The Early Spring - Extra Chapter 2

Side Story 2 - Liang Chengmin

When Liang Chengmin returned home and found the food coupons inside another garment, her heart filled with regret. After being berated so harshly by Luan Mingrui, she felt as though she had lost all face.

The next day, as she was getting off work, she bumped into a patient’s family members from before. They pulled her aside, incessantly asking about the next step in the treatment plan and whether they could save a little money, as their family had completely run out of funds.

Liang Chengmin patiently explained to them: if the child did not undergo surgery soon and the condition deteriorated, it would only delay the child's recovery, causing them even greater suffering.

The parents wept right in front of Liang Chengmin, crying so hard that her heart nearly broke. She comforted them for a long time with reddened eyes, yet there was no better way out. Liang Chengmin felt that her resolve was still lacking; whenever she encountered something like this, she would feel deeply distressed for days.

By the time she separated from the patient, dusk was almost falling. She stomped her foot—great, now that she was late, he would definitely accuse her of defaulting on her debt again when they met.

Riding her bicycle, she rushed toward the supply and marketing cooperative. Upon arriving at the entrance, she saw Luan Mingrui sitting lazily beneath the crooked-neck tree out front. His white shirt sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, two buttons were unfastened at his collar, and he was frowning as he watched her arrive long past the agreed time.

Liang Chengmin remained polite, handing the coupon to him: "I'm really sorry, something came up at the hospital that held me back."

Luan Mingrui didn't even reach out to take it: "Being late even when returning something to someone—if all doctors are like you, how are they supposed to heal the wounded and rescue the dying?"

...Hearing him speak like this, Liang Chengmin's temper flared instantly. Slapping the coupon down onto the bench, she said, "It's returned to you! Let the crooked-neck tree be my witness. As for whether you take it or not, that's your business. After all, your family is rich."

"Consider it a gift to you. After all, my family is rich." Luan Mingrui placed the coupon into her bicycle basket. Being tall, he cast a shadow that completely covered Liang Chengmin. Looking down, he saw her curled eyelashes—but as she raised her face to glare at him, she was clearly furious.

Luan Mingrui never backed down when speaking, so finding that Liang Chengmin was immune to both soft and hard approaches felt novel to him. Whether his family had money or not didn't matter; he simply felt that this little doctor's temper needed to be cured. He completely forgot that he was actually the one with the insufferable, dog-like temper.

"Who wants your lousy trash!"

"Then didn't you use it to buy soy sauce yesterday?"

"..." Liang Chengmin had never met a person like this before. A pair of large eyes glared at him as her rage surged outward, her chest heaving with anger. Her eyes glistened wetly from the fury, tears on the verge of falling. After a long moment, she choked out a sentence: "Are you sick in the head?"

"Yeah, I'm sick."

How was she even supposed to respond to that?

"Move aside!" Luan Mingrui blocked the front of Liang Chengmin's bicycle, refusing to budge. Seeing that he wouldn't move, Liang Chengmin turned the handlebars around, straddled the bike, and rode away. A girl riding a heavy-duty size 28 bicycle, wobbling from side to side on the seat, looked quite comical. Luan Mingrui let out a brief chuckle.

He thought this little doctor was pretty amusing. Her temper was rotten to the core, which served her right for being unable to get married at twenty-seven.

A few days later, after returning from Lianyungang, he saw Liang Chengmin in front of the state-run restaurant. It was truly strange; ever since the blind date, he kept running into her. She was sitting on a wooden bench in front, holding a thick book in her hands. Stepping closer to take a look, he saw that the book had diagrams of the human body inside. Her fingertips traced along the book as her mouth murmured softly: "Like this, then like this, cut open, suture."

Her expression was earnest and focused.

"Liang Chengmin," he called out to her.

Liang Chengmin lifted her head to look at him, her eyes instantly sharpening—this time, she truly remembered him. She lowered her head to read her book, completely ignoring him.

"Liang Chengmin, take a look at my wound."

Luan Mingrui rolled up his sleeve and extended his arm in front of her, revealing a deep, bloody scratch across it.

"If you want medical treatment, go register for an appointment at the hospital tomorrow!"

Liang Chengmin lowered her head to read again, but couldn't bring herself to continue. Clack! She snapped the book shut and grabbed his arm. The wound was far too deep, and it was such a long gash: "How did you get this? Have you gotten a tetanus shot? Why haven't you dressed it?"

