The Early Spring - Extra Chapter 3
Side Story 3 - Liang Chengmin
Luan Mingrui was thoroughly infuriated by Liang Chengmin.
A doctor? A teacher? A worker? Keep dreaming! In this lifetime, you had better comfortably settle into being the young boss's wife of a self-employed businessman!
Returning home with a sullen face, Luan Mingcheng took one look at his expression and leaned in: "Brother, did you go to get your dressing changed?"
"Mm."
"Then did you see that scary female doctor?"
"Who are you calling scary? If you hadn't thrown a fit in the hospital, would she have lost her temper with you?" The woman wasn't even married into the house yet, but Luan Mingrui was already refusing to let his younger brother speak ill of her.
"No, what I wanted to say is—guess what? That female doctor is my classmate's older cousin. Her name is Liang Chengmin."
Luan Mingcheng tapped his own head, talking to himself: "Liang Chengmin? Didn't someone introduce a girl named Liang Chengmin to you a while ago? Wasn't she a doctor too?"
Luan Mingrui interrupted him: "Speak directly."
"Oh, right. People say that female doctor is twenty-seven and refuses to get married because back in her student days, she was intimately involved with a male classmate. Later, that male classmate left."
Liang Chengmin? Intimately involved with someone else?
With that nerd-like demeanor of hers, her romantic awakening clearly hadn't even happened yet—who could she have been involved with?
Luan Mingrui mocked Liang Chengmin for not having had her romantic awakening, as if he had experienced his own. A twenty-nine-year-old man who had never even dated a girl once—in those days, he too was considered an oddity. It was only that Heaven had treated him well by granting him a good-looking face. If someone who didn't look good reached thirty without marrying, they were called a bachelor; when someone like him didn't marry, it became a matter of being overly particular.
He kept thinking about marrying Liang Chengmin and bringing her home. All those nonsensical words she had uttered were etched into his heart, and he planned to settle scores with her in due time. The most important matter at hand was to get her married to him first, lest a real nerd actually popped out from somewhere to stir up trouble for him.
The next day, he rushed over right around the time Liang Chengmin was about to off-shift. Asking the nurse, he learned she was still holding consultations, so he registered for an appointment with her once again. Pushing the door open and stepping inside, he saw her inserting acupuncture needles into her own hand. Luan Mingrui hadn't had much contact with doctors in the past and didn't know that many doctors and nurses honed their skills this way. In his view, Liang Chengmin's act of sticking needles into her own hand was highly bizarre; her mind must have been ruined from studying too much.
Seeing him enter, Liang Chengmin withdrew the needle from her Hegu acupuncture point and shot him a sideways glance: "What are you here for?"
"To change the dressing."
"No need to change it every single day. Go on out."
"The wound seems to have festered."
"Nonsense!" Liang Chengmin had confidence in her medical skills—how could a wound dressed by her possibly rot? Standing up to cut his gauze, her icy finger tips brushed against his arm. He teased jokingly: "Doctor, you're not wearing gloves? Isn't your procedure improper?"
...
Just as Liang Chengmin was preparing to chase him away, he grabbed her wrist in one firm grip: "Can't take a joke."
Liang Chengmin flung his hand off: "Why are you getting all handsy? Are we even close enough for you to tease me?"
"After coming and going a few times, won't we get close?"
"Who's coming and going with you?"
"Exchanging flirtatious glances, then?"
When a person like Luan Mingrui said such things, it didn't sound like flirting at all—it was clearly just being argumentative. Liang Chengmin was annoyed to death by him. Unwrapping the gauze, she said, "Festered? Where is it festered?"
"As long as it's not festered, then wrap it up for me."
Liang Chengmin nodded: "Mm, I'll wrap it for you." While wrapping the gauze, she deliberately used a bit more force. Luan Mingrui let out a grunt from his throat and lowered his head, a section of his neck flushing red from the pain.
Liang Chengmin suddenly burst out laughing.
She looked exceptionally pretty when she smiled.
She was originally a delicate, fair-featured girl, but usually appeared a bit stiff because she read so much. With this laugh, it was like a solitary small flower blooming from the cracks of the southern flagstones—so inherently pitiable and lovely.
Watching her laugh, Luan Mingrui's gaze turned dark and deep, carrying a intensity that seemed ready to swallow a person whole.
Meeting his gaze, Liang Chengmin scolded him with a blushing face: "What are you staring at!"
