Chapter 125 - 124: Not Giving Face

Chapter 125: Chapter 124: Not Giving Face

A thunderstorm rolled through Binhai at three in the afternoon, and by evening, the air was still refreshingly cool.

Yu Zhiming leisurely rode his bicycle back to the Zijin Garden District, arriving at nearly seven in the evening.

The moment he walked through the door, he was greeted by the rich, fragrant aroma of a home-cooked meal.

He took a few steps into the dining room and saw the table laden with ten exquisite dishes, including chicken, duck, fish, and shrimp.

Yu Zhiming looked over at a smiling Gu Qingning. "Don’t tell me you made all this yourself."

Gu Qingning laughed softly. "I’m not nearly that good a cook. I had it delivered from a hotel."

"First, to thank you and Sister Xiang Wan for taking me in and being so patient with me. And second, to make up for my rudeness last night."

Yu Zhiming let out a soft "Oh." He asked, "This whole spread must have cost a lot, didn’t it?"

"Not too much. Just a little over seven hundred."

Yu Zhiming then asked, "What’s your monthly salary?"

"Salary?"

Gu Qingning caught on and said, "I’m just a junior assistant at Ning’an Hospital. It’s an administrative position, so my salary is only a little over ten thousand."

Yu Zhiming advised her, "Since you’ve decided to be independent, you should know that the hard part is still to come."

"You need to plan your spending and not be so extravagant."

"I know," Gu Qingning replied, uncharacteristically meek.

Yu Xiangwan came over holding the rice cooker and chided, "Fifth Brother, hurry up and wash your hands..."

At the dinner table, Yu Zhiming brought up his plan to buy a car.

"Teacher Qi was right. I’ll have to buy a car sooner or later, so for the convenience of making house calls and getting around, it’s better to get it done sooner."

"Sis, over the next few days, can you look around online or at dealerships? Check out some SUVs in the three to four-hundred-thousand price range..."

Gu Qingning chimed in, "An electric car?"

Yu Zhiming shook his head. "No, a gas-powered one."

"We need to drive back to our hometown for the holidays, and electric cars are too inconvenient for long trips."

Gu Qingning asked again, "Zhiming, your reputation is already comparable to a senior specialist’s. Why not just go all out and buy a million-yuan luxury car?"

Yu Zhiming swallowed a mouthful of tender beef and said with a smile, "It’s just to get me from point A to point B. Why buy something so expensive?"

"If I didn’t have to worry about fitting the image of a city like Binhai and the reputation of Huashan Hospital, I’d just buy one in the hundred- or two-hundred-thousand range."

Yu Xiangwan called him out without mercy. "Qingning, don’t listen to him trying to sound so nonchalant."

"The main reason is that he doesn’t have the money."

"Fifth Brother, let me remind you, I already transferred that fifty thousand in spare cash to Xiaobo."

"If you buy a car in the next few days, we won’t even have money for the down payment."

Yu Zhiming grinned smugly. "No problem. We can just put it on a credit card for now."

"Sis, Sis, I’ve already done the math! My salary this month will be around a hundred thousand."

"My monthly salary won’t be less than that from now on. We can totally afford a car that costs three or four hundred thousand."

Yu Xiangwan’s eyes curved into a smile. "Since you’ve thought it all through and made up your mind, I’ll take a good look for you over the next few days and ask about pricing and discounts."

Gu Qingning raised her hand. "I know Gu Qingran knows a lot of people. I’m sure one of them sells cars."

"Should we ask him for an introduction? We could probably get a great discount."

Yu Zhiming shook his head. "On a three- or four-hundred-thousand-yuan car, the discount isn’t going to be huge."

"There’s no need to bother Dean Gu over such a small amount of money and have him owe someone a favor for it."

A look of understanding dawned on Gu Qingning’s face. "Oh, that’s true. It’s not worth owing a favor over a few thousand, or even ten thousand."

"If you’re going to owe a favor, it should be a big one."

Just then, Yu Zhiming remembered something else and added, "Sis, I just remembered, Third Sister’s oldest is having a birthday soon. Don’t forget to buy a gift and mail it in the next day or two."

