Chapter 5
Zhao Xuning was the first to like her post. Immediately afterward, comments from her family began appearing one after another.
[King of Snack Deliveries: Are you really not considering bringing your girlfriend home to meet us? /starry eyes. Dad wants to watch horror movies with your girlfriend too.]
[Mom, Goddess of Wealth: Don’t listen to your dad’s nonsense. We can all watch a movie together as a family. (Just not a horror movie!) (Mom gets the final say.)]
[Robot Shen Fenghe: Your girlfriend has my sympathy. If she develops any hearing problems, I can arrange an examination for her.]
[Little Brother with the Cowlick: Second Sister, I’m coming to your university tomorrow. Can you treat me to a meal at the cafeteria? /being good. It’d be even better if Second Sister-in-law came along.]
The comments appeared in a neat row, making the post look almost like their family group chat.
Whenever something like this happened, Shen Hui would take a screenshot, send it to the family group, and save the picture to her favorites. That made it very easy to find later.
Shen Hui found the screenshot and considered deleting it, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. She comforted herself with the thought that this was a conversation between her family members, proof of how close and loving her family was. It had absolutely nothing to do with Zhao Xuning.
But the moment she put down her phone, the video she’d just watched transformed into a series of movie scenes, replaying endlessly in her mind.
Every expression on Zhao Xuning’s face remained so vivid. Once the laughter and cheerful voices faded, the room felt even emptier and lonelier.
Memories surged toward her like a tidal wave, fierce and overwhelming, suffocating her until her hands began trembling uncontrollably.
Shen Hui knew that what she was doing was no different from drinking poison to quench her thirst, but she didn’t know what else to do.
Even now, she could remember how, after she’d fallen asleep that night, Zhao Xuning had gone through her tracking app and added all the horror movies she’d liked and saved to her notes.
During that period, Zhao Xuning had constantly worn earphones because she was using every spare moment to watch those horror movies in advance. That way, when she watched them with Shen Hui, she could anticipate every one of Shen Hui’s reactions.
As a result, Shen Hui had enjoyed an excellent horror-movie experience.
The only problem was that Zhao Xuning had stayed up late for quite some time. On the one hand, she had to make sure Shen Hui didn’t have nightmares in the middle of the night, which meant leaving the bedroom lights on practically all night and severely disrupting her own sleep.
On the other hand, she was preparing to publish a paper in an academic journal. Her experiments were nearing completion, and she was practically drowning in research materials and experimental data. Making time to watch movies with Shen Hui was like squeezing a sponge until not a single drop of water remained.
At first, Shen Hui hadn’t noticed anything unusual about her, until one day, their professor praised Zhao Xuning from the neighboring class.
The professor said that Zhao Xuning had not only won the national first prize in the surgical division of the Clinical Skills Competition, but had also published an original research paper on cardiac surgery as first author in a top-tier Q1 journal indexed by JCR, an achievement of considerable prestige. Furthermore, during the competition, she’d caught the attention of several experts and had been exceptionally admitted into the elite internship program at Haizhou First Hospital. She’d even impressed Professor Wang, a towering authority in cardiac surgery, who had accepted her as his final disciple.
Most importantly, she’d only been sixteen when she entered university. And now, she was still only nineteen.
She’d essentially skipped ten years of the struggles other people had to go through.
To be fair, the students admitted to Haizhou Medical University were all exceptionally talented. Who among them hadn’t ranked near the top of their class in high school?
There were even top scorers from other provinces’ college entrance examinations.
But someone like Zhao Xuning, who had skipped grades throughout her education and become the top science scorer at just sixteen, was exceedingly rare.
Moreover, every semester, she firmly held first place in her year. Whether it was her continuous assessment scores, examination results, or other comprehensive evaluations, she was unquestionably number one. Her personality was a little cold, but that only made her all the more memorable.
The moment the professor mentioned her, the classroom erupted in groans.
During their first and second years, many students had still been unconvinced of Zhao Xuning’s abilities.
So what? Weren’t they all geniuses too? But eventually, all they could do was admire her.
It was simply too much. How could anyone work themselves that relentlessly?!
