At 12:10 PM, in Cafeteria Number One of the Affiliated Hospital.
Yan Ziruo saw her younger brother burying his head in his food, completely ignoring her. She chuckled and coaxed him, "I only hit you a couple of times, didn’t I?"
"I couldn’t bring myself to hit you hard. It was more like a little scratch."
"Alright, alright. Here, have a piece of meat. Don’t be angry!"
Yan Ziruo picked up a piece of braised pork and placed it in his bowl.
Yan Feifan ate the pork but continued to ignore her.
"Okay, okay, it was my fault. I shouldn’t have chased you around the hospital to hit you. It won’t happen again."
"I’m sorry, okay?"
Seeing that her brother remained unmoved, Yan Ziruo lost her patience and slammed her hand on the dining table.
"Yan Feifan, what exactly do you want?"
"Are you asking for it?"
Yan Feifan looked up at his fierce sister and said grudgingly, "If you weren’t my sister, I wouldn’t let this go so easily, not when you’re being so unreasonable."
"That’s more like it! We’re siblings, after all!"
Yan Ziruo beamed and placed another piece of braised pork in Yan Feifan’s bowl. "Feifan," she said with a grin, "my colleague, Shanshan, said she wants to treat us to a big dinner."
"That relative from her mother-in-law’s hometown got diagnosed at their local city hospital this morning. It’s just like you said, that Wilson’s... something-or-other genetic disease."
"That means they don’t need to come to Binhai anymore."
Yan Feifan let out a soft "oh" and said, "She can just treat you. I don’t have time right now."
"But Shanshan’s main goal is to treat you. Since you don’t have time, I’ll just turn her down."
Having made her decision, Yan Ziruo changed the subject. "Feifan, this morning I went to see Mr. Wang to sign that agreement between you two."
"He said this Sunday is his daughter’s seventeenth birthday, and he invited us to attend."
"Feifan, should we go?"
Yan Feifan sounded a bit puzzled. "Given Yanyan’s condition, she probably doesn’t like crowds or meeting strangers."
"Maybe Mr. Wang’s birthday invitation was just him being polite?"
But Yan Ziruo shook her head. "If he really didn’t want us to go, he wouldn’t have mentioned it at all."
"Besides, you’re his student now. You’ve also met Yanyan, and you’ll be performing her surgery in the future. You’re not really a stranger."
"And I, as your one and only sister, can just barely be considered part of the inner circle."
Yan Ziruo continued her analysis, "Even though Yanyan’s situation is special and she doesn’t want to see people, she can’t just stay cut off from the world forever, right?"
"He probably invited us hoping his daughter can have as much contact with outsiders as possible, to keep her from getting depressed or withdrawn."
"Perhaps."
Yan Feifan agreed, then added, "How about this: if Mr. Wang repeats the invitation to me personally, then we’ll go."
Yan Ziruo mused, "In that case, we need to start thinking about a birthday gift."
She was about to ask her brother for his opinion but gave up, remembering he never cared about such things.
"Feifan, I’ll take care of the gift."
Yan Ziruo then informed him, "I took the afternoon off. After lunch, I’m going back to sort out the things I’m moving over here."
"I’ll bring back some of the essentials tonight."
"For the rest of the stuff, I’ll get a car on Saturday and move it all at once."
Yan Feifan said casually, "Sis, you can make all the decisions about the move..."
The two of them ate as they discussed the items to be moved.
Suddenly, Yan Feifan noticed his sister had gone quiet.
He looked up and saw his sister had twisted her head around to stare at someone, her neck craned so far it looked like it was about to snap.
Yan Feifan followed her gaze.
He saw a tall, long-legged man with a slicked-back hairstyle getting food at the service counter.
From this angle, he could see the man’s side profile.
The smooth curve of his forehead, the straight bridge of his nose, the well-defined line of his lips, and that rounded chin...
As a man himself, Yan Feifan had to admit that this guy’s side profile was practically perfect.
Yan Feifan poked his sister and reminded her with a hint of jealousy, "Hurry up and eat. A man’s greatest charm isn’t his looks, but his substance and ability."
Yan Ziruo reluctantly turned her head back, her eyes shining. "It’s just like how you guys like to look at beautiful women. Of course we women like to look at handsome men."
"Feifan, do you know this handsome guy?"
Yan Feifan shook his head and said flatly, "No."
Yan Ziruo was a little disappointed, then whispered, "The hospital has three or four thousand people, if you count the medical staff, administration and logistics, plus interns, students, and doctors from out of town."