After waiting for more than twenty minutes, Bai Xiao peered inside to see the woman still on the phone, droning on incessantly, her voice growing louder and louder. It seemed she intended to talk through the phone.
He could only knock on the door again, "Hello! Teacher, could you please process my enrollment first?"
He couldn’t possibly wait at the door forever.
The woman abruptly looked up, saw Bai Xiao, and said impatiently, "Didn’t I ask you to wait? Can’t you see I’m on the phone?"
Bai Xiao had no choice but to leave. Fine, he would wait today and see how long they expected him to wait.
He set his suitcase down on the ground, sat on it, and took out a book on the basics of Traditional Chinese Medicine to read seriously. This book was a gift from Director Jin; everyone in the hospital knew that Dr. Bai couldn’t prescribe or take a pulse.
As he was reading, a man with a hint of silver in his hair came by with his hands clasped behind his back. He stood next to Bai Xiao and looked down at the book he was reading.
"Why are you sitting here reading?"
When Bai Xiao looked up, he realized there was someone beside him.
"Oh, I’ve come to register. They told me to wait inside."
Only then did he realize that he must have been reading for at least half an hour, and the woman hadn’t even come out to call him. Was she still on the phone?
That was way too long.
A public phone doesn’t cost her personal money after all.
The silver-haired elder looked towards the office and smiled amiably, "The report time has passed, and others have finished their military training. Why are you just arriving?"
Bai Xiao took out his notification letter, "I am here for further studies from the hospital. I came as soon as I received the letter."
She knew she wasn’t following the regular registration process.
"Alright, follow me!"
The elder nodded at the notification letter in his hand and beckoned Bai Xiao to follow him into the office.
To Bai Xiao’s astonishment, the middle-aged woman beneath whom there seemed to be powerful springs, "swooshed!" to her feet from the chair, and the receiver she had been holding snapped back into place quicker than lightning.
As if nothing had happened in the office at all.
The speed left Bai Xiao sighing, feeling inferior.
They probably couldn’t match her speed even in the midst of bullets and barrages on the battlefield.
"Xiaoli, this student is here to register. Please process her paperwork!"
"Professor Xue, I’m young and nimble—just call me, and I’d be happy to run errands. There was no need for you to come personally, really, I’m not worthy!" Li Hong’s face was plastered with a smile, resembling a sunflower craving sunlight.
"Just make sure her paperwork is done quickly, and take her to the dormitory. It’s inappropriate for her to be sitting in the hallway with her luggage." Professor Xue was obviously a very influential person, or else Teacher Li wouldn’t have shown this attitude—it was clearly a case of looking down on others.
It was just because she was seen as a trainee from a small place, arriving alone with a suitcase and no one to pick her up, that she was treated this way.
"Sure! I’ll get her registered right now. Don’t worry."
Li Hong looked at Bai Xiao with even more displeasure, certain that Bai Xiao had been complaining about her to Professor Xue.
Professor Xue kindly said to Bai Xiao, "Study hard!" and then walked out with his hands behind his back.
Bai Xiao offered her thanks gratefully.
"Bring over your registration materials." Li Hong looked askance at Bai Xiao, tapping her fingers on the desk.
Bai Xiao chuckled. There was no point in getting angry with such petty people. She handed over her notification letter.
Li Hong finished the paperwork, and she should have taken her to get the dormitory key, but she skipped that step, just telling Bai Xiao where to find the dormitory aunty to get the key.
Bai Xiao didn’t say anything more.