"Hiss, is this about settling scores after the autumn harvest?"
Old Qin stood frozen, the corners of his mouth twitching fiercely several times before he finally shrugged his shoulders and, with a sniff, dashed into the office.
Jiang Ye changed into a fresh set of clothes at the family building, and without having breakfast, he drove out from the fire brigade.
The rhythm of life in the small mountain village was definitely slower than in the city center; people were just starting to get up and move around.
Smoke slowly began to rise from the chimneys of every household, and some people had already gone to the fields to work early.
It must be said, opening your eyes to such a scene was truly healing—a feeling like all the worries and pressures of life had vanished.
Lu Jing, wearing a coat, went downstairs with toiletries to wash up.
Although the room had been heated with coal the night before, it seemed he still caught a bit of a cold.
No help for it, his constitution was too weak, and he would catch a chill if he wasn’t careful.
However, it was bearable for now, not too severe.
Along the way, he ran into several colleagues, and they all greeted each other:
"Good morning, Doctor Lu."
"Morning. Are you guys heading out for a run?"
"Yeah, it’s a habit."
Lu Jing greatly admired those colleagues who managed to make time to exercise each day; after all, who would have the energy to work out after a day’s work when you’re just dead tired? ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ᴛᴏ ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs, ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ ᴠɪsɪᴛ novel·fıre·net
Upon reaching the courtyard on the ground floor, he saw the director himself leading people in preparing breakfast, with a large iron pot atop the fire, simmering with white rice porridge.
Several male doctors were busy chopping vegetables, getting ready to stir-fry soon.
After all, with more than a dozen people around, you couldn’t expect the villagers to prepare every meal, right?
That would be too troublesome for others!
Better to get things done ourselves, which is more convenient.
Besides, there were enough people.
It wouldn’t take much time to pull a few people aside to get things done.
"Good morning, director," Lu Jing greeted.
This gastroenterology director was famously affable at the hospital, always beaming at everyone with a kindly demeanor.
"Good morning, Dr. Xiao Lu. Hurry up and wash up; breakfast will soon be ready."
With a big iron pot, it hardly took any time; whether cooking rice or stir-frying, everything was done super fast.
After Lu Jing finished washing up and took his things upstairs, he came back down to find, indeed, the vegetables were all stir-fried.
It was just some simple greens, stir-fried plain.
Early in the morning, probably no one was in the mood for meat anyway; it’d be too greasy.
As doctors, everyone still preferred to eat healthily.
Doctor Wei yawned, leaning over to whisper to Lu Jing,
"Dr. Xiao Lu, you didn’t sleep well last night, did you?"
Lu Jing felt a bit embarrassed:
"You must not have fallen asleep until several hours into the early morning, right?"
Don’t think no one knows.
After all, it was the same room; he was aware of the other’s movements.
Speaking of last night, indeed he didn’t fall asleep until very late.
The bed was too hard; Lu Jing had never before slept on such a stiff board bed, and not long after lying down, his back hurt.
Plus, being new to this place, unfamiliar, and prone to homesickness, he inevitably tossed and turned for quite a while.
Unexpectedly, all these movements had been noticed by Doctor Wei.
Lu Jing had thought he was being careful enough.
"Probably around four o’clock."
Doctor Wei immediately gave a look that said, ’I knew it’:
"You’ve only gotten about three hours of sleep; can you handle it?"
It had become quite the norm, hadn’t it?
What couldn’t he handle?
Wasn’t it often that he had to perform surgeries in the middle of the night and then work straight through until dawn, only to continue with his shifts?