That day, Zeng Li walked into the cafe alone, and when she opened the door, she saw that four people had set up a mahjong table in front of the bar, but there were no customers.

When Ma Yi Yi saw Zeng Li, she wailed: "Yu'er, the two of them are playing cards and carrying the sedan chair, it's too much, they only win my money!"

Ning Feng smiled, not knowing how to explain.

Wu Ying said: "I'm willing to bet and admit defeat. Who carried the sedan chair? If you don't want to fight, get out of the way and let Zeng Li get on."

"No way!" Ma Yi Yi pointed at Pan Siyu and said, "Okay, Xiaoyu is here, you can go! Pan Siyu, can you play cards? Are you here to make trouble for me?"

Pan Siyu glanced at Zeng Li aggrievedly.

Zeng Li hurriedly smoothed things over, "I'll take a break and drink some water, and you will play a few games for me first."

While drawing cards, Wu Ying asked Zeng Li: "What were you doing just now? The phone didn't work, and no one answered the phone at home. Where did you go in the middle of the night? Whose phone did you use?"

"My friend." Zeng Li took a glass and took half a glass of water, and took a sip.

After finishing speaking, she couldn't help but glanced outside through the glass. The room was brighter than the street outside, and there was a reflection on the glass, so she couldn't see clearly.

She sat down next to Ma Yi Yi and watched them play two sets.

After a while, a guest actually came in, a young man. He saw the mahjong table in front of the bar and asked uncomfortably, "Can I still eat?"

Zeng Li greeted him immediately with a smile on his face and said, "I'm sorry, there are only drinks."

The young man let out an "oh" and backed out again.

Zeng Li gave the other party a few steps, and inadvertently looked in the direction where he got off the car just now, and suddenly found that Ai Jing Chu's car was still parked where it was.

She doesn't quite believe her own judgment. It's been so long, what's wrong with him? Did his car break down?

She wanted to open the door and go out to see the situation, but Ma Yi Yi called her: "Xiao yu, come here, hurry up and see for me which one I should play and which one to keep, I'm going to faint!"

She had no choice but to sit back again, looked at it and said, "Three strikes."

When she helped Ma Yi Yi sort out the cards in her hand, she heard someone honking the horn hastily on the road. She turned her head and saw Ai Jing Chu's black SUV driving away.

At night, the three of them slept together on the second floor, lying side by side on the same bed and chatting.

"Did you take a taxi by yourself just now, or did someone send you here? So reluctant." Wu Ying said.

"No."

"Obviously something is wrong." Wu Ying said, "Also, whose mobile phone did you use to call me?"

"They said they were friends."

"Who is it?" Ma Yiyi asked.

Zeng Li hesitated.

"You actually have friends that neither of us know? It's weird." Wu Ying said.

"If you look at her like that, you know something is wrong. Where's your phone?" Ma Yi Yi asked Wu Ying the last question.

"What are you doing?" Wu Ying handed it to her.

"She didn't cooperate at all, so let's call back and ask if we know them?" Then she went to look through the call records in Wu Ying's mobile phone.

Zeng Li screamed and went to grab the phone, but she was too weak to grab the two of them.

First, Wu Ying hugged Zeng Li like an octopus, then Ma Yi Yi rode on Zeng Li, pressed her firmly, and then held her mobile phone and said condescendingly to Zeng Li: "Little girl, I'm against you! You know something is tricky just by looking at you like this."

"You have to hurry up, I can't last long here." Wu Ying said.

"Ma Yi Yi, how dare you!" Zeng Li shouted.

"Don't make any noise," Ma Yi Yi said triumphantly, "Otherwise, if I call, people will think what the three of us are doing, and spoil your image."

Zeng Li wanted to cry but had no tears.

As a result, Ma Yi Yi fiddled with her for a while and said, "Wu Ying, how do you turn over the call history on your phone?"

"..." Wu Ying was speechless.

"Stop hitting, it's so late, can I take the initiative to confess?" Zeng Li said helplessly.

"It's more or less the same." Ma Yiyi smiled triumphantly.

