On October 3rd, Ji Shuyan finished his work at the hospital and confirmed the arrangements of the department for the next few days, making sure that there were no mistakes or omissions before leaving work with peace of mind.
A few doctors who were still on duty were left looking at him with envy and hatred.
Doctor Zhou propped up his head, he had just finished an operation. He was tired and breathless as he said, “Director Ji, don’t forget your colleagues who’ll be sticking to their posts when you’re travelling. Remember to recommend some fun places so that I can refer to them next time.”
Ji Shuyan glanced at him, “I’m taking my child with me, I really don’t think I’ll have much time to play by myself.”
Doctor Zhou snorted, “Your Ji Yuan is so big, why would you have to look after him? You haven’t relaxed in years, have fun, don’t always spend your time on work and family. People need to let loose once in a while, they can’t be stretched taut all the time.”
Ji Shuyan let these words go in through his left ear and out of his right, and nodded perfunctorily, “Got it, I’m leaving first, the department in your charge now. I’ll bring you guys a souvenir when I get back from the trip.”
Several cheers immediately rang out in the department, “Okay, thank you in advance, Director Ji.”
.
After leaving the hospital, Ji Shuyan went back to pack his luggage and then took Ji Yuan to the university to pick up Duan Zhi.
He saw Duan Zhi standing at the school entrance from afar. He stood there with long legs and a narrow waist, wearing a black varsity jacket, under the shade of greenery, looking like a frozen image from a movie.
Ji Shuyan pulled the car over. Duan Zhi threw his suitcase in the trunk, opened the door to the back seat, and called out, “Uncle Ji.”
Ji Shuyan responded.
Just after Duan Zhi came in, he smelled a very faint neutral rose fragrance, so faint that it was almost indistinguishable, ethereally melting into the air.
He subconsciously glanced back through the rearview mirror. Duan Zhi was talking to Ji Yuan, his side face handsome and gentle.
This kind of rose perfume with notes of soft leather was lingering and yet repressed, both graceful and mature, difficult for ordinary boys to handle. But Duan Zhi was born with gorgeous facial features, pale irises and thin lips, so seductive that it carried its own aggressiveness, thus it coincided with his temperament instead.
Ji Shuyan restarted the car, his face was calm and unperturbed, but he softly spat out a word in his heart, coquettish.
.
They drove for an hour and a half to the airport. The car was parked in the underground parking lot so that they could drive back when they returned.
Duan Zhi took out his own luggage from the trunk, and then helped Ji Shuyan with his. Ji Shuyan wanted to reach out and take it, but he slightly evaded it, “It’s not heavy, I can carry it.”
Ji Shuyan didn’t argue with him and looked down at the flight information.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Ji Yuan followed behind carrying his silver suitcase by himself. Looking at the two people walking side by side in front of him, he deeply felt that Brother Duan and his uncle no longer cared about him.
Pa kjr bynlber atja tlr relamjrf kjr atf tfjnlfra, sfa atfgf kjr cb bcf ab tfiq tlw.
Aera jr tf kjr atlcxlcu atlr, j ojwliljg nblmf mjwf ogbw yfrlvf tlw, “Al Tejc?”
Qtfc Al Tejc gjlrfv tlr tfjv, tf kjr raeccfv jr kfii, “Vfclbg?”
Al Vtesjc tfjgv atf mbwwbalbc jcv jirb ibbxfv yjmx ab rff j ybs lc ktlaf K-rtlga kjix eq ab Al Tejc. Lf kjr delaf ajii, klat bearajcvlcu ojmlji ofjaegfr. Lf kbgf j qjlg bo yijmx-glwwfv uijrrfr jcv tjv j rqbgar kjamt bc tlr tjcv. Lf tjv j gfogfrtlcu jcv cfja rasif.
Duan Zhi obviously recognized the person, and politely called out, “Senior Zhuang.”
