After Transmigrating As The Mother Of The Pitiful Female Supporting Character in a Campus Novel - Chapter 12

The exam room wasn’t very busy today. A few doctors sat at their desks, filling in backdated files.

Even though the hospital had switched to electronic records long ago, which were printed out for filing, the administration still insisted that the final doctor’s advice and signature be handwritten. Copying one wasn’t a big deal, but transcribing hundreds in a row felt like a useless chore, and everyone was grumbling about it.

But there was no way around it; the “damned things” were tied to their performance bonuses.

When Qin Zhijin walked into the exam room holding Xia Yaozhou, the doctors were still handwriting documents and chatting about the rising price of vegetables.

A doctor near the door caught a glimpse of white from the corner of her eye, pushed up her glasses, and looked up. She suddenly grinned. “What wind blew Dr. Qin down to our exam room?”

“Oh, whose little girl is this in your arms? She’s a real beauty.”

Qin Zhijin felt the little girl in her arms suddenly tense up. Yaozhou’s small head nuzzled into her neck, and with a slight surge of strength, she clung even tighter to her. To comfort her, Qin Zhijin didn’t walk in immediately. Instead, she patted the girl’s back. “A friend’s child. I brought her in for a physical.”

“Sure thing! I was just worrying about the lack of kids this morning. Such a pretty little thing—bring her to Auntie first. Let’s check her blood pressure and heart rate.” The doctor at the door pushed her notebook aside and unpacked the child-sized monitoring equipment, gesturing for Qin Zhijin to bring her over.

Once they were seated, Qin Zhijin coaxed Yaozhou to reach out her hand. She had to keep the girl from getting scared or nervous, otherwise, the readings wouldn’t be accurate.

The doctor looked at the thin little hand Yaozhou extended. When she held it, she could feel the bones right under the skin. She let out a small “tsk” in her head. This girl didn’t look much younger than her own daughter, but she certainly hadn’t been raised well. The doctor instinctively softened her movements to avoid frightening her.

Yaozhou buried her head in Qin Zhijin’s arms. Her nose caught the faint scent of alcohol; with every breath, her nasal cavity and the back of her throat felt chilly. She scurried deeper into the embrace, shaking her head uncomfortably.

Qin Zhijin patted her back to help her relax. The inflating blood pressure cuff made Yaozhou uneasy; she tilted her face, keeping one eye open and one closed, peeking through the slit at the “Doctor Auntie” sitting at the table.

With a pop, the air bag deflated. Since there was no physical exam form yet, the doctor jotted the numbers on a sticky note to be transferred later.

“Such a good girl.” The doctor wanted to reach out and pinch Yaozhou’s cheek, but the girl dodged. The hand hung in the air for a moment, but the doctor wasn’t embarrassed. She’d seen enough kids in pediatrics to know that some were just introverted and disliked contact.

Qin Zhijin smiled and pulled the girl closer, taking her to measure her height and weight. “She’s shy and a bit scared. Let’s get her familiarized first and do the non-contact tests.”

“Alright. Step up, stand straight, and look at the little rabbit right in front of you,” the doctor directed. Qin Zhijin helped adjust her posture. Fortunately, more children soon entered the room, and the attention on Yaozhou faded, allowing her to let out a breath of relief.

“84cm, 10kg. The numbers are a bit low. If her diet isn’t adjusted, it will affect her future development,” the doctor said, looking at Qin Zhijin from behind her mask. “Tell your friend to pay more attention. Early development is very important for girls; if it’s poor, it can affect her reproductive system later, leading to things like dysmenorrhea (painful periods).”

“Understood. I’ll let her mother know.”

Qin Zhijin agreed and took the hand of Yaozhou, who had hopped off the scale. Just as she was about to take her to check for vision and color blindness, the girl tugged at her leg. “Has it been fifteen minutes yet?”

“Not yet.” Qin Zhijin checked the time. It had just been eight minutes.

“Then how much longer for Mommy?”

