Chapter 15: Calculating Like a Crane, Living Like a Tortoise? I'll Send You a Giant Turtle!

“Come over!”

After releasing the dream balloons, everyone gradually went their separate ways. The parents were guided to the college entrance examination consultation fair, while the students were told to return to their classrooms.

He Chen exchanged a few words with Ruan Lu, then called Ruan Liuzheng over and went to meet Du Tiantian’s aunt, Du Xiaoqing.

“So you’re He Chen.” Du Xiaoqing looked him over. At first, her words carried the tone of a question, but once she had taken in his appearance, she no longer needed his answer. Her tone became one of absolute certainty.

Her nephew’s good friend really was astonishingly handsome. Among all those youthful boys and girls, a crowd in which no one could truly be called unattractive, he still stood out like a crane among chickens.

He was unmistakable.

“Aunt Xiaoqing, this is my younger sister, Ruan Liuzheng. She wants to attend medical school and become a doctor, but she doesn’t yet have a clear idea of how difficult and exhausting the profession can be. So I’d like to ask you to tell her about it.” He Chen smiled as he made the request.

“Is this truly what you want, or is it what your family expects?” Du Xiaoqing had already heard about her from her nephew. She turned to Ruan Liuzheng, who was looking somewhat ill at ease.

“Both…” Ruan Liuzheng opened her mouth, but in the end she could not bring herself to say that it was entirely her own choice.

“All right. I’ll tell you about my experiences and how I’ve felt over the years.” Du Xiaoqing doted on her nephew, so naturally she would not refuse him. Patiently, she began describing her genuine experiences of studying and practicing medicine over the years.

At first, Ruan Liuzheng was rather reserved, but gradually she became absorbed in the story.

After all, medicine was very likely to be the profession she would pursue in the future. Du Xiaoqing’s medical experience, both at home and abroad, was remarkably extensive, as well as full of twists and turns.

It was especially the details—the ways of thinking and the emotions particular to a woman—that moved Ruan Liuzheng deeply. She found herself empathizing completely, as though she too were following Du Xiaoqing through more than a decade of medical study and practice.

He Chen listened with great interest as well.

He certainly had no intention of studying medicine himself.

Medicine was simply too difficult and exhausting. It required a lifetime of learning and consumed far too much time and energy. With his seasonal superpower-refreshing system, his focus had to remain on acquiring superpowers, so he intended to keep his studies as easygoing as possible.

He would attend whichever university he managed to get into. He had no particular desire for a prestigious one.

As for his major, he would choose whichever offered the greatest freedom and the least stress.

That way, he would have enough time and energy to develop his abilities and enjoy life.

Hard work and relentless striving were probably destined to have nothing to do with him in this lifetime.

He was not saying he planned to live off a wealthy woman or anything like that, but if even one practical superpower appeared in any given season, a little effort would surely be enough to make him financially independent for life.

Still, not studying medicine did not mean he was uninterested in it.

Doctors and lawyers were the professions that witnessed human nature most directly. Learning more about them could hardly be a bad thing.

Perhaps one day a related superpower would appear, and having some preparation beforehand would help him seize it and make it his signature ability.

“Time is limited today, so let’s stop here for now. If you’re still interested afterward, I’ll see whether I can find some time to bring you to our hospital. You could follow behind me as a shadow doctor and experience for yourself what being a doctor is really like. This kind of arrangement is already very well established overseas.” Du Xiaoqing raised her hand to check the time, then offered the suggestion with a smile.

Ruan Liuzheng naturally had no objections. She nodded in agreement, her face filled with gratitude.

“There’s no need to thank me. If you want to thank anyone, thank your wonderful brother.” Du Xiaoqing smiled and turned her gaze toward He Chen. With a sigh, she said, “He Chen, you really are an excellent older brother.”

“It was nothing.” He Chen answered modestly. “I just didn’t want her to end up harming others or herself.”

“How have I harmed anyone or myself?” All of Ruan Liuzheng’s earlier gratitude vanished without a trace, and she demanded an explanation.

Du Xiaoqing had left a wonderful impression on her, and she naturally wanted to leave a good impression in return. She could not stand by while He Chen said such things about her in front of the woman.