Next, Zeng Li told all about this period of time and Ai Jing Chu's affairs.

Ma Yi Yi came to a conclusion: "If he doesn't like you, I'll give you fried fish with a hand plate."

"How is it possible?" Zeng Li was surprised.

"It's clear to the bystanders, Xiaoyu." Wu Ying said.

"He must have wanted to take advantage of you at the time. Listen to me, he was definitely trying to be a hooligan." Ma Yi Yi said again, "You should have slapped him at that time, and then cried and told him to take responsibility, and then we could threaten him and tell him to come to our store as a living sign. As long as you spend 100 or more, you can kiss once, and if you spend 200 or more, you can kiss twice.

Wu Ying twisted Ma Yi Yi's arm hard, interrupting her dream of spring and autumn, "You might as well open a dental clinic and ask him to come to the clinic for more money."

Zeng Li smiled.

Wu Ying asked suddenly: "Do you like him?"

Zeng Li was taken aback, and said that sentence again: "How is it possible?"

"Since you regarded him as a passer-by, and his car was sitting there just now, what are you worrying about?"

"I...I..." Zeng Li said two "I" in succession, and she ran out of words.

In the middle of the night that day, Zeng Li didn't know whether it was because she hadn't slept in this bed for a long time or for some other reason, and couldn't sleep at all. Afraid of affecting Ma Yi Yi's sleep, she turned over gently, but heard Wu Ying who was lying on the sofa calling her in a low voice.

"Zeng Li."

"En?"

"You can't asleep?"

"Yes." Zeng Li asked.

"Me too."

"How are you and Ning Feng?"

"I think he's pretty good, quite likable." Wu Ying replied.

"That's good." Zeng Li smiled.

"What about you?" Wu Ying asked her back.

"About me?"

"Do you think this is unfair to Ai Jing Chu? If he really likes you, what will he think when he knows the truth?" Wu Ying said.

Zeng Li didn't answer.

Wu Ying added: "You know who he is and the relationship between him and Yu Yi, but he doesn't know who you are. Isn't it because of Yu Yi that you approached him?" Because of the sympathy between the two at that time, Wu Ying was the person who knew the relationship between Zeng Li and Yu Yi best.

"I didn't."

"Don't say no, Yi Yi doesn't know, can I still not know? He looks a lot like Yu Yi, doesn't he?"

"Not like."

"You know I'm not talking about looks. When you are in Dongshan, he helps you, just like Yu Yi in his hometown. When you are in trouble, he always comes to save you. How is it different from Yu Yi? You look for Yu Yi's shadow in him, and you want to get news about Yu Yi from him. If he is not Yu Yi's classmate, nor the person who called you for Yu Yi, you will ask him for help the night Ma Yi Yi can't go to Dongshan? You didn't even tell me. Would you get in his car? If you don't have a relationship with Yu Yi in this life, you can't survive? Can you have some backbone?"

In the end, Wu Ying became louder and angrier, and woke up Ma Yi Yi directly.

Ma Yi Yi turned on the light, squinted her eyes, saw Wu Ying sitting on the sofa aggressively, and then looked at Zeng Li who was silent beside her, "What are you two doing in the middle of the night?"

"Didn't you see we were arguing?" Wu Ying was angry.

"We haven't quarrelled for so many years. What are you arguing about? Let's hear it." Ma Yi Yi asked with great interest.

Wu Ying repeated what she said just now.

At this time, Ma Yi Yi knew the relationship between Ai Jing Chu and Yu Yi for the first time.

After she understood it, she immediately picked up the pillow and threw it at Wu Ying, stood on the bed, pointed at Wu Ying's nose and said, "I said, Wu Ying, why are you turning your elbows out and pretending to be a virgin here? Is Yu Yi your own brother, or Ai Jing Chu is your own brother? Didn't you agree not to mention Yu Yi, that bitch man before? It's not our business to be fair or unfair to him? It's not good for him to like whoever he likes, but he likes Xiaoyu! We deserve it for being angry, we Xiaoyu can do whatever we like. Yu Yi is so vicious, we can't deal with him, even his classmates?"