“Very soon.”

“How fast is ‘very soon’?” Yaozhou stood on her tiptoes, leaning against Qin Zhijin’s arm to try and see the time. When the phone was tilted her way, the “minutes” section was still double zeros.

Yaozhou looked at Qin Zhijin dejectedly. “Why is fifteen minutes so… so… so long!”

Feeling like she was now on familiar terms with Qin Zhijin, Yaozhou gestured with her hands as she spoke. She stretched her tiny arms as wide as they could go, standing on her tiptoes as if trying to reach the sky.

Dr. Qin, usually upright but currently lying to a child, felt a twinge of psychological torture. Her eyes flickered for a second, but the guilt vanished just as quickly.

“That’s just how it is for kids,” Dr. Qin said with rare childishness, bringing Yaozhou’s hands together. “When you grow up, time becomes super, super, super short. See? Once you’re big, time is so short that fifteen minutes feels like a blink.”

“Can I grow up right now then?” Yaozhou looked at her pressed palms. “I want to see Mommy right away!”

“No, growing up is a much, much longer process than fifteen minutes.” Qin Zhijin caught a colleague nearby stifling a laugh. Her ears turned slightly red, realizing she was being overly immature, crouching there and debating philosophy with a toddler.

Dr. Qin cleared her throat, trying to regain her composure and steer the conversation away. Just as she reached out to pick Yaozhou up, the girl suddenly darted to the side, charging toward the door like a little cannonball.

Qin Zhijin instinctively tried to grab her but missed. She turned to see a breathless Xia Shibai picking the girl up.

The mother and daughter nuzzled their cheeks together affectionately. They looked like any normal pair, yet somehow different. Qin Zhijin couldn’t quite put her finger on it. As she lowered her gaze, Xia Shibai walked toward her. Having run back in a hurry, her cheeks were flushed. Although her clothes were sporty, the curves of her body were still eye-catching. She was naturally beautiful—a person who radiated light in a crowd, let alone in a small exam room.

“Thank you, Dr. Qin.” Back in the orphanage, Xia Shibai never had to worry this much; she had only helped the nannies keep an eye on the little ones or fed them. Now that she was actually raising a child, she realized one person really couldn’t do it alone. No matter how old the child was, once they were in your heart, you worried about them wherever you went.

“It’s fine. We’ve finished a few items. It’s better if you’re here for the rest,” Qin Zhijin waved her hand. “Checking the internal organs requires contact; it’s better if the parent is present.”

“Okay.”

The remaining tests went smoothly, except for the abdominal palpation. The moment the doctor touched her, Yaozhou reflexively shrunk away, refusing to cooperate. After several failed attempts, Qin Zhijin sanitized her hands, put on disposable medical gloves, and did it herself.

Xia Shibai helped hold Yaozhou’s hands to prevent her from accidentally hitting anyone if she pulled away.

“Relax, I won’t use much force. Slowly, okay?” Qin Zhijin’s movements were light and quick. She pressed on the points Yaozhou found uncomfortable, lifted her hand, and after confirming the girl could handle it, pressed again. “Does it hurt?”

“No. It’s cold and yucky.”

“All done. Go find the auntie by the door.” Qin Zhijin removed her gloves and smiled. “Good children who finish their exams get candy.”

At those words, the eyes of the four children in the exam room lit up, all staring intently at the doctor measuring blood pressure.

“Alright, alright, everyone gets candy. Be good for your check-ups and Auntie will give you milk candies.” She gave one to each. After receiving a few “thank yous,” the female doctor joked with Qin Zhijin, “Dr. Qin, you wouldn’t happen to be eyeing my candy too, would you? Otherwise, how would you know about it so clearly?”

“A little.” Qin Zhijin didn’t stand on ceremony. She had low blood sugar anyway; if she ate some, she’d pay her back later. The pediatric department was unique; everyone got along well, and Qin Zhijin often shared things with them. They wouldn’t bicker over a few pieces of candy.

