If she could originally feel at ease playing dead, now holding the egg tarts, sugar-roasted chestnuts, and mung bean cakes in her hands, Yu Tian could no longer pretend nothing had happened.

She dragged her feet and walked slowly back to the hospital, and just as she rounded the corner to the ophthalmology department, she saw Yan Ming.

It was still lunch break time, not yet time for afternoon clinic hours. Yan Ming was currently standing outside his consultation room talking to a young woman.

Yu Tian was just worrying about finding an excuse, and seeing Yan Ming was busy, he almost instinctively planned to turn around and slip away.

But even though Yan Ming clearly hadn’t looked up and was still talking to the patient about precautions, he seemed to have precisely located her. The moment Yu Tian turned around, Yan Ming had already quickly walked over, reached out to grab her hand, and pulled her behind him.

The woman chatting with Yan Ming indeed stared at Yan Ming holding Yu Tian’s hand for a moment, then glanced at Yu Tian’s face with a complicated expression.

Yu Tian almost instinctively wanted to break free from Yan Ming’s hand, but after Yan Ming grabbed it, he didn’t let go, instead gripping it a bit tighter.

He turned his head to look at Yu Tian distractedly, his gaze carrying a warning, but his tone was like explaining or reporting: “A former female patient. Wait for me for one minute, I’ll finish quickly. I have something to discuss with you.”

It must be said that Yan Ming indeed kept his word. One minute later, he finished communicating with the patient, then turned to look at Yu Tian.

This time Yan Ming finally loosened his grip, but the look in his eyes as he gazed at Yu Tian didn’t seem very trusting: “I’m going to get something. Stand here and don’t move around, don’t leave, understand?”

Yu Tian couldn’t help but mutter: “Treating me like a prisoner…”

Fortunately, Yan Ming came out quickly and handed Yu Tian a thick stack of papers: “These are some case studies I’ve organized over the past few days. You can do a quick ophthalmology educational series to debunk some commonly misunderstood ophthalmological medical knowledge.”

Yan Ming paused, then added: “I’ve already removed all the patients’ privacy information. You can use this as material.”

Yu Tian looked at this heavy stack of papers in her hands, somewhat incredulous: “You organized so many cases in just a few days?”

This would be impossible even working without sleep, food, or drink…

Yan Ming lowered his gaze, his voice steady and calm, as if very casual and natural: “These are all cases encountered during clinic hours, accumulated since my first day seeing outpatients.”

Yu Tian took this stack of papers, feeling that anything she said would sound inadequate.

What precious material this was!

Some experienced doctors, regarding their accumulated experience, either don’t have time to systematically organize it, or after organizing it, keep it private, only sharing it with “disciples” of their faction. Being willing to give her so much material, Yu Tian felt that a simple “thank you” could no longer express her current emotions.

She looked at Yan Ming with bright, grateful eyes.

However, before she could voice her thanks, she heard Yan Ming cough: “Originally these were recorded fragmentedly in various computer documents, never having a chance to organize them. Your idea to do an educational series actually forced me to systematically organize all this material and cases at once. So there’s no need to thank me—perhaps I should thank you instead for curing my procrastination.”

“I selected cases that are relatively simple and easy to understand, but also easily misunderstood by the general public without professional ophthalmological knowledge.” As Yan Ming spoke, he pulled out one page. “For example, in this case, the patient believed an online beauty remedy that hemorrhoid cream could remove dark circles, so she applied hemorrhoid cream around her eyes. But hemorrhoid cream’s main ingredients are musk, rhubarb, borneol, borax, and calculus bovis—highly irritating substances. After applying it, the patient developed allergic swelling and stinging pain. When she came for examination, she already had severe conjunctivitis.”

“And this patient went to a bar all night and wore contact lenses overnight, nearly causing corneal perforation. Many young women only think contacts look good and assume they’re safe because many people wear them, so they rarely pay attention to such matters. Eye problems caused by contact lenses occur very frequently each year.”

“There’s also this elderly man who heard that scraping the inside of eyelids with coins could treat trachoma. He found two one-yuan coins and scraped vigorously. While using coins for scraping can indeed crush trachoma follicles on the conjunctival surface and, to some extent, reduce trachoma symptoms, even if this procedure were to be done, it should be by someone with professional knowledge. Moreover, the old man’s coins weren’t sterilized and had too many bacteria, directly causing eye infection. The next day, his vision was blurry, and by the time he came, he already had corneal ulceration.”

Time was limited, so Yan Ming only picked a few to explain, but Yu Tian’s eyes were already shining.

The angles Yan Ming selected were truly excellent. This was material that could only be accumulated by working as an ophthalmologist. Even though Yu Tian had done extensive research before, she rarely found such vivid cases that were both intriguing and had great educational value—perfect for social media content.