After Ma Yiyi said a lot, she and Wu Ying couldn't help laughing.

Zeng Li also smiled slightly, "You two are singing double reeds, one is playing the white face and the other is the red face."

After a while, Zeng Li's smile faded, and she murmured: "Actually, I wanted to tell Ai Jing Chu twice, but I couldn't continue. At that time, I was so childish and ridiculous, not to mention that he had read the letter. It would be fine if he forgot it, but if he remembered it, I would really be ashamed."

"Don't say it if you don't want to. What obligation do you have to tell him?" Ma Yi Yi said.

"And he won't like me, don't worry. Maybe he just thinks I'm pitiful, so he helps me every time." Zeng Li lay down on the pillow again, "Didn't I ask Ning Feng about something just now? That's because Ai Jing Chu was looking for a child with a cleft lip. He will try his best to help anyone he meets on the street. He seems to be like this.

If it weren't for his kindness, maybe she wouldn't have had so many interactions with Yu Yi later.

But if it weren't for his kindness, the kind of beauty that she couldn't wait for her first love might always exist in her heart.

So should she be grateful to him, or not?

Zeng Li smiled wryly.

"Let's not talk about this, let's talk about something happy." Wu Ying said, "Ma Yi Yi, how much did you lose tonight?"

"Damn—you just look for other people's unhappiness to make yourself happy." Ma Yi Yi sneered.

The three chatted and chatted, and finally fell asleep together.

In fact, she didn't feel that Yu Yi owed her anything.

It's just that she has been obsessed with that time, and she can't forget the past, and her girlfriends love her so much that they simply sent Yu Yi to hell.

On Wednesday afternoon, Zeng Li went to the dental hospital with mixed feelings.

After that breakup, she and Ai Jing Chu only had one phone call about finding the child, and after finishing business, both of them had nothing to say, so they closed the line.

Because many of her colleagues went out to study during this period, she couldn't make it through the schedule, and she couldn't ask for leave, so she finally left. She came too late, and hurried upstairs before registering.

When the nurse took the follow-up card, she said, "Why is it so late? Go outside and wait. Professor Ai and the others are having a meeting next door. I'll ask them if they still want to read it. I'll call you later."

She thanked her and walked to the door, only to meet Ai Jing Chu coming towards her.

Zeng Li was a little surprised, but the nurse asked first: "Professor Ai, here is another patient, do you want to see them?"

"Yes, but wait."

"Sorry, I'm late." Zeng Li explained.

Ai Jing Chu just nodded and said nothing else.

In fact, Zeng Li had something else to say, she didn't know whether to communicate with Zhou Wen first, or through Ai Jing Chu directly.

The nurse saw her hesitation, and the nurse said, "Patient, you should wait in the waiting room outside first. I told you to wait a while, and I will call you later. Don't stay here. Professor Ai still has a meeting with the students."

Zeng Li replied embarrassedly, and walked out with her head down.

She went to the waiting room by the elevator, chose a chair and sat down. At this time, other teachers and students took the elevator downstairs one after another, and there were some patients who arrived late like her. She checked the time, and it was actually only after four o'clock, but they didn't rest at noon, so they got off work earlier than other places.

Facing the elevator, she suddenly realized that she was sitting here again. The arrangement and position of the chairs are exactly the same, which makes people feel the illusion. The only difference is that last time it was on the ninth floor, this time it is on the sixth floor.

That night, when he squatted in front of her, whether he wanted to kiss her or fix her braces, maybe she would never know.

After half an hour, Zhou Wen came out to call her.

Zhou Wen and her said as they walked: "You look so beautiful in this dress, where did you buy it? You are obviously older than me, why do you always look younger than me? No wonder who of us...to you..." Zhou Wen raised his eyebrows at Zeng Li with an expression that said nothing.

Zeng Li ignored her teasing, and after walking a few steps, she tugged Zhou Wen to make her stop, and asked, "Zhou Wen, I want to change my doctor, I wonder if it's okay?"

