In that instant, Yu Tian swore she hadn’t done wrong—Yan Ming showed an expression of gritting his teeth while trying his utmost to restrain himself. However, moments later, his expression management became perfect, returning to the calm surface of still water, making it impossible to imagine that a storm had once been brewing beneath, to the point that Yu Tian began to doubt whether she’d had a hallucination.

“Not difficult.”

Every word from Yan Ming seemed squeezed out of his mouth. He looked at Yu Tian somewhat viciously, but his subsequent fluent explanation proved those two words, “not difficult.”

“In the surgery you mentioned, the patient’s acute angle-closure glaucoma had another acute attack. He had experienced multiple acute attacks several years ago, which were relieved after medication treatment at the local clinic, but this attack was severe—the anterior chamber had disappeared, intraocular pressure was high, and the surgical risk was extremely high. Surgery had to be performed by puncturing the anterior chamber when there was no anterior chamber…”

“So first we had to address the surgical difficulty of the disappeared anterior chamber, using a 15-degree blade to pierce through the cornea, allowing a small amount of aqueous humor to flow out, which could create a tiny bit of anterior chamber.”

“Then, using a 5ml needle, after entering the anterior chamber through the puncture site, turn the needle bevel sideways and tilt it, so the aqueous humor slowly flows out through the needle, first reducing the intraocular pressure. This way, the problems of anterior chamber and eye pressure are alleviated, creating possibilities for surgery.”

What Yan Ming was explaining now was a peripheral iridectomy surgery he had once performed. For some intraoperative issues and surgical approaches that Yu Tian had recorded in her notebook, he provided very detailed explanations.

“But due to the patient’s wishes—he didn’t want too major a surgery and was unwilling to bear the risks of hospitalization after major surgery—so when performing the peripheral iridectomy, we didn’t use forceps to deeply enter the anterior chamber to grasp the iris. Instead, we adopted what you saw in the subsequent video recording: gently pressing the posterior lip of the corneal limbal incision, grasping the iris protruding from the incision, and performing circumcision. This way, the surgical incision respected the patient’s wishes and was kept very small.”

Yan Ming added here, “The patient was a migrant worker working at a construction site. First, if it were major surgery requiring subsequent hospitalization, the cost would be high; second, he had elderly parents above and young children below, so he couldn’t afford to have major surgery and not work; third, the patient naturally had psychological resistance to major surgery, with considerable psychological pressure.”

Yu Tian nodded repeatedly. Originally, she had been trying to find topics to get closer by talking around the subject, but once they entered this current Q&A session, she couldn’t care about anything else.

Yu Tian almost grabbed onto Yan Ming and questioned him nonstop.

Because her medical foundation wasn’t poor, many problems she couldn’t figure out on her own, Yan Ming only needed to provide slight guidance, and Yu Tian would have enlightening realizations.

She didn’t want to complain about slow service like other dining customers—she only wished the food could come even slower.

Compared to physical appetite, spiritual nourishment was always sweeter.

It was probably the same for Yan Ming.

Once entering the explanation phase, he was very focused, no longer having the strange wariness that Yu Tian had sensed before. For many of Yu Tian’s professional questions, he communicated with her completely without reservation, not minding at all the restaurant’s slow service.

To create ambiance, the restaurant’s lighting was somewhat dim. Outside the window was the evening breeze blowing along the lake, light and shadows of swaying plants were projected on the walls, each dining table had a small lamp stand with scented candles, emanating the intertwined scent of lemon and white musk, ambiguous and elusive, the flickering flames like some kind of unexpected signal.

Yan Ming’s profile was in such light and shadow, close enough to touch, yet seemingly unreachable.

During breaks in listening to his explanations, Yu Tian looked up to see such a scene.

The handsome, cold man was slightly lowering his gaze, his slender fingers with distinct joints pointing at somewhere in the notebook, speaking carefully and attentively.

Yu Tian knew she should concentrate, but still couldn’t control herself from spacing out.

Her gaze wandered, becoming unfocused, unable to look at the words in the notebook. Like a fish swimming aimlessly in water, she warned herself internally to stay alert, yet still couldn’t help but bite at the baited hook at the water’s surface.

Yan Ming’s face was her hook.

Yu Tian stared somewhat dazedly at his profile until Yan Ming’s voice called her back to reason—

“Yu Tian, did you understand this part?”

Yan Ming’s expression was distant, yet the dim yellow light gave him an illusion of gentleness.

He looked at Yu Tian, his voice carrying a slightly cool texture. “You were distracted. If there’s anything where you didn’t follow my reasoning, I can explain it again.”

It was a polite and very appropriate tone, yet Yu Tian’s cheeks grew hot from guilt.

She almost didn’t dare look directly at Yan Ming anymore.

