CHAPTER 514: THE 351ST WARMTH

The first watch of the night had come.

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"We all work in the same department, and you hide good stuff to eat by yourself, what’s that about? Whenever we have something tasty, we always share with you. Aren’t you being a bit too petty?"

"Jiang Yueyue, someone’s trying to give a gift here, can’t you guys be a bit more tactful?"

"I didn’t..."

"Didn’t what? You just want to stay in our Orthopedics Department, right? That’s normal; everyone aspires to do better. It’s just a pity that Director Wang trusted you so much, but you turned out to be her traitor."

"Stop it, the both of you. Erniu isn’t that kind of person."

"She is exactly that kind of person!"

"I am not..."

With a "bang!" the door was pushed open, and the arguing stopped abruptly. Several heads turned to look toward the entrance, "Xiaoqiong..." Seeing Luo Xiaoqiong, furious at the door, Zhang Erniu’s face flushed red.

"This is the nurses’ room, get out!" A sturdy nurse came over to push her, but instead, she was quickly pushed back by Luo Xiaoqiong, stumbling and catching herself after two steps back. The sturdy nurse became enraged, "Barging into the nurse’s room and hitting people, if I don’t get Security to arrest you, my last name isn’t Jiang!"

Zhang Erniu hurriedly stepped forward to hold onto the sleeve of the younger nurse, "Sister Jiang, Xiaoqiong is my friend, she came to see me, it was an accident, she didn’t mean it, don’t be mad..."

"An accident? Didn’t mean it?" Nurse Jiang shrugged off Zhang Erniu’s hand, looking toward the other two nurses standing by the table, "Li Mei, Lu Xiaohe, you both saw everything just now. What do you think? Was Zhang Erniu’s friend intentional or not?"

"If that’s considered unintentional, then..." The smaller statured nurse gave a strong push to Zhang Erniu’s waist. Caught off guard, Zhang Erniu slammed hard against the corner of the table, "Then this is unintentional too."

"Li Mei, what are you doing?" The taller nurse, probably Lu Xiaohe, steadied Zhang Erniu and glared at the smaller one, "Erniu is honest, stop picking on her."

"No problem, no problem, I’m fine." Zhang Erniu waved her hands and stood straight, seeing Luo Xiaoqiong had already clenched her fists, she hurriedly began to push her out, "Xiaoqiong, they’re just messing with me, it’s nothing, just messing around."

"Erniu, I can tell the difference between messing around and bullying," Luo Xiaoqiong glared angrily at Jiang Yueyue and Li Mei, "Just because you arrived earlier, you think you can bully people like this?"

Jiang Yueyue snorted disdainfully, "This is none of your business. I haven’t even settled the score with you, and here you are showing up. If you dare, just wait here."

"Sister Jiang." In her panic, Zhang Erniu could only run to the door and bolt it, pressing tightly against it, "I’ll clean for you for a week, don’t call Security, okay?"

"Erniu, don’t beg her. Let her call Security..." Luo Xiaoqiong was speaking when she picked up a small cloth bag from the table, "To think that leaving stuff with you for just a short while almost led to it being taken. I wish Security would come and make a judgment. What kind of behavior is this?" She said, pulling Zhang Erniu, "Let’s go to Teacher Yu. She didn’t transfer you from Teacher Wang just for you to be bullied.

You clean, you do the dirty work, they demand to share your stuff, and if you don’t give in, they rob and insult. I refuse to believe that Teacher Yu would allow them to continue like this once she knows!"

Having served as the assistant director for several days, she might not have learned much more medical skill, but her ability to handle situations with authority had certainly grown in full measure. Hesitating for a moment, Zhang Erniu stepped away from the door.

This time, however, Jiang Yueyue hesitated. Li Mei reacted faster and already had Luo Xiaoqiong’s hand with a smile as bright as a flower, "Xiaoqiong, we were just messing around, did you take it seriously?"

"That’s right, we always fool around like this. If we fall out over every little thing, how can we get along?" Jiang Yueyue also smiled insincerely, her reluctance making her smile unattractive.

Thinking of Chuxia and the others who were still waiting, and that Zhang Erniu still had to intern here, Luo Xiaoqiong didn’t want to escalate things further, so she looked at Zhang Erniu, "Erniu, I’ll consider your opinion. If you guys really just mess around like this normally, I won’t hold it against them. But if they are targeting you, let’s go to Teacher Yu right now."

"We always mess around like this, no need to go," Zhang Erniu was one to prefer peace and readily went along with the flow.

Jiang Yueyue and Li Mei clearly breathed a sigh of relief.

Luo Xiaoqiong caught the looks on their faces and knew the score. Zhang Erniu was going to be her future sister-in-law; of course, she couldn’t allow her to be bullied. But this wasn’t the time for confrontation; she would deal with them slowly another time.

"Erniu, they’re clearly bullying you..." Once outside, Luo Xiaoqiong frowned and lectured Zhang Erniu, "You can’t be so soft with these people; they’re the kind who bully the weak and fear the strong. If I didn’t have something this afternoon, I wouldn’t let them off so easily."

