Dai Xin was very good at conversation. Regarding Yu Tian’s show of goodwill, he clearly understood the concept of reciprocity and praised Yu Tian in return.

This was a positive interaction, and Yu Tian couldn’t help but praise him more and more smoothly—

“And I see on your WeChat Moments so many baking things. Did you make them all yourself? I think that’s amazing! Compared to those who can’t even cook for themselves, either eating instant noodles or enslaving their little sisters, a big brother like you is simply fantastic. You seem like you’re talented in everything!”

Although she was praising Dai Xin, Yu Tian’s words actually carried some resentment.

Directed at a certain ophthalmologist.

Of course, in reality, Yan Ming was far from being that bad. He just wasn’t close to Yu Tian and had no motivation or purpose to become close. His good points far outweighed his flaws.

Yu Tian understood all the logic, but that didn’t prevent her from being an emotional creature.

She still really wanted to scold Yan Ming.

However, Dai Xin’s voice soon called Yu Tian’s thoughts back. Looking at Dai Xin smiling at her across the table, thinking about how everything seemed to be going smoothly between her mother and his father this time, and that they might form a family in the future, she genuinely felt that this gentle and approachable big brother in front of her might be more suitable for her.

So Yu Tian’s praise for Dai Xin became more sincere and earnest.

Just as Yu Tian was getting into her stride and really getting carried away with her praise, her phone’s WeChat notification chimed. Yu Tian glanced at it and saw it was from Qi Sihao. It probably wasn’t anything urgent, especially since this guy had sent several messages in a row—it was probably just some gossip sharing.

Yu Tian didn’t bother looking at the content and immediately flipped her phone screen down on the table to show her respect for Dai Xin.

Dai Xin seemed unconcerned: “If it’s important information, go ahead and reply. I don’t mind.”

“It’s not important,” Yu Tian smiled. “Having dinner with you is more important.”

But just as Yu Tian finished speaking, there was a loud throat-clearing sound from the private dining area behind the curtain next to them.

Why did that sound somewhat familiar?

Yu Tian didn’t pay much attention and was about to continue speaking when her phone suddenly rang.

After the barrage of WeChat messages, Qi Sihao had directly called her.

Dai Xin was very considerate: “Go ahead and answer. There might be something urgent—don’t let it be delayed.”

This wasn’t Qi Sihao’s usual behavior, so Yu Tian became somewhat nervous and answered the call—

“Hello? Qi Sihao? What’s wrong?”

Because the surrounding diners were somewhat noisy, Yu Tian had to raise her voice slightly. Qi Sihao also seemed to be in a noisy place. Before she could hear what Qi Sihao was saying, there was the sound of a server accidentally breaking a plate nearby, and almost simultaneously, that same sound came through from Qi Sihao’s end of the phone call as background noise.

“…”

Yu Tian suddenly had an ominous premonition.

And it was then that she finally heard Qi Sihao’s deliberately lowered voice clearly—

“We’re right next to you!!!”

“…”

Yu Tian’s hand trembled, and she hung up the phone in shock. Just then, the server lifted the curtain to bring in dishes, securing the curtain open to continuously serve food to Yu Tian’s table. Through the gap where the curtain was lifted, Yu Tian looked over and made eye contact with the people inside the neighboring curtained area.

It was the doctors and nurses from the First Affiliated Hospital who had come for the free clinic, filling the table next door.

Qi Sihao was sitting closest to Yu Tian, looking at her with a sympathetic expression as if he couldn’t bear to watch.

Several nurses who were also familiar with Yu Tian, not understanding the situation, greeted Yu Tian with smiles after their initial surprise.

Yu Tian steeled herself to look over, and sure enough, Yan Ming was there too.

He was sitting at the far end of the table, originally drinking tea. Hearing the commotion, he seemed to instinctively look over, then gave Yu Tian a casual glance, like randomly noticing some greenery, without lingering for even a second before shifting his gaze away. His expression was naturally calm, without any emotional fluctuation.

He didn’t hear, right?

