The last time Shi Wenli posted a Moment was on the day of Shi Miao's wedding. The time before that was before his training. His posting frequency was so low that when people saw this message on their feeds, they were first surprised before reading the content.
The first person to see it was a colleague from the Imaging Department who was off that day. Lying in bed about to take a nap, he habitually scrolled through Moments and suddenly sat bolt upright: "Holy crap!"
The sound was so loud it startled his family in the living room.
"Oh my god, oh my god, Chief Shi is no longer single! Ahem ahem!" In the Anesthesiology Office, Fang Yu was slurping spicy noodles. She got so excited by the post that she choked, coughing continuously until tears almost came out.
A colleague snatched Fang Yu's phone to see what was going on, thinking it was leaked gossip from some small chat group. To her surprise, it was a Moment posted by Shi Wenli himself.
She couldn't help blurting out: "Holy shit! What's going on!"
Fang Yu was still coughing from the spiciness, and the colleague kindly patted her back. But as she patted and scrolled through the comments, her hand slipped to the back of Fang Yu's neck and gave it a smack.
Fang Yu: "..."
She showed no mercy.
It was Saturday and year-end, so the number of surgeries in each department was less than a tenth of usual. Most people were idle, and Shi Wenli's post spread through the hospital like wildfire, ten times faster than usual gossip.
He had good connections, with personal WeChat of seventy to eighty percent of the hospital staff. The comments section quickly became a towering building, impossible to scroll to the bottom.
Everyone was chattering, curious who this blind date was. What happened next? Was it the one Dean Jiang introduced?
Fang Yu finally stopped coughing and grabbed a tissue to wipe her tears. Anyone who didn't know might think she was crying because Shi Wenli had a blind date.
Finally able to speak normally, her first concern was Shi Wenli: "Did Chief Shi reply about who the blind date is?"
The colleague shook her head: "Didn't reply to any."
"Chief Shi just finished his clinic. He should be on his way home."
Fang Yu grabbed her water glass, took a few gulps to soothe her throat, and finally recovered. "When does Dr. Xu get off surgery? She might know."
The colleague: "She took an emergency case. Still a while."
Fang Yu put down her glass and snatched her phone back: "Let me see if anyone in the groups knows who it is."
She opened her sister chat group. The screen was full of "wailing" and "heartbroken" emojis.
Fang Yu comforted them: [When he was single, he was our idol. Now that he has a partner, we can ship them.]
She scoured all the gossip groups—unprecedentedly lively—but no one had dug up the identity of the blind date. The key was, even the neurosurgery department hadn't noticed any clues from Shi Wenli.
[Shi Miao is in the OR, can't get her phone.]
[What about Ding Qihang? Ask him quickly.]
[Already asked. At first he said don't believe these rumors. I made him look at Chief Shi's Moment, and then he believed it.]
[Then ask Xu Qing.]
Xu Qing was the only woman in Shi Wenli's medical group. She might be more observant and possibly know something.
[Right, right, ask Xu Qing. Asking Ding Qihang is useless. He's the chief resident now, super busy, can't even take care of himself, let alone notice how his superior is doing.]
[Already asked Xu Qing. She's wailing, saying there won't be any more scallion pancakes.]
They sympathized with Xu Qing, but then remembered they had never even tasted Shi Wenli's scallion pancakes, and suddenly their sympathy waned.
[Ask Wu Xiaofeng!]
[I heard Wu Xiaofeng is asking around himself.]
"..."
[Almost forgot Dr. Jiang @Jiang Yang, aren't you close with Chief Shi?]
Jiang Yang popped up: [You guys asked me first, didn't you? Fish memories?]
"..."
Everyone laughed. In the heat of the moment, they had forgotten.
After asking around, no one knew a thing.
[Looks like she's not from our hospital.]
Some couldn't give up and left comments under Shi Wenli's post, but got no reply.
Shi Wenli had just got home. Xu Qinghe's clothes on the balcony were dry. He brought them in, folded them, and put them in the closet.
In the afternoon, he had planned to play ball with Wu Xiaofeng, but Wu said he couldn't make it because he had to comfort the female colleague who had asked him to find out.
Wu Xiaofeng: [With you going public, she doesn't even have room for fantasy anymore.]
After closing the closet door, he suddenly remembered that the nightgown and pajamas they had changed out of last night were still in the bathroom hamper. Last week when she stayed over, they had washed their clothes separately. Today, he put all the clothes in the washing machine together.
Now every corner of the home had traces of her—scattered by the living room sofa were a few small yoga balls. She only used them to pass the time when they were together, not for exercise.
As soon as he sat down on the sofa, his phone on the coffee table rang again. Ever since he posted that Moment, his phone hadn't stopped buzzing with messages and calls.
Shi Wenli opened the latest message from Wu Xiaofeng: [Did you find someone to play ball with?]
He replied: [About to ask.]
Wu Xiaofeng: [Then don't ask yet, or change the venue.]
He explained: [She doesn't want to ruin my game. She's already booked a court, saying she'll play to take her mind off things. It's the same place we usually go. She doesn't know you go there too. If you go this afternoon, she'll guess she's the colleague who asked me. So maybe don't go to the court? If you don't know who she is, you can still work together normally, no awkwardness.]