Yu Tian had originally felt somewhat embarrassed and awkward facing Yan Ming, but at this moment, these emotions were all replaced by the excitement of rolling up her sleeves for a big project.

She solemnly accepted the materials Yan Ming had given her and earnestly expressed her thanks.

“Oh, and about what you left for me during lunch, thank you. But why did you leave me those things?”

Yan Ming turned his head slightly to look at the greenery in the distance: “You went out in the middle.”

So?

“When you came back, the food should have been cold, or eaten by Qi Sihao. I figured you probably didn’t eat enough.”

The hospital was quite noisy, lunch break was about to end, and patients were already waiting at the clinic door. Yet Yu Tian felt the surroundings had become very quiet, so quiet that only she and Yan Ming existed.

Yu Tian felt somewhat embarrassed, her voice dry: “You saw me…”

Yan Ming’s voice was light: “As an ophthalmologist, my eyesight is naturally very good.”

Yu Tian wanted to escape a bit, but she was still holding the heavy case materials Yan Ming had organized. It wouldn’t be right to burn bridges so quickly. She only regretted that clinic time hadn’t arrived yet, and why this batch of patients was so considerate, absolutely refusing to pester the doctor before official consultation hours.

Yu Tian hoped Yan Ming would take the initiative to say goodbye and leave for something, but Yan Ming didn’t. He stood in front of Yu Tian as if waiting for her to speak.

Yu Tian felt like a donkey with a blindfold ready to turn a millstone—it seemed that without doing something, she’d be letting down all the preparations, and she was somewhat trapped.

So Yu Tian almost randomly changed the subject as if searching for conversation: “Why did you buy egg tarts, sugar-roasted chestnuts, and mung bean cakes?”

Although it was a casual question, Yu Tian was indeed curious about this.

These three items had no connection whatsoever, and as far as Yu Tian knew, the shops selling these three things near the restaurant were quite far apart, especially the shop selling mung bean cakes, which was nearly a whole street away from the restaurant. Why did Yan Ming specifically choose these three items?

Yu Tian looked up: “Do you like these three things?”

Yan Ming looked away and didn’t answer at first. He turned to look at the sunlight outside the window, and as if stung by the blazing sun, Yan Ming quickly withdrew his gaze and turned to look at Yu Tian.

“It’s not what I like.” His tone was calm and natural. “It’s what you wanted to eat.”

These three items were indeed snacks Yu Tian quite liked, but…

“When did I ever say that?”

Yu Tian was genuinely confused—she couldn’t remember at all.

Yan Ming was expressionless: “You said it last night.”

Mentioning last night, Yan Ming remained completely calm and composed as usual, but Yu Tian wasn’t doing so well. She became flustered and nervous, nervously brushing back hair that hadn’t even fallen, looking away with a dry voice shirking responsibility: “Last night… I, I drank a bit too much and forgot a little…”

But Yan Ming didn’t have the awareness to follow the excuse Yu Tian had given him: “I think your memory is quite good.”

This man looked at her: “If you forgot, why are you avoiding me?”

“…”

“Your acting is too poor, as poor as your Photoshop skills. You should practice.”

Yu Tian was rendered speechless by Yan Ming’s blockade. She hadn’t expected all her behavior to be seen through by Yan Ming.

Originally, she could still play dumb, but now that Yan Ming had exposed everything directly, no matter how reluctant Yu Tian was, she could only bite the bullet and speak up.

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t avoiding you, just couldn’t face what I did last night.” Yu Tian’s voice became very low, as if she thought that speaking quietly could hide everything. She explained in a flustered and stammering manner, “I thought I was dreaming. If I had known it wasn’t a dream, I absolutely wouldn’t have done that…”

Yan Ming seemed to buy this explanation. He glanced at Yu Tian: “Oh, normally you absolutely wouldn’t do that.”

Yu Tian nodded eagerly: “Mm-hmm.”

“So, in dreams, you can treat me like that?”

“…” Yu Tian’s voice was dry: “I was drunk, it wasn’t specifically targeting you.”

As a result, Yan Ming became even more sarcastically strange: “Oh, not specifically targeting me, so when you’re drunk, you kiss anyone, right?”

“…”

At this moment, Yu Tian very much wished she possessed superpowers to make Yan Ming lose his memory or change the past. However, the reality was that she was cornered by Yan Ming at the clinic door, like a perpetrator who had ruined someone else’s innocence, having to give the victim an explanation.

When encountering such matters, one should comfort the victim, maintain a proper attitude, and show a compensatory gesture.

Yu Tian was probably desperately trying anything. She rummaged in her bag for a long time and tremblingly placed the chocolate she had just bought into Yan Ming’s hands.

