Chapter 103: Childhood Sweethearts!
Mu Nanshu’s voice, filled with emotion, summarized, “Actually, I was a bit slow-witted originally. I wasn’t suited for studying abroad; my aptitude couldn’t handle such intense competition…”
Lu Cheng smiled and said, “But didn’t you get through it?”
“It was still talent acquisition, and you learned the scientific research technology well.”
Pursuing a master’s or doctorate would definitely be good, but it’s not easy to complete.
Medical schools in the United States are strict to enter and strict to graduate from, and the tuition fees are exorbitant. Many medical students take out loans for their studies, and may even face the risk of not graduating.
“That was also something I got through. I graduated with ordinary grades, produced ordinary research output, and simply obtained a diploma.”
“I only dared to think about quickly escaping back and lying flat, never competing again!”
“I should live the life of an ordinary person; the word ‘compete’ doesn’t suit me.” Mu Nanshu said, then rolled some beef tripe with cilantro, garlic paste, and small chili peppers into her mouth, puffed out her cheeks, and began to chew…
Lu Cheng lightly smiled and said, “Then do you find me annoying? If I had seen more clearly back then and invited you to Hanshi City to pursue your master’s, perhaps you wouldn’t have had to go abroad.”
“Or, if I had been more sensible, and boldly joined a research group during my undergraduate studies to get a few papers, we would probably both be working after graduating now.”
Mu Nanshu shook her head, “That wouldn’t have happened either… When I was studying abroad, I had only one thought: no matter what, I had to stick with the choices I made, and not waste my parents’ money after being willful.”
“The various expenses for studying abroad are very high, and there’s no government subsidy. It’s really quite expensive; I can’t even afford it now.” Mu Nanshu’s tone was subdued.
“As for before.”
While speaking, Mu Nanshu tossed the kelp seedlings she had ordered into the classic spicy hot pot.
“The ones I remember most clearly are K121 and K1125; the better train services were Z25 and Z225.”
“The longest journey takes fourteen hours and fifty-seven minutes, and the shortest journey takes eight hours and fifty-two minutes.”
“High-speed rail tickets are also expensive… You always message me around six in the morning saying you’ve arrived at Jiaxing Station, but I actually set an alarm for five every time…”
“I’d get up, wash up, and then rush for the six o’clock subway. Back then, I was truly carefree, just wanting to play without a care in the world…”
“It was you, though, who always bought my high-speed rail tickets.”
Mu Nanshu looked up, “Lu Cheng, are we a bit too greedy? In college, we wanted to have fun together, we also wanted our postgraduate entrance examination to go smoothly, and we wanted to choose a good school.”
“This way, it seems like we didn’t take those competitors seriously.”
Mu Nanshu and Lu Cheng’s past experiences weren’t particularly outstanding, nor were there any grand romances or eternal vows…
They were simply classmates from fifth grade, middle school, and high school. Their parents knew each other, and they often traveled between cities during university.
Apart from the obstacle of distance, there were no other “hindrances.”
Mu Nanshu’s parents knew Lu Cheng’s family inside out and knew Lu Cheng himself very well. Even now, they occasionally get together during holidays.
Mu Nanshu’s parents never told Lu Cheng things like “don’t date Mu Nanshu,” they only asked Lu Cheng if he knew how Mu Nanshu was doing, since she hadn’t called them in a long time…
Lu Cheng’s grades were not bad; in fact, in the eyes of both sets of parents, Lu Cheng’s academic performance and aptitude were significantly higher than Mu Nanshu’s.
Of course, Mu Nanshu was not bad either…
Lu Cheng sighed, “Yeah, back then, besides studying, all we wanted was to have fun.”
“We thought the college entrance examination could be a comeback through scores, and that this rule would apply to all exams.”
“If you don’t work hard when you’re young, you’ll regret it when you’re old; that’s about me.”
Mu Nanshu looked up and said, “But actually, all we can do is study, right?”
“Looking back, what can undergraduate students in medical schools understand? Without family support and resourcefulness, which research group would take you in?”
“So, in fact, the price was marked long ago. It’s just that we didn’t understand it, and for us, without much experience or family support, going through it again would yield the same result.”
“Of course, if we had lowered our expectations a bit, things might have been much better.”
“Fuda University’s affiliated hospital is quite exclusive. Undergraduate students from the same school have a significant advantage during the second round of examination.”
“I don’t have any papers either… Forget it, it’s meaningless to talk about this now…”
“It’s not that bad now, at least you’re still a little optimistic…”
Mu Nanshu looked at Lu Cheng and made a joke.
Lu Cheng remained silent. At that moment, hearing Mu Nanshu’s long-lost cheerful chatter, rather than the “calm” and “unfamiliar” demeanor he saw last time, brought him a sense of peace.
It was a sense of peace, as if everything should be this way!
So Lu Cheng didn’t reply for the time being.
Seeing Lu Cheng not speaking, Mu Nanshu suddenly lowered her head and said, “My dad said that if I want to, working at a prefectural city hospital is the same as working at Xiehe Hospital.”
“No matter where I work, he’ll buy me a house there. They are quite good to me.”
After Lu Cheng heard this, his expression changed. He picked up the ice water and gulped it down. After the ice water cooled his stomach and spleen, he finally said:
“You’re going to a prefectural city hospital?”
“Isn’t that a waste of your talent?”
Based on Lu Cheng’s understanding of prefectural city hospitals in China, the atmosphere there was definitely not suitable for a research talent like Mu Nanshu to develop.
“What waste of talent, what not. My dream now is to lie flat.”
Mu Nanshu put down her chopsticks again and said softly, “Lu Cheng, the messages I sent you weren’t meant to urge you to climb higher, I just…”
“I just wanted to say that I… am actually very ordinary.”
“It’s not that I necessarily need you to force your way up the Ladder to the Azure Clouds and reach a certain place…” Mu Nanshu shed her girlish shyness from years ago.
After saying this with a choked voice, she instead raised her head with a sense of relief.
“I privately contacted Xiangzhou People’s Hospital, and their response was that if I were willing to return to our Xiang Province, they could cover the breach of contract fees.” Mu Nanshu urgently poured out all these thoughts.
After Mu Nanshu returned to China, she was afraid Lu Cheng would feel inferior, so she found an alternative way to tell him that there was also a path for him to become excellent.
In fact, Mu Nanshu’s original intention was not to make Lu Cheng climb the “Ladder to the Azure Clouds,” but to show that the “gap” between them wasn’t that large.
She just wanted to say that her graduation was difficult, she was just an ordinary girl, who had truly devoted several years to her studies, and had ‘disappeared’ in order to graduate!
Even so, she was still delayed in graduating. She was truly just a very ordinary girl, an ordinary girl who had known Lu Cheng for a very long time…
