only one of the many medical guinea pigs.
Whereas Bai Zhehan didn’t expect the guinea pig should come into sight again and became a colleague of his fiancée when he had totally forgot her.
It was that damned coffee to be blamed. Coffee. When Jiang Youyou was about to prepare for the dinner after she got home in the evening, she suddenly felt her heart beating irregularly fast and she had to lie in bed with shaking hands and feet. She should not drink so much coffee. She was trembling all over.
“Would I die?” Jiang Youyou thought.
She didn’t want to cause much trouble to dial 120 for an ambulance, so with great difficulty she managed to get up to the village clinic. On the sheet of the clinic bed there seemed to be some blood stains left by former patients. The strong smell of disinfectant made her vomit. The basin was filled with brown mucus she vomited up. When she went to the bathroom, she found she had been passing brown stools.
She was having diarrhea, heart palpitations, tightness in the chest, tension and difficulty in breathing, as if she were dying.
The old TCM (traditional Chinese medicine) doctor touched her pulse and asked her some questions, prescribed some pills and put her on a drip with glucose and Vitamin B and C. And for the second bottle, the doctor added medicines like red sage root and drugs for myocardial nutrition.
Jiang Youyou lay on the clinic bed with the injector needle in her wrist and watching TV in the clinic. What she was afraid of most was being sick what she was alone out of her hometown to make a living all by herself. She felt lonely without any relatives and friends with her, and more terrible was that she had to go to work the next day.
Jiang Youyou felt very bored, so she asked tentatively with carefulness, “Doctor, shall I ask you about a thing?”
The old doctor was nearly seventy years old, and his white beard showed that he was well-experienced. “Yes, my child.”
“I’ve been a medical guinea pig before and I had taken a new drug that was tested before being sold on the market. And now I’m not feeling well, at least much worse than before. Can you believe that I’ve been unable to feel pain on my body?”
“Are you kidding, my girl? How could a human be unable to feel pain? Now you’re only suffering from a caffeinism, you’ll recover slowly by going to the bathroom for several times after the drip infusion. Now go to sleep. I’ll wake you up when the drip is over.”
Jiang Youyou shook her head, then fell asleep heavily.
It was already two o’clock in the early morning when she got back home after the drip infusion. Her stomach convulsed severely as she couldn’t help imagining that something was peeping at her from outside of the window, or someone weeping outside at the midnight. She was wondering whether it was a banshee. If there were only one, she would pour her a big cup of coffee to make the banshee suffer a living death.
In the morning she felt her stomach blocked up again. After spewing up in the bathroom, she staggered back to the bed, lying straight like a corpse.
Downstairs a vegetable grower was shouting: “Fresh Shanghai pak choi! Do you want it?”
When she woke up, it was already ten to nine. She would certainly be late for the work. Today was the first day she would stand behind the reception desk. She had been too tired to draw her legs close after the military training and even slow in washing and brushing teeth. She was undoubtedly going to act faster, but she was unable to do as she hoped.
But unfortunately she couldn’t get a taxi. Should all the taxi drivers be on a strike? It was quite true that more haste, less speed. And when you couldn’t speed up, you became more hasty.
Jiang Youyou saw a taxipool and she got up in a hurry. However, the other passenger had a long way to go, as a result, it was already ten o’clock when Jiang Youyou arrived at the company. She was late for a whole hour.
And Zhao Huixin was standing at the reception desk, with her big belly, blue on the face.