"It’s alright, they’re just a bit rude with their words, they didn’t really do anything to me. Besides, they’ve been here longer and are naturally more critical of newcomers.

It’s not just them; people under other teachers do the same. Newcomers have to wash the senior nurses’ underwear and shoes. In the dormitory, it’s always the interns who empty the bedpans.

I’m actually fine. Everyone in my room is an intern, and we get along pretty well after work. They don’t mock me for coming from a poor family or for knowing few characters, and they even teach me."

"We’ll talk about this later," Luo Xiaoqiong swung the small bag in her hand, "I’ll take these chestnuts and peanuts first, or you’ll have trouble explaining. Later, I’ll put them with my brother, and he will keep them for you—you can still eat them then."

"No need, you guys can just eat them up. These are what my family was allotted, and my parents sent them over because they were afraid I’d crave them. But I eat them every year, so I’m never really craving them. Actually, I wanted to give them to you, Chuxia, and Meijun because you three have been the most helpful to me—I’ve always remembered that."

"Alright, I won’t stand on ceremony then. After all, I’ll be your sister-in-law in the future. Go back to work now. They shouldn’t dare to bully you at the moment. When I have a day off next week, I’ll come to see you. If they still don’t get the hint, don’t blame me for not being nice then."

"Look at you, talking as if I’ve been all aggrieved. It’s normal for newcomers, I’ve adapted long ago." Zhang Erniu chuckled twice and said, "But seeing you like this reassures me. It means you guys aren’t being bullied over there."

"Everything ok?" Chuxia and Yun Doudou approached. They couldn’t find Luo Xiaoqiong in the office and guessed that she must have run into trouble. So they locked the door and came looking.

"Hello..." Zhang Erniu wasn’t familiar with Yun Doudou, and for a moment, she clasped her head, unable to remember her name.

"I’m Yun Doudou," she reached out her hand to Zhang Erniu, "Erniu, we’re going to be good friends from now on, too."

"PUFF!" Chuxia burst into laughter. Why did she feel like she was witnessing kindergarten kids meeting each other?

"What’s so funny?" Yun Doudou glared at her, "We just weren’t familiar before. I really admire her now."

"Alright, alright, my fault," Chuxia pointed at the bag in Luo Xiaoqiong’s hand, "Are you here just to take away all of Erniu’s stash? That doesn’t seem right; it kind of feels like bandits sweeping through a village."

"No, Chuxia, that’s not what..." Zhang Erniu, the honest kid, got red in the face and thick in the neck as she tried to explain for Luo Xiaoqiong, but she got stuck, her face red with embarrassment.

"I’ll explain this to them later. If you weren’t working, I would have invited you to join us too. See you next time, Niuer." Seeing Zhou Mikang and Zhou Hanliang approaching from a distance, Luo Xiaoqiong waved and quickly pulled Chuxia and Yun Doudou away.

She knew that Chuxia didn’t want others to look at her differently because of what happened with Zhou Mikang, so she was especially cautious about this—although Chuxia didn’t care as much anymore.

"I knew you guys would come here," Zhou Mikang reproachfully glared at Chuxia upon meeting them, "There’s plenty of time to come over later; why the rush now?"

"We came looking for food," Chuxia, knowing that he treasured every minute together, didn’t challenge him this time and explained why they were there with a pleasant demeanor.

Tongzi, the company commander, had a look of exasperation: "How much do you want from the cafeteria? You could’ve waited for me to get some before troubling yourselves to bring over what her parents scrimped to save."

"Right..." Chuxia slapped her forehead, "How come we didn’t think of that? When Xiaoqiong mentioned it earlier, we got as excited as if it was Chinese New Year.

Although we weren’t thinking of taking advantage of Erniu, we were actually planning to give her our spare food coupons and cloth coupons to send back to her parents."

Hearing what Tongzi said and realizing that she stirred up all this trouble and even caused Zhang Erniu some distress, Luo Xiaoqiong immediately deflated, feeling like an idiot for thinking she had been so capable.

"Then later, you pack a bag for me, and I’ll return it to Erniu. If she doesn’t take it, the few of us can share," Chuxia said, snatching the bag from Luo Xiaoqiong and shoving it at Zhou Mikang, "You guys go ahead and roast them; Xiaoqiong and I will go find my brother."

Zhou Mikang grabbed her, "We’ve already told him, and once he gets his things in order, he’ll come over."

"How did you know we were going to roast food indoors?" Chuxia was puzzled.

"Think with your toes; he would know where to find Luo Xiaoqiong. What does that have to do with roasting food?"

Chuxia: "..."

Sure enough, not long after they returned to the office, Zhao Qiliang hurried over. However, he was visibly a bit nervous in the presence of Zhou Mikang and Zhou Hanliang.

That afternoon, three young couples sat around the stove, engaging in sporadic conversation, covering topics from rural life to military development—broad in scope... Regardless of what the future holds, this moment was warm... (To be continued. If you like this work, welcome to Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for it, support it with monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please go to m.qidian.com to read.)