Chapter 9: The Surgery
What He Wants to Do in the Future
On the day of the surgery, even though Yuan An had said it would only take a moment of his time to sign the papers, Qin Sixing intentionally pushed aside an entire day’s work to come to the hospital at eight in the morning to keep him company. The surgery was scheduled for the morning, and once everything was prepared, Yuan An was wheeled into the operating room. Qin Sixing did not leave either; instead, he waited outside the operating room for over two hours until the light outside finally went out.
The surgery was over.
As the nurse wheeled Yuan An back to the ward, Qin Sixing stopped Jiang Hede, who had just stepped out of the room.
“Uncle Jiang, how is his condition? Did the surgery go smoothly?”
Jiang Hede glared at him and said, “Do you think an early-stage stomach cancer surgery performed by me as the chief surgeon could possibly go un-smoothly?”
Asking such a question was practically doubting his medical skills and his many years of experience as a chief surgeon.
Qin Sixing let out a self-deprecating laugh, realizing this point as well, and hurriedly offered a placating smile. “Of course not. I trust Uncle Jiang’s medical skills more than anyone else’s, otherwise I wouldn’t have begged you to come over.”
Jiang Hede snorted and shook his head, saying, “You, ah, care too much, so you lose your composure. Fortunately, that child caught it in the early stages of stomach cancer, so his condition right now is quite good. After the operation, he’ll just need chemotherapy paired with some medication, and that should be about it.”
Qin Sixing breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you for your hard work, Uncle Jiang.” After speaking, he involuntarily looked toward the direction of Yuan An’s ward.
Seeing that his heart had practically flown away already, Jiang Hede quickly grabbed him and said, “You made such a massive scene at home back then, and now you’ve finally gotten your wish. But why do I get the feeling that things haven’t even progressed past square one, and it’s entirely your one-sided affection?”
Qin Sixing went silent for a moment, then chuckled softly. “He doesn’t know who I am yet.” Following that, he added, “Uncle Jiang, you must be very tired after just finishing the surgery, right? Please go and rest quickly; I’ll go check on him.”
Jiang Hede looked at Qin Sixing, opening his mouth as if to say something, but in the end, he just sighed, waved his hand, and walked away. Qin Sixing smiled at the sight, and only then did he walk toward Yuan An’s ward.
…
It was just past seven o’clock in the evening when Yuan An slowly regained consciousness. He squinted his eyes and rested on the bed for a while before noticing Qin Sixing sitting on the companion chair by the bedside, working. Yuan An’s body was still experiencing some discomfort, so he didn’t speak immediately, choosing instead to watch Qin Sixing quietly. The lights on the other side of the ward were on, but the stark white glow was partially blocked by the pale yellow curtain. It wasn’t very piercing to the eyes, and on his side of the bed, it even carved out a cozy, warm atmosphere.
After a moment, Qin Sixing moved slightly, reaching out his hand to grab the water cup resting on the bedside table. His gaze shifted away from his tablet, and it happened to collide right with Yuan An’s.
Qin Sixing immediately smiled gently and said, “You’re awake. Is there anywhere else you’re feeling uncomfortable?”
Yuan An shook his head gently, staring at him blankly.
Qin Sixing paused slightly, then ruffled Yuan An’s hair, asking softly, “Why are you looking a bit dazed? Have you not fully woken up from the anesthesia yet?”
Yuan An couldn’t help but smile. He thought for a moment and said, “Mr. Qin, have you been here the entire time?”
Qin Sixing nodded and said, “When Auntie Su came over at noon to give you a massage and acupressure, she brought along my tablet and laptop as well, so I just decided to work here. Otherwise, if you woke up and found yourself all alone, you’d probably feel miserable.”
Auntie Su was the nutritionist auntie who had delivered the porridge to Yuan An that day.
Yuan An hadn’t expected him to be so considerate. For a moment, his eyes widened slightly, and his heart felt both sour and warm. He pressed his lips together and said in a seemingly teasing tone, “I’ve heard that some patients talk a lot of nonsense before the anesthesia fully wears off. Did Mr. Qin hear me say anything?”
Qin Sixing couldn’t help but laugh out loud, replying helplessly, “I did, but your voice was very quiet, so I couldn’t hear it clearly. Does my little fellow patient still have an image to maintain?”
“Hahaha.” Yuan An laughed and shook his head repeatedly. Because his body lacked strength, his laughter wasn’t loud, manifesting as almost nothing more than a breathy whisper. Once he finished laughing, he finally said, “As long as I didn’t lose face, it’s fine. I do still have a tiny bit of an image to maintain.”
Only when he recovered his wits after waking up just now did Yuan An realize that in this lifetime, he had already undergone surgery in the early stages of stomach cancer. He didn’t know what his future would look like, but he suddenly realized just now that although it had only been a few days since his rebirth, his past-life experience of dying from terminal stomach cancer already felt as if it had happened a long time ago, becoming illusory and dreamlike.
Yet he understood that those were not dreams, and the things that happened in that “dream” were not things he could ever let go of. Those were things that had tangibly and definitively happened to his body; how could he forget them just because he had stayed far away from them over the past few days? At this thought, the look in Yuan An’s eyes turned somewhat dark and gloomy.
After a long pause, Yuan An heard Qin Sixing ask in a gentle voice, “I asked the doctor just now, and he said you can be discharged in a few days. What do you plan to do after you’re discharged?”
“I need to find a place to stay first, and then look for a job, I suppose.”
Qin Sixing pondered for a moment and asked again, “What line of work do you want to find?”
Yuan An smiled embarrassedly and said, “The career path for my university major isn’t something I like. I actually want to continue writing scripts, but writing those takes a period of time, so I still want to at least find any random job to serve as a transition.”
“Writing scripts? You even have this talent?”