Only secretly despised herself internally.

Humans are visual creatures, and she couldn’t escape this vulgarity either.

But whether fish biting hooks was an inferior habit carved into genes, Yu Tian found herself still involuntarily glancing at Yan Ming’s face.

To refocus her attention and not waste time, Yu Tian made a decision.

She closed her eyes.

Sure enough, the moment she lost her vision, her rationality returned, and academic communication with Yan Ming became smooth again.

However, Yan Ming obviously couldn’t get used to this.

Yu Tian heard him ask in a strange tone, “What are you doing?”

Yu Tian sighed deeply, very emotionally, “I closed my eyes so my thoughts could be smoother and active!”

“It turns out I was good at studying mainly because my teachers were all ugly.”

Her eyes secretly opened a crack, then looked toward Yan Ming, saying sincerely, “Big Brother Yan Ming, fortunately you didn’t stay at school to teach, otherwise our school would have even more students who couldn’t graduate.”

Yan Ming frowned slightly. “What?”

The way to defeat bait is to face the bait directly.

Yu Tian’s voice was righteous, “You’re too good-looking, it’s easy to distract people.”

“…”

After Yu Tian said this, she indeed felt her guilt somewhat relieved.

Rather than being sneaky, it was better to openly praise Yan Ming.

After all, looking like this, if he became her brother in the future, Yu Tian would also be honored.

Moreover, her inner worship of Yan Ming was genuine. Even if he couldn’t become her brother, Yan Ming still had a strong idol filter for Yu Tian.

Great looks, great professional ability—simply excellent in both virtue and talent.

After Yu Tian closed her eyes and directly praised Yan Ming, her heart became frank and calm again, but Yan Ming’s heart went in the opposite direction.

He was quite shocked.

Because Yu Tian had closed her eyes, Yan Ming could look at her without worrying about her reaction.

This person’s face showed no shyness or unease, very calmly and matter-of-factly closing her eyes.

So beautiful, possessing a very sophisticated and coldly stunning face, how could she say such crude, direct, unvarnished flirtation…

The problem was that she could be so natural about it.

Yan Ming stared at Yu Tian’s face, also becoming somewhat distracted for a moment.

Until Yu Tian’s voice again called back Yan Ming’s thoughts.

“Big Brother Yan Ming, where were we just now?”

This guy pretended to close her eyes for a while, then opened them again after not too long, and like nothing happened, pulled Yan Ming back into professional field discussions.

How frank she appeared, as if those crude attempts at winning favor just now had no other intentions, but were just some heartfelt praise.

This discussion could be said to be thoroughly enjoyable. When the food arrived, Yu Tian still felt somewhat unsatisfied.

Fortunately, eating dinner wouldn’t be awkward anymore. While eating, Yu Tian still couldn’t help chatting with Yan Ming about some medical issues and current hospital residency situations. What she had originally thought might be an awkward dinner passed by incredibly quickly without notice.

All of this was also unexpected for Yan Ming.

He had originally thought this would be an awkward and lengthy dinner.

However, when he looked at his watch, he discovered that nearly two hours had passed unknowingly.

When Yu Tian discussed professional topics with him, Yan Ming initially still had some wariness, but as discussions deepened, he also relaxed, even discovering that they had similar views on hospital system reform issues.

However, because he didn’t want to owe Yu Tian a favor for bringing lunch, when the meal was nearly finished, taking advantage of Yu Tian answering a phone call, Yan Ming got up and went to the front desk to pay the bill first.

Payment went smoothly, except that the bill amount was much lower than Yan Ming had expected. He had checked the average price before coming, and now the money paid was only half the average price.

But just as Yan Ming was about to turn around and return to his seat after paying, the server stopped him and handed him a note—

“Sir, this is a love poem your girlfriend wrote for you.”

The server’s expression was full of blessings. “You can keep it as a memento. This is our special surprise. Also, wishing you happiness—you two are perfect together!”

Yan Ming was somewhat surprised. There was no need to explain the misunderstanding to the server. He nodded to them and accepted the so-called “love poem.”

Yu Tian’s confession, though delayed, had arrived. She ultimately hadn’t let this opportunity pass.

But she probably felt it was somewhat embarrassing to say it face-to-face, so she came up with having the server deliver a love poem?

But this love letter was far too crude.

Yan Ming had received many love letters, but this was the first time receiving such a casual one—the love poem the server handed him wasn’t written on any proper paper, but looked like it was directly torn from some notebook.

He frowned, somewhat as if facing a great enemy, as he unfolded it, already calculating in his mind how to tactfully decline.

But the expected tender love poem didn’t appear. Yu Tian’s love poem had only one insincere line—

“I like you, like your mom hitting you, unreasonably.”