"Don't you like me?"

"That's not it."

Zhou Wen was a little aggrieved, "I'm Teacher Ai's most proud student. Although he sometimes annoys me, I'm very serious about what I do. I just like to tease you. I..."

Knowing that she had misunderstood, Zeng Li hurriedly explained: "That's not what I mean, I mean, can I stop having my teeth done at Teacher Ai's and change to another teacher or something."

Zhou Wen was even more surprised now, and stared, "What's wrong with you? Did you quarrel? Break up?"

Zeng Li asked: "Don't ask, just tell me, is it okay?"

Seeing her serious look, Zhou Wen didn't seem to be joking, "Do you really want to change?"

"Yeah." Wu Ying's words that night touched her a lot. She is indeed too selfish, whether he likes her or not, she shouldn't be so close to him with other purposes.

"It's not impossible. Didn't you just transfer from Professor Li? But other teachers generally don't like to admit patients halfway, and you can't say any reason."

Zeng Li was in trouble.

Zhou Wen said again: "There is another way."

"What?"

"A bit immoral."

"En?"

Zhou Wen looked around, and said to Zeng Li with a cautious look: "You go to the hospital office to complain to Teacher Ai, and say that there is you without him, and there is him without you, and then it will be fine."

After finishing speaking, Zhou Wen couldn't help blaming himself: "Look at my idea, it's all about 'destroying teachers with righteousness'."

Zeng Li didn't dare to adopt this bad idea.

"It's okay, some doctors don't know how many times they are complained in a year. At most, they can deduct a little from Teacher Ai's bonus, or punish him for being incompetent in the year-end assessment, or sue him for physically harassing patients, and ask him to suspend work." Zhou Wen deliberately fanned the flames.

The two were talking here, and the nurse came out and shouted: "Zhou Wen, where is the patient you called? Professor Ai has been waiting for you for a long time, and is he not off work?"

Only then did Zhou Wen and Zeng Li go back in response.

Zhou Wen said again: "If you really want to leave, you still have to tell Teacher Ai first. I just teased you, changing doctors halfway is not good for your treatment."

When the two of them walked in, they saw Ai Jing Chu sitting beside the treatment bed and waiting.

Zeng Li and Zhou Wen met each other's eyes and took their places.

Ai Jing Chu put on rubber gloves, put the mouth mirror into her mouth, looked back and forth, gave Zhou Wen some instructions, and went to other students.

Zhou Wen always felt that something was wrong with the boss, but when she thought about it carefully while working, it seemed to be normal again. When would he cherish words like gold?

Zeng Li's follow-up consultation is very simple. The small nails of the aligner are not lost, just need to adjust the position and thicken a few steel wires.

After she finished, she invited Ai Jing Chu to check.

This time, Ai Jing Chu checked very carefully, and asked Zhou Wen to follow him to the computer desk to read Zeng Li's electronic medical records, and the two discussed it.

Later, Zhou Wen came back and reported, "You may have two more teeth extracted."

"ah?"

"Teacher Ai asked me to explain to you." Zhou Wen said, while making a bite shape with his hands, "When the upper teeth are retracted, the lower teeth are against it, and there is no gap, so we need to pull out two lower teeth, integrate them inward, and move the position of the upper teeth. Do you understand?" Zeng Li nodded.

Zhou Wen feels very good about herself, simple and easy to understand, and she is taught by the boss. Afterwards, she couldn't help muttering to herself. Sure enough, there was a problem. The boss actually sent her to tell her. Although this is the case under normal circumstances, can Zeng Li be classified as a normal patient? One wants to change doctors, and the other seems to owe her two hundred yuan, something is wrong, so they broke up?

"Do you want to pull it out today?"

"It hasn't reached that point yet, Teacher Ai said to observe again."

"Oh." Zeng Li heaved a sigh of relief.

"Do you really want to change doctors?" Zhou Wen asked secretly, "Forget it, I think Teacher Ai has already decided on your new plan later, if you change doctors, if they don't agree with this idea, it will delay your treatment time."

