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It had been a long shift for Shang Qinghua. A huge accident had happened on a main thoroughfare, and all the injured had been taken to the ER he worked at. And, wonderfully, the woman who usually handled such things with a grace no one else could manage, was away on maternity leave.
The team still reeling from the insane rush, prepared to endure the rest of their shifts.
"Nurse Shang, I have it handled here, you could tend to the quiet one that came in a little bit ago?" His coworker was looking at him with concern as she said this, her suggestion implicit with mercy. Damn, he must look terrible then.
"Of course, Nurse Hao." He gave her a weak smile, and went to the patient she had pointed out. Past and around him was the quiet focus of his fellow nurses, and the fear and misery of the patients.
In the midst of this was a placid looking young man, relaxed and patient in his chair. Shang Qinghua looked down at his clipboard. 'Shen Yuan,' twenty, chronic condition, his visit more of a precaution than anything.
Straightforward, thank anything good.
"Excuse me," Shang Qinghua said, his nurse voice manufactured to exude calmness, comfort and a sense that Shang Qinghua could help. "Shen Yuan?"
Running a hand through messy, thick black hair, and pushing his glasses back up on his nose, the young man nodded. "That's me," He then proceeded to rattle off his condition, the reason he was visiting, his concerns. An experienced one, then. Chronic illnesses tended to do that to people, inoculate them against the rush of adrenaline that a hospital visit usually brought.
Enough to the point that Shen Yuan anticipated all the questions, and knew where to walk to the necessary tests.
Since Shang Qinghua didn't have any more official dialogue he needed, they were left in silence.
"So..." Shang Qinghua blurted, "You come here often?"
Maybe he should resign. What type of question was that?! Stupid double-shift no sleep and 600mgs of caffeine brain! If his instructor could see him now the man would probably revoke his degree immediately. Shang Qinghua felt like laughing hysterically and also bursting into tears.
How does he recover from this?!
The thin shoulders of the poor man trembled. Fuck! Was he going to cry?! Shang Qinghua barely remembered the section on how to soothe patients!
A laugh sounded through the shining white hallways.
"Not here, usually." Shen Yuan chuckled. "The private hospital I usually use is under construction for a new wing."
"I've never had a nurse ask me that before." He mused, looking at Shang Qinghua like he was a particularly interesting guinea pig, fat and round and squeaking.
"I'm very creative?" Shang Qinghua offered.
He's not crying! A win! No crying patient. Good job Nurse Shang! With the danger passed, Shang Qinghua felt like crying. Where was his shock blanket?
"A, a private hospital? You're kidding right? What I would give to land a job in some place like that..." Shang Qinghua exclaimed, wistfully imagining what a day evaluating some rich eighty-year olds stomach ache was caused by would look like. If he had to deal with one more kid that ate billiard chalk because the parents thought they were safe like crayons...
"I imagine the way to get hired is to send in an application." Drawled the frail looking man, the hospital lights not lending his pale skin any favors.
"Ah, haha, yeah, you're probably right..." Shang Qinghua laughed sheepishly.
A bell went off in his battered and fried brain.
Shen. Like the pharmaceuticals company, Shen Research and Medicine. Holy fuck! Private hospital indeed! This kid didn’t look like a young heir! He looked like a shut-in! And… Shang Qinghua had asked if the chronically ill heir of the Shen conglomerate ‘came here often.’
Ah, hahaha, fuck his life.
He really needed that shock blanket now. He didn’t even have a will written… Though who would he leave it to? Probably his landlady.
Shang Qinghua glanced down at his clipboard again. Shen Yuan’s conditions were as clear as day. Shen R & M’s research was the spearhead of Shen Yuan’s illness. It made a bit more sense. Huh, so Old Man Shen hadn’t been lying when he said that he cared deeply about finding better treatment options to relieve the suffering of the ill? When Shang Qinghua had come across the clip, he had thought for sure it was a load of PR bullshit.
The more you know.
The young man looked remarkably, unremarkable. Forementioned dark hair, glasses, thick, unassuming dark green hoodie, grey pants and sneakers. His phone was the latest model, and his glasses did look expensive, in a quiet sort of way, like how people say wealth whispers or something.
Despite his undisturbed demeanor, his eyes looked quiet kind. Dark chocolate brown, like the soil his mom used to keep her cilantro in, on the kitchen windowsill.
"You said you're creative? What do you do when not nursing?" Shen Yuan inquired, throwing Shang Qinghua a bone to help continue the conversation.
"I write!"
"What do you write?"
"Oh... Just some short stories online... It's kinda embarrassing actually." Shang Qinghua said timorously.
Short, as if! More than a million words! More than two hundred women written to appeal to the masses! And to the rich with kinks! Shang Qinghua was actually quite accomplished! No normal author could stand to use the words 'bounce' and 'bosom' as often as he! He was fearless! Adventuring into kinks like humanity exploring the depths of the sea!
But he could'nt start marketing his down spiralling stallion novel to a random patient. The nurse practitioner would have a talk with him for sure, if she found out.
"Oh, so fiction? Not poetry or something?" Shen Yuan asked politely.
"Ah, I've never really had the knack for poetry."
"I've never really been gifted at creative forms of writing either."
"Oh but you do write?" Shang Qinghua asked, his voice going embarrassingly high at the end. God, he needed sleep. Voice cracking like he was sixteen, not almost twenty-four.
Sleep.
He should write a wife that’s entire thing is sleep. A sleeping beauty. Wait. That was a Disney character. Greek myths! There's definitely one about sleep he can use.
The next PIDW chapter needs to be written, so sleep would be on hold till, Shang Qinghua looked down at his watch, tomorrow.
The stallion protagonist was definitely going to romance a bleary-eyed beauty. And he’d let her take all the naps she wanted…
"Mostly analyses, criticisms and the like. I work as a book critic occasionally." Shen Yuan answered affably.
He raised his phone, pointing at it. "I'm finishing a critical analysis of an ongoing novel currently." He sighed. "It's not a very good novel. Trash, actually."
He tapped the 'Post’ button on his screen, Shang Qinghua able to make out the frankly absurd blocks of organized text.
The phone in his pocket made the characteristic 'ding' associated with the website he used to host PIDW.
Haha, that's just a coincidence, right?
Shen Yuan's eyes narrowed. Shang Qinghua timidly looked down to the notification on his phone.
Peerless Cucumber had replied to the latest chapter.