Chapter 21

Cold oil hit the hot pan with a sharp sizzle. The marinated chicken wings were placed inside and pan-fried until golden on both sides.

As the bubbling cola poured into the pan, the wings disappeared beneath the liquid, and their aroma gradually drifted from the kitchen into the living room.

Wen Tang seized the right moment and skillfully added the different seasonings.

In the living room, after helping Wen Tang cut the vegetables, Shi Nanqiao took the desserts they had bought out of the refrigerator and arranged them one by one on the dining table.

She hesitated briefly. Before the refrigerator door could close, she quickly held it open and took out two cans of chilled beer.

“The cola chicken wings are ready. Come carry the dish,” Wen Tang called from behind her not long afterward.

Shi Nanqiao turned and saw Wen Tang standing at the kitchen entrance with a plate in her hands, wearing one of her rare, cheerful smiles.

Shi Nanqiao had bought the apron shortly after graduating from university. At the time, she had still been full of girlish sentiment, so naturally, the apron she chose was adorable.

Pink lace trimmed the edges of the dusty-rose apron. In the center was a small kitten chasing a butterfly.

Worn by Wen Tang, it softened her cool, almost otherworldly elegance and added a touch of ordinary warmth. She resembled a flower fairy gathering dewdrops in the early morning, light and graceful.

“Coming! I’ll carry it. Tangtang, hurry and rest.”

After discussing it with Shi Nanqiao, Wen Tang had steamed multigrain rice as their staple food.

Even so, to control her calorie intake, Shi Nanqiao served herself only a shallow layer that barely covered the bottom of her bowl. Wen Tang did not care about such things and filled hers to the brim.

“Would you like a drink? There’s sparkling wine in the refrigerator too. You can have a look.” As Shi Nanqiao spoke, she opened a can of beer for herself.

She had not originally been in the habit of drinking. After her rebirth, however, she had begun to enjoy the faintly tipsy sensation. With alcohol’s help, she could briefly forget the troubles of reality.

“No, thank you. I’m not used to drinking.” Wen Tang pushed the can placed before her away and filled her glass with water. “I’ll keep you company with this.”

She disliked the dizzy sensation of being drunk. Losing control over her body made her feel unsafe. She wanted to remain on standby twenty-four hours a day, ready to begin surgery immediately whenever she was needed.

Shi Nanqiao did not insist. She ate and drank by herself, finishing both cans of beer before long.

Their eating habits were also entirely different.

Despite looking every inch the elite professional, Wen Tang reached first for the cola chicken wings. Shi Nanqiao chose to fill most of her stomach with vegetables before symbolically eating a few bites of meat.

Shi Nanqiao normally stopped dinner when she was only sixty percent full. Today, after eating the final chicken wing, she could clearly feel a faint fullness in her abdomen.

“Whew—” She exhaled, put down her chopsticks, and rubbed her stomach. “Delicious! I never expected Tangtang to be such a good cook!”

In truth, Wen Tang’s cooking was not as impressive as that of a professional chef. But enhanced by the atmosphere, the meal now seemed to possess a special radiance.

People always felt an inexplicable attachment read the original at bailiantales.comto a place called home. No matter how far a ship sailed, it still needed to return to a harbor.

Shi Nanqiao looked around the loft apartment she rented. Since she was preparing to move, boxes of every kind were piled in the corners, waiting for the day they could finally be carried to her new home.

She had lived here since graduation and could practically walk from upstairs to downstairs with her eyes closed. That did not prevent her from feeling that it was merely a cold place where she temporarily stayed.

She was like duckweed drifting through the metropolis of Huadu, moving wherever the wind carried her and settling wherever she happened to land.

Now, because of one person’s presence, she was beginning to feel warmth in this little apartment.

That warmth was not as intense and blazing as the sun. It was merely the light of distant stars, tiny points of candlelight, yet it was enough to illuminate the entire apartment.

She seemed to have returned to her childhood, coming home from school in the evening to find the dishes her mother had prepared already arranged on the table. Those meals had not necessarily been especially delicious either, yet they had formed all four seasons of her life and every memory of her past.

Across the wilderness of her heart, specks of starlight had finally begun to appear.

Under the influence of alcohol, Shi Nanqiao’s cheeks had turned a beautiful pink. Resting her chin in her hand, she gazed at the woman who was still sitting perfectly upright.

At some point, she had begun looking forward to tomorrow.

From Wen Tang’s perspective, however, Shi Nanqiao had suddenly begun holding her bowl in a daze, her eyes filled with complicated emotions as she remained completely silent.

Wen Tang used her chopsticks to taste each dish again, frowning in confusion. She had followed the recipes exactly, and the flavors were not especially different from those served at restaurants.

So why did the person in front of her look secretly heartbroken [stolen content]and too overcome with emotion to speak?

Surely it could not be the same cliché found in television dramas, where Wen Tang’s cooking happened to resemble Shi Nanqiao’s mother’s?

Had anyone else been sitting opposite her in the same situation, Wen Tang would have considerately pretended not to notice. She would wait for the other person to compose herself, then continue the conversation as though nothing had happened.

That was the kind of person she was—thoughtful yet distant, like an elegant observer detached from the mundane world.

Today, however, as though compelled by some strange impulse, she reached out and waved her hand gently before Shi Nanqiao’s eyes. When Shi Nanqiao returned to her senses, Wen Tang deliberately adopted a casual tone.

“What is it? Is my cooking terrible? Ah-Qiao has to spend so long deciding how to praise me? You’ll hurt my feelings like this.”

“Of course not!” Shi Nanqiao waved her hands repeatedly and hurriedly explained, “Tangtang is an excellent cook! Really!”

