"Are you ready?"
The question hit Zhan with a strange force he couldn't label.... something between heat and cold, flooding through him before he could even understand what the question truly meant.
He stood frozen for a moment, still staring at Dr Yibo, his hands gripping the papers tightly. Then he saw the doctor pull his hand away from the back of his neck and pick up one of the sheets Matron Tanga had left beside him. Dr Yibo watched as his eyes scanned a single line before he lifted his gaze again. This time, those eyes carried a quiet certainty.
"I was told you'll brief me about the patients we have here. Is that correct?"
Those simple words dragged Zhan's thoughts back from the wild, confusing path the earlier question had thrown him onto.
He swallowed hard, nodded slowly, and forced his attention back to the task. His thin and beautiful long fingers lifted the papers to eye level, but the words he had written.... clearly, neatly....now looked scrambled, almost unfamiliar. It felt as if he had written them in a rush at the wrong time.
Zhan blinked once, then again....almost begging his vision to settle. He didn't know if Dr Yibo was watching him or not, but he found the courage to draw breath and begin.
(Please Zhan don't faint, Dr Yibo won't swallow you raw... 😂)
Just as he did, something trembled in his chest again. He closed his eyes briefly, promising them they wouldn't look back at the doctor. When he opened them, he found one of Dr Yibo's fingers pointing lightly at him, urging him to start.
Zhan summarized the general report at the top of the page first, then moved to each patient's detailed status.
"Out of the seven patients we have:
Four are post-surgical, two chronic cases, and one special case transferred from General Surgery."
Dr Yibo slowly turned the paper in his hands, still not looking up.
Then Zhan continue.
Patients
Bed 1: Ming Hao
Post-hernia repair. Responding well to antibiotics.
No fever overnight. Complained of mild nausea.
Vitals stable. Wound dressing due this morning.
Bed 2: Sima Wei
Post-Cesarean Section, Day 5.
Her BP was slightly elevated this morning—142/95.
She's breastfeeding; baby is fine.
Pain level moderate.
Bed 3: Kanu Li
Post-amputation recovery.
Dressing site clean…
"Zhan…"
His deep voice cut into Zhan's words. Something jolted sharply in Zhan's chest, making him tighten his grip on the papers.
Why was he saying his name like that?
Zhan didn't lift his head. He waited... tense...for whatever the doctor would say next.
"Look here… Zhan."
Another tremor ran through him. When he finally forced himself to look, he saw Dr Yibo pointing at himself.
"I'm not taking notes but memorizing them. Could you go a bit slower?"
Zhan nodded once, quickly. He tried again to return his gaze to the page, but the letters blurred and rearranged themselves like someone had shaken the whole document.
(Oh my.... 😂 Please Yibo, could you stop shaking him, you're scaring our 🐇.)
He looked up again....just once.
Dr Yibo caught his gaze, not drinking from the water bottle anymore, focusing fully on him as he tried to close the cap.
That alone made Zhan's moment of shaky calm collapse all over again. His entire body felt as if it carried leftover tension from yesterday's encounter.
Anyone....any sane person....would be nervous meeting their supervisor for the first time under pressure. But their first encounter.…
Unless… what if he doesn't recognize me?
Maybe that was possible. Zhan nodded faintly to himself. Maybe Dr Yibo didn't recognize him at all. People said he didn't pay much attention to others' faces.
Zhan hoped....desperately....that was true.
With that fragile confidence, he continued the briefing slowly, as requested. Several times, he caught the doctor's eyes cutting toward him....sharp, precise, unreadable.
At the end of the report, the office fell silent except for the hum of the AC.
Zhan's eyes disobeyed him again, lifting toward Dr Yibo.
Then, calmly, the doctor began reading back:
"Bed 2: Sima Wei."
Reassess her pain medication by midday. I want her mobilized before evening.
If her blood pressure stays above 140/90, inform the on-call doctor.
"Bed 3: Ming Hao."
Since Psych hasn't reviewed him yet, try talking to him again...gently.
Sometimes patients open up more to nurses.
Document any emotional changes."
He tapped his phone lightly, still doing whatever he's doing without dropping any details.
Zhan stared.
How could he hold all that information....and type his phone....with such ease? Zhan wonder.
Without warning, Zhan saw Dr Yibo lift his eyes and look directly at him....catching him off guard. Zhan quickly tore his gaze away and straightened his stance. Just as he expected, the doctor began speaking immediately.
"Alright… I won't be able to see these patients until tomorrow. I have two surgeries later, and the scan results from yesterday still aren't out yet.
So I'll tell you what needs to be done when you return tomorrow."
It sounded more like a statement than a question.