"I got a shot. There's no medical gauze at home." Luan Mingrui was lying; he hadn't gone home at all.

"Follow me!" Liang Chengmin stood up with a stern face, ready to leave, before realizing that she was supposed to be on a blind date today: "Wait a moment!" Running to the front of the restaurant, she said to Barber Uncle Wang: "Uncle, please keep an eye out for me! Later, if a tall man holding a rolled-up newspaper sits on that chair, please tell him that I have a patient to attend to and will be right back."

After finishing her sentence, she said to Luan Mingrui, "Let's go."

Luan Mingrui walked beside her and glanced back—the man holding the rolled-up newspaper had arrived, but he didn't say a word. Turning his head back, he mocked her: "Another blind date?"

"What does that have to do with you?"

Liang Chengmin brought him to the front of her house: "Wait here." She sprinted inside.

Luan Mingrui heard a woman's voice reprimanding her: "What are you running for? How old are you now, acting so unsettled?"

"I'm saving a life!" Liang Chengmin ran out holding a small wooden box and sat down on the old stone block in front of her door: "Come over here."

Luan Mingrui squatted in front of her and offered his arm to her. She was truly bold; even with his wound looking so gruesome, she didn't even knit her brows, deftly applying povidone-iodine and wrapping the bandage for him. You could call her a nerd, yet her facial expressions were so full of life and vivid. Luan Mingrui didn't know why, but a strange itch stirred in his heart.

"You got a shot? You got a shot without dressing the wound?" Liang Chengmin finally snapped back to reality.

"I didn't get one." Luan Mingrui lowered his sleeve. As he squatted there, he was a head shorter than Liang Chengmin who was sitting on the stone, looking up at her slightly. Beneath his glasses, that pair of eyes resembled a hawk's, making one's heart beat with unease.

"...Ignorant!" Liang Chengmin grew angry again. Ever since she met Luan Mingrui, she was constantly provoked into anger by him. She didn't even know why herself—clearly, she had a wonderfully gentle temper when off the clock, yet time and again, Luan Mingrui managed to infuriate her to the point of dizziness.

Putting the medical box back inside, she remembered that someone was still waiting for the blind date at the state-run restaurant. She turned around to run back outside, only to see Luan Mingrui still standing there. On the southern flagstone path, he stood blocking half the narrow road, looking like a tough-to-mess-with rogue.

"Why haven't you left?"

"Are you going to the state-run restaurant for a blind date?" Luan Mingrui asked her.

"Yes."

"Let's go then. It's on my way."

A tall man with long legs, yet he dallied sluggishly behind Liang Chengmin. She was in a hurry, so she turned back to scold him: "Can't you move a bit faster!"

"My arm hurts."

"Your arm hurts, it's not like your leg is broken! What are you lingering for!"

"You were late for your blind date with me, but you're so anxious for a blind date with someone else?" Luan Mingrui tossed out this lukewarm remark, stubbornly refusing to walk any faster.

Liang Chengmin ignored him and accelerated her pace on her own, her floral shirt puffing up at the back under the gentle breeze.

Following behind her, Luan Mingrui thought to himself: In such a rush for a blind date, you really are desperate to marry.

That rolled-up newspaper fellow turned out to be useless as well—unable to wait, he had already left, leaving not a trace of his shadow behind.

Luan Mingrui stood to the side, making sarcastic remarks: "Did you think everyone was like me, waiting for you even when you're late?"

"Do you do nothing but go on blind dates when you're not working? Are blind dates really that interesting?"

"If you don't go on blind dates, will you be unable to marry off?"

"Luan Mingrui!" Liang Chengmin grew thoroughly annoyed by his nagging: "Are you done being annoying?"

"What does my going on blind dates have to do with you? Why do you care so much?"

"Aren't you going on blind dates all the same? Do you have the nerve to judge me?"

"Besides, why was I late today? Wasn't it all because of you!"

"Then who was it because of that you were late the day you met me?" Luan Mingrui asked out of nowhere.

This Luan Mingrui fellow really held a grudge.

Liang Chengmin didn't bother taking the bait and turned around to leave, only to hear Luan Mingrui ask her: "Are you hungry?"

"Not hungry!"

"I'm going to eat. Are you coming or not?"

"Not going!"

"Do you dislike going on blind dates?" Luan Mingrui asked her again. Seeing her eyes flicker slightly, he knew she disliked them too: "Accompany me for a meal, and I'll give you an idea that will keep you from ever having to go on blind dates again."