Beneath her desk, Shen Hui sent Zhao Xuning a message: [From now on, tell me whenever you’re busy. I won’t bother you.]
Zhao Xuning replied almost instantly: [?]
Shen Hui: [I’ve been a little willful lately. Boohoo\~ Ningning, darling wife, I’m sowwy\~ I’ll buy you something delicious after class to make it up to you.] Shen Hui: [How about I line up at that dumpling place you love so much?] Shen Hui: [Or I could go home and cook for you. What do you want to eat? Stir-fried beef with celery, steamed pumpkin, shredded pork with green peppers, steamed sea bass… Is there anything else you’re craving?]
Zhao Xuning called her, but Shen Hui declined the call and replied: [I’m in class.]
Zhao Xuning asked: [What happened?]
The professor had already started teaching, so Shen Hui replied that nothing was wrong and slipped her phone into her pocket.
There wasn’t much time left before they would begin rotating through the different hospital departments for their internships. Shen Hui didn’t expect herself to be a genius like Zhao Xuning, but she also had no intention of treating patients’ lives as a joke. That was why she always paid close attention in class.
Halfway through the lecture, the professor glanced toward the back row, and his expression suddenly became warm and kindly.
The other students instinctively turned to look as well. Shen Hui, however, was busy taking notes and couldn’t be bothered to look.
The professor announced a ten-minute break, then walked straight toward the back of the classroom.
Unexpectedly, the person sitting in the back row stood up and, under everyone’s watchful gaze, walked boldly toward the front row, giving the professor a polite nod in greeting.
Shen Hui’s pen paused. She rubbed her ear and muttered, “I must be losing my mind. How could I possibly hear Zhao Xuning’s voice here?”
No sooner had she spoken than someone occupied the empty seat beside her. She turned her head and saw Zhao Xuning, whose breathing hadn’t yet settled, saying in a low voice, “It’s me.”
Shen Hui was stunned. “Y-you… What are you doing here?”
Zhao Xuning showed her their message conversation. Only then did Shen Hui discover that when she’d turned off her screen, she’d accidentally tapped a sticker that said, “I feel terrible. I want to cry.”
After that, Shen Hui hadn’t checked her phone despite Zhao Xuning sending her more messages. There were over a dozen messages in a row, along with several missed calls. But Shen Hui’s phone had been on silent, so she hadn’t heard any of them, much less answered.
Zhao Xuning had rushed over directly from the hospital. She didn’t have any classes that day, and it was also her first day reporting for her hospital internship. After informing her supervising teacher, she’d hurried out and gone straight to Shen Hui’s classroom to find her.
She’d been frightened and worried throughout the journey. It was only when she saw Shen Hui sitting obediently in the front row, her hand practically flying across the page as she took notes, that she finally felt some relief.
“I’m sorry.” Shen Hui reached out to hook her little finger around Zhao Xuning’s and apologized softly. “I tapped it by accident. The professor started teaching afterward, so I didn’t look at my phone.”
Zhao Xuning glanced at her notes. They were taking the same courses, although Zhao Xuning had already taught herself everything covered in this particular subject. She gently squeezed Shen Hui’s fingers. “It’s fine. Keep taking your notes.”
Only then did she turn to greet the professor.
The professor was mainly interested in the paper she’d published. Some of its contents were refreshingly original, offering different ways of thinking that could be quite helpful in clinical surgery.
Zhao Xuning knew her experimental data and research paper inside out, and she discussed them with the professor at a calm, measured pace.
Many students in the classroom listened with great interest. The professor became so engrossed in his discussion with Zhao Xuning that he ended up cutting twenty minutes from the lecture.
After class, Zhao Xuning gathered Shen Hui’s notebooks, carried her bag, and took her hand as they headed out. The professor even teased them, “So you two are dating!”
Shen Hui was uncharacteristically shy, but Zhao Xuning nodded openly. “Yes.”
“How lovely.” The professor teased Shen Hui, “Little Shen, you should learn more from Student Zhao. She’s an excellent teacher.”
Shen Hui nodded obediently in front of the professor. But the moment she and Zhao Xuning were alone, she began calling out to her in all sorts of tones. “Teacher Zhao\~ Teacher Zhao! Teacher Zhao\~\~\~”
Zhao Xuning’s head was starting to ache from hearing it. “Stop calling me that.”