At this time, a junior sister asked Zhou Wen to adjust the adhesive for her.

Zhou Wen said, "I'll come as soon as I go."

Zeng Li lay alone for a while, then stood up feeling uncomfortable, and saw Ai Jing Chu nearby. Ai Jing Chu was sitting in front of another treatment bed, driving the tooth-grinding robotic arm and instructing a student to polish the metal buccal tube in his hand.

He wears goggles and is focused.

Zeng Li looked away, sat back, and stopped looking at him.

In less than a moment, Zhou Wen came back and filled out the follow-up visit card and handed it to her.

Before leaving, Zeng Li hesitated and asked: "Zhou Wen, can you tell Teacher Ai for me?"

"What about changing doctors?"

"En."

"You are definitely hurting me." Zhou Wen wailed softly, "However, you must think about it. If it is another professor, they may not accept you. If you can only be replaced by an ordinary attending doctor or something, you will not be refunded. You are at a loss."

After Zeng Li left, Zhou Wen glanced at Ai Jing Chu. From the beginning to the end, he never looked back at Zeng Li, nor said a word to her.

Zhou Wen couldn't help sighing, he didn't know how Zeng Li provoked the boss's proud self-esteem.

Zeng Li came out of the hospital and went to the subway station, and received a call from Ma Yi Yi halfway.

Ma Yi Yi complained about Pan Siyu's evil behaviour in the past two days on the phone, and after talking for a while, asked: "Are you coming today?"

Zeng Li looked up at the time on the subway screen and said, "Okay."

So she came out of the subway station again, and seeing that the weather was not bad, she prepared to walk through the campus of A University and walk directly to the cafe.

And Ai Jing Chu had just come out of the hospital and was driving around the campus.

Originally, there was no class on the day of his consultation, but this week a teacher was away for a meeting, so he changed two classes with him, so that he would have class tonight. He didn't have time to go home again, so he planned to eat something at school and go to class.

He took the same route as Zeng Li, so he saw her as soon as he entered the school gate.

Zeng Li was wearing a light blue dress and her hair was not tied up. She just walked around the campus with her bare face facing the sky. She was no different from an ordinary student, except that she was a little thin and tall, so her back was easily recognizable.

Ai Jing Chu saw her walking alone on the sidewalk under the tree, wobbly, he didn't stop here and let her go away, and he didn't step on the gas pedal for a flash, but just drove the car quietly and slowly, keeping a distance, and followed her.

After passing the lotus pond and the library, she stopped when she came across an old bookstall set up by a student at the entrance of the cafeteria.

She lifted up her skirt, squatted on the ground, picked carefully for a while, and found two comic books, paid the money and continued walking.

Ai Jing Chu followed her all the way to the street of the cafe, saw the signboard from afar, stepped on the gas pedal and drove past her quickly.

He wondered if he was crazy.

Inquiring about the child with the cleft lip did not go smoothly.

In the photos of the website activities, Zeng Li found the figure of the older child. Zeng Li has some impressions of him, because on the day when the extracurricular library was built, the children stood in the first row to salute the Young Pioneers with the leaders, but because they were too nervous, they raised their hands upside down, and their arms collided with the students next to them, causing everyone to burst into laughter.

But Ning Feng called to ask, but the school told them that the child went to school in the city with his parents. As for where the parents are and how they can be contacted, they couldn't tell. In the end, they only gave the child's uncle's number.

But Zeng Li dialed many times, but the phone always turned off.

In the blink of an eye, a month later, Zeng Li received a call from Zhou Wen on Tuesday morning.

"Zeng Li?" Zhou Wen said.

"Your follow-up consultation will be held tomorrow, but it has been cancelled. Teacher Ai has gone to another place for a meeting and will not be back until a few days later."

"Oh."

"Just move your time back one week in turn, and come next Wednesday, okay?"

"Okay."

"I won't talk to you anymore, I still have a lot of calls to make." Zhou Wen said.

"Thank you." Zeng Li said.