“Eat this and forget about that incident.” She smiled ingratiatingly. “A successful doctor like you should allocate your memory to more important things, not remember such meaningless incidents, right?”

Although she said this, Yu Tian’s gaze toward the chocolate still showed reluctance. This chocolate was very rare and hard to buy, but it was Yu Tian’s favorite flavor. She had finally found the last bar by chance in a boutique supermarket…

Yu Tian taking out the chocolate as “tribute” was purely a gesture, since she had nothing else presentable in her bag. Based on her understanding of Yan Ming, he would most likely coldly refuse the chocolate and then let the drunken incident pass.

However, contrary to Yu Tian’s expectations, just as she was waiting for Yan Ming to return the chocolate, she saw Yan Ming directly and decisively take the chocolate from her hands.

“Alright.”

Yan Ming smiled and turned to leave, easily accepting one chocolate bar as “compensation.”

But if he accepted it, Yu Tian couldn’t accept it.

Her chocolate…

“Wait! How about, for the sake of a good omen for our reconciliation, we split this chocolate in half? It would represent the two of us making peace and reuniting…”

To get her chocolate back, Yu Tian was becoming somewhat incoherent.

Unfortunately, she met with Yan Ming’s unhesitant refusal. This man deliberately drew out his tone, like a cat that had caught a little bird but wasn’t in a hurry to eat it: “That wouldn’t be quite right.”

“What’s not right about it?” Yu Tian’s voice became less confident, but she still couldn’t help muttering: “If half won’t work, a third would be fine…”

“We can hardly be called reuniting.” Yan Ming stopped teasing Yu Tian. He pushed the chocolate back into Yu Tian’s hands. “Next time, don’t pretend to be generous with things you want to eat and keep—don’t give them to others.”

Although she got the chocolate back, being seen through and exposed by Yan Ming, Yu Tian only felt her face burning hot, and couldn’t help but deny: “That’s not true. You can take the chocolate.”

“Your face clearly says that if I took this chocolate today, you’d hold a grudge for life and bring up this chocolate forever in future arguments.”

Because Yu Tian stubbornly wouldn’t accept it, Yan Ming directly stuffed the chocolate back into Yu Tian’s bag: “Keep it.”

Yan Ming looked away, his voice becoming somewhat light: “You’re so vengeful. I haven’t done anything wrong, yet I’ve already been treated like this in your dreams. If I took the chocolate, who knows what else you’d do?”

“…”

This time Yan Ming looked up. He gazed at Yu Tian, showed his teeth in a smile, and said in a very annoying tone, teasingly: “I’m quite scared.”

“…” Yu Tian looked at this handsome face before her, not knowing how she could have been so bewitched when drunk.

This person, Yan Ming, appeared serious and aloof on the surface, but deep down, he really… sometimes made people want to hit him.

Just as Yu Tian was getting huffily angry and about to emotionally explode, Yan Ming, like a bomb disposal expert, always managed to swiftly dismantle her about-to-detonate explosive device with precise and steady techniques in one second.

“I’ve remembered your favorite chocolate brand and flavor. I’ll buy it for you next time.”

This man stared into Yu Tian’s eyes for a moment, then looked away: “So you won’t have to betray your country for a chocolate bar in the future, and who knows what else you might do.”

Yu Tian’s heart began beating rapidly again.

She felt like sitting on a cliff swing—both frightened and anxious with heart palpitations, yet seemingly infatuated with the scenery spread out below when the swing flew high, carrying a secret expectation like Lord Ye’s love for dragons.

She seemed unable to guess what Yan Ming would do or say.

People naturally feel uneasy about the unknown and uncontrollable, yet Yu Tian felt both uneasy and not so uneasy.

She almost frantically began gathering the long hair falling by her ears: “Why would you buy me chocolate… you haven’t done anything wrong, there’s nothing you need to apologize to me for…”

“Of course I don’t need to apologize.”

Yan Ming pressed his lips together, his gaze sweeping over Yu Tian: “I’m thanking Lei Feng.”

Yu Tian hadn’t reacted yet when she heard Yan Ming’s voice low: “Thank you, Lei Feng, but don’t stand up for me next time. Being misunderstood or slandered by patient families is something a mature doctor should learn to handle. I told you before, you should protect yourself first.”

Yu Tian’s previously huffily agitated heart seemed to quickly become like a drought-stricken land suddenly meeting sweet rain—instantly, all those dry, cracked wounds were smoothed over. Her heart became tender, her emotions peaceful.

So Yan Ming had seen everything.

Yu Tian suddenly thought of something else and somewhat indignantly brought up old grievances: “So you’re not allowed to call me an ungrateful little wolf anymore. Look how I repay kindness.”

