Page 3 of He Is My Bride
The girl still looked hesitant.
“Hey, it’s alright,” Li Ying said, “everybody falls sometimes, you just have to get right back up after, yeah? Go show that bike who’s boss!”
He patted her arm before saying goodbye to the kid and her mother.
“You’re pretty good with kids, Ying,” spoke the senior doctor responsible for him. The man had been sitting at his desk, documenting the visit on his computer. “Thought of going into pediatrics, have you?”
“No.” Li Ying had a different dream: I’m going into criminal pathology.”
The senior looked up from the monitor and peered at Li Ying over his framed glasses. “Seems like a waste of your particular talents. They’re a bunch of weirdos over at pathology.”
You don’t know me, sir. Maybe I am a weirdo.
It wouldn’t be the first time Li Ying had been called one. He smiled at the senior. “I get along with all kinds of people.”
“And by the way, buried suture?”
“Improves cosmetic outcome.”
“Correct. I use it myself. You’re the first student I’ve seen do it so confidently. Good job. You should get going though, it’s way past your hours. See you tomorrow.”
“Thank you for today, doctor García.”
Li Ying left the hospital. He lit a cigarette while walking to his bicycle, and took out his phone to send a message to his boyfriend—his boyfriend!
Yes: Wu Hanjun.
Li Ying still couldn’t believe the man had said ‘yes.’
—
Wu Hanjun’s personal phone wouldn’t stop notifying him of incoming messages.
Hanjun was still driving: he couldn’t pick up the phone right now. It was against traffic rules. Nevermind that he was stuck in the infamous New York rush hour and not moving anywhere anytimesoon. Glancing left and glancing right, other people were checking their phones behind their wheels.
What if it were something important? Hanjun picked up his phone and let the camera scan his face to unlock the screen. He would only check that it wasn’t an emergency.
Li Ying.
Hanjun smiled.
They had been dating for well over a year, but simply seeing a message from his boyfriend still picked up Hanjun’s mood each time.
Dinner was hardly an emergency, but since he was checking his phone anyway, Hanjun might as well answer:
The app showed there was also a message from Wu Hanrong, Hanjun’s cousin in Shanghai.
It didn’t take long before Li Ying answered:
Hanjun gave a thumbs up. Next he opened the message from his cousin:
Hanjun’s heart sank.
