Chapter 8: Home And ‘blind Date’!
“Mom, I’ve cooked and bought groceries, and everything is cut and ready.”
At five forty in the afternoon, Lu Cheng walked out of the kitchen wearing Ms. Tian Hui’s dedicated kitchen apron, a look of regret on his face: “I just haven’t learned your cooking techniques, and I’m afraid you and Dad won’t have enough to eat.”
“Didn’t Dad pick you up together today?” Lu Cheng, not seeing Lu Nan Jia, felt a little confused.
“Your dad got a call about moving temporarily and went to work with his coworkers. He’ll be back in the evening.”
“I can handle the grocery shopping and cooking, so you should rest when you have time.” Tian Hui’s figure was slightly out of shape, and her face, with its crow’s feet and scattered spots, still hinted at her youthful beauty. She took off her straw hat and started changing her shoes.
Father Lu Nan Jia is a tricycle truck driver, responsible for delivering home appliances and goods to businesses and helping people move. He earns money through physical labor. Mother Tian Hui, on the other hand, would take some vegetables to the market to sell.
Lu Cheng took off his apron, a smile on his face: “Mom, my knife skills are actually very good. The shredded potatoes I cut are uniform and crystal clear.”
“I also bought beef…”
Seeing Tian Hui about to take the apron from his hand, Lu Cheng hung it one notch higher: “Dad will be back in a while, Mom, you rest and cool off, there’s no rush to eat.”
“I’ll go get you some fruit.” Lu Cheng guided Tian Hui towards the living room sofa to rest.
Lu Cheng’s words were logical, and Tian Hui didn’t refuse. After sitting down, she looked at Lu Cheng walking towards the refrigerator with great ‘happiness’: “It’s good that my son has grown up; he also knows how to care for people.”
“I know your knife skills are well-practiced, it’s just…” Tian Hui, feeling a little pained, didn’t continue.
“This melon was just chilled. It has a refreshing coolness but isn’t too cold.”
“Mom, your stomach isn’t good. You must remember to eat breakfast on time from now on, eat less cold food, and eat chilled fruit that has been in the refrigerator for about an hour.”
“Don’t eat overnight fruit. Don’t ruin your stomach by being unwilling to waste things,” Lu Cheng nagged meticulously.
“I know, I know.” Tian Hui felt pained hearing Lu Cheng say this: “Every morning you go to work, you throw away some fruit. That’s all money we spent!”
Tian Hui was a typical rural woman. She dropped out of school before graduating from elementary school. Her wages working in the county town were too low, so she could only sell vegetables and earn a little money. She had to be very thrifty to support the family.
“Money can be earned again, but if my mother’s health deteriorates, it can’t be earned back.”
Lu Cheng naturally picked up a piece of melon with a fork and put it in his mouth: “By the way, Mom, didn’t you say Uncle Liu was going to introduce me to someone for a blind date? What happened to that?”
Uncle Liu is a ‘coworker’ of his father Lu Nan Jia; they are both delivery drivers.
Lu Cheng was already thirty. At this age, not being married in the county town was considered a major transgression. Fortunately, Lu Cheng had the ‘protection’ of his establishment status at the county hospital, so he wasn’t ‘expelled’ from the family genealogy.
However, he had been arranged for quite a few blind dates.
“Did you go to all the blind dates arranged for you? You haven’t liked any of them after more than ten times?”
“Your Uncle Liu’s niece is a good girl. Her academic qualifications and character are both good. If you don’t want to go on blind dates, there’s no need to arrange for you to contact each other.”
Tian Hui turned her body at this point, her expression serious: “Lu Cheng, tell Mom honestly, are you still in contact with that Mu Nanshu? Is that why you’re not thinking about finding a partner?”
Lu Cheng picked up another piece of melon with a fork and fed it to Tian Hui, shaking his head: “After she went abroad, we kept in touch for two years. Later, she got busy, and I got busy, and there was also the time difference, so we didn’t contact each other much.”
“Mu Nanshu and I are just friends.”
Mu Nanshu was Lu Cheng’s classmate from the fifth grade of elementary school, junior high school, and high school. When applying for university, she went to Fudan University for a five-year clinical medicine program. They were both ‘good students’ at school all the way.
After chewing and swallowing the melon, Tian Hui sighed: “Lu Cheng, it would have been better if you had agreed to Fudan University’s transfer adjustment in the past, or not agreed to Hanshi University’s transfer.”