“Got it.” Yan Ming’s lips curved in a smile, his voice becoming light. He glanced at Yu Tian. “I was wrong. You’re a dog that looks like a little white-eyed wolf.”

“…” Could this person ever say anything nice?

“Why is it always dogs or wolves with you? Don’t you have any other good words?”

“A loyal little dog.” But Yan Ming still smiled. “What’s wrong with that? Little dogs are very cute.”

If it were Qi Sihao, Yu Tian’s fist would have already greeted him. But the person in front of her was Yan Ming, and he was smiling like that, looking very happy. Yu Tian felt she couldn’t raise her hand, only glaring at him twice unwillingly.

Seeing Yu Tian’s unfriendly expression, Yan Ming restrained his expression slightly, looking at Yu Tian: “Angry?”

You know that, too!

Just as Yu Tian was about to say something, Yan Ming’s expression, which had been restrained for just one second, bloomed again like a flower bud. He smiled again, as if he couldn’t help it.

After staring at Yu Tian for a few seconds, this man calmly concluded: “You look even more like a little dog when angry.”

“…” What a fearless person.

Yu Tian took a deep breath: “Yan Ming, do you think I can’t hit you?”

“Probably not.” Yan Ming fearlessly pointed at the patients not far away, waiting for clinic hours to begin. “If you hit me, what about these patients?”

“…”

Fine, Yu Tian was completely out of temper.

She discovered that actually, this person Yan Ming appeared cold and aloof like an untouchable sacred flower, but in reality, he wasn’t anything good either, quite bad. She never got the better of him in any encounter.

However, when she rushed out to argue with the troublemaking old woman, she hadn’t thought about seeking credit, but at this moment, Yu Tian suddenly desperately wanted to seek credit—

“Since you know what Lei Feng did, do you think just buying me a few chocolates is enough?” Yu Tian cleared her throat. “Don’t you think there should be some other gesture?”

Now holding the ophthalmology cases Yan Ming had organized, plus her previous research and organization, Yu Tian felt that just booking five episodes with Yan Ming for the ophthalmology series was far from enough. She wanted more and had been worrying about not finding an excuse to ask Yan Ming, but now it came without effort.

After Yu Tian spoke, she stared at Yan Ming with her eyes, frantically hinting.

Yan Ming indeed seemed stunned, but perhaps the request for several more episodes was too much. After all, Yan Ming was so busy. Yu Tian’s words made Yan Ming somewhat uncomfortable, too. Probably embarrassed that he couldn’t spare more time to help Yu Tian with filming, Yan Ming’s ears had already turned red with shame.

This made Yu Tian feel somewhat guilty. She was about to speak up and say it was a joke to ease the awkwardness when she saw Yan Ming suddenly reach out toward her.

Under Yu Tian’s surprised and bewildered gaze, Yan Ming’s hand precisely “landed” on top of Yu Tian’s head. Before she could react, a warm sensation came from her head—Yan Ming rubbed the top of Yu Tian’s head like petting a little dog.

Yu Tian stared at Yan Ming.

Yan Ming paused, then somewhat unnaturally but righteously said: “Is that not enough?”

His face showed helpless and troubled expressions, but his hand still reached out and, under Yu Tian’s dumbfounded gaze, reached toward Yu Tian’s head to gently pat it.

?

As a result, the surprise on Yu Tian’s face was misread. Yan Ming stared at her face for a moment, frowned slightly as if somewhat hesitant, but ultimately, he reached out again to rub Yu Tian’s head.

??

No…

Yu Tian was utterly bewildered: “Why are you touching my head?”

Yan Ming’s expression was calm and composed: “Didn’t you want me to show some gesture? You kept staring at me like that.”

“Alright, that’s about enough.” Then Yan Ming raised his wrist to check his watch. The clinic is about to start. You should go back.”

???

Before turning to enter the consultation room, Yan Ming seemed to remember something and turned back: “However, you’ve accepted my thanks, but I haven’t accepted your apology yet.”

“Huh?”

Yan Ming pressed his lips together: “The chocolate you used to apologize, I already returned to you.”

“…”

“So I haven’t accepted your apology yet.” He smiled slightly and casually clipped his pen into his white coat pocket. “After all, using just chocolate to apologize and make amends is indeed too easy on you.”

“…”

“Also, the 100,000 yuan wasn’t extorted—it was worth it. I haven’t gone bankrupt either, so at least I can still buy you chocolate.”

Yan Ming gave Yu Tian a look that said, “I’ll settle the rest with you later” before turning to enter the consultation room.

He hadn’t said anything outrageous, yet Yu Tian felt she might need to see a cardiologist too—that one look from Yan Ming had made her heartbeat irregular.

Yu Tian couldn’t help but curse silently.

Yan Ming was too infuriating.