Secrets in the Stethoscope

[A cold, calculating surgeon]+ [A sunny CCU doctor] Five years of secret love lead Yang Yanzhou to risk everything for her. The operating room’s shadowless lamp has turned on and off countless times. Li Zhiyi has counted seven hundred and thirty nights, and her eyes always drift unconsciously to Yang Yanzhou’s back as he walks by in his white coat. The first time she saw him after graduation was in the cardiothoracic surgery on-call room. He was bent over writing patient notes, the scratching of his pen blending with the rain outside the window to become a secret she kept hidden beneath her stethoscope. In the morning light outside the resuscitation room, they shared the same cold boxed lunch. Amid the smell of disinfectant in the isolation ward, she once tucked the loose strap of his mask back into place. Their understanding grew into an unspoken bond: a glance as they studied CT scans together at three in the morning; his “I’m fine” as he gave her the last protective gown in the fever clinic; and the cup of hot coffee she quietly left on his desk when he blamed himself after a surgical mistake. Two people accustomed to racing death saw in each other something more precious than life itself. But love is never a surgery performed in a sterile environment. A patient’s family misunderstood them, like a blood pressure cuff suddenly bursting. Undercurrents of departmental rivalry lurked between the lines of case discussions. Even the diary in which she had recorded five years of secret love was exposed to everyone in an accident. When Yang Yanzhou first took her hand, his fingertips still cool from surgery, she realized that saving love, like saving a life, takes courage, and the unwavering resolve of two people gripping a scalpel together. “Li Zhiyi,” he called to her from the end of the hospital corridor, the hem of his white coat lifted by the wind. “This time, I want to know the secret in your stethoscope…”