Dehydration

Crying his eyes out was impossible. The junior brother soberly asked him, "How's your experiment going?"

"First Sister Xu asks, then you ask. Can either of you give me a break?"

Nobody let him off, but Cen Zeng was willing to help out a bit. What else could be said? So he let him mooch.

After mooching until evening, before leaving, Cen Zeng approached Xu Zhenqing, who was quietly typing on her computer to the side: "Senior Sister, can we talk?"

From the moment Cen Zeng entered the laboratory, Xu Zhenqing had a bad feeling. Good-looking, taciturn, with few social connections.

That night, she went back and dreamed of the one from two years ago.

In the dream, she apologized to the two middle-aged people who had hurriedly come by bus and train to collect their son's belongings, saying, "I'm sorry, I couldn't protect him. If you want, I'm willing to expose this with you, to make it a bigger issue."

The man remained silent, but the woman took her hand and said, "Little girl, we both have one foot in the grave, we're not afraid of making a fuss. But it's not easy for you on your own. You've studied for so long, don't get mixed up in this."

She rarely cried, and she didn't shed a tear in front of them that day.

But after waking up startled from the dream that night, the corners of her eyes were wet.

But thankfully, the look Li Aimin gave Cen Zeng was his usual "looking at a consumable" expression, nothing special.

She guessed it was because Cen Zeng seemed too cold, unlike the previous victim, who had two dimples when he smiled and would cry silently when she went to comfort him during his breakdown.

She was able to barely maintain her balance through the rounds of sexual harassment because Li Aimin knew her academic ability, knew that everyone in the laboratory liked her, that she could produce good papers, and was tolerant enough. That other person wasn't so lucky.

But after a few months, Li Aimin still couldn't get what he wanted from her, so he eventually turned to the new undergraduate student.

And now Cen Zeng stood opposite her, asking, "Senior Sister, do you mind if I smoke?"

She shook her head and asked, "Did you bring any? If not, I can lend you one. I don't smoke much, these are slim crush-ball cigarettes. I don't know if you're used to them."

Cen Zeng smiled and said, "Let's go to the rooftop."

They each smoked their own, neither of them speaking.

After a long while, Cen Zeng finally spoke. He coughed once and asked, "Senior Sister, do you think I can reject Li Aimin directly? Will he kick me out of the laboratory?"

Xu Zhenqing thought, 'Song Shuyi was right, this junior brother is way too direct.'

"Probably not." Xu Zhenqing shook her head. "He enjoys tormenting people more, he won't let you go that easily. I should have advised you to handle him gently, say a few soft words. But you don't look like the type to feign civility with him."

Cen Zeng replied, "It's been hard on you."

Xu Zhenqing smiled. "It's fine. First, pretend you don't understand. If that doesn't work, just politely refuse him, and then prepare yourself mentally. Things might get tougher. Have you applied for the eight-year program? If not, see if you can switch schools after you graduate from undergrad."

Cen Zeng said, "I've already been accepted."

He said it so calmly, and she found herself unsure how to react.

"As long as I'm still here, I'll try my best to help..." she finally said. "It'll be okay."

She said it without much conviction herself.

Cen Zeng looked at his Senior Sister's gentle, beautiful face and could only read a very familiar dull ache in it.

"I'll help too," he said. "If you can't take it anymore, or anything else, tell me. I'll go knock on the door too."

"Are you and Shuyi going to take turns? That's too obvious." She was still smiling. "Don't worry too much. I'm still very useful in the laboratory. He's very shrewd."

After saying this, she paused and didn't continue, as if realizing that her lightheartedness was just a temporary way to regulate her emotions.

Cen Zeng just opened his own cigarette case. "Try one?"

As a return of courtesy, Cen Zeng also lit a slim menthol cigarette.

"When did you learn to smoke?" Xu Zhenqing asked.

"First year of high school?" Cen Zeng thought for a moment. "The pressure in spring was too much."

"That's way too early," Xu Zhenqing said. "I was at least a junior in college."

"After starting university, I haven't smoked much. Seeing the lungs in the course materials is a bad experience."

"Really? I actually smoke while looking at them."

Cen Zeng laughed cooperatively and said, "Senior Sister, you're amazing."

The two of them slipped back into the laboratory, and the three of them locked the door and turned off the lights together, each saying their goodbyes.

The wind was strong tonight. He walked down the road, head lowered in silence. The lingering smell of disinfectant from the ward area was completely gone, leaving only the smell of smoke that hadn't faded from his cuffs.

In his first year of high school, he would always stand under a tree near his house to smoke, then wait for the smell to dissipate before putting on his jacket and walking home.

After this repeated for a week, his mother finally couldn't stand it anymore. On a day with light rain, she came down holding an umbrella and said, "From now on, smoke on the balcony at home."

He had actually faintly hoped she would scold him, or ask, "Is the pressure too great?"

But she didn't. She just said faintly, "Smoke less."

He wanted to say, "You too," but there was no point in saying it out loud.

At this moment, the autumn in this city was dry, with only the sound of the wind billowing his jacket.

When he reached the bottom of his dormitory building, Cheng Shuo sent a message as if he had timed it perfectly: "Is the busy Doctor Cen done for the day?"

"Just finished."

"Any good news today?"

Cen Zeng looked at it, thought for a moment, and replied, "During my internship today, a nurse praised me."

He thought again, then typed another line: "There was a patient who, with the nurse and my mentor present, came up to me first to tell me there was a snake under the bed."

"A snake? Are you okay?"

"It was a postoperative delusion. There are no snakes in the hospital."

'Was it a delusion? If only everything was a delusion.'

"That's good." Cheng Shuo typed, "It's Friday tomorrow, I don't have class. Do you have time to meet?"

"What about you?" Cen Zeng's message was sent out almost at the same time.

"What?"

"Do you have any good news?"

"The good news is that I found a new shop, their fried chicken is pretty good."

'Pretty good.' He replied, 'Should we have that tomorrow? Let's meet at noon. I might have to go to the laboratory in the evening.'

The message had just been sent when a call came from the other side.

Cheng Shuo's voice sounded in his ear, as if the person was right beside him: "There's one more thing, I don't know if it counts as good news."

Cen Zeng closed his eyes, listened to the hesitation in his voice, and smiled, saying, "Want me to guess?"

Cheng Shuo was uncharacteristically a little embarrassed and hummed in agreement.

"Finished writing the letter?" He still didn't want to open his eyes and face the dormitory building that was right in front of him.

Cheng Shuo's side was quiet for five seconds, then he finally laughed, sighed, and said, "Yeah. You want to see it?"

"Yes." Cen Zeng said, "So, I'll open it tomorrow?"

This was clearly the person who had insisted he would force him to open it, yet now he took a breath on the other end of the line, a hint of helplessness in his tone: "Well, uh, you don't have to, so quickly."

Cen Zeng opened his eyes, turned around, and sat down on a bench by a streetlight. He turned up the volume on his earphones and said, "Then give it to me whenever you want me to open it."

"I'll give it to you tomorrow," Cheng Shuo replied. "But... you just hold onto it for now."

"Okay." The one thing he wasn't short on was patience.

"It's getting late..." The voice on the other end was very gentle, passing through the dark night to land in his ear. "Go to bed early. Good night."

"Good night," Cen Zeng replied. "Don't play games too late."

"Mm, I'm going to sleep too."

No one hung up.

"You hang up." Cheng Shuo waited for more than ten seconds before laughing out loud in the silence.

Cen Zeng said: "See you tomorrow then."

He put his phone away, pulled off his earphones, took a deep breath, and finally walked through the door.