After all, his position was very far from hers, unlike Qi Sihao, who was so close.

The server quickly finished serving all the dishes and lowered the curtain again, once more separating the two worlds, as if isolating all that embarrassment and anxiety outside.

Only then did Yu Tian open Qi Sihao’s WeChat messages, discovering they were filled with his outraged complaints—

“Yu Tian, you’re putting one down while lifting another!”

“Of course, Yan Ming is my romantic rival, so I wouldn’t mind if you scolded him to death, but at least be vague about the background! What you’re saying now is way too obvious! Completely targeting Yan Ming! You might as well just announce Yan Ming’s ID number!”

“Listen to my advice—next time before you praise your new big brother like this, first observe and confirm the surrounding environment!”

“You’ve shown me how terrifying women can be when they favor the new and abandon the old!”

Looking at line after line of text on the screen, Yu Tian felt her cheeks burning.

All those words she had just said seemed to replay in her mind thousands of times. Yu Tian had spoken to them without much thought, but now she felt guilty in hindsight.

Had her inner complaints and dissatisfaction with Yan Ming accumulated to this extent? So much so that, like water filling a kettle, with just a slight careless shake, it involuntarily spilled out?

However, what was comforting was that Yan Ming probably hadn’t heard.

With his composed expression and distant gaze, he didn’t even seem very integrated into the lively atmosphere of the clinic, the doctors and nurses. He was probably daydreaming outside their conversation anyway, so he hadn’t noticed what was being said in the neighboring curtained area, especially since he was sitting so far from Yu Tian’s position.

Yu Tian breathed a sigh of relief and decided to remember Qi Sihao’s teaching—in the future, before cursing anyone, she must first look in all four directions.

However, Yu Tian’s shocked expression and behavior still aroused Dai Xin’s curiosity. He asked with concern: “What’s wrong? Did something happen? Is there anything I can help with?”

Seeing how thoughtful and caring he was, Yu Tian felt somewhat embarrassed. She smiled and briefly explained: “I just suddenly discovered that my friend is sitting in the private dining area right next to our curtain…”

But she underestimated the enthusiasm of a hospitable person. Dai Xin was not only enthusiastic toward his potential future sister, but he had endless enthusiasm for everything through the principle of loving the house and its crow.

Before Yu Tian could finish speaking, Dai Xin had already raised his tea cup: “Since they’re your friends, they’re also my friends. Since we’re all sitting next door, it’s fate. I should toast them with tea instead of wine and say hello.”

As he spoke, he was already lifting the curtain and walking next door without allowing any objection…

Yu Tian had no choice but to steel herself and follow with her teacup.

Dai Xin was indeed opposite to Yan Ming’s personality. If Yan Ming was socially cold, then undoubtedly Dai Xin was a social butterfly.

He wasn’t embarrassed at all and naturally raised his tea cup to toast with several unsuspecting doctors and nurses.

Dai Xin spoke with humor and liveliness, and soon several doctors became familiar with him.

Although his looks couldn’t compare to Yan Ming’s otherworldly appearance, he was still quite handsome, sunny, and attractive. Several young nurses immediately had wandering eyes, and after subtly determining that Dai Xin was single, they actively asked for his WeChat.

The only one immune to Dai Xin was Yan Ming.

This socially cold individual still sat properly and quietly at one end of the dining table, as if completely uninterested in the newly appeared “friend.” He didn’t even spare many glances for Yu Tian.

Perhaps completely different temperaments attracted Dai Xin instead. After chatting and laughing with several doctors and nurses, he walked directly to Yan Ming’s side and introduced himself openly—

“Hello, I’m Dai Xin, Xiao Yu’s big brother.”

Yan Ming politely but distantly nodded: “Hello, I’m Yan Ming.” His gaze calmly swept over Yu Tian. “I’m also Yu Tian’s big brother.”

???

Not just Yu Tian—even Dai Xin was stunned: “Ah?”

Dai Xin looked toward Yu Tian with a somewhat surprised expression, as if wanting confirmation.

