Chapter 95: Losing sleep
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu
When Shao Hua returned home after seeing Zhang Fan off, her parents were waiting for her in the living room. Both of them were looking at Shao Hua, making her really embarrassed. She had never seen her parents looking at her in such a way before.
“Hua, come tell mom about what’s going on.” Her parents seemed as if they were prepared to go to war. When Shao Hua was younger, they were always worried about her injuring herself due to clumsiness, and now that she was older, they constantly worried about her getting scammed. Although Zhang Fan seemed like an alright guy, it would always be impossible to know what a person was truly like just based on a first impression. Of course her parents would be worried.
Shao Hua’s father kept silently smoking. It was awkward for him to speak about his daughter’s matters, but he was just as worried as his wife.
“Stop smoking so much in front of us. Do you want us to die from secondhand smoke?” his wife chided him.
“Mom, Zhang Fan is the marriage candidate that a head nurse at his hospital introduced to Jia Suyue. However, the two of them don’t get along with each other, and Zhang Fan really made Jia Suyue angry. So, she called me over to help her out, but the result...!” Shao Hua was unable to say the rest.
“Why didn’t they get along? Zhang Fan seems pretty nice, and Jia Suyue is quite pretty?”
“Maybe they’re just incompatible. Even now, they’re still not getting along with each other.”
“This Zhang Fan isn’t a gentleman, not getting along with a woman!” Shao Hua’s father commented.
“It’s not really about Zhang Fan, it’s that Jia Suyue is rather angry, and keeps insulting him.”
“Suyue can be a bit spoiled. But, since he was introduced to her as a marriage candidate, it seems that Zhang Fan must be doing well at his hospital. Little Wang who lives on the 4th floor is a nurse at Chasu City Hospital, right? I’ll try and learn some more about Zhang Fan from her. Also, be more polite in the future. Just look at you, you basically chased him out today. What will he think?” said Shao Hua’s mother.
“What can he think? If he can’t even take this much, we should get rid of him as early as possible. I’ve hardly ever scolded either of you in my entire life, but I don’t want my Hua to suffer in the future,” Shao Hua’s father said.
“Haha, you old rascal. Still, your father is right, Hua. If Zhang Fan isn’t the type who can forget and forgive, you’ll suffer in your marriage.”
“Yeah, I understand. So far, he seems alright. One of my classmates is his coworker. She really worships him.”
“Your classmate is a woman? You need to watch out. Don’t be foolish. Also, the more excellent he is, the more you need to observe him. We don’t ask that you marry someone rich, we only want you to have a happy and peaceful life.”
Meanwhile, Zhang Fan was smiling foolishly as he returned to his apartment. He had successfully introduced himself to Shao Hua’s parents! He felt that it was really effective. After the first time, he would have an excuse to often go in to visit.
While Shao Hua’s entire family was rather anxious due to Zhang Fan’s visit, he was incredibly overjoyed. He even began to plan how to make Shao Hua’s parents accept him as quickly as possible. He really didn’t want to be single anymore. It was easier when he was super busy with work, but now that he had more free time, he really did feel lonely.
Shao Hua’s mother was a nice person who had a good relationship with her neighbors. The woman surnamed Wang living upstairs just happened to be a veteran nurse from the surgical departments’ operating rooms. Nurse Wang typically got along quite well with Shao Hua’s mother.
“Oh, you’re asking me about Zhang Fan, that Doctor Zhang? He’s really amazing and hardworking. He’s a new surgeon who joined our hospital recently. Out of all the newcomers, he’s the most amazing of them all. All the orthopedic surgery departments and general surgery departments are fighting over him, trying to recruit him. He’s also quite nice, and has a smile for everyone. Many of the younger nurses like him as well. He’s in a romantic relationship with Hua now?”
“We still haven’t checked their birthtime compatibility 1 yet. You must keep it a secret.”
Shao Hua’s mother was both happy and worried after learning all this from Nurse Wang. She hoped that Zhang Fan would be excellent, but he sounded too excellent. She knew that youngsters of the current generation were different from her generation, and would often be fickle and prone to temptations!
“Dear husband, what do you think about that Zhang Fan?” Later that night, neither of Shao Hua’s parents was able to fall asleep.
“I don’t know. I’ve only met him once, what am I supposed to think? What did you hear about him from our upstairs neighbor?”
“Nurse Wang says that he’s excellent and quite popular, with many nurses interested in him. We’re just an ordinary family, and he’s not even interested in a beauty like Suyue who’s from a richer family. Do you think that... he might lose interest in our Hua after some time...?”
