Little Taotie had become a regular visitor at Qiaoqiao’s new house, essentially coming over every school day to see Qiaoqiao.
Qiaoqiao gradually started smiling more, but she was still hiding her face, unwilling to lower her small hands.
Little Taotie brought the freeze-dried strawberry to Qiaoqiao’s mouth, "Qiao~, ah~ open wide~"
Qiaoqiao blushed and opened her mouth, "Ah~"
Little Taotie fed the strawberry into her mouth, giggling, "Good girl~"
Qiaoqiao whispered, "I don’t want to be the child anymore, I want to be the mom."
"But we made a deal, rock-paper-scissors, the loser becomes the child and the winner becomes the mom."
Qiaoqiao whispered, "But I lose every time."
Little Taotie giggled, "I didn’t expect my luck to be so good! If you don’t want to play this, we can play the doctor and patient game; the winner becomes the doctor and the loser becomes the patient."
Qiaoqiao thought about it and whispered, "The winner becomes the patient."
"Alright then, the winner becomes the patient, and the loser becomes the doctor."
"Rock-paper-scissors!"
Little Taotie stretched out her small fist.
Qiaoqiao extended her open palm.
Qiaoqiao: "...Did I win?"
But she couldn’t feel happy at all, since she always lost, she wanted to be the doctor, thinking she would lose and thus, be the doctor, but then she won.
Qiaoqiao let her head droop, whispering, "I am the patient."
"Aren’t you happy you won? You don’t want to be the patient?"
"My luck is bad, so I thought for sure I’d lose."
"You want to be the doctor?"
Qiaoqiao blushed and nodded.
Little Taotie generously waved her small hand, "You can be the doctor!"
"Really?" Qiaoqiao’s eyes lit up.
The game of playing house began, with Little Taotie being a sick patient, she feebly knocked on the door pretending to be very weak.
Qiaoqiao, holding a syringe, said, "Come in."
Little Taotie struggled in, weakly saying, "Doctor, I’m sick."
Qiaoqiao put down the syringe, switched to the toy stethoscope, "Your heartbeat is too fast, let me check your blood pressure."
Little Taotie obediently nodded.
Qiaoqiao brought out a toy blood pressure monitor, pumped it manually, then released her hand, watching the index on the toy skyrocket.
Qiaoqiao put on a serious face, "You have high blood pressure, are you feeling dizzy or blurry?"
Little Taotie quickly covered her head, weakly saying, "Blurry, my head feels so dizzy."
"Let’s check your blood sugar," Qiaoqiao fetched a toy glucose strip.
Little Taotie cooperated obediently, occasionally crying out in pain, the patient’s act very convincing.
Qiaoqiao performed a thorough examination with all sincerity, using every toy in the doctor kit, and finally diagnosed, "You eat too much sugar, diabetes, high blood pressure, I’ll prescribe some medicine, you must take it on time."
Little Taotie: "...Can I not eat sugar anymore?"
Qiaoqiao with a stern face, "No, you can’t touch it at all."
Little Taotie’s face dropped, out of character saying, "Diabetic patients are really pitiful, such tasty sugar and they can’t eat it!"
Qiaoqiao, also out of character, nodded, "You can’t eat sugar, or chocolate, not even sweet and sour pork or sweet and sour ribs, nothing at all."
"What! Not even sweet and sour ribs? I thought it was just candy!" Little Taotie was extremely surprised.
Qiaoqiao sighed, "Severe cases need to inject insulin every day."
"What is that?" Little Taotie’s eyes were blank.
Qiaoqiao gestured, "It’s similar to getting a shot, but the needle is very long..."
Little Taotie shivered slightly, "I’m a little scared of needles."
Qiaoqiao let her head droop, "I used to be scared too."
"Aren’t you scared anymore?" Little Taotie puzzled.
Qiaoqiao leaned close to Little Taotie’s ear, whispering, "I want to be a medical professional in the future; I have to be brave, I cannot be scared."