Home/ The Selfish Gene/ Chapter 50
The man’s name is Jian Xing, 28 years old this year. He was two years senior than Ji Chenfeng in college, serving as the head of the student union, responsible for the work related to student financial aid.
Ji Chenfeng’s scholarship applications were reviewed and approved by Jian Xing in the college, and the two of them have developed a friendship over time.
After Jian Xing graduated, he had some contact with Ji Chenfeng at first, but they drifted apart after a while. On that day, when Yan Shanhua fainted, Ji Chenfeng also broke his hand on the steps while carrying her on his back, so the mother and son were both sent to the hospital together. Yan Shanhua directly entered the emergency room, and Ji Chenfeng handled various procedures for her while dragging his injured hand, but soon he couldn’t support himself.
And it was such a coincidence that Jian Xing was there to see a doctor in the hospital that day and recognized Ji Chenfeng at a glance. Not only did he take the initiative to help him pay the fee and get the report, but also ran up and down to help. Finally, he also left his contact information so that Ji Chenfeng could contact him if he needed any further help.
After graduation, Jian Xing worked in a famous pet hospital in Hong City for the first few years. After accumulating a certain amount of experience, he looked for a storefront and opened his own small pet hospital. There were less than five doctors and nurses together, so there was no facility for overnight treatment.
At the beginning, he lacked confidence and was afraid of losing money. Later, the business got better, and many pet owners came here because of the reputation. Jian Xing wanted to expand the team of doctors and include a night emergency department.
When Ji Chenfeng called him to thank him, the two chatted and the other party learned that Ji Chenfeng had stopped working as a veterinarian due to his mother’s health. Jian Xing immediately extended an invitation, hoping that Ji Chenfeng would join his pet hospital.
Ji Chenfeng didn’t agree immediately and only said that he needed some time to think about it, while Jian Xing promised that the invitation would always be valid.
Later, Ji Chenfeng broke up with me and we were completely torn apart. I’ve always wondered how he managed to scrape together that 500,000. Even if Yan Shanhua didn’t use much of the 300,000 Ji Chenfeng borrowed for medical treatment, plus the salary I paid him for those two months, he would only have 300,000. The remaining 200,000 must have been borrowed from someone else.
I had guessed that it might be Zhou Jiyu, but now I know that he borrowed it from Jian Xing.
Ji Chenfeng agreed to work for Jian Xing, but needed an advance payment of 200,000 yuan in salary.
Jian Xing knew Ji Chenfeng’s character and understood that he(jc) urgently needed money, so Jian Xing readily handed over the money and signed a contract for three years. For the next three years, after deducting the 200,000 yuan in advance, Ji Chenfeng could only get a salary of less than 5,000 yuan every month.
“…These are all things I asked the hospital staff while disguising myself as a customer.” Ayao sipped her milk tea and said, “For this reason, I even went to the vegetable market to buy a rabbit. Every time I went there, I lied that the rabbit felt a bit uncomfortable.”
I looked past her at the three-story cage in the corner of the office. A huge white rabbit was squatting on the first floor, munching on hay and other things with relish, with two fresh carrots placed beside it.
“So Ji Chenfeng has been working at Jian Xing’s pet hospital for the past three months?”
“That’s right… By the way, the hospital also has a social media account, and there is a videos of Ji Chenfeng. It’s quite popular.” Ayao operated the phone with one hand and pulled up a video for me.
I took a look and saw that the account name was “Kangkang Pet Hospital” and the video was from three months ago. Judging from the sound, the person who filmed it should be Jian Xing.
“This is our new Dr. Ji, a very professional and excellent doctor. He is single and unmarried. He graduated from the same university as me, and he is my junior brother.”
Across the examination table, the camera swayed and focused on Ji Chenfeng’s face.
“Wow, junior brother, you have such good skin. What skin care products do you usually use?”
Ji Chenfeng stopped typing, turned his head to look at him helplessly, and then pulled up his mask to cover the lower half of his face.
“Don’t affect my work.”
Jian Xing hissed: “Let’s go, let’s go, junior brother is angry.” Then he turned around and went to another consultation room to continue filming.
Sending charcoal in the snow, offering help in times of need… Isn’t that why Ji Chenfeng liked me in the first place? No, not just me, but also Zhou Jiyu.
So, will this be the third chosen “hero”?
Returning the phone to Ayao, I asked carefully, “Are they…just friends?”
Ayao pondered for a moment and said: “It seems to be the case at the moment. But I am not a love expert. I don’t know whether the two of them will develop a relationship beyond friendship.”
My heart, that had just been put down, suddenly rose again. I stared at her, wondering why she added the last sentence.
Ayao held the paper cup and stirred the milk tea with a straw, saying: “So you have to work hard, boss. I won’t charge you this time. Anyway, you have taken care of my business for three years, so just think of it as an extra complimentary service. I’ve been rooting for Dr. Ji and your CP for three years, please don’t give me a BE(bad ending).”
I didn’t quite understand her last sentence, but I still understood the first two. She didn’t need to tell me, of course I knew I needed to work hard, in fact not just hard, but really hard.
Hesitantly, I asked: “Suppose that your ex-boyfriend, who once made you lose everything, suddenly comes to you and begs you to forgive him and get back together. What would you do?”
Ayao chewed the pearls in the milk tea and thought seriously for a moment, then said, “I will beat him up, then throw him out.”
After hearing her answer, I fell into silence.
Habitually wanting to bite your nails as soon as your lips touch them, it turns out that this is not the right way to deal with anxiety. Try taking a deep breath, exhale all the turbid air in your lungs, and then inhale fresh air while relaxing your muscles, without keeping your body tense.