Yuan An nodded lightly.
“A game project currently underway at my company is lacking a scenario script. Are you interested?”
Yuan An froze. Up until now, the only script he had truly written into a finished form was Han Dao, and film and television scripts were somewhat different from game scripts, so he couldn’t guarantee that he would definitely be able to write it well. Yuan An voiced his inner thoughts honestly.
Upon hearing this, Qin Sixing said unmindfully, “As long as you are interested, it’s fine. I believe you can do it.” His gaze was focused and gentle, completely filled with trust.
But up until this point, he hadn’t even looked at the scripts Yuan An wrote at all. Why? Yuan An couldn’t fathom the reason and didn’t dare to ask, ultimately only able to attribute it to Qin Sixing wanting to help him.
What a gentle, considerate person who cared about others’ feelings. It was the same yesterday; when Yuan An pleaded with him to help sign the papers, Qin Sixing had not only agreed readily but had also completely refrained from pressing him about his family’s situation. Yuan An felt that from his body to his soul, he was being thoroughly taken care of by such a gentle Qin Sixing.
He lowered his gaze, feeling that perhaps he could accept this help from Qin Sixing. The Lu Corporation occupied half of the domestic game market. An online game under its banner had been phenomenally popular for nearly three years simply because its plot and gameplay were attractive enough, generating a massive amount of revenue for the Lu Corporation.
And he happened to excel at writing plots. Yuan An suddenly felt an impulse—an impulse to write a plot that was even more attractive than this game under the Lu Corporation’s banner.
The hand placed beneath the blanket secretly clenched into a fist. Yuan An pressed his lips together and said, “Thank you, Mr. Qin. I also believe that I can do it. But I still hope you will look over my script first before making a decision.”
Qin Sixing smiled refinedly and nodded. Only then did Yuan An set his mind at ease, slowly sitting up from the bed to send him a copy of the Han Dao script file.
The sky was already late, and Yuan An felt drowsiness washing over him once again. Noticing this, Qin Sixing stood up to bid Yuan An goodbye, telling him to rest well.
“I’ll come to see you again tomorrow.” He bent down, tucking the blanket around Yuan An.
Hazy with sleep, Yuan An nodded, watching Qin Sixing walk out of the ward.
The next day, Qin Sixing still arrived at the hospital early in the morning, accompanied by Auntie Su, who brought along the porridge she had meticulously brewed. However, Yuan An hadn’t passed gas yet and couldn’t ingest food, so that portion of porridge was merely set aside for the moment.
Auntie Su massaged Yuan An’s legs slightly, then supported him to get off the bed and walk slowly. Seeing Yuan An’s gaze occasionally sweep past the insulated flask beside the hospital bed, Auntie Su laughed and said, “Don’t be anxious. Once you pass gas, you’ll be able to eat the porridge this auntie brewed for you. When that time comes, I’ll even stew soups for you with ever-changing varieties; I’m only afraid you’ll get tired of drinking them.”
Yuan An withdrew his line of sight, hurriedly shaking his head as he said, “How could I? I won’t ever get tired of drinking the soups Auntie stews.” He added, “It’s just that I feel Auntie must have woken up very early to brew this porridge. Leaving it sitting here without drinking it is far too wasteful.”
Auntie Su smiled so much her eyes crinkled into crescents, saying, “Isn’t there still Mr. Qin to drink it? It won’t go to waste.” As she spoke, her gaze shifted toward Qin Sixing, and she added, “Mr. Qin, I’ll take Yuan’yuan outside to move around a bit. Go ahead and drink that porridge.”
Yuan’yuan. No one had ever called him that before. Yuan An couldn’t help but smile.
Qin Sixing nodded. “Alright, I’ll drink it all finish. It absolutely won’t go to waste.” Even though he had already grabbed a bit of breakfast on his way to the hospital and wasn’t particularly hungry right now. Qin Sixing’s latter sentence was clearly spoken for Yuan An’s benefit.
Yuan An looked at him with a smile and nodded as well, and only then did he walk slowly out of the ward under Auntie Su’s support. The two didn’t go far, merely walking back and forth at a leisurely pace along the corridor outside the ward.
“Mr. Qin hasn’t been in Hejiang City for long. I didn’t expect him to make a friend like Yuan’yuan so quickly,” Auntie Su remarked.
Yuan An laughed softly and said, “Mr. Qin is so gentle; there must be a lot of people who want to be friends with him.”
Auntie Su shook her head. “He’s only gentle to people he’s familiar with. To everyone else, he wears an expression of being entirely disinclined to bother with them; those who aren’t close to him don’t even dare to speak much with him.”
Hearing this, Yuan An couldn’t help but recall the cold look in his eyes and his unapproachable aura when he had first seen Qin Sixing in that corner of the garden. “Thinking about it now, that’s indeed true. On the first day I met Mr. Qin, he did seem a bit fierce. But on the second day when Mr. Qin saw me, for some unknown reason, his attitude became much gentler.”
Auntie Su let out a hearty laugh and said, “Perhaps it’s because he knows your mind is pure and simple, so he feels you two can interact more. After all, ever since coming to Hejiang City, the ones he faces and contacts are all business partners; there hasn’t been a single person like you appearing by his side.”
Yuan An pondered for a moment and asked, “Auntie, you seem to understand Mr. Qin very well.”
Auntie Su smiled and shook her head, pausing for a beat before adding, “Although Mr. Qin employed me right when he came to Hejiang City, I don’t actually understand him all that well either… I was just blindly guessing just now. Don’t television dramas always play out this way?”
Yuan An let out a somewhat awkward smile upon hearing this. If he remembered correctly, the kind of plot development that appeared in television dramas… didn’t seem applicable to him and Mr. Qin.
Recommended Reads