“Aunt Xiaoqing should understand.” He Chen ignored her childish indignation and continued smiling at Du Xiaoqing. “Every profession has its rotten apples and its undesirables, and medicine is no exception.

“Especially those privileged second-generation heirs. Their minds are nowhere near the painstaking mastery of medicine—the kind of work that makes people say, ‘Tell someone to study medicine and heaven itself will strike you with lightning.’ They only want to put on a white coat, show off, act cool, flirt, and fall in love.

“Being a doctor offers more than just the allure of a uniform. There’s the halo of morality, the thrill of forbidden behavior, and all the life-and-death separations, loves, hatreds, and tangled emotions between patients. All those stimulating elements make perfect fuel for showing off and chasing women.

“So in recent years, the children of doctors have become increasingly outrageous, while plenty of rich heirs and powerful heirs have also flooded into the profession, turning hospitals into complete chaos.

“Aunt Xiaoqing, you’re so beautiful. You must have been harassed quite a bit. Or, to put it more politely, pursued and showered with confessions of love?

“But you clearly have a firm will and a single-minded devotion to practicing medicine and saving lives.

“Someone like Ruan Liuzheng, however, can’t compare with you in temperament or resolve. If she truly decides to enter this profession without preparing herself mentally, I’m afraid that before she even graduates and enters a hospital, she’ll already have been talked into becoming a fool who knows only how to date and has no idea what doctors are actually supposed to do.”

“You’re the fool!” Ruan Liuzheng protested indignantly, though she was no longer nearly as angry as before.

That was because He Chen had called her beautiful.

He had done so indirectly and with considerable subtlety.

But praise was praise!

“He Chen, you really understand people,” Du Xiaoqing said, deeply impressed.

She had experienced such chaos firsthand, but she had never summed it up as clearly as He Chen had.

That was exactly how things were.

After chatting for a while longer, they went their separate ways.

When Ruan Liuzheng returned to Senior Three, Class Two, she found Huang Zhitao waiting for her and could not help feeling surprised.

“You know Aunt Xiaoqing?”

“Doctor Du is also very famous in emergency medicine,” Huang Zhitao explained. “As you know, many Doctors Without Borders work in emergency medicine. I’ve always paid quite a bit of attention to that field…”

Ruan Liuzheng understood immediately. Huang Zhitao must be missing her parents.

Although they were not particularly close, Ruan Liuzheng still told her about how He Chen had introduced her to Du Xiaoqing.

“He Chen really is a good brother.” Huang Zhitao gazed at Ruan Liuzheng with a complicated expression.

“Why is he the only good brother? I’m one too!” Fang Yifan suddenly appeared from nowhere and cut into the conversation. “If it weren’t for me, could Yingzi have survived this long? Taozi, all you have to do is say the word—or no, just give me a look—and I’ll immediately become your good brother~”

Before he could finish, Huang Zhitao told him to get lost, and his childhood friend Qiao Yingzi chased him away, beating him all the while.

After escaping, Fang Yifan turned back to look at the goddess standing beside Ruan Liuzheng’s desk, envy written plainly across her face.

He suddenly felt extremely displeased.

Why did he feel as though everything inside him had turned green?

What had He Chen ever done to deserve such praise from his goddess?

He had done so much, yet he could never get any response from her.

Why?

Just because He Chen was the school heartthrob?

He, Fang Yifan, was still Chunfeng High’s very own Electric Eel!

The more he thought about it, the more indignant he became. Then his eyes shifted, and he darted away.

When he appeared again, he had already reached Senior Three, Class Seven. He called He Chen outside and handed him a box.

“I heard you spoke up for Yingzi today. As Yingzi’s good buddy, I want to thank you. Here, take this gift. Let’s wipe away all the unpleasantness between us.

“You don’t like it?

“Didn’t you say your dream was to become a turtle? Oh, no—something about living as long as cranes and turtles? Put plainly, that still means you want to be a turtle, doesn’t it? You should like this gift.

“This is a genuine golden-coin turtle my father went to great trouble to obtain. It wasn’t cheap.”