Only after saying it did she realize Wen Tang had merely been teasing her to cheer her up.

“Pfft—” She laughed, then immediately pressed her lips together and pretended to be angry, though she kept glancing at Wen Tang from the corner of her eye.

Wen Tang placed the final chicken wing into her bowl and apologized in a softer voice.

“I’m sorry. I only noticed you had been staring into space for a long time. I wasn’t deliberately trying to tease you. I apologize.”

Shi Nanqiao could no longer hold herself back. A broad smile spread across her face as she tilted her head.

“I’m not angry. I was teasing you too.”

Most of the dishes on the table had already been eaten. Shi Nanqiao had been full for quite some time, and when she noticed Wen Tang’s chopsticks slowing down considerably, she stood and brought over the sliced desserts.

“I bought two kinds of mille crêpe from Acandy—rose and lychee, and blueberry and strawberry. Hurry and try them.”

Shi Nanqiao came around the dining table and sat directly in the chair beside Wen Tang. She placed the rose-and-lychee mille crêpe in front of her, her sparkling eyes filled with anticipation.

“Tangtang, hurry and try it. It’s their newest flavor.”

Wen Tang did not taste it immediately. Instead, she first studied the dessert’s overall appearance.

She did not care much about other food, but her particular obsession with desserts could barely compete with her passion for surgery.

When she was young in her original world, her family had not had money. Even when they did, they would never buy her something as “frivolous” as a little cake. As a result, after growing up, she developed an almost retaliatory craving for desserts.

An ideal dessert was not merely the stimulation the taste receptors on her tongue transmitted to her brain. It also needed a beautiful appearance and rich layers of flavor.

Judging by appearance alone, this rose-and-lychee mille crêpe was undoubtedly a great success.

The pale pink cream resembled clusters of clouds around the edges of a brilliant sunrise. Delicate cream piping formed beautiful borders, while a plump lychee sat in the center. Beside it was a red rose petal fashioned from cream.

Its beautiful appearance completely awakened her interest. She gently lifted a small portion of cream with the fork and placed it in her mouth.

The taste of white sugar and the fresh sweetness of lychee instantly filled her mouth. Once the rich sweetness [stolen content]faded, another faint fragrance finally emerged.

It was the scent of roses—subtle, yet lingering for a long time.

The sweetness was also exactly right. Any more would have been cloying, while any less would have made it bland.

Wen Tang raised her eyes to meet Shi Nanqiao’s expectant gaze and smiled slightly.

“It’s delicious. I like it very much.”

Watching Shi Nanqiao’s cheeks suddenly redden because of those words, Wen Tang abruptly felt that the rose flavor, which had already begun to fade in her mouth, had grown rich once more.

Pink roses stood in the vase on the table. Shi Nanqiao was still wearing the same dress from earlier that day, lazily propping her head up with one hand as she watched Wen Tang.

Her pinned-up hair was very close to the roses, and her dress happened to be pale pink as well. It was as though the rose inside the vase had taken human form.

Wen Tang felt her mind, which had remained tense all day, gradually relaxing.

A pleasant moment like this was perfectly suited to eating dessert and doing things one enjoyed.

An experienced physician was on duty at the hospital tonight. Under normal circumstances, no emergency should arise that required Wen Tang to rush there immediately.

Perhaps some things simply could not bear being mentioned.

Before she had even finished a single slice of mille crêpe, her phone began ringing, its buzzing vibration bailiantales.comcarrying an aggressive urgency.

During her first clinical internship lesson, her teacher had told her that a doctor’s phone needed to remain accessible twenty-four hours a day. No one knew when the hospital might suddenly be short-staffed, and unless the situation involved a threat to someone’s life, they would not call anyone back.

Since the phone was ringing, it meant a patient needed her.

Wen Tang did not hesitate and answered immediately.

The low voice of the cardiac surgery department director came from the other end.

“Xiao Wen, we have several emergency operations tonight. Come back and help.”

“All right. I’ll be there immediately.”

She put down her phone and hurriedly stood, apologizing softly to Shi Nanqiao.

“I’m sorry. The department is short-staffed…”

Shi Nanqiao shook her head.

“It’s all right. Hurry and go. Do you want me to drive you?”

“No. You’ve been drinking. Stay home and rest.”

After saying that, Wen Tang put on her shoes and rushed out the door.

Shi Nanqiao stood at the entrance, watching the elevator’s floor indicator slowly change to “1.” Then she walked to the window and looked down at the hurried figure leaving below.

Vehicles entering and exiting her residential complex had to have their license plates recognized. Otherwise, the driver needed to get out and register separately, so ordinary taxis were generally unwilling to enter.

Wen Tang made a phone call and walked briskly toward the complex entrance. Her steps were firm, without the slightest hesitation, until she disappeared from Shi Nanqiao’s sight.

Shi Nanqiao felt that she had just seen a quality in Wen Tang completely different from her usual appearance.

If the Wen Tang she normally knew was a quiet spring flowing through a secluded mountain valley, then what Shi Nanqiao had just witnessed was a blazing fire, with a phoenix rising reborn from its flames.

Those sincere, tenacious flames dispersed the fog for patients in the darkness and illuminated the road ahead.

Shi Nanqiao did not understand the profound medical knowledge involved, but that did not prevent her from sensing the soul that worked silently behind it all—vivid, strong, and radiant.

For the first time through this program, she had observed the medical profession from the perspective of a third party.

She had witnessed all the darkness hidden behind its halo in the past. Now, she had also seen the people who truly upheld the title “angels in white.”

Across the barren wilderness, tiny flower buds had finally begun to grow.