But before he could speak, Yan Ming expressionlessly added: “Oh, I forgot to mention—not anymore.”

“…”

Dai Xin was oblivious to the deathly atmosphere between Yu Tian and Yan Ming. He asked somewhat slowly: “How can you not be anymore?”

Yan Ming’s expression remained calm and composed. He smiled at Dai Xin, his tone light and breezy: “Because the character design doesn’t quite match, so I’ve been fired.”

“…”

Yan Ming glanced at Yu Tian and added, “Just received the termination notice.”

“…”

Yan Ming’s expression was unruffled, as if he had just casually said “I haven’t eaten yet,” but Yu Tian was already so embarrassed she wanted to become a mole on the spot and dig a hole to escape directly, because she felt that if she didn’t run soon, Yan Ming was going to pick up a hammer and play whack-a-mole.

Because several doctors had just been talking about something funny and burst into laughter, almost drowning out Yan Ming’s voice, Yu Tian, who was standing beside Yan Ming, heard his last two sentences clearly, but Dai Xin didn’t hear everything.

Not understanding the situation, Dai Xin naturally treated Yan Ming as a friend familiar with Yu Tian and automatically assumed Yan Ming was joking. He just laughed and patted Yan Ming’s back, then quickly turned to greet other doctors.

But Yu Tian could hardly stand it anymore.

Almost like fleeing, before Dai Xin was ready to turn back and chat with Yan Ming again, Yu Tian grabbed Dai Xin’s sleeve: “Brother Xin, let’s, let’s go back quickly. The food will get cold, and the doctors are busy…”

Fortunately, this time Dai Xin also slapped his forehead, somewhat enlightened and apologetic: “You all need to get back to the hospital, right? We won’t disturb you anymore!”

He smiled and raised his teacup in a gesture, then followed Yu Tian back to their private dining area.

During the second half of the meal with Dai Xin, Yu Tian couldn’t focus wholeheartedly, no matter what. Dai Xin was still enthusiastically talking about content creator matters and some live streaming tips, but Yu Tian couldn’t listen anymore. Her heart was drawn to the other side of the curtain.

She could hear Jiang Yuming’s hearty laughter, then Qi Sihao’s flattering voice, and the sound of several nurses being amused, but there was no sound from Yan Ming.

The quieter Yan Ming was, the more panicked Yu Tian felt.

She still remembered that cool look Yan Ming had given her earlier.

Yan Ming’s gaze was very calm, but precisely because of this, Yu Tian felt even more chilled to the bone.

Because she couldn’t guess Yan Ming’s thoughts at all, nor did she know what storm was brewing in his heart.

But somehow, Yu Tian had a feeling that the calmer Yan Ming was, the angrier he was…

She should avoid appearing in front of Yan Ming and adding to his troubles recently.

Although Jiang Yuming was thick-skinned, after several days of Yan Ming’s low pressure, even dull-witted, he could sense that Yan Ming was in a bad mood.

In the spirit of caring for his friend, he inquired about Yan Ming when they were having lunch after their clinic ended.

“You’ve been acting strange lately, haven’t you? Did you encounter some trouble? Want me to give you some advice?”

Unfortunately, Yan Ming flatly denied it: “No. I’m not in a bad mood.”

He was as concise as always. After speaking, he paused and looked up at Jiang Yuming: “Why do you think I’m in a bad mood?”

“Haven’t you noticed? Lately, you’re not interested in any topic I bring up. Whatever I say, you just perfunctorily respond with ‘oh’ or ‘really?’ in monosyllables.”

The more Jiang Yuming spoke, the more he felt this was the case. He looked suspiciously at Yan Ming: “When I had symptoms like yours before, it was after being rejected and heartbroken. Yan Ming, you couldn’t have been dumped and heartbroken, could you?”

This made Yan Ming’s attitude intense. He almost didn’t give Jiang Yuming a chance to continue analyzing before decisively interrupting him: “I’m not dating anyone. Where would heartbreak come from?”