“With your scores, you could have chosen a good university.”
Lu Cheng’s college entrance examination score was exactly 666, which was a good ranking in Xiang Province that year. However, he chose Fudan University’s eight-year clinical medicine program and missed out. Hanshi University’s eight-year clinical medicine program was his third choice, but he accidentally selected to agree to the transfer adjustment.
Back then, Mu Nanshu’s college entrance examination score was slightly lower than Lu Cheng’s.
Sometimes, choices and luck are more important than ‘strength’.
Lu Cheng said with a humorous tone, “Mom, you can say that at home, but don’t flaunt it outside. How is my alma mater, Hanshi University, not a good university?”
Tian Hui’s expression tightened: “I’m not saying Hanshi University is bad, it’s that your major didn’t turn out well.”
“Otherwise, why would you need to take the postgraduate entrance examination?”
“Now your academic qualifications haven’t improved, and even Zhou People’s Hospital dislikes you. What’s that classmate of yours called? He just got into a second-tier university before, and after his postgraduate studies, he even got talent introduced…”
Lu Cheng replied, “His name is Peng Feng. Mom, Old Peng is also my friend. The past is the past, and the present is the present. You shouldn’t talk about him being from a second-tier university like that.”
“Their recruitment announcement explicitly states that the required academic qualification is a Master’s degree. It’s only natural that Zhou People’s Hospital doesn’t want me, right?”
“The only thing I didn’t expect was how complicated the interpersonal relationships are at Long County People’s Hospital.”
“There’s no opportunity to learn surgery or perform surgery.”
“Mom, can you tell Uncle Liu for me? I’ve been diligently going on blind dates every time, but the current blind date market is too chaotic, with too many weird women. I can’t handle them.”
“My requirements are actually very simple: first, filial piety, and second, normal values.”
Tian Hui was about to say something else, but upon hearing Lu Cheng mention blind dates, Tian Hui became more talkative: “Then you can rest assured. Your Uncle Liu said that little Xu is very well-behaved. She’s also delicate and good-looking.”
Lu Cheng smiled and replied, “I hope she’s not the type to call her boyfriend to the blind date…”
Tian Hui froze for a moment after hearing this, then her voice became sharp: “There are people who call their boyfriends to blind dates? Who introduced them? This is too unreliable. What kind of people have they introduced…”
“Mom, it’s all in the past, why are you still pursuing it?”
“Come, son, let me rub your shoulders. My rehabilitation techniques would cost money in a hospital. Consider it a free service for my dear mother.” Lu Cheng stood behind Tian Hui and began to lift and loosen the origin and insertion points of Tian Hui’s shoulder muscles, performing a soothing stretch…
As soon as Tian Hui felt Lu Cheng’s hands on her, she immediately leaned back on the sofa, closed her eyes, and said faintly: “Son, do you want to take the postgraduate entrance examination again now?”
“Your dad and I don’t have much ability. According to you, you’ll have to work for another ten years in the county hospital to have a chance to get ahead…”
“Now that I’m older, going back to study for a Master’s degree isn’t worthwhile.”
“It’s okay. I’m in the Emergency Department now. Professor Chen at Xiangya Second Hospital has good technique and is willing to give me opportunities. I think I can open up a new situation.” Lu Cheng’s tone was calm.
Tian Hui suddenly asked again: “When you were in standardized training, why didn’t any teacher take a liking to you and teach you some techniques?”
Lu Cheng found it amusing after hearing this: “Mom, you need to understand your son’s status. I was just a resident junior doctor back then, equivalent to a primary school student.”
“The surgeries at Hanshi University Zhongnan Hospital were like problems solved in high school.”
“It was considered a favor if a teacher gave me a few simple arithmetic problems to solve, letting me write out the solution process?”
“Do you think your son is truly a genius to that extent?”
The path of medicine is long, diseases are complex, and lifelong learning is required.
While good hospitals certainly offer better learning opportunities, the ‘starting point’ requirements are too high.
Although Lu Cheng was undergoing orthopedic standardized training at Hanshi University Zhongnan Hospital, the fractures that Long County People’s Hospital treasured were disdained by professors there. They wouldn’t even accept patients and would send them away directly.
For complex bone defects, complex pelvic fractures, and correction of limb deformities, let alone Director Peng Haibo at the county hospital, even an orthopedics director at a prefectural city hospital would hesitate to attempt them.
They would fall silent immediately…