After a few repetitions, I felt a bit better and asked again, hoping to get a different answer.
“Is there no other possibility?”
Ayao thought hard, her face wrinkled into a bun, and she said reluctantly: “If… I still love him, maybe I…. won’t throw him out?”
I heavily slammed the door of Ayao’s office, causing the Spring Festival couplets above my head to flutter and fall down.
Ever since I, the crown prince, was deposed, “reading companion” Tang Bian has also been idle at home. After getting out of the old tube-shaped building, I took a taxi and went directly to Tang Bian to pick up the little turtle, and then took it to the Kangkang Pet Hospital where Ji Chenfeng was now.
The pet hospital was located on a remote road far from the city center, with no subway or shopping malls around, and there were quite a few residential areas.
Perhaps because it was a working day, there weren’t many people bringing their pets to see the doctor. As soon as I walked in, the receptionist smiled sweetly and asked if there is anything she could do to help me.
“Is Dr. Ji available?” I looked at several brightly lit consultation rooms and said, “I need to see him for my turtle.”
The receptionist looked at the turtle in the transparent box I was holding in my hand and asked me to register, then pointed towards one of the two consulting rooms.
My palms were sweating profusely because of nervousness. Holding the turtle in my hand and standing outside the consultation room, I took a deep breath and gently knocked on the white door in front of me.
At first, withdrawal treatment didn’t go very well for me. I couldn’t control my emotions well and smashed everything around me. I wasn’t used to the hospital bed, hospital food, and the windows in the room that couldn’t be opened.
Looking at my trembling hands, I wanted to give up countless times.
Wouldn’t it be better to numb yourself with alcohol and drugs, escape from reality, and be an ostrich with no worries? Even if you die in the end, you will die without any worries. Why must you be a healthy and normal person?
“Come in.”
Hearing the voice, I turned the handle and pushed the door open, meeting Ji Chenfeng’s eyes as he turned to look at the door.
For a few seconds, we just stared at each other, but no one spoke, no one looked away, and no one moved.
It wasn’t until there was an undeniable feeling of suffocation in my chest that I realized I had even forgotten to breathe.
Indeed, escaping would be easier. But if I couldn’t communicate normally and stand in the sun soberly, how could I meet Ji Chenfeng again?
I closed the door with my backhand and put the turtle box on the treatment table. My mind was in a state of confusion, not knowing how to start my first sentence after such a long separation.
Facing him was much harder than I imagined.
Hesitantly, I finally decided on my opening line: “Those greeting cards…did you receive them?”
“What do you want to do again?”
Ji Chenfeng’s question overlapped with the second half of my sentence. His eyes were full of vigilance, and his voice was even colder than the river water in winter.
I was stunned, then smiled dryly and came up with the excuse I had already thought of: “…Give Xiaocao a physical examination.”
“How did you find this place?” Ji Chenfeng glanced at the little turtle in the transparent box, his eyebrows gradually furrowed, obviously not believing my words, “Are you following me?”
I felt a bit guilty and didn’t answer directly, so I brought the topic back to the greeting card.
“Have you opened that box yet?”
Ji Chenfeng slowly pushed the turtle box on the table towards me and issued an eviction order: “Please leave immediately.”
I wanted to kiss him.
I wanted to touch him.
I wanted to hug him.
I wanted… I wanted everything about him to be mine. Eyes, lips, adam’s apple, voice, sweat, nails… I want them all.
Although I received formal treatment and had given up all of my other addictions, Ji Chenfeng is still left. Why was he the only one who I not only failed to give up, but I seemed to have become even more addicted to him?
I bit my lower lip hard and suppressed the restlessness in my heart.
“Won’t you even take a look at it?” It became difficult to maintain the smile on my face. I raised the turtle box and made a last desperate struggle.
Ji Chenfeng didn’t even look at the turtle in the box and said: “It’s very healthy. Stop using it to achieve your own goals, it will only make you look even more unbearable.”
I was taken aback. What does he mean by ‘using it’? Did he think… that I deliberately made the little bastard sick just to get close to him? And those two kittens, does he think that I deliberately told him that I rescued them, just to establish the persona of “angel” in front of him. Is this what he thinks?
And he even used the word “unbearable” to describe me.
Is there really no room for redemption? Just knock him down here and rape him, and first satisfy the insatiable desire in your heart.
But damn it, I don’t seem to be able to beat him.
In the past, my stamina in bed was not as good as his, and my strength was not as strong as his. If I really tried to use my hands, I would definitely be beaten very badly.
“Get out.” After Ji Chenfeng finished speaking, he turned towards the computer without even giving me a glance.
I didn’t have time to defend myself, so I said quickly: “I wrote the greeting cards myself, and every one of them is…”
Ji Chenfeng took off his cochlear implant.
He put it aside and roughly stated his attitude— he didn’t want to communicate with me at all.
No matter how many calculations I made beforehand, I never expected that it would be like this.
Even if I was already standing in front of him, he could still refuse to see me, refuse to listen to me, and refuse to contact me again.
I was blocked in his world…
“I personally wrote those greeting cards, every one of them. One card a day, I wrote for three whole months. Every time I picked up the pen, I was thinking about what you were doing, whether you liked it when you opened the greeting card, whether you… did you miss me?”
Knowing that he couldn’t hear me, I still said the next words looking at his side face. After that, I no longer bothered him and turned around, silently leaving the consulting room with the turtle box in my hand.
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