Chapter 58: Chapter 58 Give Me an Answer
He opened the message, multitasking between responding to Lin Wan on the phone and reading the text from Zhao Qing.
It wasn’t anything important, just Zhao Qing rambling on because she was bored alone.
"Guess who I got a message from?"
With a puzzled grunt, Lin Wan ruminated for a moment before positing a name.
"Have you... installed a camera in my room or something?"
Lin Wan laughed heartily, "I guessed right, huh? This girl’s pretty straightforward. What do you plan on replying?"
Zhang Hao didn’t respond immediately, instead, he pondered over what to say in his mind.
"Not sure yet, I’m thinking of just leaving her on read, what do you think?"
Lin Wan just laughed and didn’t reply.
Zhang Hao felt it wasn’t nice to leave her on read, so after some thought, he sent a noncommittal response.
He thought Zhao Qing would have surely gone to sleep by then, but as soon as he sent the message, a reply came back almost immediately with hardly any wait.
Zhang Hao stared at the message for a long while, not quite understanding what she meant by her reply.
Was she asking him to meet up?
Lin Wan, on the other end of the phone, hung up silently after noticing Zhang Hao had remained speechless.
After realizing the call had been disconnected, Zhang Hao messaged Lin Wan, but he waited in vain for a reply.
He decided to quickly wash his face and go to bed, but just then, Zhao Qing’s call came through.
"Zhang Hao, why haven’t you replied to my messages? I’m at the hotel waiting for you right now, you have thirty minutes."
This call was like an ultimatum, but Zhang Hao certainly didn’t want to lose his job over it.
"Nurse Zhao, it’s so late now, I think I’d better not go out. You should rest early too, goodnight."
After saying that, Zhang Hao hung up and didn’t pick up no matter how many times Zhao Qing called.
The next day at work, Zhang Hao deliberately avoided Zhao Qing; wherever she appeared, he made sure to walk the other way.
Zhao Qing wasn’t blind; she knew why Zhang Hao was avoiding her—it was because of what happened last night.
During lunch, Zhao Qing blocked Zhang Hao’s path on his way to the cafeteria.
"Stop right there!"
Zhang Hao slammed on the brakes, nearly bumping into a patient’s relative beside him.
"Nurse Zhao, you’re here for lunch too?" Zhang Hao greeted with a silly smile.
"Why did you hang up on me? Have you forgotten that we work in the same hospital?"
It wasn’t just the patients’ relatives coming to the cafeteria for lunch, but doctors and nurses as well.
The relatives might not be curious about what was going on between the two.
But the doctors and nurses had already pricked up their ears, eager to pick up on any secrets.
"My phone died, and after charging it, I went to shower and didn’t hear it ringing."
Zhao Qing didn’t believe a word of this explanation, but she kept her tone from changing too much, mindful of Zhang Hao’s face.
"Is that so? Well, I’ll come find you after work today, and we’ll go somewhere together."
Zhang Hao frowned and, seeing as he couldn’t avoid the matter, pulled Zhao Qing into the fire escape.
Even if it meant skipping lunch today, he had to make things clear with Zhao Qing; their relationship couldn’t remain this ambiguous.
"Why are you dragging me here? Are you afraid people outside will know we..."
Zhao Qing hadn’t finished speaking when Zhang Hao interrupted her, as that wasn’t what he intended.
"Nurse Zhao, we are just colleagues. We haven’t done anything, so why do you always have to make things difficult for me?"
Zhao Qing leaned against the wall, watching Zhang Hao with interest, thinking how this man seemed to lack any sense of responsibility.
"Since you say that, then why did you speak up for me in front of He Chao and repeatedly helped me out of a bind? You should know that women are very emotional."
Upon hearing the word "emotional," Zhang Hao knew trouble was brewing and quickly waved his hands, saying, "Nurse Zhao, I’m not a very responsible person."
"The few times I helped you out were because I couldn’t stand the way your ex-husband treated you. I would have done the same for anyone else."
Zhao Qing bit her lower lip. Could it be that all of this was just her wishful thinking?
"Is it because you despise me for being married before? I know that for a divorced woman, the path to finding love is very difficult, but..."
Zhao Qing couldn’t continue, her tears began flowing before she could finish.
Zhang Hao panicked at her crying and fished around in his pocket for a wad of tissue to hand over, "Wipe your tears quickly, I didn’t do anything to you."
"I just want to say that we shouldn’t involve personal feelings in work matters. As for personal life, that’s a secret."
Zhao Qing did not take the tissue Zhang Hao offered, instead, she used the back of her hand to wipe away her tears bit by bit.
"Men are just too heartless. If I had known this would happen, I wouldn’t have thought so much about it."
Zhang Hao didn’t know what to say, so he kept silent.
He glanced through the crack in the door and saw that everyone seemed to have finished their meals and returned.
"Nurse Zhao, you should go first. Almost everyone outside has left."
Zhao Qing looked up, her face was tear-streaked, a sight that would move any man’s heart.
But Zhang Hao was an exception. Seeing that Zhao Qing ignored him, he pushed the door open and left first.
After a busy morning, he couldn’t spend lunchtime hungry, otherwise, how would he be able to complete the work in the afternoon?
After getting his meal, Zhang Hao returned to his office. Just as he was about to pick up his chopsticks and take a few bites, someone came looking for him.
The visitor was Tu Ya, who had stood at the entrance to the surgical clinic for a while before finally seeing Zhang Hao, who was hidden behind the computer monitor.
Tu Ya approached and knocked on the table with her knuckles.
Zhang Hao, who was busy eating, looked up upon seeing someone had arrived to see who it was.
Seeing a familiar face, Zhang Hao quickly put down his chopsticks.
"Hello, what can I do for you?"
Tu Ya smiled at Zhang Hao and said, "I’m here today to process my discharge, and I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you."
Tu Ya placed a gift box in front of Zhang Hao. It was wrapped tightly in decorative paper, so it was impossible to see what was inside.
"Thank me? For what?"
Zhang Hao had already forgotten any encounter with Tu Ya, but she looked somewhat familiar to him.
"That day, I passed out outside the elevator due to low blood sugar. You were the one who saved me."
Only then did Zhang Hao remember that such an incident had occurred.
"Oh, it was you. No need to worry about such a small matter; I can’t accept this gift," he said.
Zhang Hao pushed the gift box back toward Tu Ya, his intention couldn’t be more clear.
As a result, Tu Ya opened the gift box and took out an electric razor.
"Did you think there was money in here? Even if I wanted to give money, it would be for the attending physician," she remarked.
Indeed, the gift box was completely empty, with no place to conceal money!
Zhang Hao coughed to relieve the awkwardness, thankful that there weren’t many people in the department to witness the incident.
"This one actually suits you pretty well, and it’s not very expensive. Go ahead and take it," she said.
Tu Ya held the electric razor near Zhang Hao’s face, and it looked indeed very suitable!