"Hey, by the way, I haven't mentioned to Teacher Ai that you want to change doctors. You can just talk about it yourself. If you feel embarrassed to come to the hospital and say it in person, just call."

"Thanks."

Zeng Li retracted the thread and touched her right cheek. She had eaten hot pot with Ma Yi Yi for three consecutive days before, and her teeth started to hurt. Now her gums are swollen and high. And there is a buccal tube in the braces that is specially worn on top of the big teeth. It is more uncomfortable to wear, just like a smaller tight ring on Monkey King's head.

She thought she could take a look at it tomorrow, but now it will be delayed for another week.

At night, she was in so much pain that she went to the pharmacy and bought some random medicine to take.

On the weekend, Wu Ying celebrates her birthday and clamors to go to Dongshan Hot Spring.

"It's almost summer, and you still want to take a bath in the hot spring. Do you want us to peel off our skin?" Ma Yi Yi said.

"I don't care, my mother is going too, are you going? Don't go down."

"Is your mother going to show up too?"

"Of course, she said she'd pay the bill."

"Ouch, Your Royal Highness is going, of course we have to accompany you." When Ma Yi Yi heard that she could eat and drink for free, Ma Yi Yi immediately showed a dog-legged look.

So on Saturday, Wu Ying's family, Ma Yi Yi and Zeng Li went up the mountain together.

Dongshan in early summer is completely different from winter. The cool breeze blows and the summer insects chirp. The temperature is much lower than that in the city. Living in the Dongshan Hotel, after dinner, Zeng Li's teeth started to hurt again, and the medicine she brought didn't work no matter how much she took, so she went to the hotel's infirmary.

Wu Ying was soaking in the outdoor hot spring pool very comfortably, and asked her: "Can I find it? Do you want to accompany you?"

"No need." Zeng Li said.

Bypassing the small garden, there is a small two-story building, the first floor is the infirmary. The lights in the infirmary were on, and from the angle she stood she could see the door and the treatment bed.

Zeng Li did not continue to move, but stopped.

That night, there was a person standing there, enduring the pain in his body, saving lives and healing the wounded.

She never dared to let herself think of Ai Jing Chu when she was alone in the middle of the night, not even a little bit.

He is so wonderful.

Just like how Yu Yi made her feel back then.

Zeng Li sat down on a chair in the small garden, looking up at the stars in the night.

She didn't dare to get close to him, but she was greedy for everything about him.

Zeng Li didn't know why she was so greedy for him, and because she didn't know, she was terrified.

How did her initial affection for him begin?

Maybe it was his voice. The first time I heard it was on the overseas phone call, and five years later in the library he said to her: "Fortunately, it wasn't my face."

After so many years, he didn't know her, but she never forgot.

In the year she graduated, she accompanied Wu Ying to get porcelain teeth, and saw his name in the doctor's introduction on the first floor of the Stomatological Hospital. It was the first time she knew that "Ai Jing Chu" was such three words.

It says his job title, the school he graduated from, and his photo.

At that time, she suddenly felt that this was like a fairy tale. He was not someone she imagined, but existed so real.

Later, when Dou Dou came to work in the store, she got the trace of Ai Jing Chu from the medical student.

So once, she pretended to be an undergraduate medical student and went to his class secretly.

She sat in the corner of the last row, listening carefully to his every word.

His voice has hardly changed, but it is calmer than before.

At that time, she thought, just let this fairy tale live in her heart.

But by chance, Ai Jing Chu became her doctor. When both Zhou Wen and the nurse mentioned the title "Teacher Ai", she didn't think of him until she saw the nameplate of the attending doctor hanging on the wall.

At that moment, she hesitated, retreated, and wanted to turn around and run away, but when he stood in front of her and asked her age and name, she let out a long sigh of relief.

Because—he didn't know her at all.

He doesn't know her.

However, she has known him for so many years.

If not for this, would she have dragged him and begged him to help her that evening at the foot of Dongshan Mountain? She has thought about this question for a long time, maybe she won't.

In the past, even if her fingers hurt so much that she couldn't sleep all night, she had survived for more than half a month, and she never asked anyone for help.

