The person asking questions was none other than Geng Jing's assistant, Yu Guchuan. Ever since he first entered the hospital, he had deeply admired Geng Jing, who always managed to pull patients back from the gates of hell.
"I know which hospital is better. They sent me an invitation not long ago. If you're willing, I can give up my spot so you can keep working as an assistant."
Before Yu Guchuan could continue, a hand rested on his shoulder. Geng Jing shook his head in disapproval. "There's completely no need for that. Even if I'm no longer a doctor, I still have ways to save people."
"But you're different, Guchuan. You're still young and can go out into the vast world, using your own hands to save more people. The only difference this time is that you will be the lead surgeon."
"B-But, sir, I'm not ready yet."
Yu Guchuan felt deeply conflicted. Although he had assisted Geng Jing in no fewer than a hundred surgeries, he still felt uneasy about performing one entirely on his own. If he made a mistake, it would cost a patient's life.
"In life, we always have to experience countless 'firsts.' Accidents won't wait for you to be ready. You have to try taking that first step yourself. If you're tired, give yourself a break."
Perhaps this recent incident had broken his heart too deeply. The doctor in the same department as Geng Jing had been locked away, and with neither power nor influence, he couldn't help him.
Looking at the clean, bright, and tidy apothecary behind Geng Jing, which lacked any decorative flowers, he didn't know what the interior furnishings looked like—much like that unpredictable tomorrow. Perhaps he had simply grown too reliant on the other man.
"Then... I wish you smooth sailing."
"May your good words come true."
Watching Yu Guchuan's departing figure, Geng Jing turned and walked toward the shop entrance, where a sign bore the large characters: "Tongrentang".
"No, squad leader, where is there even a traditional Chinese medicine shop around here? If all else fails, let's just go to another hospital, or I can just slowly recover on my own."
Kenji Hagiwara had walked around the street for a while without finding any traditional Chinese medicine shop, especially since he really didn't want to drink herbal medicine anymore.
"Ha? Did your scar heal so fast you forgot the pain? Who was it complaining about feeling awful all over just a few days ago? You went to the hospital so many times and they couldn't find anything wrong."
Mentioning this made Jinpei Matsuda furious. It was probably because Kenji Hagiwara had suddenly felt dizzy and unwell all over while walking down the street these past few days. They had gone to the hospital for all sorts of checks without finding any problems, and he barely had any appetite for meals.
"Stop arguing, both of you. There's a newly opened pharmacy ahead. Let's go ask; if that doesn't work, we'll figure something out."
Wataru Date interrupted their conversation and pointed at the Tongrentang ahead. If worse came to worst, he would just go find Mr. Geng Jing, though that was a desperate last resort. With that, he walked ahead of the two and pushed open the door first.
"Excuse me, do you sell traditional Chinese medicine here?"
Geng Jing, who had his head down placing price tags on medicines, stood up, walked to the counter, and asked, "Do you have a prescription? You need a prescription to dispense medicine."
"Eh? Mr. Geng Jing?!"
The three of them stared in shock as the heterochromatic doctor walked out. Geng Jing paused, the pen in his hand hovering in mid-air. These guys must have come here just to boost his sales numbers; sometimes he couldn't help but marvel at how small the world was.
With a helpless sigh, Geng Jing pulled out a chair, sat down, and pointed to a few chairs nearby as he began to ask, "Sit down and talk. Are we filling the same herbal medicine you drank before?"
Wataru Date explained, "Uh... that's secondary. The main point is that lately, Riji always has a poor appetite and feels unwell all over, but the hospital couldn't figure out what's wrong."
"Oh? Then stretch out your hand and let me take your pulse."
Hearing the words "take your pulse," Kenji Hagiwara felt a chill run down his spine. Cringing, he didn't dare to reach out his hand, but then he thought that lately he hadn't done anything out of line, so it should be fine, right?
"Nothing major. Just make sure to get more rest recently and don't stay up playing until midnight."
Kenji Hagiwara's suspended heart finally died. Even without turning his head, he knew how scorching Jinpei Matsuda's gaze was—hot enough to swallow him whole. And so, Geng Jing watched the three of them run in and out of Tongrentang on any pretext for a full six years.
— Six Years Later —
"Senior, are you pulling my leg?"
Wataru Takagi widened his eyes in disbelief. Clearly, he found it hard to believe the mysterious heterochromatic doctor his senior spoke of, especially since it far exceeded his own frame of knowledge.
"Why would I lie to you? Even now, he still works at a pharmacy around here. Whenever any of us aren't feeling well, we go there for a consultation and medicine."
Wataru Date put an arm around him as they walked down the street. Over the years, time had left stubble on his face, whereas Geng Jing's appearance remained unchanged, and the little fox beside him was still just that tiny, looking nothing at all like a thirty-year-old.
"The pharmacy nearby... is that Tongrentang?"
"You know it?"
Faced with Wataru Date's question, Wataru Takagi answered honestly, "Mostly because the place is open 24 hours. Whether it's holidays or festivals, that shop is always open. It left quite a deep impression."
"Their place—"
With a soft *thud*, the notebook Wataru Takagi always carried fell to the ground. Wataru Date instinctively reached down to pick it up, only to find himself colliding head-on with a moving car.
Time seemed to fly like a white horse passing a gap in a wall. Opening his eyes once more, Wataru Date was already lying in a pool of blood. Wataru Takagi stared at the scene in disbelief, then hurriedly scooped up his bleeding senior.