As her face flushed, he found it amusing and teased her: "Does Doctor Liang want to marry me? Once we're married, you can yell at me however you like, and I won't lose my temper. With that rotten temper of yours, no one else would dare marry you anyway, so why not just make do with me?"
"Who's making do with you? I wouldn't marry you even if I stayed unmarried for a lifetime." Liang Chengmin detested that attitude of Luan Mingrui's. Usually pulling a stern face as if everyone owed him money, his words were sharp and aggressive, and even perfectly fine statements sounded full of sarcasm when coming out of his mouth. Even when discussing a major life event like marriage, he spoke as if playing a game, without a trace of seriousness to be heard.
Her face flushed even redder as she grew angry.
Luan Mingrui looked at her and smiled. He rarely smiled, but when he did, there was a touch of gentleness to it.
Luan Mingrui came every day. After his arm healed, he waited for her at the hospital entrance. Liang Chengmin hid from him, asking the little nurse to help check before getting off work every day: Is that plague god still out there? The little nurse would look and say: He's there. Liang Chengmin would then leave through the back door.
On this day, just as she stepped out of the back door, she saw Luan Mingrui standing there: "Are you hiding from me?"
"Your constant visits to the hospital create a bad impression," Liang Chengmin said.
"What kind of impression? I'm unmarried, you're unwed—what's wrong with me waiting for you?"
"You're willing, but I'm not. It creates a bad impression for me." Liang Chengmin argued obstinately with him, not even daring to meet his eyes.
"Fine." Leaving behind this single word, Luan Mingrui turned and left. Liang Chengmin kept hiding from him like this, making the two of them resemble a cat chasing a mouse—one pursuing, one running. As time went on, it felt pointless. When it came to dating, Luan Mingrui suddenly gained an epiphany: only with mutual give-and-take did it become meaningful.
The next day, he truly didn't show up.
Liang Chengmin couldn't explain what she felt toward Luan Mingrui. Seeing him made her want to squabble with him, yet when he didn't come, her heart felt empty and lost.
Her colleagues at the hospital hadn't seen Luan Mingrui for several days, so they teased Liang Chengmin: "Is that young master not coming anymore?"
Liang Chengmin's face turned red: "Whether he comes or not, what does it have to do with me?"
Riding her heavy-duty size 28 bicycle, she wobbled from side to side all the way home. During dinner, Mother Liang asked her: "Around dusk today, Grandma Wang from next door mentioned that a few days ago, she saw you talking to a young man at the hospital entrance. Who was that?"
"A patient."
"Which patient?"
"...Don't remember." Liang Chengmin knew which one Grandma Wang was talking about—wasn't it that young master? But she just didn't want to tell her mother, fearing she would turn it into a major issue.
"Oh, I see."
Later, she went on a few more blind dates.
To her, blind dates were like political tasks; she had to go, as not going meant lacking sufficient ideological consciousness. Fearing Mother Liang's constant nagging, she actually went.
This particular blind date was at the state-run restaurant. The moment she stepped inside the door, she saw Luan Mingrui sitting by the window, fiddling with a button he had obtained from who knows where. She contemplated avoiding him to prevent awkwardness, but ended up meeting Luan Mingrui's eyes. He cast a indifferent glance at her, pretending not to know her.
A short while later, his blind date arrived. She heard him ask the girl: "What do you like to eat? Order whatever you want." The girl was very pretty, with delicate eyebrows and eyes, speaking in a soft, gentle voice—a typical southern girl.
"Anything is fine with me." The girl didn't order openly like Liang Chengmin had, ordering only a single dish of stir-fried greens. It was Luan Mingrui, instead, who ordered shrimp and crab. He said: "No need to save money, you can't take money with you when you leave this world anyway."
While Luan Mingrui spoke with the girl, his ears were listening in on Liang Chengmin's table. Hearing the young man opposite her mention that he was a teacher, he turned his head slightly to glance over. The young man was dressed very neatly, and his appearance was fair and refined.
"Being a teacher is wonderful," Liang Chengmin nodded earnestly. "Educating people, with students spread all across the land—it's highly noble."
"Doctors heal the wounded and rescue the dying; that's noble as well."
The two were exchanging flatters with each other.
"So do you often travel to other places normally?" the girl asked Luan Mingrui.
"Yes."
"The matchmaker said you want to find someone who can take care of the household." The girl's face turned slightly red. She had known about Luan Mingrui from before and had seen him a few times from afar. How many girls in town were fond of him? "Do you think I'm suitable?"
