Going out to buy New Years goods1 was Song Yuan’s favorite part of New Years. The lanterns and banners all around gave off a strong flavor of the new year. Andy Lau’s “Gong Xi Fa Cai”2 was playing on an endless loop, and the brainwashing effect was strong; Rong Ting even started humming along after hearing it one too many times.
Usually, she bought couplets3 every year, but this year, Song Yuan just bought red paper and solemnly handed the task of writing couplets to Rong Ting.
With a child who could write brush calligraphy at home, there was no need to buy couplets.
Song Yuan loved to visit the stationery aisle. Rong Ting clearly had enough pencils, but she still bought him pencils, and notebooks, and a few pencil sharpeners, and let’s not mention the sweet-scented and cute erasers. Rong Ting was helpless, knowing he couldn’t dissuade her.
Finally, after much picking and choosing, Song Yuan bought a cute diary with a lock on the front and gave it to Rong Ting. “This is for you. You’ll be learning how to keep a diary soon. Don’t worry, Mom won’t peek. You can write whatever you want to write.”
That being said, she didn’t know if she would become a parent interested in her child’s secrets in the future.
When she was in high school, her parents infringed on her personal space every day. Of course, these two people had been openly lurking4.
Song Yuan wanted to treat her amnesia, and it wasn’t all talk. These past few days, she had been searching for information, and finally she found that one of her high school classmates was working as a nurse at the People’s Hospital. This was a joyful surprise. Everyone knew that it was easier to work with acquaintances, and she had a good relationship with this classmate. Although they’d graduated for many years, even now they were still in each other’s Moments and had a ‘mutual likes and comments’ relationship. In the age of the Internet, this was equivalent to being half a girlfriend.
She contacted this old classmate on WeChat. She didn’t say that she was the one who wanted to treat her amnesia, only saying that it was a friend. There were many instances of ‘I have a friend who X’ these days, so she had no psychological burden.
On this day, she wanted to go see the hospital under the guise of seeing her classmate. The classmate worked as a nurse in the inpatient unit. They worked in three shifts, and today was a morning shift. Song Yuan bought some food and drove to the hospital.
The high school classmate was delighted to see her, but there weren’t many people at the nurse’s desk at this time, and she couldn’t leave, so the two just stood there by the nurse’s desk and chatted.
“I asked the doctor about your situation. The doctor said that amnesia is usually divided into two types. One is physiological–if the brain suffers damage, it may cause memory loss. The other is psychological. Apparently, the human mind has a defense mechanism. If you are psychologically traumatized, it could lead to memory loss. The former can be treated by the neurology department. If it’s the latter, it should be treated by a professional psychologist. It’s a case by case circumstance.
“Yuanyuan, you’re still the same as before ah, so concerned over your friends’ matters. You even specially came to the hospital to ask.”
Song Yuan blushed guiltily at this praise. After all, the person with amnesia was her…
“Wait for me a bit more, at most ten minutes. When my colleague comes over, I can get lunch. Today is my treat ah.” The high school classmate was enthusiastic. “Our hospital is near a skewers and hotpot business that’s really good. I remember you liked spicy food.”
“Okay.”
After the nurses switched shifts, the high school classmate went to change her clothes. Song Yuan also went with her. The nurses had their own lounge, but they had to take an elevator. The People’s Hospital’s inpatient was almost at capacity, especially with it being the end of the year; there were even beds in the hallways. There were many people waiting for the elevator, and the elevators were also full.
Once the doors opened, Song Yuan followed her classmate in. It was packed with people, but she finally managed to make it in. She looked up and saw a doctor wearing a white coat go out.
Song Yuan stopped abruptly, her heart pounding! That doctor, he, he looked like her brother from her dreams!
Her first reaction was to rush out, but the person in front of her was blocking her way. She was anxious and helpless, not knowing what she should do. Her brain was blank, and all the dreams that had to do with her brother came rushing back like a tide. She stood there dazedly, recalling that Rong Ting said that he had fallen in battle. She heard the wind whistling through her ears, and by the time she returned to her senses, she had already been pulled out of the elevator by her classmate.