“Then you…”

Yan Ming coughed, unnaturally saying: “It’s just that there have been quite a few clinic and surgery patients recently, all very young girls, but their eyes all had very serious problems. Several went blind.”

Jiang Yuming was somewhat curious: “How did that happen?”

“Medical aesthetics caused it.” Yan Ming rubbed his brow and looked away from Jiang Yuming’s gaze. “They went to unknown medical aesthetic institutions, probably unlicensed—essentially illegal medical practice. But because the prices were cheaper than regular hospitals and they spent big money on social media advertising, many young girls went there to become beautiful.”

“Just this week, I’ve received five cases of blindness caused by hyaluronic acid injections. All very young—one was only seventeen, and the other four were all just in their early twenties.”

Jiang Yuming became serious upon hearing this: “Can vision be restored with treatment for this condition?”

“The prognosis is generally not very good; it’s hard to say. Normally, hyaluronic acid injections shouldn’t cause blindness—the probability is very small. But once it occurs, the prognosis is very poor. Because blindness indicates incorrect injection technique—possibly excessive force during injection, wrong method, injecting hyaluronic acid into blood vessels, then traveling through vessels into the eye’s arteries, causing arterial thrombosis, leading to retinal nerve ischemia and resulting in blindness.”

Among these five patients, except for two older ones who came for registration and anticoagulation treatment as soon as they discovered problems, the other three first went to the medical aesthetic institutions. Under the institutions’ false reassurance that this was normal and would recover after the hyaluronic acid was absorbed, they delayed for two days. When they came to me, it was too late. The prognosis probably won’t be good—their vision most likely will never recover.”

“Besides these serious cases, there are also various inflammatory infections caused by colored contact lenses. One child was too lazy to remove contact lenses and wore them continuously for a day and night, directly causing corneal perforation.”

“These irregular medical aesthetic institutions are harmful!” Jiang Yuming was indignant. “You know, although we doctors can treat many diseases, if these young people had some medical knowledge and awareness of medical risks, these problems simply wouldn’t occur. If only there could be good health education—how harmful this is!”

As Jiang Yuming spoke, he suddenly thought of something: “Hey! Your sister Xiao Yu—didn’t I hear she’s doing medical science education on social media? Why don’t you ask Xiao Yu to make a program episode to properly educate young people?”

Jiang Yuming thought Yan Ming wouldn’t respond to him, but this usually economical speaker opened his mouth.

“She might not have time.” Yan Ming pressed his lips together, his voice cool: “I see she’s quite busy.”

With Yan Ming saying this, Jiang Yuming realized it had indeed been a long time since he’d seen Yu Tian.

He wondered: “The last time I saw her was during that free clinic meal. What’s the relationship between that man and her? He introduced himself as her big brother, but aren’t you her big brother? When I chatted with her before, I never heard her mention having a biological brother or a cousin brother.”

Yan Ming was too lazy to explain the whole story of his father and her mother’s breakup and remained silent.

“Couldn’t it be that kind of ambiguous ‘big brother’?” Jiang Yuming didn’t mind. He stared at Yan Ming: “Speaking of which, let me ask you something—does Xiao Yu have a boyfriend? Is that guy her new boyfriend? I haven’t seen her at the hospital recently, so is she busy dating, and that’s why she’s disappeared?”

Yan Ming’s voice was cold and indifferent: “He’s not her boyfriend.”

Jiang Yuming became interested. He had a plan and nudged Yan Ming with his elbow: “Since she’s not dating, let’s invite Xiao Yu out to seriously plan some medical science education videos. We’ll start with the potential risks of medical aesthetics for young people’s eyes. I can also contribute an episode on how people of different ages should supplement calcium to maintain bone health.”

Jiang Yuming’s calculations were good: “You know, benefits shouldn’t flow to outsiders. I think Xiao Yu is beautiful and kind-hearted, and she’s our junior. She must understand the hardships of our profession very well. Since she’s single, why let others benefit instead of us?”