The girl was very direct, wanting an answer from Luan Mingrui: "I'll let the matchmaker know when I go back." Luan Mingrui pointed at the shrimp and crab on the table: "Eat more, don't be reserved."
"Do you go on blind dates often?" the girl suddenly asked him. "Have you gone on many blind dates because you already have someone in your heart?"
"I went on one before with a doctor. She held herself in excessively high regard, which I didn't like."
Hearing those words—she held herself in excessively high regard, which I didn't like—Liang Chengmin felt as though her heart had been struck by something for reasons unknown.
The girl felt embarrassed, constantly feeling uneasy about peeling shrimp in front of Luan Mingrui, unlike Liang Chengmin, who delicately curled her fingers with an air of absolute determination to devour those shrimp and crabs.
After Liang Chengmin finished her meal with the male teacher, just as they were about to leave, the male teacher asked her: "Would you like to go to the library together another day?"
"Sure."
Hearing that "sure," Luan Mingrui finally raised his head and took a serious look at her. He had waited for her at the hospital entrance every single day, yet seeing him was like seeing a ghost to her. When someone else invited her to the library, she said sure.
Very good.
Luan Mingrui stood up to walk the girl home. The girl's home was in the same direction as Liang Chengmin's; walking straight down this road, her family's house was right by the roadside. Being in a foul mood, he hardly spoke a word all the way to the girl's front door. Turning back to walk home, he saw Liang Chengmin walking alongside that male teacher. Liang Chengmin wasn't at all like she was in front of him—running off at full speed—now she was acting completely composed and steady.
Luan Mingrui thought to himself: Marry whoever you love to marry! What does it have to do with me? Expressionless, he passed right in front of her.
Liang Chengmin suddenly felt a surge of anger—it was you who came, and it was also you who pretended not to know me. She called out to him loudly: "Luan Mingrui!"
Luan Mingrui turned back to look at her: "What is it, Doctor Liang?"
"Didn't you see me?"
"Didn't see you. My vision is poor; I'm a four-eyes."
Leaving those words behind, he walked off, leaving Liang Chengmin choked up with no response, her face flushing red with rage. Tears gathered in her eyes for reasons she couldn't explain, and she sprinted away. The male teacher behind her was stunned for a moment, torn between chasing after her or leaving.
A few days later, she finally managed to get a day off. During lunch, Mother Liang made arrangements for her again: "Put some effort into it this afternoon. Remember that Luan Mingrui you went on a blind date with before? The matchmaker says he's succeeded."
"Who succeeded?"
"Luan Mingrui, of course. They say both sets of parents are preparing to meet."
A mouthful of rice stuck in Liang Chengmin's throat, impossible to swallow down no matter what. Only then did she realize that the person who had asked if she wanted to marry him back then was simply playing with her for fun.
After eating, she returned to her room to read. Lying on the bed, her whole body felt somewhat listless. She didn't know what was wrong—perhaps Mother Liang's casual question during lunch had reminded her of Luan Mingrui. Consequently, she lacked the energy to do anything, flipping through two pages only to set the book aside at her arm's reach. She stared blankly at the single osmanthus branch inserted in the bottle by the window. After a while, she slouched on the bed and fell asleep, sleeping straight through until total darkness fell. Seeing how soundly she slept and knowing her daily hard work, Mother Liang couldn't bear to wake her.
Thud. A small pebble struck her window. She lay there without moving, assuming it was a mischievous child. A short while later came another pebble, with roughly the same force as before. A child's hand wouldn't be this steady. Sitting up, she pushed the window open and saw Luan Mingrui standing on the flagstone path, bathed in moonlight that washed over his entire person with spotless clarity.
Her face flushed red with a sudden surge of heat. Quickly shutting the window, she sat alone by the windowsill gasping for air, her heart pounding exceptionally fast for reasons unknown.
With another sound, Luan Mingrui threw another pebble.
She pushed the window open and asked him in a low voice: "What are you throwing rocks at my window for?" Sounding like a tiny mosquito, yet her eyes were wide with annoyance.
"Come out," Luan Mingrui called to her in a low voice as well.
"It's time to sleep!"
"Come out."
"I'm not coming out!"
With another bang, she shut the window again.
Luan Mingrui threw another pebble, annoying Liang Chengmin so much that she scooped up the pebble by her hand, opened the window, and hurled it out with force. Hearing a muffled grunt, she pushed the window open, only to see Luan Mingrui clutching his glasses.
"Did it hit you?" she asked.
Luan Mingrui didn't speak. Liang Chengmin could tell now—he was angry.