If she hadn't gotten into his car, then everything would have been lost. His car wouldn't break down, he wouldn't walk her up the mountain, he wouldn't sleep in the Dongshan Hotel, he wouldn't meet her while watching the sunrise, and he wouldn't have those gossips, Director Li wouldn't force her to invite him to dinner, and he wouldn't crash his car later.

So much so that she didn't know whether she was so attached to him because of Yu Yi, or just because he was Ai Jing Chu.

She doesn't know, doesn't know, doesn't know...

She raised her head for too long, her neck was a little sore, and she finally bent her knees and lay down on the chair facing the starry sky. A corner of the administrative building appeared in her field of vision, and she counted the rooms in that building from bottom to top, but unfortunately she didn't have a good sense of direction, and couldn't find the balcony of the suite where Ai Jing Chu lived.

Someone passed by and looked suspiciously at Zeng Li, who was in an indecent posture. Zeng Li hurriedly got up and straightened his hair and clothes, went to the infirmary to talk to the doctor, and took some painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs.

On the way back to find Wu Ying, Zeng Li received good news from Ning Feng. He said that he had called the child's uncle, who said that his brother and sister-in-law were working in A City with the child, and Ning Feng also asked about their addresses in this city.

Zeng Li thanked repeatedly, and took up the line with some relief. She thought of Ai Jingchu, and wondered if she should tell him the news.

Zeng Li clicked on the phone's address book, saw the three words at the top, hesitantly pressed the dial, and regretted it after pressing it, wanted to kill it in a hurry, but found that the call had already been made.

"Hello—" Ai Jing Chu's voice appeared in her ears.

"I'm Zeng Li." She said, "You went out of town? Didn't bother you?"

"En."

"I have something to tell you." Zeng Li said.

"Zhou Wen told me that you need to change doctors." He took her words calmly.

"Ah, when did she say that?" Didn't Zhou Wen not say anything? And told her to call him.

He didn't answer her, but just advised her lightly: "It's not very good to change doctors halfway, it will delay your treatment time, and also damage the treatment effect. If it's because you are not satisfied with my treatment plan, we can communicate with you. If you think my medical skills and medical ethics are lacking..."

"No!" Zeng Li hastily denied.

She interrupted him, so he didn't continue, and she didn't know how to explain, so the two fell silent at the same time.

It was so quiet where he was that he could barely hear any other sounds.

On her side, there are the joyful cries of summer insects at night, and the laughter of people who are enjoying the nightclub in the large pool of the open-air hot spring in the distance.

Zeng Li remembered that last time she said that she was afraid of being left alone, but Ai Jing Chu dismissed it, "Speak when you want to talk, and don't talk when you don't want to talk." He advised her like this.

So, now he is probably upset and doesn't want to talk to her, right?

Just when Zeng Li thought that she would be the one to break the deadlock, she heard Ai Jing Chu's voice reach her ears again through the receiver.

He said, "Zeng Li, is your heart still there?"

Faced with this sudden sentence, Zeng Li was at a loss, "What?"

She didn't understand what it meant.

However, he didn't repeat, didn't explain, didn't ask questions, just kept quiet for a while, and then cut off the phone.

As soon as she came down from Dongshan the next day, she received a call from my current stepfather.

"Xiao Li Yu?" said the stepfather.

"Uncle."

"Your mother went to the country today to buy a chicken and made a pot of soup. Come over for dinner tonight."

"OK."

At dinner time, when we were outside the community, Zeng Li went to buy some fruit before going in. Seeing her, his stepfather hurriedly greeted her, "Your mother is cooking in the kitchen, I'll call her."

"No, no, no."

"Have you two had a fight recently?" asked the stepfather.

"No......"

"She was very angry when she came back from your place that night. I asked her, but she didn't say anything. What delicious food did she cook for more than a month, and she didn't send it to you as usual, so I thought there must be something wrong." Stepfather used to work in the unit for ideological and political work for subordinates, and advised people to wait. Tell me to call you, and I tell her to call herself, but she still gets angry with me. She has a knife mouth and a bean curd heart, and when she gets angry, she can say anything, and when the anger subsides, she treats people as nicely as a living Bodhisattva."