“With our friendship, after your parents become family and Xiao Yu and I get together, you’ll be my future brother-in-law, and I’ll be filial to you.”

As Jiang Yuming spoke, he made his decision: “Wait for me—I’ll call Xiao Yu.”

He had struggled with this decision for a while. Yu Tian was too beautiful, and Jiang Yuming always worried that such a girl had too many suitors and would look down on someone with his conditions. However, after several interactions, he discovered that Yu Tian didn’t have the arrogance and self-importance of beautiful women, so he became interested.

Moreover, the moon is closest to the pavilion near the water. If Yu Tian became family with Yan Ming, wouldn’t that be perfect? He could use Yan Ming to create many opportunities for contact with Yu Tian!

But just as Jiang Yuming finally mustered the courage to take the initiative, picking up his phone—

The previously languid Yan Ming efficiently took out his phone and dialed Yu Tian’s number before Jiang Yuming could act.

He glanced at Jiang Yuming and said concisely: “I’ll do it.”

Despite Yan Ming’s usually cold and indifferent appearance, at the crucial moment, he still treated him as a close brother!

This was because he was afraid Jiang Yuming would hesitate and miss the opportunity, so he was actively helping create opportunities with Yu Tian!

If he suddenly contacted Yu Tian himself, wouldn’t that be somewhat abrupt?

But having Yan Ming, the future stepbrother, make contact was too appropriate and natural! And he could use this opportunity to subtly and imperceptibly infiltrate Yu Tian’s life, slowly boiling the frog in warm water until finally succeeding in getting out of singlehood!

Brilliant!

Jiang Yuming was extremely moved: “Yan Ming! If Yu Tian and I get together, I’ll give you a matchmaker’s red envelope and a big pork knuckle! And wedding candy too!”

Yan Ming remained noncommittal, but Jiang Yuming was still almost moved to tears by Yan Ming’s friendship.

What is friendship? This is friendship!

At the crucial moment, standing up for a friend’s future—this is loyalty!

Jiang Yuming’s heart was full of emotions, and even his gaze toward Yan Ming was almost tender.

Yan Ming had no girlfriend himself, yet still cared about his friend, letting him get out of singlehood first. This level of magnanimity—Jiang Yuming examined his conscience and knew that if he were single, he definitely wouldn’t have the generosity to actively introduce beautiful women to Yan Ming.

Unfortunately, regarding his gratitude, Yan Ming remained indifferent.

During the wait for Yu Tian to answer, he said nothing and didn’t even look at Jiang Yuming.

Soon, the call connected, and Yu Tian’s slightly hesitant voice came through Yan Ming’s phone.

“Hello?”

Jiang Yuming leaned in to listen more, but Yan Ming stood up and happened to get some soup, making it impossible for Jiang Yuming to know the content of the call.

But the less information he knew, the more nervous and anxious he felt.

Two minutes later, before Jiang Yuming had emerged from this teenage-like anxiety, Yan Ming had already walked back expressionlessly.

“It’s arranged. We’re meeting for dinner together after work tomorrow.”

Although he wanted to pursue Yu Tian, this progress seemed a bit too fast. Jiang Yuming felt somewhat embarrassed: “Then I’ll bring a suit tomorrow—I bought it for a lot of money when I was my cousin’s groomsman. Clothes make the man. Tonight I’ll also get a haircut and spruce myself up, trying to make Xiao Yu see me in a new light and get to know me again…”

Yan Ming pondered for a moment, then spoke, his voice light: “That’s not necessary to be overly formal. Just be your authentic self. Dating is about honesty—excessive packaging is neither necessary nor meaningful. Dressing simply is also good, and it doesn’t seem deliberate.”

Usually, when Jiang Yuming said this type of thing, Yan Ming’s reaction was often not to respond. So this time, getting such lengthy feedback and advice from him, Jiang Yuming was extremely moved. Although Yan Ming was usually cold and aloof, at crucial moments, he was still trustworthy!

No wonder they say having more friends opens more paths. Isn’t that exactly right!