"Senior, hold on! I'll call an ambulance for you!"
The driver who caused the crash was stopped. With some time before the ambulance arrived, Wataru Takagi remembered that the heterochromatic doctor Wataru Date had talked about was right nearby at Tongrentang.
Tongrentang was a bit far from the scene of the accident, but running there took only three minutes. Breathless, he sprinted into the pharmacy and saw a heterochromatic man reading the newspaper.
"Sorry to intrude!"
Before he could even understand what was happening, Geng Jing was hoisted up and carried straight out of his chair. Lying on its soft cushion, Guangbai woke up and scrambled to its feet in shock, but all that was left for it was the exhaust fumes of an ambulance.
Guangbai: *Somebody help! There's a dad-stealer here!*
Every doctor in the hospital who examined Wataru Date's condition shook their heads. The patient had fractured ribs that had already punctured his heart, and combined with massive blood loss, it was already too late—even though Geng Jing had slowed down Wataru Date's bleeding on the way.
"Mr. Geng Jing, you must have a way, right?"
At this moment, Wataru Takagi clung to him like a drowning man grasping at a straw, but Geng Jing was blocked outside the ward and couldn't get in.
"A way exists, but I don't know if his family can accept the exorbitant cost. Besides, I need their signature and consent form."
"But right now, the senior's parents aren't here. Can I act as his guarantor? Please, you have to save him!"
Faced with Wataru Takagi's plea, Geng Jing told him to write a letter of acknowledgment first while he went to negotiate with the doctors. Since he had also worked as a doctor for a time, his request was quickly granted.
"The patient's condition is critical now; we can only replace his heart. But we might not secure a donor queue for him right now."
"Then what should we do?"
"Notify his family to come see him one last time."
The lead doctor sighed. Wearing protective gear, Wataru Takagi clearly couldn't accept this outcome, while Geng Jing held a phone in one hand and kept his eyes fixed on the heart monitor.
"Since he can still hold on, we'll keep him breathing on this thread until the heart arrives."
Everyone was startled by his words. Wataru Takagi looked at Geng Jing in disbelief, instantly overjoyed—his senior was saved.
"Wait, what heart?"
The lead doctor was completely baffled, or rather, more curious as to where this suddenly appearing heart was supposed to come from.
"An artificial heart. It can be installed directly without matching. It's a bit troublesome, but at least it will save a life."
Though he hadn't heard of it, a paper on "artificial hearts" had indeed created massive waves in the medical community a few years ago.
"Go rally people. The artificial heart is currently stuck in traffic. When they bring the heart back, remember to bring several people with the same blood type; the backup blood in the bank isn't enough."
"Oh, right! I'll go call people right now!"
Wataru Takagi immediately ran outside to make phone calls, contacting every police officer he could reach.
"Alright, I'm bringing people over right now. Takagi, just wait there."
Juzo Megure hung up the phone and shouted to the officers behind him, "Everyone with AB blood, follow me! Our colleague Wataru Date got into a car accident and is bleeding heavily. The hospital blood bank is running out!"
"Hey! Mister! You're speeding!"
Jinpei Matsuda completely ignored Yumi Miyamoto's frantic roaring. In the driver's seat, Kenji Hagiwara slightly eased off the accelerator.
"Yumi, never mind them for now. You just manage the traffic flow. What they're transporting behind them is a human life; it has to reach the hospital immediately."
At that moment, Miwako Sato also received a message notifying her that their senior had been hospitalized because of a fatigue-driven driver, and they were now relying on this heart to save his life.
"Go ahead and maintain traffic order; the seniors are tied up dealing with that driver right now."
At that moment, medical staff rushed into the emergency room carrying the box containing the artificial heart. The police officers who had just finished giving blood stood in the hallway as Geng Jing took the box and began the surgery. All the officers waited anxiously outside the door for the final result.
Geng Jing meticulously sutured the wound. When all the patient's vitals on the monitor reached normal levels, the doctors and nurses behind him finally released the breath they had been holding.
"Surgery complete."
The scalpel was placed back onto the metal tray. The red light outside the corridor turned green. Seeing the nurse open the door and come out, Juzo Megure hurried forward to ask, "Excuse me..."
Knowing what the family members wanted to ask, the nurse smiled and said, "The surgery was very successful. The patient is now out of danger, and he needs complete rest from here on."
At that moment, all the officers rejoiced. Jinpei Matsuda let out a breath of relief, and Kenji Hagiwara patted his shoulder in reassurance.
The elite squad of five could not afford to lose a single one.
Wataru Takagi's tense nerves finally unraveled. As the nurses wheeled Wataru Date out, Kenji Hagiwara asked about the attending physician, and only then did they catch sight of Geng Jing's cold expression.
"I hope the kid is still there when I get back."
To some extent, Geng Jing had essentially been kidnapped. Hearing the "sequence of events," Juzo Megure looked at his newly arrived subordinate in sheer disbelief.
He honestly couldn't believe that Wataru Takagi actually had enough strength to hoist a grown man like Geng Jing onto his shoulder and run. Even Kenji Hagiwara couldn't help but gasp in shock upon hearing it.
That behavior was straight-up banditry, but Jinpei Matsuda was more curious about how heavy the doctor actually was. The next second, Geng Jing felt his entire body lift off the ground.
"Doctor, you're so light!"
"..."
Geng Jing: *If you're going to talk, can you please keep your hands to yourself?!*
Guangbai: *Where's my dad?! Where did my huge dad go?!*