"Liar."

"If I lie to you, I'm not human."

The two entered the state-run restaurant and sat face-to-face.

"What do you like to eat?" Luan Mingrui asked her.

"Crabs, shrimp." Liang Chengmin wasn't lying; in the past, when seafood was hard to come by, her father had still managed to procure it, never letting her mouth suffer since childhood.

"Oh."

Luan Mingrui ordered poached shrimp, drunken crab, and a dish of stir-fried greens. Placed together, the dishes looked quite appealing.

Liang Chengmin wasn't reserved either, delicately curling her fingers as she peeled the shrimp.

Luan Mingrui was too lazy to peel them, disliking getting his hands dirty, so he seized an opportunity to snatch one right after she finished peeling it. Liang Chengmin, quick with her hands and eyes, snatched it back: "You can't eat this! You have dietary restrictions!" Seeing Luan Mingrui still wanting to grab it, she raised her eyes sharply: "Just try eating one! I am a doctor!"

He withdrew his hand and ate only the greens, watching with his own eyes as Liang Chengmin devoured the shrimp and crabs completely clean.

Only after finishing did she ask him: "Didn't you say earlier that you'd tell me a way to avoid blind dates?"

"You dislike blind dates that much?"

"Do you like blind dates?"

"I don't like them either." Luan Mingrui hooked his finger: "Come closer, and I'll tell you how to avoid blind dates."

Liang Chengmin actually leaned forward a bit, only to hear Luan Mingrui say: "It's very simple. Marry me."

Liang Chengmin didn't react at first. Two seconds later, her face flushed red in an instant. Throwing out a line—"Are you sick in the head!"—she stood up and ran outside.

What kind of person was he! They had only met a few times, and he was already saying things like this!

After running dozens of meters away, she turned her head and ran back again. Seeing Luan Mingrui standing there watching her, her face flushed red once more: "What is wrong with you! Is this kind of thing something you can just joke about casually? How can you be so frivolous!"

"How many times have we even met? Do I know who you are? Do I understand what kind of person you are?"

Luan Mingrui didn't speak. A pair of pitch-black eyes stared at her, listening to her words rattle off like a machine gun.

He knew what he was saying.

That day, watching her queue up to buy soy sauce, standing there reciting from memory like an old monk in meditation, she was a total nerd through and through. Yet for some unknown reason, something had stirred in his heart.

He especially wanted to tease her.

Seeing her getting flustered just made him feel amused.

After scolding him, Liang Chengmin ran off again, swift like a gust of wind.

The next day during her shift, after finishing with all her patients, she sat at her desk flipping through a book, waiting to get off work. After a while, someone knocked on the door. She looked up and saw Luan Mingrui walking in holding a registration slip: "I'm here to get my dressing changed."

"Go find a nurse to change it."

"You're turning away a patient? Where's your medical ethics?"

Luan Mingrui sat right there and refused to leave. Liang Chengmin had no choice but to have the nurse bring over gauze and medical alcohol to clean his wound.

The wound felt slightly itchy and painful, his gaze resting on Liang Chengmin's earlobe.

This Luan Mingrui fellow was quite remarkable. He had always been decisive—when he said he would do business, he dropped everything to do business; when he previously said he wouldn't get married, he didn't get married. Now, for reasons he couldn't explain, he had set his eyes on this one, and so this was the one.

He had to marry her home.

After Liang Chengmin finished changing his dressing, she said to him: "You don't need to register for an appointment to change your dressing tomorrow."

"I registered and came in just to ask you one thing: are you still going to eat crabs?"

...

"I'm in the seafood business, so my work isn't as noble as you doctors. I'm just a self-employed businessman whom others look down upon. But there's one thing: if you marry me, you can eat all the shrimp and crab you want. Eat as much as you like."

What kind of nonsense was this!

"Is my family unable to afford crabs?" Liang Chengmin retorted in anger: "I can't marry you. My parents told me to marry someone with a stable job—a teacher, a worker, a doctor, anything works. Just not a self-employed businessman."

"Are you being serious?" Luan Mingrui looked at her.

"Why would I lie to you?" Her parents had never said such a thing; Liang Chengmin was intentionally trying to anger him. Who told him to look down on her family background in the very beginning? Acting as if having a little money made him so extraordinary.

She lowered her head to write out a prescription for him, telling him to change the dressing himself at home, only to hear the door bang shut as he walked out.

What a truly rotten temper!