Zeng Li couldn't help laughing at this metaphor.

She glanced at the closed kitchen door and saw the wedding photos of her mother and stepfather hanging in the hallway from a few years ago.

After her mother divorced her second husband, Deng Gang, she married her current stepfather less than half a year later. This stepfather works in the Provincial Party Committee of A City. He divorced his original wife many years ago because of his personality disagreements. Later, his daughter went abroad to study. When he was alone, he was introduced and matched, and then remarried.

If Zeng Li instinctively rejected the first stepfather brought to her by her mother before accepting it with her heart, she was almost numb to the second stepfather.

It's just that every time she goes back to her hometown, her mother always asks her to drive around the county in her stepfather's car, and then listen to other people's flattery: "Defang is better than the other when she marries each other. She is getting promoted every step of the way. I'm afraid she will marry a president next time!"

Who can't hear the overtones?

Zeng Li was ashamed to death, but Zeng's mother didn't care, "If you can't eat grapes, of course you have to say grapes are sour."

Zeng Li remembers the day when Zeng's mother told her that she was going to divorce Deng Gang, Zeng Li cried and said, "Mom, don't you love Uncle Deng? Before you married him, didn't you tell me that you were with him because you loved him and thought he was better than Dad?"

"Adults, what do children care about so much?"

How painful and struggling she was as a stepdaughter, she finally allowed herself to accept Deng Gang, but at this moment, her mother said that she didn't love him anymore and wanted a divorce.

A year later, Zeng's mother began to prepare for her second remarriage.

On the first night of receiving the certificate, Zeng Li quietly watched Zeng's mother cheerfully matching the clothes she was going to wear the next day, humming a song.

She asked, "How many people did you invite to the banquet?"

Mama Zeng replied in a good mood: "Not many, just four or five tables."

"is it necessary?"

"Yes, Lao Peng said that we should invite some friends to have fun, as long as I am happy." Lao Peng is tomorrow's groom.

Mama Zeng said again: "When I married your father, I just carried my stuff into his house. It was okay. How can you young people be as happy as you are now, wearing wedding dresses, traveling, receiving red envelopes, etc. At that time in the factory, I was not yet old enough, and the leader insisted on not signing for us. Thanks to your grandma, she made a fuss, saying that family planning, late marriage and late childbearing should also be carried out. Is the factory leader willing to wait for the old Zeng's family to kill off children and grandchildren?"

Zeng Li had heard this from other people before.

At that time, grandma was very opposed to it. Firstly, Zeng's mother was young, and secondly, Zeng's mother was as beautiful as a flower at that time. Many young men followed her behind, including the factory director's youngest son. In the end, she only fell in love with a poor boy who had nothing.

"Did you ever love my dad?" Zeng Li asked suddenly.

Zeng's mother suddenly got a little annoyed by these words, "I loved him, but if I didn't love him, why did I have you?"

"Yes, you also loved Deng Gang."

"What do you know!" Mama Zeng lost her temper.

"Now you love Uncle Peng again, why do you have so much love, one after another?"

"Zeng Li!" Zeng's mother threw the comb in her hand towards Zeng Li, hit her chest, and fell to the ground.

"You're in your teens, and you want me to educate you? Don't you just do it for Deng Gang? He has only raised you for a few years, and you count how many years I have raised you? Do you think you are really his daughter? Yes, I love this for a while, and that for a while, but I, Zhao Defang, have never stolen a man or had an affair in my life! I dare to love and hate, and I am upright! Your father treats me like that, and I want to stick to him forever? Do not let go?"

"But..." Zeng Li burst into tears.

"Don't give it to me but yes, if you have the ability, don't be like me!"

"I will never be like you. If I love someone in my life, it will never change." Zeng Li wiped away his tears and said.

Mother Zeng sneered, "Okay, we'll see."

That night, Zeng Li repeated that oath in his mind almost paranoidly, over and over again.