Zhan didn't fully grasp everything he said, but he nodded anyway.... because whether he understood or not, he knew the work still fell on him.
"I hope you're fast at jotting things down. I don't have much time."
"Yes, sir." Zhan answered softly, opening a fresh page in the papers he hadn't written on yet.
Dr Yibo nodded once.
"Okay, let's continue."
Bed 1: Ming Hao
"Keep monitoring his vitals every four hours. If the nausea worsens or he shows any intolerance to the antibiotics, consult Pharmacy and document it in his chart."
He paused deliberately, giving Zhan time to catch up.
From where he sat, he could clearly see how Zhan's hand trembled slightly over the paper. The doctor waited patiently before continuing.
Bed 4: Huli Qin
"A fever that high on Day 2 is a red flag. Keep her under close observation.
If the redness spreads or her vitals become unstable, prepare for wound cultures and alert Matron Tanga. She may need an antibiotic review."
As Zhan wrote, a wave of disbelief washed through him....starting from his feet and running up to his head.
He had heard people say that when someone stops worrying about falling, somehow they don't fall at all.
Maybe that was true.
Because Dr Yibo was listing patient conditions with perfect accuracy, as if he had seen them himself, matching Zhan's earlier descriptions word-for-word with complete calm and control.
The doctor remained silent again, giving him time to finish writing before moving on to the final bed.
Bed 7: Rahila Mu
"Appendectomy, same day as Huli's. She's stable, but if she starts vomiting again, stop all oral feeds and reassess her hydration. Understand?"
He asked the question just as Zhan's pen reached the end of the last line.
Zhan nodded without looking up, rereading his own writing and feeling its weight.
If simply writing it down felt heavy, what about the person who had to memorize and manage it all?
Then....unexpectedly....Zhan sensed movement.
Dr Yibo stood up.
Before Zhan's mind could process anything, the doctor stepped closer… and stopped right beside him.
His cologne drifted through Zhan's senses, and the air around him seemed to thicken. The doctor's presence at his side made one half of Zhan's body feel heavier than the other...as if gravity itself had shifted.
Sweat gathered in Zhan's palms for no reason he could explain. He didn't lift his eyes; he didn't need to.
He knew Dr Yibo was reading over his shoulder, scanning each line to ensure he'd written everything correctly.
For seven long seconds....maybe more...Zhan's heartbeat pounded loudly in his ears.
Then the doctor gave a small nod.
"That's everything. Tomorrow we'll review them together during rounds."
Zhan managed a small nod, silently praying the Dr would step away… move… walk back to his seat… anything.
But before his scattered thoughts could settle, Dr Yibo turned back to his desk, collected his phone and water bottle, and said:
"We'll call it a day."
Short. Final. No hesitation.
Zhan's mouth found the words automatically:
"Thank you, sir."
He didn't wait to see if the doctor heard him or not.
He gathered the last bit of strength in his legs and headed straight for the door.
And when he finally stepped outside the office, it felt like returning to the real world....after being somewhere else entirely, somewhere only he and his racing heartbeat understood.
:-*:-*:-*:-
It was eight in the evening at Yibo's house. Duan had arrived since 6pm, and the two of them were now standing together in the kitchen while Yibo prepared the tea Duan kept begging for, saying he missed the way Yibo used to make it.
While Yibo was making the tea, Duan kept telling him about a case they handled involving a group of drug users who had caused chaos in a neighborhood.
"I'm telling you, I looked at the guy," Duan said.
"I asked, 'You....what's your name?'
He said, 'Me? My name is Xuelu.'
I asked, 'How old are you?'
He said, 'Twenty-four… no, wait....twenty-five.'
Then I asked him, 'What exactly do you take?'
And he said, 'I smoke cigarettes, I smoke weed, and then sometimes I take…'
I said, 'Take what?'
And he said, *'Just some cough medicine… once in a while.'"
Both of them burst into loud laughter just as Yibo stepped forward and handed Duan a cup of the tea he had finished preparing.
"So everything he mentioned earlier still wasn't as bad as that little cough medicine he takes occasionally,"
Yibo said with a smile as they moved to the living room.
"Forget him. He's just crazy," Duan replied as he settled onto one of the sofas.
Yibo lifted the cup to his lips and took a sip. The heat ran through his chest before he spoke again.
"You officers have it rough. You're doing real work."
"Rough Work? Imagine stitching someone up while he's still wide awake and arguing with you....only for him to stand up and walk away as if nothing happened, Doctors are doing more rough work than police."
Yibo couldn't hold back a wide grin. Out of everyone in the world, it was only around Duan that he found himself truly smiling....Duan was one of those people who could make you laugh no matter what he was talking about.