The boy walked over and nodded to Duan Zhi. Although he didn’t know Ji Shuyan, he already had a rough guess as to who he was, and asked Ji Yuan, “Is this your uncle?”
Ji Yuan nodded, “It’s my uncle,” and introduced him to Ji Shuyan, “Uncle, this is my senior, Zhuang Chengjun, but he’s not from the same department as us, he studies architecture.”
Zhuang Chengjun smiled politely at Ji Shuyan, “Hello, Uncle, I’ve heard a lot about you from Ji Yuan.”
He extended his hand to Ji Shuyan. Ji Shuyan didn’t like to shake hands with strangers, but because of Ji Yuan, he still shook it politely.
Duan Zhi let out a laugh from the side, and when Ji Shuyan looked up, he shook his head again, “It’s nothing.”
He just suddenly remembered that there was a time when Ji Shuyan treated him like this too, he was so on guard that he couldn’t wait to draw a yellow line. Now that the Feng Shui had turned, it was finally his turn to watch other people go through it.
.
Zhuang Chengjun’s destination was the same as theirs. They were both going to Chongzhou, they even had the same flight.
But while Ji Shuyan’s group were going on a trip, Zhuang Chengjun was going home.
“Chongzhou is my hometown.” He explained as he walked, “I didn’t go back last year, and if I don’t go back this year, I guess I’ll be swept out of my house.”
Ji Yuan laughed beside him, “I can’t imagine what it’d be like for you to be scolded, senior.”
When they got on the plane, they found that their tickets were close to each other. This was a small plane, and there weren’t many seats in the first-class cabin. Zhuang Chengjun’s seat was next to Duan Zhi’s.
Ji Yuan probed and took a look and then exchanged flight tickets with Duan Zhi without hesitation, “You can sit with my uncle, I’ll sit with my senior.”
Ji Shuyan watched helplessly as his nephew fled to the back row like a fluttering bird, and said happily, “Senior, I’m here for you.”
Ji Shuyan: “…”
He raised his eyebrows, very skeptical that this little dimwit was really raised by him.
When he looked up again, he realized that Duan Zhi was still standing next to him and hadn’t taken his seat. He asked in confusion, “Why are you just standing there? Don’t block the aisle.”
Only then did Duan Zhi put down his backpack and sit down.
.
Compared to the back row where Ji Yuan and his senior were chatting fervently, Ji Shuyan’s row was much more desolate. He had never been much of a talker. After asking the stewardess for a cup of black tea, he kept reading quietly.
Duan Zhi took a look and found that it was still a medical dissertation. He was reading about the hard-to-treat cases in cardiac surgery with rapt attention.
Duan Zhi was simply in admiration. In terms of professionalism, if Ji Shuyan was ranked second, then no one could really be ranked first.
He propped his head up and looked at Ji Shuyan for a while. Ji Shuyan looked at the tablet motionlessly, as if he didn’t notice his gaze. He couldn’t resist being mischievous and pressed one hand on Ji Shuyan’s screen.
Only then did Ji Shuyan raise his head, “What are you doing?”
Duan Zhi gently took the tablet out of his hand, “When you’re out travelling, don’t worry about work, otherwise what’s the difference between a vacation and going to work.”
Ji Shuyan wasn’t angry when his tablet was taken away. He also knew that he looked strange. From the time he was in college, people around him have said that his life was dull and colourless, like two beats in a bar. He was either studying or going to the hospital for an internship. He didn’t even have a personal hobby.
He pressed the bridge of his nose and said to Duan Zhi, “Sorry, I’m used to it.”
Duan Zhi recalled, he had gone to Ji Yuan’s house so many times, but it seemed that he really didn’t see Ji Shuyan spend time on entertainment and relaxing. Even if he got off work late, he just stayed in the study, only coming out to watch movies occasionally. If we were to talk about hobbies, there was only Ji Shuyan’s cabinet of vinyl records.
Looking at Ji Shuyan’s cold face, he felt an indescribable affection in his heart, and asked in a low voice, “Then what do you do in your spare time?”
