Shi Wenli pushed the door open a little wider. The room was filled with a faint fragrance.
"Qinghe? Time to get up."
Xu Qinghe didn't wake up; she just turned over.
She didn't know what time she had fallen asleep last night, but it was very late.
"Qinghe? It's 6:42."
His warm voice seemed to reach her brain a few seconds late.
She suddenly realized that this was his room.
Only then did she open her eyes heavily and look toward the door.
She was lying on his bed, and he stood at the door holding the doorknob.
When their eyes met, her face flushed and her heart raced.
"Did you call me many times?" she sat up, leaning on her hands, her voice hoarse from just waking up.
"No, just two or three times." Shi Wenli's gaze fell on the dark circles under her eyes. "Did you not sleep well last night?"
"It's okay, just a little unaccustomed." She suppressed her racing heart and kept her expression normal. "Did you get up early?"
Shi Wenli: "Not that early; I got up at 6:15. There's plenty of time; no rush. I'll pack your breakfast."
With that, he closed the door.
Xu Qinghe let out a long sigh of relief.
Her heart was still pounding.
Just now, with the door open, she seemed to smell the aroma of breakfast.
--
Two crispy-on-the-outside, soft-on-the-inside potato pancakes with a squirt of ketchup, and a glass of warm freshly squeezed juice.
Xu Qinghe brought her breakfast to the office.
Just as she took the first bite, Fang Yu exclaimed in surprise, "Your dad learned to make potato pancakes?"
Xu Qinghe: "..."
The potato pancakes were in a ziplock bag, clearly not from a street stall.
Xu Qinghe chuckled helplessly but couldn't say anything.
She had to just go along with it.
She sent a message to Shi Wenli: [My colleague thinks my dad made the potato pancakes (smirk)(smirk)]
Shi Wenli replied quickly, joking: [Didn't you want to be my kid before?]
Xu Qinghe laughed: [Who knew you'd cook so well? Besides, back then who could have imagined I'd one day be your girlfriend.]
Shi Wenli asked her: [Are you sleepy?]
Xu Qinghe: [Not too bad; it's way better than working a night shift followed by a day shift.]
For everyone in the anesthesiology department, lack of sleep was the norm.
Shi Wenli: [Go to bed early tonight. Try not to rely on strong coffee.]
Xu Qinghe: [OK]
After a hasty breakfast, the morning handover began.
Before the handover, Director Zhao Mingde spoke first, mainly about the complaint issue.
He tactfully reminded that if someone had received a complaint, they needed to resolve it; dragging it out wouldn't help.
Although he didn't name names, it was as good as calling out Xu Qinghe's ID number.
In the entire anesthesiology department, she was the only one who didn't take a complaint seriously.
Xu Qinghe wasn't dragging it out—she really wasn't in the wrong in the conflict with Wu Xiaofeng.
After the handover, she hurried to the operating room to prepare for the first surgery of the morning, doing the pre-anesthesia work.
Before 7:50, the patient was wheeled into the OR.
After verifying the information, the patient turned to look for Xu Qinghe.
"Dr. Xu, I'd like to trouble you with something."
Xu Qinghe quickly approached: "Are you feeling unwell?"
"No, no." The patient begged her, "Before I go under, could you help me confirm something? Otherwise, I won't be at ease."
"What is it? Please tell me."
"You've met my daughter, right? I found out unintentionally last night that she made an appointment with the neurology department last Saturday. I tried to sound her out, but she wouldn't tell me anything." At this time, his family wouldn't tell him the truth.
"I'm afraid something might be wrong with her brain or somewhere else. It doesn't matter if something happens to me, but she absolutely can't have anything wrong. She's still so young, and her child is so small."
As he spoke, his eyes welled up.