"Well, that's easier at least. Since he just walked off, but in your case.... you still don't know whether he was innocent or guilty," Yibo teased.
Duan laughed again.
"You're right. Everyone is a king in their own house."
Yibo sat down as well.
"I agree," he said calmly.
"So how's work? Just the usual, or is something new going on?" Duan asked. Earlier when they met that first day after Duan arrived, they had exchanged only greetings before Duan rushed back home.....his family had been waiting. Since then, many things kept him from returning until now. He'd been out of town for quite a while.
Yibo took another sip of tea before answering.
"Just the usual. They did assign me more work though....some new government project starting in the hospital."
Duan raised his brows, surprised.
"That sounds interesting. What kind of project?"
"It's a recovery-support initiative. The goal is to improve how patients transition from surgery to full recovery. They want to bridge that gap....ensure patients get not just physical care but psychological support too, to help them stabilize properly after surgery."
"You know how it is....many people fall into depression after major operations, or develop complications that lead to more serious problems....or even death...without anyone realizing something actually went wrong after the surgery."
"Wow."
Duan nodded, genuinely impressed.
"That's actually really good. And you're one of the doctors in charge?"
Yibo took another sip and replied casually,
"I'm the lead consultant, actually."
Duan blinked dramatically.
"Lead consultant? What war did they fight with you, and how many people did they defeat to get you accepted that position?"
Yibo couldn't help another small smile.
And from that reaction, Duan immediately understood he'd reached Yibo's limit. If there was one strong rule in their friendship, it was this: Duan never interrogated him. He never pushed, never asked what Yibo didn't offer willingly. Even though there were countless things he wanted to know about him, he always held back.
There were so many things Duan wished he could ask....questions he would gladly pay to have answered....because the mystery surrounding Yibo was enough to fill a book. Yibo lived behind so many layers, wrapped in a version of himself that the world saw every day, while the real one stayed deeply hidden.
They had a strong friendship, but it had always come with one rule: Duan never probed into anything Yibo didn't willingly share. Anything unclear, anything that lived in the past....Duan never touched it. He had drawn that boundary long ago, the moment fate pushed Yibo into his life. That boundary was the only reason their friendship had survived so peacefully.
So Duan said nothing. He only drank more of his tea.
The silence made Yibo turn toward him.
"What's new on your side?"
Duan let out a short laugh. This was exactly what he had been waiting for....the moment he'd been preparing for since he arrived. He raised one brow and grinned.
"You're this close to be my best man."
"What?" Yibo asked, his voice rising with surprise.
"I'm serious! A girl has scrambled my entire brain."
Yibo didn't comment....he only watched him with a small smile.
"You won't understand," Duan said, shaking his head dramatically. "She's the whole reason I requested time off and traveled here."
"She lives in this city?" Yibo asked.
"That's the crazy part. It started with her cousin. She posted a picture with her colleagues during their service program....and that's where I saw her. Since that moment, I haven't known peace. I had to ask around until someone got me her number."
Yibo nodded slightly, listening.
"And what will shock you more is this: from the very first conversation we had, it felt like we'd known each other forever. We just clicked instantly. You know that feeling when your energy and someone else's energy just match?"
Yibo shook his head honestly.
He didn't understand.
Then Duan said something simple.... yet it landed right in the center of Yibo's own thoughts.
"You just feel comfortable around that person at once…"
"Comfortable."
The word hit Yibo sharply, because that was exactly how he had felt working with the new nurse earlier that day....Zhan.
When he had first seen Zhan standing at the door of his new office, and when Matron Tanga introduced him as the nurse who would be his secretary, recognition struck immediately. He'd seen him earlier in the day, and something strange had stirred inside him....something he couldn't name. He brushed it off quickly; after all, nothing could change, and whatever had happened wasn't even Zhan's fault. Yibo was the one who had left his office door open.
But then the two of them worked together comfortably, smoothly....no stress, no mistakes, no awkwardness. Zhan listened, followed instructions, and his handwriting had been neat and precise....even the spelling was perfect. That alone had shifted Yibo's opinion of him. He had expected a struggle, especially with someone so young, but instead he found competence and calm dedication.
Lost in these thoughts, he completely missed most of Duan's story about the girl. He only realized how distracted he was when Duan ended his dramatic explanation with:
"…I swear she's driving me crazy."
All Yibo really understood was that Duan was obsessed....so obsessed he forgot how long he had stayed in Yibo's house. He finally left around midnight.
Yibo went to bed not long after, falling into a heavy sleep, grateful for the rest he desperately needed after the past two exhausting days.
But at exactly three in the morning...
He woke to find Zhan standing at his bedroom door, holding a stack of papers in both hands.
Zhanxianyibo💚❤️💛