Ji Shuyan thought for a while, “I don’t have much free time. I used to spend my free time with Ji Yuan but since he went to college, I usually spend it listening to music, reading books, and occasionally meeting with friends.”
If not for the fact that he has a few friends like Zheng Wenbin, who would drag him out of his house, he wouldn’t have dealt with people a few times a year.
Duan Zhi was silent for a while.
He knew why Ji Shuyan had become like this. Ji Yuan’s parents left too early, he had to take care of his nephew at a tender age, he also had to help his grieving parents manage the hospital. He had gotten so used to carrying the responsibility of an entire family from a young age that step by step, he had learnt not to relax.
Even though Ji Yuan had grown up and the hospital was on the right track, he was still like a bird embroidered on a screen, with gorgeous emerald feathers, beautiful in its serenity and gentleness, but not free.
Everyone around Ji Shuyan was doing well, only Ji Shuyan himself was not so good.
Duan Zhi stuffed the tablet into his backpack, and said to Ji Shuyan, “That’s good, I’ll take care of your tablet for the whole vacation. Coming out on a trip means being liberated from work.”
He turned on the display screen, opened up the movie library, and said, “Let’s watch a movie. Two hours is just enough to watch one. You choose.”
Ji Shuyan glanced at Duan Zhi’s backpack, hesitated for a while, and finally didn’t grab his tablet back.
He glanced at the movie library on the screen, and casually pointed to a popcorn movie, “Let’s go with this one.”
.
The popcorn movie was quite interesting. It was only by the time the end credits played that Ji Shuyan realized that the plane was about to land.
But he was still puzzled by the ending, and asked Duan Zhi, “Why did the heroine choose to be with the hero? I thought she was supposed to like the second male lead.”
Duan Zhi: “…”
The second male lead only took up a total of ten minutes of footage. Where on earth did you see that the female lead was interested in him?
Ji Shuyan said eloquently, “The second male lead is a lawyer. He has a good job, a lot of money, and a sense of responsibility. He also takes good care of the female lead. She’ll be able to live a peaceful and happy life on being married to the second male lead. The first male lead is a musician who runs around the world. He hasn’t even grown up yet, how can he start a family with her? From a rational point of view, she should choose the second male lead.”
Okay, that is quite logical.
Duan Zhi looked at Ji Shuyan with a smile, “That’s why it is love, Uncle Ji. Love is unreasonable. Even if someone else is a thousand times better, if they’re not the one you want, they’re already not considered a match. Rushing, reckless, not considering reality, these are not good words, but when you have fallen in love, it’s already too late to think so much.”
Ji Shuyan disagreed, and calmly said, “Love is nothing more than a chemical reaction of dopamine, the freshness can last a few months at best, and the rest is maintained by responsibility and family affection.”
Duan Zhi smiled and didn’t argue with Ji Shuyan.
The plane landed, he leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes. If possible, he also hoped that his feelings for Ji Shuyan were only temporarily dominated by dopamine. But unfortunately, he had clearly been seriously sick for a long time.
Doctor Ji is said to help the dying and heal the injured, yet he stubbornly refused to lower his eyebrows for him.
Ohoho can’t wait for Uncle Ji to fall in love and be dominated by dopamine for a long long time 😉
So many interesting idioms!
Thank you for your translation 💟💟💟💟💟💟💟💟💟💟💟💟💟💟💟💟💟💟💟💟💟💟💟💟💟💟💟💟💟💟💟💟💟💟💟💟💟
Thank You for the new chapter ♡ฅ(ᐤˊ꒳ฅˋᐤ)
Responsibility and family are both heavy weights to carry. Also, since love is a feeling, everyone experiences it differently. It can be raging but short lived like a wildfire, ever smoldering like a volcano, or maybe quietly, unknowingly always by your side like a little tea light. Without ever having loved someone, it is difficult how you will behave then.