"Wait for me." Liang Chengmin casually threw on an autumn jacket, tiptoed out, carefully closed the front door, and walked up to Luan Mingrui.
"Let me check your eye."
Luan Mingrui didn't speak, dropping the glasses into her hand before turning around to leave. Seeing that a piece of the lens was chipped, Liang Chengmin chased after him, following him as he turned into an alleyway. The alley was long and empty, with no one around, except for an occasional stray cat whose paws tapped softly on the flagstones—tap, tap, tap. Liang Chengmin quickened her steps to move closer, reaching out to grab his wrist: "Stop right there! Let me check your eye!"
Luan Mingrui finally halted his steps and stood there.
He was tall, so she couldn't see. She simply stood on tiptoe, but still couldn't see, growing anxious again: "Can't you lower your head?"
Luan Mingrui lowered his head, his breath falling upon her forehead as he watched Liang Chengmin look up at him with a rare, obedient air. There was a faint trace of blood on his eyelid, likely scratched by a fragment from his glasses.
"Does it hurt?"
"Doesn't hurt."
"Oh."
Stepping back slightly, she asked him: "What did you come here for?"
"To give you wedding candy." As if performing a magic trick, Luan Mingrui pulled a liquor-filled chocolate out from his coat. This kind of item was rare back then; Liang Chengmin had eaten it once or twice before and liked it very much. But today, she didn't want to eat it.
"What wedding candy are you giving me? Are you showing off to me? Are you trying to say that if I don't marry you, there are plenty of people willing to marry you!"
"Do you ask every single girl you catch whether she wants to marry you? Or does it just depend on your mood?"
"Is getting married so extraordinary that you have to parade it in front of me!"
"Who wants to eat your lousy wedding candy!" As Liang Chengmin spoke, she grew anxious, her eyes reddening with distress. She couldn't explain why either, feeling a bit wronged and a tiny touch of regret.
Seeing a tear roll down from Liang Chengmin's eye, Luan Mingrui finally couldn't bear to tease her anymore: "It's my female cousin's wedding candy."
...
If there were a hole in the ground, Liang Chengmin would have crawled right into it. Pouting her lips, her eyes were filled with tearful glistening.
"Eating it or not?" Luan Mingrui asked her again.
"Eating it." Liang Chengmin wiped away her tears and spread her palm open. Luan Mingrui placed the chocolate into her palm. Tearing open the tinfoil wrapper, she popped it into her mouth, unable to bear biting into it, simply holding it in her mouth like that.
"Is the chocolate delicious?" he asked her, his voice slightly raspy.
"It's delicious."
"Let me taste it."
He suddenly lowered his head to kiss her lips, his tongue lightly licking the corner of her mouth. A loud roar sounded in Liang Chengmin's mind, leaving her frozen in place.
When Luan Mingrui's lips came down again, she was like a fool.
Luan Mingrui wasn't a fool. He didn't know how, but he genuinely wanted to taste the chocolate. Cupping the back of her head with his hand, his tongue probed inside. This probe was no small matter—the girl's sweet lips and tongue, along with a faint scent of liquor, caused his iron tree—dormant for nearly thirty years—to instantly burst into blossom. Hooking his tongue around hers, he thoroughly sucked over the chocolate on her tongue along with her very tongue itself. Cupping Liang Chengmin's face with his hands, he seemed to possess a bit of self-taught instinct, yet feeling that the two were too far apart, he abruptly pulled her into his embrace.
Liang Chengmin bumped against his body. The hard object pressing against her frightened her, and she struggled in his arms: "Let go of me!"
"Not letting go!"
"I'm going to call for help!"
"Call then!"
Luan Mingrui trapped her between himself and the wall, the two engaged in a contest of strength, breathing heavily: "Not calling, right?" Luan Mingrui asked her, seeing her eyes looking pitifully endearing, and went in to kiss her again. This time was even more urgent than before, teeth clashing against teeth, yet he didn't care, turning his head until he finally found a suitable angle.
Liang Chengmin couldn't stand firm, so he scooped her up, his body wrapping around her to serve as her handle and support.
Recently, he had thought about her every day, yet couldn't bring himself to put down his pride. Today, seeing someone else get married, he suddenly felt envious—could pride and dignity possibly be more important than marrying Liang Chengmin home?
Of course not!
Wouldn't it be better to marry her home and then take his time teaching her a lesson? Why compete with her now!
Finally separating after a long moment, Luan Mingrui's heart was completely filled. He asked her again: "Liang Chengmin, do you want to marry me or not?"