“That’s fine if he loses interest. We don’t have any requirements of our future son-in-law except that he can make Hua happy. It’s fine even if they lead an ordinary life. Besides, our Hua isn’t lacking in any way. If he loses interest in her, it’s his loss. Make sure to tell Hua that she can’t be too fickle as a girl.”
“Okay!”
Shao Hua was also unable to fall asleep easily that night. Zhang Fan had given her a good impression. He seemed to be reliable and hardworking. She didn’t feel any worries or pressure from being together with Zhang Fan. Everything felt quite natural and peaceful. In fact, the matter between Zhang Fan and Jia Suyue even gave her some confidence and reassurance.
Not only was Jia Suyue admittedly more beautiful than she was, Jia Suyue was from a much richer and more powerful family. In China, no matter if you were male or female, it would normally be common to choose the person from a better family as you would need to eat and live. Shao Hua had seen countless couples bitterly bicker and lose their love for each other over money, or parents and children who loathed each other because of money, all because of her job at the bank. She had allowed Zhang Fan to enter her home precisely because she wanted Zhang Fan to understand that her family was quite ordinary, so if he wanted to regret things, he should regret as early as possible and stop pursuing her before she invested too many feelings into him. This way, she wouldn’t be heartbroken even if he gave up on pursuing her.
Zhang Fan slept especially well that night, without even having a single dream. When he arrived at the dermatology department the next morning, the other doctors there chuckled when they saw him, as Director Gulnazar had already told them about Zhang Fan’s first experience with genital warts.
The other dermatologists were all veteran doctors. They weren’t making fun of Zhang Fan, but rather being nostalgic about how they themselves had also been newcomers in the past.
The dermatology department didn’t have many patients today. Zhang Fan really didn’t want to perform outpatient services today due to yesterday’s traumatic experience. He wanted to give himself a break.
It was almost time for the yearly medical license examination. Chasu City Hospital organized some training sessions for the intern doctors. Although Zhang Fan had passed with an incredibly high score last year, the overall pass rate for Chasu City Hospital’s intern doctors had been somewhat low. Superintendent Ouyang was quite displeased that as a Class A Hospital, Chasu City Hospital hadn’t been the top overall rank for intern doctors’ grades in the area.
Thus, for this year, Superintendent Ouyang ordered the veteran doctors to give training sessions to the intern doctors for the medical license examination. Zhang Fan was also ordered to participate in training the intern doctors. Although he was only a young doctor, he could give advice on the test as he had taken it only last year.
Actually, any student who had finished college already would already be an expert test taker. Not passing the medical license examination meant that one’s foundations still weren’t good enough, and that more studying was required. Superintendent Ouyang simply wanted to stimulate everyone by having Zhang Fan be their teacher. If he could get a score of more than 500 points, yet they still couldn’t muster the 360 points required to pass the exam, then that would be rather embarrassing.
Zhang Fan started preparing after he received the order from the hospital administration department. Although he was supposed to be the intern doctors’ tutor, it was likely that he would be asked professional-level questions. He would be far too embarrassed if he couldn’t answer a question.
Time passed quite swiftly. It was now almost May. Zhang Fan planned on requesting some vacation time during May as he hadn’t returned home for two years now. His younger sister Zhang Jingshu was going to take the college entrance examination soon, so he wanted to visit home and give her some moral support. His younger sister was an outstanding student who ranked at the very top in all her classes. As long as she performed normally on the college entrance examination, it would be quite simple for her to get recruited by a top-level college.
Zhang Fan temporarily stopped renovating his new home. He currently had about 50,000 yuan which he was saving as his younger sister’s tuition money, as well as new items for college such as a cell phone, laptop, new clothes, and so on. He didn’t want her to seem too poor when attending college. Zhang Fan knew already that society judged you more by your clothes than your actual ability.
Zhang Fan intended on requesting vacation as soon as he finished his rotation in the dermatology department. With all his saved up, never used vacation days, he would be able to take a vacation for approximately three weeks. If it wasn’t approved, he would go ask Li Xiao to help get his vacation request approved. Zhang Fan really missed home.
He also planned on telling Shao Hua about his upcoming vacation. He figured it would be great if Shao Hua would be willing to visit his old home together with him, which would make his parents really happy. They would be overjoyed to see that their son was doing quite well, with a healthy body, good job, and even a girlfriend! After all, Zhang Fan’s parents were getting old!