Xia Shibai helped Yaozhou unwrap a filled chocolate. It was a bit big for a child, so she broke it into pieces. However, nearly half of the thick filling stayed on the wrapper, which made Yaozhou look quite anxious.

“Little glutton.” Xia Shibai popped a piece into Yaozhou’s mouth.

Yaozhou kept her mouth tightly shut, afraid the sweet candy might slip out. Her tongue pressed against the chocolate, making it impossible to move, and her cheeks puffed out. She looked quite silly and dazed while eating. Once the piece had melted a bit, Yaozhou grabbed Xia Shibai’s hand, her mouth moving, but she still didn’t dare open it.

Xia Shibai thought she was eager for the next piece. “Don’t worry, no one is going to take it from you, Zhouzhou. The chocolate is all yours.”

“Mmph!” Yaozhou’s eyes widened.

Thinking the girl didn’t believe her, Xia Shibai quickly offered her another broken piece. “Really, it’s all yours. Mommy won’t eat any.”

Yaozhou let out a few muffled sounds, stomping her feet in frustration. She pushed Xia Shibai’s hand back toward her mother’s mouth, not caring that the chocolate was smearing across her own lips. “Ma… eat.”

Qin Zhijin, standing nearby, was quick to act. She pulled out a tissue and wiped the girl’s mouth, then held out her palm near Yaozhou’s chin. “If you can’t eat it, spit it out. Don’t choke. Or stop talking and just eat quietly.”

Yaozhou obediently shut her mouth and sucked on the chocolate, unwilling to spit out the sweetness. In the past, Auntie Lin would never have let her eat this. She couldn’t even unwrap it; such treats were usually given to Xiao Pang or Xiao Qiu. Sometimes when Xiao Yi came to play, she was told to give them to him too. Although Xiao Yi would share with her when no one was looking, it was rare to have an entire piece to herself like today.

To Yaozhou, filled chocolate was the best thing in the world. So, she shared it with her mother, wanting her to taste the best thing in the world, too.

Xia Shibai’s eyes grew warm. Following Yaozhou’s pushing hand, she put the sticky chocolate in her mouth. It was cloyingly sweet, but while her mouth felt the sugar, her heart felt the sweetness.

Truly, my daughter is the most adorable in the universe!

Qin Zhijin chewed on her own chocolate, watching Yaozhou share with Xia Shibai. She felt a strange twinge of “sourness” (jealousy). She was standing right there—shouldn’t there be a share for the bystander?

The mother and daughter were huddled together eating chocolate. As Qin Zhijin threw away the dirty tissue, she heard another doctor ask: “Dr. Qin, have you found a new place to stay yet?”

“No. I haven’t found anything I like. I’ll probably have to keep looking.”

“You should move out soon. It’s too dangerous. Those people are truly unreasonable.”

The doctor at the door added with a bitter smile, “Our profession is truly dangerous. We don’t ask for patients to be grateful, just that they don’t turn on us the moment they’re cured and try to hack us with a knife.”

Qin Zhijin didn’t reply. She habitually used hand sanitizer to wash her hands and dried them with a tissue. “We’ll see. A friend is helping me look. I haven’t been home the last few days anyway, so they can’t find me.”

“Alright. Just stay safe.”

“…”

Xia Shibai watched Yaozhou, whose mouth was stuffed with snacks, and gently wiped the girl’s cheek. She then looked at Qin Zhijin, who stood by the sink with a calm expression.

This person is strange, Xia Shibai thought. They were talking about her life being in danger, yet she didn’t seem hurried at all. She acted as if she were indifferent to life and death.

Their eyes met accidentally, and both shared a brief, slightly awkward smile before looking away. They hadn’t known each other long and weren’t close enough to be “helpful friends.” Xia Shibai didn’t want to go looking for trouble; even if her first impression of Qin Zhijin was good, it clearly wasn’t at the level where they should be meddling in each other’s lives.