Shen Hui glared at her. “Why can’t I? You’ve been so busy lately. Why didn’t you tell me? If I’d known you had so many things to handle at once, I wouldn’t have kept pestering you to watch movies with me.”
The two were eating at a restaurant. Zhao Xuning had a habit of not speaking during meals, but Shen Hui had no such reservations. She would simply talk nonstop during the brief intervals between swallowing her food.
Especially when she was eating with Zhao Xuning.
Zhao Xuning could only keep serving her food. But Shen Hui wouldn’t eat anything Zhao Xuning placed on her plate, so Zhao Xuning began bringing each bite directly to her mouth.
As soon as Shen Hui swallowed one mouthful, Zhao Xuning would offer another. After this happened several times, Shen Hui clamped her mouth shut and refused to eat, glaring resentfully at Zhao Xuning.
Zhao Xuning said, “You’re too thin. You need to eat more. Doesn’t writing so many notes tire you out?”
Shen Hui’s beautiful eyes widened. “Well, well, Zhao Xuning! Are you making fun of me? Just because you’re a genius who doesn’t need to take notes, you think you can mock us ordinary people?”
Zhao Xuning shook her head. “I’m not. I’ll give you my notes when we get home.”
Just thinking about what they’d covered in class gave Shen Hui a headache. “It’s not about the notes. I just can’t understand that stuff. Now I finally understand the saying, ‘Persuade someone to study medicine, and heaven will strike you down.'”
Shen Hui couldn’t understand what had possessed her to choose clinical medicine when she’d filled out her university applications. Wouldn’t it have been better to pick any humanities major?
She could have coasted through four years, earned her degree, and then effortlessly parachuted into a position at the family company as her sister’s secretary.
She might not have been the most capable person in the office, but she’d certainly have been the one who understood the CEO best.
But look at her now. At most, she could become the domineering CEO’s personal physician.
Oh, given her current abilities, even becoming a personal physician would be a stretch. What a disaster.
Still, backing down whenever she encountered difficulties wasn’t Shen Hui’s style, so she was doing her best to absorb as much knowledge as possible.
Her grades in high school had been fairly good, and she’d gotten incredibly lucky on the college entrance examination, scoring more than fifty points higher than she usually did on mock exams. That had allowed her to scrape into the clinical medicine program at the medical university right at the admission cutoff.
Among the students in her major, her college entrance examination score was probably near the very bottom.
That was why she’d always found her studies rather difficult.
Apart from the textbooks for their required courses, Shen Hui couldn’t understand most of the books Zhao Xuning usually read. And Zhao Xuning also read foreign academic journals and research papers.
“It’s not that difficult,” Zhao Xuning said. “I’ll tutor you when we get home tonight.” Shen Hui: “…You’re really taking this teacher thing seriously, aren’t you?”
Despite her teasing, Zhao Xuning went back to the hospital that afternoon to continue her internship.
That evening, after the two of them had dinner at home, Zhao Xuning pulled Shen Hui into the study.
They’d moved in together shortly after they started dating. Young, passionate, and overflowing with hormones, they’d left traces of their lovemaking in practically every corner of their home. Except the study.
Shen Hui had absolutely no interest in the study. Just looking at it was enough to kill any sexual desire she might have.
However, when they’d decorated the place, Zhao Xuning had bought each of them a desk.
Shen Hui only used hers to catch up on assignments when final exams were approaching, whereas Zhao Xuning spent some time in the study every day.
Zhao Xuning sat Shen Hui down at her desk and brought out all her notes, organizing them for her.
Her notes for the entire semester were remarkably concise, yet the structure was perfectly clear. Starting from a single key medical term, Zhao Xuning could explain the symptoms of a disease, the medications required to treat it, and everything else Shen Hui needed to understand.
Zhao Xuning had a very pleasant voice. At first, Shen Hui sat in her chair and listened attentively, but gradually, her head drooped lower and lower until she began tipping forward.
Just as her forehead was about to hit the desk, Zhao Xuning abruptly stopped explaining and helplessly reached out to cushion her head with her hand.
