Chapter 15: Eating Li Jiaojiao’s Big Melon

Lan Mo returned to the hospital and entered the doctor’s office just in time, quickly changing into her White Coat before joining Director Qin and the others for rounds.

After finishing rounds and returning to the office, she began writing medical records, prescribing medications, ordering tests for patients, and arranging for nurses to change dressings for those who needed it.

Over the past few days, Director Qin had gradually assigned several patients to her.

Around 11:30 a.m., nearing the end of her shift, Nurse Wang walked over and said mysteriously, “Doctor Lan, do you know what big thing happened at the hospital yesterday?”

Lan Mo asked casually, “What big thing?”

She had taken the day off for her birthday yesterday, so naturally, she wouldn’t know what had happened at the hospital.

“Wasn’t Doctor Lu on night shift the night before last? After Li Jiaojiao found out he was on duty, she specifically swapped shifts with someone to work that night. Guess what happened?”

“What happened?”

Wang Lihua smiled, “There are too many people around now. I’ll tell you after we get off work.” With that, she turned and left.

Gossip is human nature, and Lan Mo was no exception. However, she hated it when people kept her in suspense and stopped halfway through a story.

Without even thinking, she knew it couldn’t be anything good.

At twelve o’clock sharp, they clocked out. Wang Lihua grabbed her lunchbox and called Lan Mo to go to the cafeteria together. As they walked, she continued the gossip she had left unfinished earlier.

“Doctor Lan, Li Jiaojiao really took a big fall this time, hahaha…”

“Tell me, what exactly happened?”

“Didn’t I tell you earlier about how she specifically swapped shifts with someone for that night?”

“Yeah, so what happened?”

“Let me tell you, this Li Jiaojiao is as dumb as a pig! She likes Doctor Lu, right? She thought Doctor Lu would return to the doctor’s on-call restroom to sleep after midnight.

She secretly stole a key from another doctor. At half past midnight, she sneaked into the restroom with the key and quickly locked the door from the inside. Guess what happened?”

“What happened? Did Doctor Lu not return to the restroom at midnight after all?”

“Doctor Lan, you’re so clever! That night, an emergency patient suddenly arrived at 11:30 p.m., and Doctor Lu was busy until after 1 a.m. before he finally headed back to the restroom.

But when he tried to open the door with his key, it wouldn’t budge. So he knocked and called for Doctor Xu inside to open the door.

Well, that was when things went wrong. Doctor Xu woke up, opened his eyes, and saw Li Jiaojiao with her hair disheveled. He screamed loudly, ‘Who are you? Oh my god! A ghost!’

In the middle of the night, and in a hospital no less, Doctor Xu’s screams were so loud that even the patients in the wards woke up. Before long, the restroom door was surrounded by a crowd, everyone eager to see what had happened inside.”

Lan Mo found it amusing. The on-call restroom wasn’t exclusively for Doctor Lu. Typically, each department had two doctors on night duty, taking turns to rest.

How could Li Jiaojiao be so sure that Doctor Lu would return to the restroom at midnight? Did she not even dare to turn on the light after entering, and just went straight to hugging Doctor Xu and falling asleep?

Lan Mo’s imagination was running wild, but it wasn’t her fault for thinking this way. Li Jiaojiao was simply brainless—she would definitely do something like that.

Wang Lihua continued, “After Doctor Xu tumbled out of bed in a panic, he turned on the light and realized the disheveled ‘female ghost’ in the room was actually Li Jiaojiao. He froze for a moment, then quickly twisted the doorknob and rushed out without looking back.”

“Is Li Jiaojiao that terrifying?”

“Doctor Xu just got married last year. If this got back to his wife, wouldn’t she demand a divorce? Staying in the room would only make it harder to explain.”

“What about Li Jiaojiao? What happened to her?”

“After Doctor Xu turned on the light, Li Jiaojiao realized the man in the bed was Doctor Xu. She immediately blushed with shame. Just think—if she had taken the initiative to offer herself, the loss would have been even greater.”

“How do you know she didn’t offer herself?”

“There was no strange smell in the room, and the bed was clean. Besides, after Li Jiaojiao came out of the room, she cried bitterly, insisting she and Doctor Xu were innocent and claiming she had sleepwalked into the wrong lounge.”

Sleepwalked into the wrong lounge?

The doctor’s on-duty room and the nurse’s on-duty room are on opposite sides of the building—east and west. How could she possibly get them mixed up? To cover up her lie, she even resorted to blaming sleepwalking.

“Surely no one believed her, right? Did Doctor Lu also guess this incident was because of him?”

“Yes, even if Doctor Lu guessed the reason, he wouldn’t drag Li Jiaojiao into it. At the time, he said nothing, turned around, and spent the night lying on the desk in the doctor’s office.”

“When Deputy Director Li found out about his daughter’s scandal, he went to talk to Doctor Xu. No one knows exactly what they discussed, but Doctor Xu ended up holding no grudge against Li Jiaojiao, and the matter was completely swept under the rug.”

“Swept under the rug? Then how did you find out about it?”

