Chapter 2524: Unexpected

"Yingying, I brought you breakfast."

She’d gotten a call that morning, reminding Xie Wanying that her childhood friend had kept saying she was coming yesterday.

Wu Lixuan walked into the Shou’er Emergency Department doctors’ office carrying several bags of breakfast.

After letting other colleagues and classmates know to come share the food, and once she’d finished her tasks and was waiting for the next shift, Xie Wanying hurried over to meet her childhood friend.

"I was going to bring a late-night snack over last night, but I heard there were a bunch of reporters crowding around here at Shou’er, so I figured I’d better not come and cause you trouble," Wu Lixuan explained why she hadn’t shown up the previous night.

Come to think of it, there were far fewer rubberneckers this morning—maybe they’d all gone to sleep and hadn’t gotten up yet, Xie Wanying thought.

Duan Sanbao, Wei Shangquan, and Dai Nanhui came in. When they saw the top-notch food laid out on the table, Sanbao and Shang Quan’s four eyes lit up in unison. They’d long heard that the food brought by Dr. Xie’s childhood friend was super famous.

Dai Nanhui lifted the edge of a plastic bag with his hand, thinking, how good can free breakfast really be.

"Hello, doctors," Wu Lixuan greeted this new potential customer base enthusiastically.

They’d also heard that the tea sold by Dr. Xie’s childhood friend was really good. Duan Sanbao and Wei Shangquan asked her for her phone number so it’d be easier to buy tea next time. Dai Nanhui went to sit off to the side, never quite on the same wavelength as this group.

While the few of them were eating breakfast, Wu Lixuan secretly took out a newspaper she’d bought that morning when she passed a newsstand, and slid it to her childhood friend under the table, saying, "This Dr. Xie the reporter wrote about—is that you, Yingying?"

Huh?

Looking down, she saw that the paper her friend handed her was one of the well-known national and local morning papers, not some third-rate tabloid, which made it all the more surprising.

"What is it?" Duan Sanbao noticed the two of them talking and looked up to ask.

"Nothing," Wu Lixuan answered smartly.

The look on her childhood friend’s face didn’t seem like someone aware that she’d been written up in the paper; it wasn’t the reaction she’d imagined of someone about to get famous from a newspaper interview. Which proved she’d been right to be cautious and ask first.

Xie Wanying had never expected that last night, when she’d chatted with Reporter Li, she’d only answered a few basic medical common-sense questions—questions any teacher could have explained perfectly clearly. Yet Reporter Li had treated her answers like treasure and printed them all in a front-page news article. And in the piece, Reporter Li had slapped the label of "medical professional Dr. Xie" on her.

Wait a second, maybe it was some other Dr. Xie. Because the reporter should know she was just an intern, nowhere near a big Boss in the field.

Speaking of which, was that young Reporter Li some star student? He seemed to have quite a background. Otherwise, how could he get an article printed on the newspaper’s front page just like that?

Wei Shangquan looped around and took the newspaper from Wu Lixuan’s hand. Duan Sanbao and Dai Nanhui stood up to read the article together.

The words "Dr. Xie" were far too eye-catching for people who knew Student Xie well; it was easy to guess it was her.

Unlike the other two, Dai Nanhui felt that reporter couldn’t be stupid; it was impossible he’d mistake an intern for an expert.

More teachers coming on shift passed by outside; the rising clamor of voices drifted into the office.

Doctor Tian’s voice sounded: "Last night our hospital was a total mess. I figured this morning would be even worse, that we’d have to sneak into the hospital. Never thought that unlike last night, no one showed up to gawk today."

"Yeah." Everyone else also felt there was something off about there being fewer people this morning.

A public focus event doesn’t die down that fast; it’s bound to ferment until it hits a climax.