He thought for a moment, then continued, "Now that I’ve moved from the county to Binhai, the birthday gifts should get an upgrade too."

"Sis, you can get something in the five- to six-hundred range."

Yu Xiangwan nodded in agreement.

Gu Qingning asked curiously, "Zhiming, I know your first, second, and third sisters are all married."

"How many kids do they have altogether?"

Yu Xiangwan replied, "They each have two children. Between my brother and I, we have four nephews and two nieces in total."

"You’ve already met our eldest sister’s son, Xiaobo, and her daughter, Xiaoxue."

Gu Qingning murmured a soft "Oh," and then heard Yu Zhiming let out a long sigh. "My parents, four older sisters, plus a whole bunch of nephews and nieces... as the only son, younger brother, and uncle in the family, the pressure is immense."

"No matter how much money I make, it’s never enough."

Yu Xiangwan shot him a glare. "Just focus on taking care of yourself and Mom and Dad. It’s not like the rest of us are helpless. We don’t need you to support us."

Yu Zhiming chuckled. "That may be true, but all of you pooled your resources to raise me. Now that I finally have the means, it’s only natural that I pay you back."

"I can’t let my first, second, and third sisters have been called ’brother-doting demons’ by people for so many years for nothing, can I?"

"So you do have a conscience!" Satisfied, Yu Xiangwan placed a large piece of fish in Yu Zhiming’s bowl.

Yu Zhiming had just taken a bite of fish when he heard his phone ringing from the living room coffee table.

He got up, picked up his phone, and saw it was an unfamiliar local number.

When he answered, a vaguely familiar man’s voice came through the receiver.

"Dr. Yu, hello! This is Guan Yue from the Medical Affairs Department. We met this morning."

Hearing this, combined with the vaguely familiar voice, Yu Zhiming connected the man to an image in his memory.

He was the young man in the Medical Affairs Department who had greeted him and poured him a cup of tea.

"Hello, Guan Yue. Is something wrong?"

"Dr. Yu, my girlfriend and I are having a get-together with a few friends at a restaurant near Jiaoda. A couple of my friends, who are real beauties, are especially eager to meet you."

As Guan Yue spoke, the sound of women laughing and teasing each other could be heard in the background.

"So, Dr. Yu, are you free to come over?"

Guan Yue quickly added, "And I mean, they’re *really* beautiful."

"If you don’t believe me, I can send you their pictures right now."

Yu Zhiming fought the urge to roll his eyes. "I believe you. I’m sure they’re beautiful."

"It’s just that I still need to review some patient cases, so I really don’t have time to go out tonight."

"Guan Yue, thank you for the invitation. Let’s get together some other time. Anyway, I hope you all have a great time!"

Without waiting for a response, Yu Zhiming ended the call.

Yu Zhiming returned to the dining table with his phone and sat down, explaining to his Fourth Sister and Gu Qingning, "A colleague from the hospital I just met for the first time today suddenly invited me to crash their party."

"He really doesn’t act like a stranger, does he?"

Gu Qingning waggled her eyebrows teasingly. "I heard that guy wanted to introduce you to some beauties."

Yu Zhiming shot her a look, his expression full of self-righteousness. "To me, a beautiful woman is nothing but a painted skeleton."

"I’ve sworn off them!"

Gu Qingning pouted, her expression full of disbelief.

Yu Xiangwan offered a worried reminder, "Fifth Brother, my guess is that guy who invited you was probably bragging at the table and got pressured by his friends into calling you."

"You just shut him down completely, without giving him any face. You might have just made an enemy."

"You need to be aware of that."

Yu Zhiming said dismissively, "I’m not afraid of the department director, so why would I be worried about some ordinary clerk?"

Then he added glumly, "Speaking of the Medical Affairs Department, I almost forgot—I still have to write a self-criticism report."

Just then, Yu Zhiming’s phone rang again.

This time it was a call from Director Zhao Shan of the Emergency Department.

Yu Zhiming didn’t dare to hesitate and answered immediately.

"This is extremely urgent! Get to the hospital as fast as you can..."