Shen Hui was sleeping soundly. Zhao Xuning remained seated there, marking the important points in her notes until midnight, before carrying her back to their bedroom.
When Zhao Xuning woke up the following morning, Shen Hui had already prepared breakfast for her.
There were soft, fluffy steamed soup dumplings, golden millet porridge simmered until tender, and lightly stir-fried baby greens.
Shen Hui had made everything herself.
Zhao Xuning wasn’t wearing her glasses, making her eyes appear somewhat cold. She simply stared straight at Shen Hui.
Shen Hui had propped her phone up beside her and was recording a video. Resting both hands on the table, she asked, “What are you staring at? Come eat breakfast. You haven’t been eating breakfast lately, have you? No matter how busy you are, you still need to eat in the morning, Teacher Zhao.”
Zhao Xuning asked, “Do you remember last night?”
“What about last night? It’s already morning.” Shen Hui picked up a steamed dumpling and stuffed it into her mouth. “Hurry up and eat. I kneaded the dough and steamed these myself. They don’t look very pretty, but they taste better than the ones from that shop downstairs that claims to have been making soup dumplings for twenty years.”
Zhao Xuning was at a loss for words, but she didn’t chew either. She took the dumpling out of her mouth and said helplessly, “I haven’t brushed my teeth yet.”
“It’s not like you didn’t brush them before bed last night.” Shen Hui didn’t care in the slightest. Although she was somewhat particular about cleanliness herself, compared to Zhao Xuning, her habits were practically negligible. “You can just eat first and brush afterward. I don’t mind.”
As she spoke, Shen Hui even rose slightly onto her tiptoes and puckered her soft, glossy lips. “I just brushed my teeth, so you can give me a kiss.”
Zhao Xuning covered her mouth and fled in embarrassment. Even while brushing her teeth, she kept casting Shen Hui aggrieved looks. Shen Hui found it hilarious. She followed her over, reached out to poke her cheek, and asked in an especially mischievous tone, “If I keep poking your cheeks, do you think I can make your dimples permanent? Then you’d have dimples even when you weren’t smiling.”
With her mouth full of toothpaste foam, Zhao Xuning mumbled indistinctly, “That would be a facial deformity, not a dimple.”
Shen Hui snorted and turned away to photograph her freshly steamed soup dumplings before posting the pictures on her Moments.
As she edited the caption, she continued asking Zhao Xuning, “Don’t you think I might be the God of Cooking? How can I be this amazing, baby?! I only watched the tutorial once, and I managed to make them this well. What do you think about me giving up medicine and becoming a chef instead?”
After finishing brushing her teeth, Zhao Xuning shook her head. “No.”
Shen Hui finished posting to her Moments and asked why.
Zhao Xuning simply took a bite of a soup dumpling without answering. Shen Hui sat beside her and kept pestering her, clearly determined to get an answer.
Zhao Xuning still refused to speak, so Shen Hui began tickling her.
Zhao Xuning caught her hand and ate another dumpling. Then she gently scratched Shen Hui’s palm with her fingertips and said in a muffled voice, “I don’t want you cooking for other people.”
Shen Hui froze for a moment before breaking into a bright, radiant smile. She reached out and gently tugged Zhao Xuning’s ear, her fingertips caressing the curve of its cartilage with an intimate tenderness. “Oh my, why does my wife love me so much? You’re so possessive of me!”
Zhao Xuning lowered her head. “I’m sorry.”
Shen Hui wrapped her arms around Zhao Xuning’s waist, not finding anything strange about the two of them being so affectionate first thing in the morning. “Why are you apologizing to me? I love it!”
Zhao Xuning knew she was possessive. Ever since childhood, she’d never given away anything she’d used, because those things belonged to her.
And that feeling was even stronger when it came to someone she’d marked.
If nothing unexpected happened, Shen Hui would be the only one for her in this lifetime. She wanted to mark Shen Hui forever and ever.
But Zhao Xuning would never say such things aloud. She’d always been reserved and wasn’t good at expressing her feelings passionately.
She could never speak as freely as Shen Hui did when saying things like that.