“Yuanyuan, what’s wrong?” The classmate finally reacted. Seeing her blank expression, she tugged on her hand. “Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?”
Song Yuan’s eyes were slightly hot, but she managed to press down those emotions. She asked as calmly as she could, “Just now, just now in the elevator, was there a doctor that went out?”
“Was there? There were too many people just now, so I didn’t notice. What’s wrong?”
“That doctor was just on the fourth floor of the inpatient department, he, he…” Song Yuan grew more anxious the more she spoke. She wanted to describe the doctor’s appearance, but the more she wanted to speak, the more she ran out of words. “He’s about 1.8 meters tall, he has single eyelids, his skin’s not very pale, he… he…”
She didn’t know how to describe him!
Seeing her unconsolable state, the classmate led her over to a nearby seat and listened to Song Yuan’s simple description. After thinking about all the doctors in the inpatient department, it suddenly dawned on her. “I know who you’re talking about. It’s Doctor Meng, right? He’s a cardiovascular doctor. What’s wrong? Do you know him?”
Song Yuan nodded, then quickly shook her head. She cautiously asked, “Can you take me to see him? He looks like someone I know, but I’m not sure if it’s him.”
If it were anyone else, the classmate would have thought she was fishing for a big catch5. After all, Dr. Meng was one of the hospital’s hot bachelors; many nurses and even female patients liked him. But if the person speaking was Song Yuan, she didn’t think that was the case. Song Yuan was their school flower6 in high school. As a goddess of that level, why would she need to chase after men…
“En, okay, but Doctor Meng is very busy. He might be making the rounds right now.”
“Not a problem.” Song Yuan bit her lips. She didn’t know what was wrong with her. She just wanted to go see just what exactly was going on.
“Wait for me to change my clothes. I’ll go to the nurse’s desk and talk to my colleagues about something.”
“Okay.”
After the classmate changed her clothes, the two of them took the elevator to the inpatient department’s fourth floor. The classmate took her to the department’s on-duty doctor’s office and pointed to Dr. Meng, who was washing his hands. She whispered, “That’s Doctor Meng. He’s very popular in our hospital. He just came back from studying abroad the year before last. He’s a top student, and the dean likes him very much.”
Song Yuan clutched her bag with both hands, her heart caught in her throat. Just as she took a step into the office, Dr. Meng turned his head.
Two pairs of eyes met. After Song Yuan clearly saw his face, she didn’t know if it was out of disappointment or rejoice that her heart suddenly fell.
Were there really two people in this world who looked exactly the same? Perhaps, but the probability was too small.
The Dr. Meng standing before her did indeed look like her brother from her dreams, but upon closer inspection, he didn’t look exactly the same. He was probably 70-80% similar. If you looked in dimmer light, he was almost the same, and it was difficult to tell, but when Dr. Meng stood in a brightly lit place and she looked closer, she could see that the two people looked different.
Yes ah, how could there be so many things like transmigration in this world. If it was reincarnation… then wouldn’t it no longer be the same person?
When Dr. Meng saw Song Yuan, his expression was of slight surprise. He froze for a moment, but he quickly recovered. Smiling, he asked, “May I ask which patient you are a family member of? Doctor Wang has gone back.”
Song Yuan shook her head, then lowered it. Her voice was somewhat low. “I came to the wrong place. Sorry.”
“No problem, no problem.” Dr. Meng’s tone was mild.
His voice was also different…
Song Yuan turned and walked out of the office, smiling bitterly. Just what was she doing? Rong Ting had said that her brother from the ancient times had already died in battle. Maybe she’d deluded herself, believing that since Rong Ting and Rong Heng had transmigrated, perhaps her eldest brother had also crossed over. She felt as though she was just indulging in a fantasy.