“The other nurse on duty that night is a good friend of mine! Although she was told to keep quiet and not gossip, she secretly told me anyway.”

Well, so-called secrets are just things no one talks about openly—privately, people still whisper about them.

Everyone passes it along: “I’m telling you this secret, but you can’t tell anyone else!” And then, in the blink of an eye, that person goes and spills the secret.

“Alright, let’s go get our meals now!”

As soon as the two arrived at the cafeteria, they noticed two people standing ahead, talking. It turned out Li Jiaojiao had cornered Doctor Lu Zeming. Since they had to pass by, they couldn’t help but overhear.

“Doctor Lu, you have to believe me. Nothing happened between Doctor Xu and me that night.”

“Comrade Li Jiaojiao, I think you’ve misunderstood. Whether something happened between you and Doctor Xu has nothing to do with me.”

“Doctor Lu, but I like you. Don’t you know that? How can it have nothing to do with you?”

“Li Jiaojiao, I don’t like you! Please step aside!”

Li Jiaojiao grew furious at Lu Zeming’s rejection. “Doctor Lu, do you like Doctor Lan? She’s already been transferred to the Orthopedics Department. Could you please not like her? She doesn’t seem like a decent person at all—she looks like a seductive fox. Fox spirits love to seduce wild men.”

“Li Jiaojiao, shut your mouth!”

Seductive fox? Was she talking about her?

Just when she thought she was enjoying some gossip, it turned out to be about herself. Lan Mo was furious.

“Nurse Wang, could you hold my lunchbox for me?”

Lan Mo shoved the lunchbox into Wang Lihua’s hands without another word, strode quickly over to Li Jiaojiao, and promptly slapped her across the face.

Smack!

“I, Lan Mo, am not a decent person? I’m a seductive vixen, huh? You’re the one who got all hot and bothered and crawled into the wrong bed in the middle of the night, and you have the nerve to come at me?”

Li Jiaojiao was momentarily stunned by the sudden blow. Just as she was about to retaliate, Lu Zeming grabbed her hand.

Lu Zeming turned to Lan Mo and said, “Doctor Lan, I’m sorry! This whole mess is because of me. I apologize to you.”

Lan Mo didn’t care whether the original owner had liked Doctor Lu or not—she certainly didn’t fancy his type.

“Doctor Lu, whatever issues you have between you, keep me out of it! To avoid trouble before, I went along with the Vice Hospital Director’s arrangement and transferred to the Orthopedics Department.

I’ve already switched departments, yet you, Li Jiaojiao, still drag me into your drama. This hospital isn’t your family’s property; you can’t just do whatever you please.

Remember this: loose lips sink ships! That slap was to teach you a lesson. If you keep this up, you’ll face retribution one day.”

Though she didn’t go looking for trouble, when it landed on her doorstep, she couldn’t just play the timid quail forever, could she?

She had intended to keep a low profile, but they’d forced her hand. If the Vice Hospital Director tried to make things difficult for her over this, he’d have to see whether her father would allow it.

Lan Mo cried out inwardly: Dad, your daughter is causing trouble for you. You’ve got to protect me.

Lu Zeming now utterly despised Li Jiaojiao. If not for her, Lan Mo might have already agreed to be with him.

Back when they worked in the same department, he could sense Lan Mo’s fondness for him.

Why did she now look at him as if he were a stranger? What had changed?

Lan Mo must think he was entangled with Li Jiaojiao. How could he ever confess his feelings to her if things stayed like this?

Seeing Lu Zeming’s eyes fixed on Lan Mo, Li Jiaojiao fumed, “Lan Mo, I’m telling you—you slapped me today. I’m going straight to my dad when I get home and have him deal with you! Cross me, Li Jiaojiao, and I’ll make sure you never practice medicine again! Hmph…!”

Running home to tell Daddy? Was Li Jiaojiao some overgrown infant who hadn’t been weaned?

“Go ahead, go tell him. I’ll be waiting!”

Make her quit being a doctor?

She was a proper university graduate who worked diligently. She refused to believe Deputy Director Li would blame her without even hearing the full story.

As for future workplace sabotage—as long as she performed her duties flawlessly, what could he really do to her?

Someone like Li Jiaojiao, if she kept this up, would eventually cause a major disaster for her father. Lan Mo would just sit back and watch the show.

Lan Mo turned around, took the lunchbox back from Wang Lihua, and said, “Come on, let’s go get our food!”

Wang Lihua grinned and gave Lan Mo a thumbs-up. “Doctor Lan, you’re really something! No one in this hospital has ever dared lay a hand on Li Jiaojiao.”

“She insulted me so viciously. Slapping her back was only fair, wasn’t it?”

“You know most families have several children, but Deputy Director Li only has this one precious daughter. You should be careful of their retaliation—Li Jiaojiao’s mother isn’t exactly a reasonable woman.”

“Alright, thank you! I’ll be cautious.”

As long as she made no mistakes in her work, Deputy Director Li could do nothing to her. However, women were unreasonable creatures, and she had to guard carefully against Li Jiaojiao’s mom.