She was afraid Shen Hui wouldn’t like it, so ever since they’d gotten together, she’d always restrained herself.
However, Shen Hui was usually the clingier one. Whenever Shen Hui finished class first, she’d wait outside Zhao Xuning’s classroom for her.
A love so bold, passionate, and wholehearted was something a person might be lucky to encounter even once in a lifetime. And Zhao Xuning had found it.
Shen Hui rubbed against her shoulder affectionately. “If you weren’t eating right now, I’d definitely reward you with a huge kiss. Don’t worry. From now on, I’ll only cook for you. If anyone else wants me to cook for them, they can forget it!”
Zhao Xuning wanted to show that she could be generous, perhaps by saying that Shen Hui could cook for her parents too. But when the words reached her lips, she still felt reluctant, so she decided not to force herself.
Instead, Shen Hui picked up her phone and sent a voice message to the family group. “Don’t any of you get your hopes up. I’m hopelessly obsessed with my girlfriend, and I’ll only cook for her. If you want someone to cook for you, get your own girlfriends to do it.”
Zhao Xuning froze. She was so startled that she forgot she still had food in her mouth. “Who are you talking to?”
Shen Hui laughed. “My family. They saw my Moments post and started tagging me like crazy, asking me to cook a meal for them. I told them absolutely not!”
Zhao Xuning felt somewhat embarrassed, but she still couldn’t bring herself to suggest that Shen Hui cook for her family as well. Instead, she leaned toward Shen Hui’s ear like a thief and whispered, “Won’t your family dislike me if you say that?”
Shen Hui played with her phone, replying to messages in the group while teasing her with a smile. “Baby, you’re being a little sly and manipulative right now. Good thing I love you so much. Otherwise, I’d have to knock some sense into that head of yours. How can you say something like that? But because I love you so much, I think the way you’re talking is absolutely adorable!”
After sending her messages, Shen Hui tossed her phone onto the table.
She reached out and pinched Zhao Xuning’s lips together, catching her completely off guard. Zhao Xuning even tried to speak. “What are you doing?”
Shen Hui leaned forward and kissed her puckered lips. “I love you sooo much\~ So I wanted to kiss you!”
Sunlight streamed through the glass and spilled into the room, falling across Shen Hui’s beautiful features. She looked dazzling and radiant, enough to stir anyone’s heart.
Zhao Xuning’s eyes shone with light. For a fleeting moment, she desperately wished she could freeze time right there.
Everything was so beautiful, so wonderful that every passing second made her heart flutter.
After kissing Zhao Xuning, Shen Hui finally went to the other side of the table to eat. Once seated, she even folded her legs up on the chair, adopting exactly the sort of posture Zhao Xuning normally disliked. In the Zhao family, it would have been criticized as having absolutely no proper sitting manners.
Yet when Shen Hui sat like that, she looked so adorable, so relaxed, so carefree and uninhibited.
Zhao Xuning looked at her and suddenly said, “I love you too.”
Before Shen Hui could even react, Zhao Xuning was the first to grow embarrassed and hurriedly hid herself in the bedroom. Just looking at her retreating figure was enough to tell what a tremendous emotional storm was raging inside her.
She even stumbled slightly as she entered the room, nearly tripping over her own feet.
Shen Hui captured everything on video.
After her initial shock passed, Shen Hui burst into laughter.
The sound of her laughter made Zhao Xuning, who was changing clothes in the bedroom, turn red from head to toe.
But the corners of Zhao Xuning’s lips were also raised in a smile, revealing her dimples. Her long hair was casually tied into a ponytail, and she radiated the youthful vitality unique to someone her age.
5:30 a.m.
Through the gap in the curtains, Shen Hui could see that the sky was already beginning to brighten. She simply turned off her phone, hid it in a drawer, and flicked the back of her hand a few times, trying to teach herself a lesson.
But she couldn’t bring herself to hit it hard.
The scenes from the videos she’d just watched kept surfacing in her mind, and Zhao Xuning’s face grew increasingly vivid in her memories.
No. She just happened to be craving some soup dumplings.
Shen Hui quickly climbed out of bed, tied up her hair, and headed to the kitchen to start kneading dough.
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