Song Yuan was absent-minded during the hotpot meal at noon. Fortunately, the classmate had worked overtime to the point she was delirious, and the hotpot was demolished in just over half an hour. The classmate enthusiastically asked her to keep in touch in the future.
Song Yuan didn’t dare to let her imagination run while driving. She pulled herself together and focused on paying attention to the road ahead. It was almost New Year’s Eve, and there were many cars and people. No one wanted to get into an accident during the New Year. She was especially afraid of getting into trouble. She could be chill7 about anything else, but she was very serious about driving. Generally, she didn’t even answer the phone while driving, which showed how strictly she followed the traffic laws.
She arrived at the community without incident. Just as she parked her car, she saw Rong Heng’s driver downstairs.
She’d originally thought that Rong Heng was also here, but when the driver came up to her and she still didn’t see him, she knew that he hadn’t come.
Sun Qiming’s attitude towards Song Yuan was very good, almost on par with his respect towards Rong Heng. “Miss Song, the boss heard that there is a custom of buying flowers during New Years in this city, so he asked me to come over and send you8 flowers.”
Song Yuan’s hometown did indeed have this tradition. This time, too, she bought some flowers at the flower market and kept them at home.
It was just, the distance between this city and B City wasn’t short, yet he asked the driver to come over and give her flowers?
At Song Yuan’s skeptical expression, Sun Qiming hurriedly added, “My hometown is in the neighboring city. When I was going back for the holidays, the boss asked me to deliver the flowers along the way. The boss said that this year’s plum blossoms weren’t bad and gave me some.”
Naturally, Sun Qiming didn’t receive any plum blossoms, but he did receive two month’s salary more than in previous years. He had been by the boss’s side for some time now, and he’d become quite quick to pick up on his body language9. His wife even teased him once, saying that he now had the feel of a head eunuch…
That’s how it was ah.
Sun Qiming opened the trunk. The plum blossoms were so particularly beautiful and splendid that Song Yuan couldn’t help but marvel.
The plum blossoms were not heavy, so Song Yuan declined Sun Qiming’s offer to help her carry them upstairs. When she arrived home, plum blossoms in hand, Rong Ting was in the middle of reading.
“Aren’t these plum blossoms pretty?” Song Yuan changed out of her shoes and showed the flowers to Rong Ting.
“They’re okay.” Rong Ting casually asked, “Did Empress Mother go to the flower market again today?”
“No ah, this is from your dad.” Song Yuan continued to marvel. “These plum blossoms are really pretty.”
Rong Ting’s expression went stagnant, and his action of turning the page paused. He lifted his head, frowning. “Empress Mother, these plum blossoms were sent by Emperor Father?”
“That’s right ah. His driver lives in the neighboring city and just happened to be going back for the new year, so he delivered some flowers along the way.”
Rong Ting lowered his head, an expression of deep suspicion on his bun face.
He had snuck into Emperor Father’s secret room on several occasions. There were several portraits of Empress Mother in that room, and of those portraits, the majority depicted plum blossoms.
Hadn’t Emperor Father lost his memories? Then why these plum blossoms? Could it be a coincidence?
Rong Ting was lost in thought.
*****
[1] 年货: goods sold specifically for the New Year. Most of the pictures I’ve seen were of snacks and food, and there were lots of red decorations, lanterns, etc. The picture here is just of candies, but I also saw pictures of actual food or pastries
[2] Found a YouTube video here
[3] 对联: rhyming couplets that are pasted on door posts during New Year. They usually come prewritten, but Song Yuan has her own personal calligrapher at home ^^
[4] 跑堂: refers to a person who enters a forum, blog, or post and leaving without leaving a message
[5] 钓凯子: to hunt for rich, attractive guys
[6] 校花: the prettiest girl in the school
[7] 佛系咸鱼: chill + salted fish (someone who does nothing)
[8] Sun Qiming uses the polite ‘you’ here
[9] 察言观色: to weigh up someone’s words and observe their facial expressions; to discern what someone thinks from his body language